Chapter Twenty-four

NATE

I was changing into jeans and a jumper, ready for the trip to the river that Alex and I had planned, when my door opened without so much as a knock.

"We're going out," Charlie said, crossing the room to undo the last couple of buttons on my shirt. "Get rid of this old-man stuff and get into something decent. Or rather, indecent."

I tried to unclench his hands, but he was pulling my shirt apart insistently. "Come on," he said. "You're wasting time, and there's so much I want to do. Why're you being so slow? Get these off and let's go."

I managed finally to unwind his fingers from my shirt and stepped back, blinking as I took in his outfit. Charlie had always dressed to kill when we'd gone out, but leather trousers that hid absolutely nothing and a sleeveless denim that ended halfway up his bare torso were unexpected now he was thirty. He still had the body for it, though he'd lost some weight.

"Come on, Nate. Get changed, so we can get out of here." He was scrabbling at the fastening of my jeans. I put my hands on his and stilled them.

"Charlie, what's going on? I'm notgoing clubbing with you. Where the hell would be open at this time on a weekday, anyway?"

That unleashed a torrent of words about the two new clubs that had opened in the last year, the guys he'd picked up there, the bartender who always gave him his drinks free, and the number of times he'd been blown in the bathroom. "None of them was as good as you, Nate. Not one."

He looked into my eyes as he assured me of that, and my breath caught. His pupils were large enough to drive a bus through.

"Fuck me," I said. "You're high."

Now I'd realised, it was obvious to anyone who spent time in the City. Bankers are infamous for their nose candy problem.

I wrenched away from him and slammed the door shut before turning round, my breathing uneven. "Charlie, what the fuck are you doing? If your father finds out—"

If anyone found out, for that matter. It was a universally understood rule among dragons that you didn't touch addictive drugs. The danger was too great that a dragon addict would lose control of themselves when desperate for a fix and let their dragon out, betraying our existence to the world. Despite all the partying Charlie and I had done back in the day, we'd never touched drugs, not even poppers.

Charlie laughed. "Oh, Nate. When did you turn into an old woman? I mean, the potential was always there, but you've become your great-uncle. You should see the way you're looking at me, just like he used to. At least he had the excuse of being about a hundred."

"Shut up." I wouldn't allow him to speak of Uncle Thaddeus that way, though it was true he'd never liked Charlie. It was why Charlie and I had spent all our time with his family. That way, Uncle Thaddeus didn't keep looking at me as if I could do better. As if I could be better.

Charlie's mouth was running, and he was telling me about my shortcomings, yet again. All the time, he was trying to undress me. I let him rabbit on through subjects that were related by the slenderest of threads and kept diverting him from my clothes, though not so firmly that he gave up. I couldn't risk him leaving and running into anyone.

ALEX

We'd been supposed to meet at the car, but Nate was twenty minutes' late and hadn't answered any of my texts. I headed back to the house. Perhaps James or Ella had cornered him. Whatever the reason for his running late, it probably put us over the edge of acceptable return time. We'd have to go tomorrow instead.

Back at the house, Ella was talking to Fiona and Enyon, so she wasn't the culprit. I'd check Nate's room. If he wasn't there, I'd have to assume he was closeted with James, discussing job opportunities.

There was no immediate answer to my knock. I heard floorboards creaking and then Nate's voice. "Charlie, wait."

My heart flipped. I stepped back just as the door finally opened. A crack, no more than that, but enough for me to see Nate's shirt was undone and to hear Charlie behind him, whining about having been interrupted.

"Sorry," I said, my mouth so dry I didn't know how I got the word out. "My mistake."

"Alex!" Nate called as I strode away from him. He didn't come after me. And that squashed any lingering doubt I'd had about what was going on.

I was so stupid. As if he'd really want an unemployed half-dragon who couldn't fly when he could have someone who was just like him. Someone he could compare private jets with, who understood banking, and who'd never embarrass him with their lack of conversation at drinks parties. Someone who didn't need elocution lessons to fit in.

Plunging out of the house, I headed for the darkness of the park where I'd found Nate that time. That time when he'd said he and Charlie were finally over.

Fuck it. Margaret had warned me. I'd warned myself. Yet I'd still gone and given him the last piece of my heart. I'd trusted him with my deepest secret. He swam with me, for God's sake. And neither of those things meant anything to him. I didn't mean anything to him.

I don't know how long I walked, but I came to a halt at a busy road. A road meant people, which meant shops. Shops meant cigarettes, and I needed one like I hadn't in years.

I checked my phone to search for the nearest shop and found I had several messages from Nate. My thumb hesitated over delete, but stupid, morbid curiosity won out. There was a series of extremely short messages.

Sorry. There's a problem.

Trying to fix it.

Really sorry.

Alex, it wasn't what it looked like.

That last one did it for me. What it looked like was you getting naked with your supposedly ex-boyfriend I sent back, before jamming the phone in my pocket. I shouldn't have given him the satisfaction.

I cut through a couple of side streets to get to the supermarket. And then I hesitated outside the door. If I had a fag, I'd want another one. If I started smoking again, I'd only be hurting myself. Nate wouldn't care.

I turned away, hands clenched in my pockets, repeating that to myself. My phone rang. Nate. Of course.

"What?" I growled when I took the call.

"Alex, it's not what you thought. I was changing to meet you, and Charlie came in and—"

"Are you trying to tell me you couldn't get rid of him? That's weak, Nate."

I could hear Charlie's voice in the background, though not what he said.

"Look, Alex, there's a problem that I need to sort out. I swear that's all it is. I know how it looked, but can you trust me? Please?"

I took the phone from my ear and looked at it. Trust him. When he hadn't come after me, when he was still so obviously there with Charlie?

But if they were together again, why would he try to get me back on the hook?

"What sort of problem?" I asked eventually, and heard a deep breath that sounded like relief.

He was quiet for a moment before speaking. "I don't want you involved in this. If James finds out…"

And just like that, I believed him. Call me stupid, call me gullible, tell me I don't learn from experience. But it was Nate, and I did trust him.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "I need to work something out and fast"—another interruption from Charlie—"but I'll let you know, I swear." He lowered his voice almost to a whisper. "I can't leave Charlie at the moment. I'll text you."

Couldn't leave Charlie? What the hell was going on?

"Okay, Nate," I said, and though I believed him, it hurt. He had secrets with Charlie that he wasn't telling me.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

I killed the call.