Three Wishes(31)
Author: Kristen Ashley

At Lily’s words, Nate’s arm tightened about her waist and she tilted her head to look up to him.

“I want to go,” Lily demanded.

Nate dipped his chin to look down and his eyes were glittering with something she couldn’t read. Then they left Jeff where he was standing and Nate guided her to the drawing room where the rest were sitting and having coffee.

One look at Lily’s pale, stricken face sent Victor out of his chair. Laura’s own face paled. Danielle looked on, assessing the looming situation with what appeared to be delight.

“What’s happened?” Victor asked.

“We’re leaving,” Nate answered.

“Lily, you look like you’ve seen a ghost. Nathaniel, bring her into the room, I’ll get her a drink,” Laura said, slowly coming out of her chair.

“We’re leaving,” Nate repeated implacably.

“What happened?” Victor enquired again, this time his voice a demand.

“Where’s Jeff?” Danielle asked sweetly.

Both Victor and Laura’s eyes flew to Lily’s face and they must have read the truth there because Victor viciously cursed and not under his breath.

“Nathaniel.” It was Laura’s turn to have her voice turn into a plea and Lily’s heart went out to her. How her two children could have come from her sweet body was a mystery.

“I’ll call you later,” Nate replied and that was that, no good-byes, nothing. They left.

In his sleek, purring Maserati on the way home, Lily found that although he clearly did not want to talk about it, she could not stand it. And anyway, she was angry.

“I’m sorry to say this about your very own brother, Nate, but I just do not like Jeff.”

Nate was silent.

Lily went on. “The first moment I met him, I didn’t like him and that’s never happened to me before.”

Nate remained silent.

Lily continued. “I just cannot believe he spoke that way. What’s the matter with him?”

Nate kept his silence.

As Lily had allowed her anger loose, she found it didn’t last long especially without Nate’s participation and she lapsed into silence as well.

It wasn’t until they were in his flat and Nate was preparing himself what appeared to be a very large, very stiff drink (he didn’t offer her one, by this time he knew she didn’t drink very much), that she spoke again.

“How much did you see before you arrived?”

To her surprise he answered her with, “All of it.”

Lily stared at him.

“You saw him corner me?” she asked, aghast.

He threw back the drink in one gulp. No matter how large it was, he still drained the glass.

“Why didn’t you do something?” she demanded. She was standing behind one of two leather couches that faced each other in his living room and ran perpendicular to a fireplace. Her body was stiff as a board.

This was not romantic hero stuff. Romantic heroes wouldn’t let their heroines get cornered by bratty adopted brothers and not lift a finger.

“I wanted to see what you’d do,” Nate replied.

She had no response to that. She simply kept staring. She thought perhaps she hadn’t heard him correctly.

He wasn’t looking at her. He was pouring himself another drink.

Surprisingly, he broke their tense silence. “You haven’t asked about what he said.” His eyes came to her and his were completely blank.

“What?” She was still recovering from the knowledge that he’d let Jeff corner her.

“You haven’t asked me to explain what he said.”

Lily stared at him harder, if it could be credited, and then threw her hands out in agitation, blowing a breath out to underline just how annoyed she was.

Then she started pacing.

“You already told me what you want me to know. It wasn’t any of my business in the first place, but you told me. If there’s more, you’ll tell me when you’re ready. Nothing you say or he could say would change how I feel about you –”

She stopped talking because she heard his heavy crystal glass slam down against the top of the chest where he kept his liquor and Lily, who had her back to him and was in mid-pace, whirled around.

He was stalking straight toward her.

His face was filled with…

She stared in awe.

Now Nate was staring at her like she was a juicy steak and he wasn’t a rabid dog but a starving man offered a feast, a feast that was Lily.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

He kept coming.

She started backing up then faster as he was gaining quickly, “Nate, what’s wrong?”

He didn’t explain but when he caught her and dragged her to his bedroom, he didn’t push her onto the bed, he threw her on it. Without a further word, he made love to her in a way he’d never done before, it was fierce and violent and possessive. When she was nearly ready to cl**ax, he stopped it, stopped her and made her say his name over and over and over again, then he finally let her finish.

It was glorious and, she felt intuitively, it was somehow immensely important and although Lily revelled in the former, she didn’t quite understand the latter.

* * * * *

The next time they went to Victor and Laura’s house for dinner neither Jeff nor Danielle were in attendance and Lily found that a small blessing.

Lily had tried to find a job but wasn’t having much luck. Maxine was forwarding her mail and her mortgage was due, her bills were due and she didn’t have enough money to pay them.

What she wanted most in the world was to be a writer, to live her life sitting at her computer and telling her stories. She didn’t bring her computer with her from Clevedon because she figured they’d move that later and when she confided to Nate, sleepily after he’d made love to her one evening, her dreams of being a novelist, he’d told her not to worry about getting a job and just concentrate on writing.

Easy for him to say, he didn’t have bills mounting up and no money coming in.

He’d told her he’d take care of everything but Lily couldn’t ask him for money. She wasn’t like that and further, wasn’t raised like that. She’d have to find a way to take care of her own problems.

However Nate, she was finding, was a very perceptive man. He knew as the second week slid along that something was bothering her and he asked her about it.

Lily lied. She hated it but she had to do it. She didn’t want anything, outside of his awful siblings, to mar their idyllic life. She was embarrassed she’d put herself in this position, especially the credit cards. The amounts weren’t astronomical but they were when you didn’t have any money.