My barked reply comes out hotter than intended. It’s rare that I lose control of my temper when it comes to my business dealings. Rarer still that I lose it in front of Nate.
Unlike my art, my clubs and real estate ventures have never meant much to me. They’re nothing but diversions, albeit lucrative ones. They’ve also become a needed distraction from the reality I’m loathe to accept: that my ability to paint is slipping away from me day by day.
And now I have another loss I need to accept.
The dubious look on my friend and counselor’s face intensifies in the wake of my anger. “What’s really going on here, Jared? Why am I getting the sense this grudge you have with Daniel Hathaway goes a lot deeper than the seventy-five grand poker debt he owes you?”
I scoff sharply, despite the fact that he’s got that much right. But everything’s changed now, because ofher.
“I’m not interested in Hathaway anymore. I took this thing too far. I need to let it go.”
Nate studies me. “I think you mean let her go. We’re talking about Hathaway’s woman, aren’t we?”
Hathaway’s woman. Melanie doesn’t belong to him, not that she ever did. She couldn’t have, not if she was able to kiss me the way she did. The way she melted under my touch scorched the truth of it into all my senses. Melanie Laurent is mine.
Damn it, sheshould bemine.
Maybe she could be, if only I were a different man. A better man.
“Just kill the fucking project, Nate.”
“All right.” He gives me a tight nod. “Consider it done.”
“While you’re at it,” I add, when he turns to leave. “I need you to take care of something else for me, too.”
I have a business checkbook in the desk. I take it out and hastily scrawl out a payment. I hold it out to Nate, daring him to mention the subtle tremor that make the paper tremble in my fingers.
He frowns as he takes the check from me and glances at Melanie’s name and the figure representing the full amount of our agreement.
“You’re cutting her loose, too?”
I drop the checkbook back in the drawer without answering, then I get up from the chair behind the desk. “I need to get out of the city for a while. I’m thinking I’ll spend the rest of the summer in Sagaponack, come back here in a few months. Maybe later.”
A look of incredulity crosses Nate’s expression. “Holy shit. You really must be falling for her.”
Fuck, am I? It sounds ridiculous to hear him say it, yet the denial I want to lob back at him refuses to leave my mouth.
Am I attracted to her? No question. Do I want to be inside her so badly it makes me hard just thinking about it? Hell, yes.
Do I wish I had this whole fucked up situation to do all over again? Without a doubt.
But I haven’t survived almost thirty-eight years of living by looking out for myself, only to get tangled up in a relationship that can only end one way—in disaster.
I can’t let myself get any closer to Melanie so long as she’s playing a part in the payback I wanted to wreak on Daniel Hathaway, and once she learns the truth about that, she’ll never want anything to do with me again.
“Make sure that check reaches her ASAP,” I growl at Nate. “I plan to wrap up the business I have here in the city, then be gone by the end of the week.”
He gives me a grave nod. Before he can tell me what an asshole I am, or that I’m making a huge mistake letting Melanie go, a rap sounds on the doorjamb of my open study.
Gibson awkwardly clears his throat. “Excuse the interruption, gentlemen. Mr. Rush, you have an unannounced visitor waiting downstairs.”
Just what I don’t need right now.
“Not Alyssa Gallo, I hope.” I frown, wondering what kind of fire I’ll need to put out for her this time.
“Ah, no, sir.” Gibson looks even more uncomfortable, if that’s possible. “It’s Ms. Laurent. She’s insisting that she see you at once.”
Nate smirks at me, as if he doesn’t give a damn that I’m his employer in addition to being his closest friend. I should fire the son of a bitch on the spot.
