“Is Charlie around?” I asked Steven.
His glare could have melted steel. “What the fuck are you doing here, Nate? No one wants you here. Fuck off back to London.”
“Is Charlie around?” I repeated as if he hadn’t spoken, and Steven’s fists clenched.
“Oh, there you are, Alex.” Mrs Fortescue appeared in the drawing room doorway. I couldn’t tell how much, if anything, she’d overheard. “Come and join us. Charlie’s upstairs, Nate.”
Summarily dismissed, I headed upstairs, ignoring Steven. I hoped Charlie wouldn’t simply kick me out when he saw me. I wanted to be able to stay here and spend more time with Alex. Tonight had been magical.
I couldn’t wait for more times like that with him.
ALEX
Giving Steven a sunny smile, I stepped past him towards the drawing room. I glanced back on reaching the doorway. The way Steven was glaring after Nate…Perhaps I should be watching Nate’s back a little more closely.
“Ella, this is Alex.” Mrs Fortescue introduced us. “He’s Margaret’s heir.”
Ella looked pale and her mouth had a mutinous set to it. “Yes, I know,” she said frostily. “He thinks Jane Austen gave random blowjobs.”
Mrs Fortescue’s laugh was the falsest thing I’d ever heard. “Yes, well, I’m sure he was only joking, and you know better than to repeat that sort of language, Ella. I’ll leave the two of you to become better acquainted.”
With that, she left the strangely empty drawing room and firmly shut the door behind her. Bloody hell—I hadn’t thought they’d be thiseager, let alone obvious.
“I’m not going to marry you,” Ella said.
“Thank God for that.”
Her gaze rested on my face, assessing. She must have seen the sincerity in me because she relaxed. “Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She threw herself down in an armchair, long legs stretched before her. “It’s like living in medieval times, where a woman’s value is all about who she can be married off to and how many kids she can birth. Where’s Nate?”
“He went looking for Charlie,” I told her. About to retreat from this stupid situation, I hesitated. Margaret had planned to talk to James today and might have discussed a possible arrangementbetween me and Ella. I shouldn’t do anything decisive until I knew the game she was playing.
“Look, your mother obviously wants us to get to know one another, and honestly, as we’re going to be some of the leaders of the next generation, it’s not a bad idea,” I said, trying to believe it myself. “How about opening a bottle of something and playing truth or dare?”
Her brow creased in suspicion.
“I’m not trying to get you drunk. Ireallydon’t want to sleep with you,” I told her.
“I never thought I’d be so relieved to hear a guy say that. Get whatever you want from behind the bar. I’ll have vodka.”
It took a while, but a few drinks later, and some confessions that I suspected were on both sides chosen carefully so as not to reveal anything personal about ourselves, we were laughing together.
Mrs Fortescue tapped on the door before opening it. Did she really think I’d already be impregnating her precious daughter? She smiled as she saw both of us stretched out in our chairs, relaxed and chatting.
I took the opportunity to bolt, muttering something about a shower. On my way up to my bedroom, I texted Margaret, leaving her innodoubt that I wanted an explanation for what had just happened.
Chapter Twenty
NATE
Charlie was lying on his bed and messing with his phone, a half-empty bottle of Jack Daniels propped against his thigh.
“What are you, an eighties rockstar?” I greeted him, closing the door behind me.
He grinned. “That would make you my groupie,” he said, sliding his hand slowly down his torso to flick open the top button of his jeans. I wasn’t sure he was joking.
I sat in the leather armchair beside the window, studiously ignoring some rather dubious stains. “I just wanted to check we’re okay.”
“Check I’m not sobbing my heart out over you, you mean,” he said, with a curl to his lip.
