Chapter 30

THIRTY

Mina

"Oh my God, Fallon! It was the best night ever!" I plop onto my friend's orange velvet couch with a dreamy sigh, then frown. "I think that's the first time in a long time I haven't shown up at your apartment specifically to complain."

Fallon picks her nail and arches a knowing brow. "There's been a lot of awful in your life since you met Nathan."

"Not recently," I shoot back, annoyed. As my best friend, she should know that. "And not last night," I continue. "The whole thing was surreal. And magical. And beautiful. But awful? No. It wasn't that."

I pull Fallon's chenille throw off the back of her couch and stand, wrapping it around my shoulders like a hug. A big, fat Nathan hug with his warmth and his strength and the goodness that goes right down to his bones. Right down to his family's bones. Kindness is genetically coded in his DNA.

The chances this conversation will go well are slim. Fallon has dug her heels in on Nathan being an asshole and won't change her mind easily.

Thankfully, I have all the ammunition I need to prove she's wrong about him.

"Best friend code engaged?" I ask and she waves a dismissive hand through the air.

"Sure. Yeah. Best friend code engaged."

Grinning unabashedly, I unload the entire night, from the limo and driver with our audience murmuring on their porches, to how comfortable I feel with Nathan's family. From the ambiance and atmosphere to his creepy friend glaring at me from a distance to the champagne and music and elegance of a night under the stars in evening wear. I tell her how nervous I was to step on the stage for the auction and how strange it felt for people to fight to pay money just for a few hours with me.

"I mean, it really wasn't for me," I say, snuggling deeper into the throw. "The whole thing was just a cute way to make giving to charity fun. But then Nathan's grumpy friend started bidding on me, like these insane amounts and that didn't feel fun at all until Nathan got protective and started bidding on me too. But!" I whirl, caught up in the drama of the moment, the blanket fanning out with my skirt like I'm a bohemian goddess twirling in a meadow. "It was Benjamin Bancroft who won. He called me his hundred-thousand-dollar girl the rest of the night."

Fallon's entire demeanor changes. A slow smile melts the frost in her eyes, and I realize it's been a long time since she hasn't looked like a watchdog on alert. "You spent the evening with Benjamin Bancroft?" she asks, her smile still growing, the ice still melting. "Meens! This is big. No wonder you're in such a good mood!"

"Believe me. I'm just getting started on why I'm in such a good mood." I tell her about Benjamin parading me around like a prize, then the two of us sitting alone while he offered me a dream come true. "Bancroft and Blake Design! Benjamin freaking Bancroft wants to partner with me! Of course, we still need to hash out the details. There's a lot to consider before I'm ready to commit, but just the fact that a man like that wants to work with a nobody like me…" I trail off, overcome with awe over my life. Mom's getting better. I'm with a wonderful man. My money worries might be over. I want to go back to young me and tell her to just keep on keepin' on because it gets better. It gets so much better.

"You're not a nobody," Fallon retorts with a ferocious shake of her head that sends her silky locks swinging.

"I know, I know. You're gonna say a bunch of positive ‘ra ra go Mina go' stuff, but in the scheme of things, Benjamin has made a name for himself, and I haven't. Not yet anyway. He's established. He wins awards. I work for a tiny firm here in the Keys. There's a difference. Just like there's a difference between me and Nathan. His entire family is dripping with money and stability and opportunity and I haven't experienced much of that. Like ever. Not to mention they break every single stereotype I have of the rich and famous. They're kind and generous and welcoming…"

"Too bad Nathan doesn't fit that description," growls the watchdog.

"He might be the best of them," I retort with a warning arch of my brow. Again, if she'd been paying attention to anything I've said over the last five or six months, she'd know this.

I tell Fallon about his plans to expand the foundation, leaving out the whole Blossom story as the catalyst. I won't share Nathan's tragedies. Fallon has proven I can't trust her with the juicy bits.

"Are you gonna use your connection with him to apply to the foundation and get your mom's medical bills taken care of?" Fallon asks, crossing her arms and stalking to the window to stare at the sky. "Like pull some strings and jump to the front of the line?"

"What?" The suggestion is so shocking I actually step back. "No. Why would I do that?"

"Why wouldn't you?" Fallon sounds disgusted with me, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. If anyone should be disgusted, it should be me, seeing as I now have to explain how not to take advantage of a person you care about to someone I thought knew better.

"Nathan and I just started dating. What we are is brand spankin' new?—"

"You've been together for six months, Mina."

"But it didn't get real until recently." I furrow my brow. "There's no way I'm going to him with my hand out, expecting him to solve my financial problems. That's just not how you handle relationships."

"So now it's a relationship." Fallon looks like she wants to choke on the word. "Isn't the whole thing supposed to be fake?"

Is she really calling me out on not being in a relationship when just five seconds ago, she suggested we've been together long enough to ask him for money?

What am I missing?

How are we miscommunicating?

"It was fake. But now it isn't. If you'd just listen, you'd know that, especially because I haven't gotten to the best part. I was at Nathan's house last night. This morning too," I finish with a grin that feels a tad forced.

"You slept with him?" Fallon leans against the window and the grim set of her jaw says she hasn't been listening at all. She's too busy being protective. Given what she thinks she knows about Nathan, I can understand.

Time to remedy her misconceptions.

"We had that night, Fal. You know the one. There's talking and making love and it's intimate and sweaty and beautiful and you know, just connecting with another human being on this personal level with all the physical stuff thrown in to make it real and raw and…" I trail off because Fallon's just standing there. Staring at me.

No… glaring at me.

"Are you done?" she barks, and I recoil.

"I am now. Why do you look like I just force fed you garbage?"

"Because you did!" Fallon's jaw drops like I'm an idiot for asking. "For God's sake, Mina! What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I'd share the best night of my life with my friend, and she'd be happy for me."

"How can I be happy when you're being a damn fool?" Fallon closes her eyes, exhaling slowly, then softens her tone. "We talked about this. Nathan is using you."

She emphasizes the last sentence, speaking deliberately, enunciating every messed-up syllable.

Now I'm genuinely annoyed. She's obviously not heard anything I've said lately.

"We did talk about this." I enunciate even harder than she did. "And I informed you that you're wrong about him."

"Yet you still can't talk about money. Or your mom. Or any of the things that matter. Did you tell him about me? That we're friends?" She holds out her hands, like she's begging me to see her point, but all I see is someone who's too proud to admit she might have been wrong.

"I'm sorry but you weren't exactly top of mind last night. We were at an event?—"

"Ohhhh, an event. How very bougie of you. Can you hear yourself right now?"

"Would it be different if he'd taken me to a dive bar and fucked me in the back of a pickup? Would you be happy for me then? Because Nathan's rich, that makes all this bad?"

"What makes this bad is who he is and who you are. You guys don't live in the same world. People like him? They see opportunities and they take them. They don't worry who gets hurt. Or who they use. Or if what they're doing is right or wrong. That's how they get ahead. It's why they're rich and the rest of us struggle."

"Funny. His creepy friend said people like me see people like him as opportunities. That all I saw when I looked at him was a dollar sign. Maybe it says more about you and Dom than me and Nathan."

Fallon takes my shoulders and the intensity in her eyes begs me to see her point. "I make a living following the lives of people like this. I know them better than you. You need to slow down because Nathan West will chew you up and spit you out."

"I'm good, Fallon. Better than good. I've never felt anything like this before and I know you think he's faking it to use me for some diabolical plot, but you're wrong. He's not a villain."

"Then what is he?"

"He makes me feel safe to be who I really am." I flash to last night, curled up in his lap on his couch. "And I think he feels safe with me too."

"Funny thing about con men. They're pretty good at making you think and feel exactly what they want you to. Facts, Mina. Not feelings. If Nathan West isn't a villain, what is he?"

"He's none of your damn business, that's what." I unfurl the throw from around my shoulders, fold it carefully and drape it over the back of the couch. "I don't know if you're upset because you were wrong about him and will have to stop telling everyone he's a bad guy or?—"

Fallon gasps. "You don't have to get mean just because you don't like when I'm right."

Getting mean? That wasn't mean. That was me, telling her what I'm thinking, just like she's been telling me. So, she's allowed to speak without a filter, but I'm not?

Has our friendship always been this off balance?

Dear God. Feeling a little blindsided right about now. Clarity would be a blessing. Yours forever, Mina Blake.

"You know what." I hold up my hands in defeat. "I'm gonna go."

"Mina…"

"We're not getting anywhere, and I don't want to go round and round with you. Thank you for looking out for me, but stop, Fallon. Just stop."

I leave, but don't want to go home. There's only one place I want to be, one person I want to be with. I make the drive to Nathan's house with Fallon's arguments circling my head. Does she really think now is the time to ask him for favors? I can't wrap my mind around that. Sure, I haven't told him she's my friend yet. I keep meaning to, but the time is never right. And now we've come so far, and he hates her so much, I can't imagine his reaction when I finally do tell him.

Scratch that. I can totally imagine his reaction.

It won't be pretty.

I haven't intentionally kept it a secret, and last night was not the time to drop that bomb.

But maybe now is.

And I can tell him everything she said about him, about us, and he can assure me she's wrong and all will feel right with the world again.

I park in the driveway, then knock on the door, tapping my fingers against my thigh as I wait.

And then Nathan appears in the doorway, looking just as happy to see me as I am to see him, and I take my first full breath since leaving Fallon's apartment.

"I was just thinking of you." He draws a knuckle across my cheekbone, and I shiver in delight.

"I'm just now realizing I probably should have called or something. I was out and wanted to see you and here I am."

Nathan draws me inside, wrapping his arms around me and kissing me deeply. "Don't be silly," he whispers, his lips brushing mine. "You've made my evening. I was just about to have a drink and enjoy the sky." He jerks his chin in that direction. "Join me?"

I nod and follow him through the living room and onto the deck. The setting sun sends golden light shimmering over the ocean, and I take a moment to lean against the rail and breathe it in. The wind rustles my hair and my skirt brushes against my legs while Nathan presses a kiss to the back of my neck, my shoulder, my throat.

Maybe I don't need to say anything about Fallon.

Or maybe now isn't the time.

Or maybe I need to stop making that excuse and get it over with.

"Are you okay?" Nathan asks, resting a hip on the rail beside me. "You seem tense."

"I'm fine. I had a strange conversation with my friend and just needed…you."

"Me?"

"Yeah. You make everything better and?—"

Nathan silences me with a kiss. His lips are charged, electricity releasing from his body to mine as his hand lifts my skirt and slides up my thigh. "Funny. I've been thinking the same thing about you."

I pull back because I need to tell him about Fallon before I get distracted by his touch. "Nathan, I?—"

"Tell me after," he growls, his voice sending a shiver of delight down my spine.

After, I think as he nuzzles my neck.

After, I think as his teeth graze my lips.

And then he palms the tight bundle of nerves between my thighs and I stop thinking altogether.

His fingers fumble with his pants and he bends me over the rail. I'm staring at the ocean as he kicks at my feet, spreading my thighs. I glance over my shoulder to find him watching as he enters me, his face transforming in ecstasy as his cock slides inside. With one thrust he has me weak in the knees. With another I'm little more than the night sky, hanging somewhere near the moon and glimmering with the stars. He grabs my hair, wrapping it around his fist as he pulls my face skyward, changing the angle while I grunt and moan each time our bodies collide.

"You're so beautiful," he murmurs. "So perfect. So exactly what I needed."

And then he's beyond speaking and it's just his hands on my body. His fist in my hair.

The rush of the water blends with my moans and then there's nothing but sensation. Nothing but Nathan.

Nothing but us.