“Fine.” She straddled me and leaned down until her lips were a breath away from mine. “I love you enough to never let you go.”

“Even if I do some crazy shit and make you pissed at me?”

“Well, that’s a given. I mean, you are Demetri Daniels.” Her tongue reached out to touch the side of my mouth. My entire body felt like an exposed wire as her nails scratched up my arms and then rested on my chest. “I love you enough to go shut the door.”

“Thank God.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Alec

“This is really pretty,” Nat said as we entered the hotel suite looking out onto the Puget Sound. “I hope we see a whale.”

Laughing, I pulled her against my chest. “A whale, huh? I’m not sure we’re close enough to open water, but we can go whale-watching tomorrow if you really want.”

“I want.”

“I want too…” I kissed her hard on the mouth, allowing the past to evaporate. It was just her and me. My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Nat pulled back. “You should get that.”

“Nah.” I continued my assault, lifting her into my arms and carrying her to the bed. My phone went off again.

“Alec, it could be important. Just get it.” She pushed me away and I relented.

With a curse I looked at the screen.

“Who is it?” Nat asked.

“Um…” I didn’t want to lie, so I shrugged and walked to the outside patio careful to close the sliding doors behind me. “What?” I snapped into the phone.

“Alec, I’m sorry to call you now, but we have a problem.”

My laugh sounded bitter as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You have a problem. I’m happily a few hundred miles away enjoying my girlfriend. I’ll deal with stuff when I get back.”

“He wants the production company.”

“So?” I focused on the water and bit hard on my lower lip. “He’s wanted that all along. What’s the big deal now?”

“It’s not just about ruining my reputation now, Alec. It’s about yours and Demetri’s.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying as of tonight if I don’t sign over his half of the company, he’s going to go to the press and tell everyone that not only is Demetri… well, you know the sordid tale, I don’t have to repeat it. It makes me sick to repeat it.”

“But we didn’t—”

“—I know.” April sighed on the other end. “I know nothing happened, you know nothing happened. We both know something was in that damn champagne, Alec. We woke up in disarray, pictures were taken—” Her soft sobs broke my heart as I leaned against the railing of the patio and cursed. “How did everything get so messed up? I don’t want Demetri to find out this way. He can’t find out this way! It will destroy him.”

“How the hell would you know? You don’t even know him!” I snapped.

“I know that no kid wants to see someone they care about in a compromising position with the person they’ve called brother their entire life.”

“Shit.” I kicked the railing and shook my head. “Where are you?”

“Seaside.”

“Just… let me think about what to do, and I’ll call you back later tonight. Keep your phone on you, okay?”

“Fine.”

“April?” I was pleading, grasping at straws.

“What?”

“Why do you want the production company so bad? What’s so awful about giving him half of it? He gets what he wants, we don’t expose Demetri to all of this and everyone’s happy.”

“—I just. I can’t, Alec.”

“Why?”

“I need to go.”

“Don’t you dare hang up, April. Tell me. Now.”

She sighed heavily on the other end. “I need the money.”

“How is that even possible?”

“Look, I knew you wouldn’t understand. I need to go.” The phone went dead. I stared at it for a good five minutes before cursing and stuffing it back into my pocket.

I turned to see Nat staring at me, confusion in her eyes. “Everything okay?”

“It’s perfect.” I gave her my best fake smile and tugged her to me. “It’s fine because I have you.”

The need built up within me again. The need to forget all the shit and just lose myself in her. Numb myself to the hell that was my life.

My fingers moved to the hem of her shirt. I kissed her hard on the mouth and lifted the shirt effortlessly over her head.

“Oh, so it’s going to be like that?” she said breathlessly.

“Exactly.” I lifted her into my arms and walked her into the room, leaving the sliding glass door open. A cool breeze teased her bare skin as I laid her across the bed. “Like this.” I ran the back of my hand down her arm and watched as her eyes dilated and closed.

“I love the way you touch me.” She sighed happily.

I knelt on the bed and hovered over her. “And how do I touch you?”

“Like you’re afraid I’ll disappear if you don’t.”

She was more accurate than I would have liked. I nipped her lips with my teeth and moved my hands down to brace her hips. She was absolutely glowing. I swear the longer I spent with her the more beautiful she became to me. Nat tilted her head. “What are you doing?”

“Memorizing,” I said simply.

“The size of my hips?” She swatted my hands away. “Not romantic.”

I rolled my eyes and placed my hands back on her hips. “Not the size. And you’re perfect, by the way, so stop glaring at me. If you must know, I was memorizing the way your body fit so perfectly into my hands. Your curves, your skin. It’s like everything was made just for me.”

“It was,” Nat whispered.

Speechless. I could only stare at the beautiful girl in front of me. I was the luckiest bastard in the world. I had a girl who loved me more than life itself, who gave me everything she had and more, and here I was… stripping her of her clothes and possessing her with my guilt.

“What’s wrong?” Her hand touched my cheek while her other hand moved under my shirt, trying to bring it over my head. Chuckling, I pushed her hand away and took it off. “Hmm, that’s more like it.” She beamed.

“Nat?” I licked my lips and moved from my position hovering over her so I could just hold her. Though I wanted nothing more than to have sex and forget about the entire night, I needed answers.

The hard part about hiding everything from Nat was that somehow she had turned into my best friend, not just my girlfriend. When I had an issue or wanted to talk about something, I went to her. And now I couldn’t. It was bad enough that I couldn’t talk to Demetri or Jaymeson, but now I couldn’t even talk to the one person in the world I knew had the wisdom to help get me through this.

“How many times do you think a person can mess up before the damage is irrevocable?” I tucked her body into mine and placed my hands across her flat stomach and dipped my fingers into the front of her jeans, mindlessly playing with the fabric while I waited for her answer.

Her soft sigh didn’t make me feel any better. “I don’t know, Alec, I think it depends on the person and the situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m going to use you as an example, so don’t get mad. But when everything went down our senior year with Demetri, he was hurt and mad because he felt like history was repeating itself. I mean, in a way he was betrayed by you twice. The first time you did it you were being an ass. The second time was because you were being a protective ass.”

“Right.” My hands tensed against her skin.

“I know you would never do anything like that again, because you have me and you know I’m a crack shot with my pistol. But… I think if you would have kept on with that same behavior, there would have come a point where Demetri would have just walked away.”

“He can’t.” I choked and then cleared my throat. “I could never lose him.”

Nat turned around in my arms and cupped my face with her left hand. “Alec, you won’t. Why are you so worried all of a sudden?”

I opened my mouth to tell her everything, but no sound came out. Nothing. I stared blankly at her while her searching eyes examined my face with curiosity.

“I think I’m done talking.” Yup. I was a bastard. I devoured her mouth and rolled on top of her, stripping her of her bra in the process. “Yeah.” I looked down at her half-naked form. “Definitely done talking.”

****

We stayed in bed for a few hours before Nat ordered room service. It was already nearing midnight when my phone rang again. I was in the bathroom, so I let it go to voicemail. Or so I thought.

“Hello?” Nat’s voice may as well have been a nail in my coffin. I quickly burst out of the bathroom to find her sitting on the bed, my phone in hand, talking. My heart slammed in my chest as she bit her thumbnail and tilted her head to the side. “I’m not sure. I’ll ask him.”

“Alec?” Nat looked in my direction. “Jaymeson’s mom wants to know where you guys keep your ibuprofen.”

Sighing in relief, I held out my hand for the phone but Nat waved me off as if to say, Oh, its fine. I’ll talk to her. Shit. “Um, Nat, we don’t really keep any pills of any kind in the Seaside house, even ibuprofen.”

“Oh, I forgot. Right.” Nat nodded and spoke into the phone. “Yeah, they don’t have any, but there’s a corner store about a quarter of a mile down the street or you could just knock on my parents’ door. I’m sure they’re home.”

Freaking hell. That’s just what I needed.

I held out my hand for the phone, but Nat waved me off again and said goodbye, handing me the phone once she hit end.

“She wanted ibuprofen?” I turned away so she wouldn’t see my scared shitless face.

“I guess. She sounded surprised that I answered, but then again she may have been thrown off because it was your phone, and yeah, I don’t know.”

“That’s probably it.” I licked my lips and made a mental note to put my phone on silent from here on out.

“What do you want to do?” Nat came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my stomach.

I laughed. “You mean other than lay nak*d with my girlfriend all hours of the day and night?”

“Horny bastard.” Nat slapped me on the ass and released me. “Besides I want to see whales! Remember?”

“How could I forget?” I teased. “You’ve only withheld massages for the past four hours until I book the whale-watching trip.”

Nat bounced onto the bed and looked at me eagerly. Her bright brown eyes dancing with excitement.

“I’ll call—”

“Yay!”

“—if…” I held up my hand. “You give me a ten minute massage.”

“Eight minutes.”