Page 27 of Fifth Avenue Devil

Nate heads to the water, leaving me to follow behind. I feel ridiculous, like a fish that has ended up on dry land, gasping for air and quickly dying. But I don't want Nate to see my insecurity, so I hustle after him.

Even in my wetsuit, the water is cold when I wade in. I stop just a few steps in, waiting for my body to acclimate. Nate doesn't stop, yelling over his shoulder. "Come on! Get your whole body wet at once."

He sets my board down, letting it drift with the waves. While I hurry deeper, trying to catch it, Nate puts his arms in his wetsuit and zips it up.

"This water is freezing!" I complain.

"Let's go a few feet further and then we can sit on our boards."

He strides out, assuming I will follow. I take a deep breath and steel myself. Then I plunge forward, heading into waist-deep water. Nate turns around and grabs the nose of my board.

"Go ahead and climb on. I'll hold it." He smirks. "I am a gentleman, after all."

Rolling my eyes, I scramble onto the board. Nate hands me a paddle he unstraps from his board, then lets me go. To my surprise, I am not immediately swept out to sea. Instead, I float next to him as he masterfully climbs on his board, producing his paddle with a flourish.

"See? That was painless."

"It would have been harder if you hadn't held the board for me," I admit.

He dips his paddle in the water. "Let's paddle a bit. I don't want you to freeze to death."

I dip my paddle in the water, testing it out. "My mother would absolutely have a stroke if she found out that I was here right now."

Nate looks back at me. "Your mother knows where you are. Who do you think tipped me off to your presence at the bachelorette auction?"

"Wait, she called you and told you? You probably only had about twenty minutes to rush right over. That sounds pretty desperate on your part."

I should feel a sense of betrayal over my mom’s actions. But I’m too flattered by Nate’s interest to feel my mom’s claws. I have no idea why Nate is so interested in me. I haven’t done anything important or interesting in my life. Yet Nate seems to find bickering with mefascinating.

He pauses, then raises his sunglasses a few inches. "Your mom is next-level crazy. I can tell why you are the way you are, coming from a house where she was in charge. She invited me to the auction days ago, all sweet talk to butter me up."

I gape at him. "Wait... you knew that far in advance? Mom told me that a girl dropped out at the last minute!"

"Your name was in the pamphlet that the auctioneers handed out. Seems like your mom planned for you to be there as a bachelorette.”

"That... absolute... cow!" My jaw hardens. I paddle the board furiously for a few minutes, steaming about my mom's deception.

All this time I thought I was defying my mother and sneaking around with Nate Fordham. But it turns out that my mother knows everything. She orchestrated it! The fact fills me with a blinding fury.

"Anna! Slow down!" Nate calls.

I stop paddling and look back. I blink a couple of times, searching the shore for the house. In just a few minutes, I have paddled far enough that the mansion is a tiny gray dot at the edge of my vision.

My chest is also heaving from the exertion. Whoops.

I paddle back to Nate more calmly.

"Sorry. I just... I didn't know that my mom set me up. She knows I don't like crowds or being on stage in front of people."

" I would have told you sooner, but I didn’t know you were going to be ambushed. I thought you were a willing participant.”

I shake my head. " There's nothing that you could have done. It's a totally Monique Gellar thing to do to trick me to go on a date with someone she considers an appropriate match." The last two words drip with sarcasm. "My mom is obsessed with me marrying someone from old money and giving up the CEO position to be a happy little wifey. It's gross."

Nate is quiet for a long second. Tension blooms in the space between us, nearly palpable.

"I'm not interested in a wife, Annalise. I'm not even looking for love. In fact, I would say I'm pretty anti-love."

I hope Nate can't see my face turning red. "I don't expect anything like that from you. Just so we're clear, I'm not interested in love, marriage, or even dating. I have enough to worry about with Gellar Industries right now. My company is the only relationship I'm interested in right now."

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