I decided not to try and delve any further into the murky psyches of the Fortescues when Charlie grabbed Nate the instant we were through the front door.
Nate allowed himself to be towed away down the hallway. I didn’t like how easily he acquiesced to Charlie, and my dragonhatedseeing another man touch Nate, but he’d been clear that things between them were over. And he’d been equally clear there was nothing more than friendship betweenus.
Mr Taylor had been hovering while I watched Nate and Charlie disappear together.
“I hope you’re getting overtime,” I said, handing him my jacket.
“A butler’s work is never done, sir.” There wasn’t a flicker of expression on his face.
I headed upstairs. If I weren’t so determined to spend every minute I could with Nate, I’d take Mr Taylor out for a drink. I’d bet he’d be a poker-faced riot.
NATE
“So? Have you punished me enough yet?” There was a laugh in Charlie’s voice.
“I’m sorry?” What the hell was he talking about?
“Come on, Nate. We both know what your answer’s going to be. You’re right, I shouldn’t have ended things, and I get why you’re mad at me. But I’m willing to grovel. On my knees. Frequently.” There was a familiar, excited light in his eyes. I couldn’t tell if it was due to the prospect of blowing me or the prospect of blowing me in the family’s morning parlour, just off the busy hallway, when the house was full of dragons.
I couldn’t work out how we’d grown so far apart. There’d been a time when we’d known one another’s every thought, and now it was as if he didn’t know me at all. Something occurred to me, and it sounded oddly like Alex’s voice. He had a way of seeing to the heart of what was eluding me.
“If you wanted to get back together, why didn’t you contact me?” I’d blocked him on everything when we split, but he could easily have found my details on the bank’s website and made contact through work.
“Because it wasn’t till I saw you again that I realised how bloody stupid I’d been. I threw away the best thing that happened to me, Nate, and I’m sorry for it.”
Five years ago, those words would have been everything I’d wanted to hear. Now, I knew enough to understand their worth, and anger surged through me in a heady rush. “If you’d believed that, you’d never have been sleeping around on me. You’d never have said those things you did.” That I was clingy, expected too much, and—worst insult of all in Charlie’s world—boring.“Remember? You just put up with me because I wasthere,willing and gave good head. You’re saying whatever you think will get me back, not the truth.”
I was breathing hard as my voice grew louder. It had been a long time in coming, this anger with Charlie. “You never cared aboutme, Charlie, even if you think you did.Noone would treat anyone they cared about the way you treated me.”
The shock on his face had turned to blankness. It was a trick of his I knew well—hiding whatever he felt and giving nothing away. Just as he’d given me nothing, although I’d given him everything.
“Fuck you, Charlie,” I said, and walked out.
ALEX
I’d slid into the drawing room where yet another gathering was taking place, nodding at Margaret and Jenna, though my attention wasn’t on them. It was on the stairs. I was waiting for Nate. Or possibly Nate and Charlie, wound in one another’s arms, heading unmistakably for Charlie’s room.
The fact I wasn’t a full dragon didn’t stop the hoarding instinct when I saw something I wanted. And I wanted Nate Mortimer. His gold scales had shone in the light, an outward manifestation of the warmth and goodness I thought I’d seen in his heart. But then, I’d been wrong before.
I was sipping a glass of champagne I’d snagged from the bar when the front door slammed. Mr Taylor would never do that. It had to be either Nate or Charlie.
Leaning over the bannister, I couldn’t see a thing because of a huge lantern in the way. So I went downstairs, where I found Mr Taylor in the hall, presumably also summoned by the slamming of the door. Nate’s scent was in the hallway, stronger than Charlie’s, meaning it must have been he who’d just left. I gave my glass to Mr Taylor and followed Nate.
The night was still and cold, a crispness to the air suggesting that winter was just around the corner. It was child’s play to track him down a narrow street with tall Georgian townhouses lit by fancystreetlights and along a footpath that opened out into a park. I hesitated as I finally saw him, sitting at the foot of a tree, his head in his hands.
I hadn’t thought what to say. I hadn’t even consideredwhyI was following him. It had been instinct. Maybe I should leave him alone.
He looked up, but I couldn’t see his expression in the shadow of the tree.
“Alex.” Bizarrely, there was no surprise in his voice.
Keep it normal. Don’t make it weird. “God, I could kill for a fag,” I said, and joined him, sitting on the cold, wet grass. Nate’s outdoor adventures were going to be the death of me.
“You smoke?” he asked, surprised.
“Not since I was twenty, but it never quite leaves you.” Then I forgot all my intentions to be normal and not talk aboutfeelings.“Are you okay?”
He gave a laugh that was a bit shakier than I think he wanted. “I finally told Charlie where to go, and it feels strange.”