Page 124 of Your Fault

50

Nick

With clenched teeth, I walked away. If it had been up to me, I’d have told her to hop in a car with me, and we’d have left. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t give a shit that dad had asked me to be. All I cared about then was having Noah back, and hanging out with Sophie wasn’t going to help me do that.

As soon as I’d seen Noah, I’d known that night was going to be torture. Everyone was watching her, no one was capable of ignoring her when she was there looking so beautiful that it almost hurt your eyes. She shone all over: her skin, her hair, her eyes, her face, and her body in that dress that fit her like a second skin. Her waist was so narrow in her corset, I wondered how she could breathe, but it was worth it to be able to see her like that.

My fingers were itching, I wanted to touch her so badly, kiss her, savor her, love her for hours. I missed her so badly, and I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking wasting time with this farce.

I crossed the room, stopping to grab a drink from one of the waiters and pouring it down my throat in one gulp.

I knew it had been idiotic to go there with Sophie, and thatwas the last thing I planned on doing for Dad. No more favors, no more putting stupid games ahead of my relationship.

Before I reached the dining room, where they would serve the dinners, give speeches, and close the night off with a performance from one of the finest orchestras in the country, I was surprised to run into a pair of bright green eyes. I stopped for a moment, then walked cautiously over to where she was standing, next to a small table in one corner of the hall.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Briar, restraining myself to keep from cursing.

She grinned, but I could see the poisonous rancor behind that pleasant expression.

“Morgan brought me. Are you honestly walking around here with another woman right in front of her nose?” Instead of looking at me, she looked past me over my shoulder. I turned back and saw Sophia talking with people from the company. A lot of them were friends with her father, people she knew fairly well and could be comfortable with. Sophia told me outright she didn’t want any problems with Noah. She had insisted on coming alone, but I couldn’t permit that, not after the senator had explicitly asked my father to have me bring her.

We both knew there was nothing there, just a good friendship between two coworkers. She’d screwed up by telling Noah about New York, but the way she’d apologized was so sincere and so heartfelt that I could tell she wanted nothing more from me than to be good colleagues.

“She works in my office. What do you care, anyway, Briar? Why are you even here? We both know this is the last place you’d want to be.”

That remark wiped her cheesy smile off her face.

“The world is the same as it’s always been, but I’m not as naive as I used to be. The other day you told me you’d changed.Well, I have, too. I don’t let people treat me like a fool anymore. So don’t think for one minute I’m afraid of being here.”

I refrained from speaking. I wasn’t about to get into it with her again. If she was there, I guessed what she was saying was true. I looked around at the rich and famous there walking, talking, drinking, boasting of their supposed accomplishments, each jockeying to look better than the other, then back at Briar, at the hatred concealed by that facade of hardness she always wore.

I wanted to respond to her, but something…or rather, someone, caught my attention. I looked over at the main door, and my entire world shook.

Anabel Grason had just arrived.

My mother was here.

What the fuck was she doing here?

I clenched my fists and walked to the other end of the room. I couldn’t believe she had the gall to show up there. And why? Why the hell had she even wanted to? I felt a pressure in my heart and the urge to vomit.

Turning around, seeing everything in red, I bumped into my father, who appeared out of nowhere to stop me before I could do anything stupid. He took a quick glance around and grabbed me by the arm, pushing me toward one of the windows. The sun had gone down, and the light poured in from the lamps in the garden and, intermittently, from the moon, which was hidden now and again by the quickly gathering clouds.

“Nicholas, take it easy.”

His expression was serious, his eyes stern. He wanted to get my attention, but the only thing I could see was that woman I hated more than anything else.

“What the hell is she doing here?!” I almost shouted, and my father pushed me even farther from the other guests.

“I don’t know, but I’ll take care of it. Listen to me, Nicholas, you need to stay calm, okay? You can’t start a scene right now.”

For a moment, I felt hypnotized as I looked into his eyes, a darker blue than mine. I had my mother’s eyes; everyone had always said that. He patted me on the cheek.

“I’ll talk to her. You don’t have to do anything.”

I nodded, letting my father take control of the situation. I didn’t want to see her; I didn’t want to talk to her. All I wanted was for her to be as far away from us as possible. And yet it was obvious to all that she was there to convey a message—she’d already tried to contact me before. And whatever she had to say, I was sure it wasn’t good.

My father tried to transmit calm to me. But I could tell even he didn’t feel it. He turned his back and vanished into the invitees.

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