A rush of satisfaction floods me as I take in the drawer’s contents. I hit the jackpot. Some sweaters, polos, and button-downs. With a pair of well-fitted jeans, they could easily pass as women’s—
It slams shut before I can pull anything out. I flinch at the resulting bang, stumbling right into his firm chest.
“Turn around.”
My breath hitches, and my heart races at his mere proximity. His tone says it all—it’s a command, not a suggestion, and for reasons beyond me, I follow suit. My brown eyes clash with his dark green ones, and I break the contact out of fear of what I might do, only for his hand to latch onto my jaw, pulling my gaze to his.
Nate takes a slow, calculated step forward, his gaze flicking between my eyes and my lips.
“Believe me when I say this. It’s not that I didn’t want to keep kissing you last night—I just couldn’t take advantage of you when your emotions were running high. I’d like to think I’m a good man, Vivienne, but the things I wanted to do to you at that moment were dirty, bad, and wrong. I made you a promise, and I’m a man of my word. So before you jump to conclusions, put yourself in the other person’s shoes.”
I gulp down the emotions with a terse nod, unsure of what to say when my mind is now consumed with the equally bad things I want to do to him—to get him out of my system once and for all.
My hand lands on his chest, and I push him back to put some distance between us.
He’s about to step closer, to close the gap again, but the ringing of his phone brings him to a screeching halt.
Nate draws away, dragging a hand through his tousled hair as he answers the call—and from the glimpse of the Caller ID, I can already tell this isn’t going to go well.
CHAPTER 19
NATE
“It’s Melanie,” I say, my eyes fixed on my Vivienne.
She gestures for me to answer, but a larger part of me doesn’t want to.
I don’t care if it’s a work emergency or another investor looking to back out—I want to finish our conversation. Nitpick her mind until I understand whatever this is between us.
“What are you waiting for?” she asks.
I draw out a long sigh, press the Answer button, and put it on speaker.
“I just got off a call with Kamal Jameel, where he gave me anaggressivereminder that if Archer Aviation doesn’t kill it at the Aviation Global Forum, he’s removing himself as an investor. It’s something we can’t take lightly, given that he’s the majority of the investing that happens in this company.”
Vivienne’s eyes widen in surprise at the severity of the situation, while I stay indifferent.
To put it plainly, at this very moment in time, I couldn’t care less. It’s a Saturday, for God’s sake. Let me enjoy this sliver of freedom before I’m back to slaving away at work.
Also, where are this girl’s manners and pleasantries?
“Good morning, Melanie. How are you doing? You’re stressed? That’s such a shame to hear. Oh, me? I’m doing great—thanks for checking in on me.”
The line goes silent, and I can picture it perfectly—the strategic turning of her head, the pointed lead of her pencil sticking up her hair. “There’s no need for this attitude,” she says, clearly unimpressed.
“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“Kamal Jameel called my personal number on a weekend, threatened to leave the company, and hung up before I got a word in, and you don’t care?”
Honestly?No. He’s a man of his word, so I believe it when he says he’ll back out, but this is a problem for Monday Nate. Weekend Nate, who was in the middle of a candid conversation with his fake fiancée, wants nothing to do with this.
“Regardless of your indifference, his words felt personal. So I started looking into your plans for the conference to make sure everything runs smoothly."
This takes Vivienne aback. “What conference?” she asks.
A silence settles once again over the line. “Is that Vivienne?” Suspicion laces Melanie’s voice, but I stop her incoming interrogation with my “Get to the point.”
There’s no need for her to know about the FR control we had to do…which standsfor family relations, by the way.
