Chapter Twenty-seven

NATE

I was growing desperate to see Alex, and at any other time, I'd have made an excuse to Ella and caught up with her later. But she was crying. She'd been crying for some time if the red eyes and strands of hair sticking to her wet cheeks were any indication.

"I need to talk to you," she said fiercely, and grabbed me by my wrist to haul me along the landing. I had just enough time to shoot a text to Alex before we were behind the closed door of the withdrawing room. Ella was pacing up and down the room, gulping back her sobs and pushing her hair away from her face.

"Ella," I started, and she turned on me.

"Don't you dare. Don't you bloody dare pretend you care about me after you took Charlie away."

"Hold on there, I went with Charlie, to support him. I didn't make him go." Not really.

"He'd never have gone away without you, and you know it. And now I'll be stuck here with Steven, and you'll be leaving, too. I hate you!"

"Ella." I moved towards her. She stepped away, so I stood still. "Listen to me, please. Charlie needed help." I didn't say what type of help in case her parents were shielding her from the knowledge. "He'll be back before you know it."

"I don't care. You snuck in here like—like a viper in our bosom, and you took him away. We could have helped him, stopped him from being such an idiot all the time."

"You know where he's gone, then?"

"I'm not a child, Nate. He's in rehab. In bloody Germany!"

"We're too close to him. He needs professional help."

"No, he doesn't. He was fine before you came along. He likes to do stupid things, but that's Charlie. He always has. You know that."

"To the point where your father described him as volatile? Ella, he was heading for real trouble. Now that he's receiving help, perhaps your father will reconsider and won't take away his shares."

She was staring at me. "What are you talking about, take away his shares?"

Oh, shit. Oh, shit. "I mean, as your father thought he was volatile, perhaps he'd have considered transferring his shares to Steven. Or to you. That's all I meant."

"Daddy would never do that to Charlie." She was adamant. "You're wrong."

"I was just theorising what my grandfather might do in that situation. Of course your father would be different. Forget I said anything."

"I'll never forgive you for this, Nate. Never."

I rubbed my hands over my face as she stormed out of the room. Could this day get any worse?

ALEX

"Alex." Nate's voice jerked me from my thoughts.

I turned to find him in the doorway.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." I followed him out of the room and along the landing.

At the bottom of the staircase, Mr Taylor found us. I thought he must have installed a pressure mat under the stairs because he always seemed to know when people needed their coats. It turned out, however, he'd been looking for us. Or rather, for Nate.

"Mr Mortimer, I was coming to find you. Mrs Fortescue would like to speak to you."

Of course Nate agreed to see her, though his shoulders slumped at the prospect. In all fairness, I didn't see how he had the option of blowing off our hostess, but I didn't feel like being fair. Right now, it felt as if consideration was only going one way.

"Sorry, Alex. I'll find you afterwards."

"You'd better," I said, and I wasn't joking.

I retreated to the drawing room, where Fiona came to lean against the wall beside me. "What's up? You look grumpy. Well, grumpier than usual."

I blew out a gusty sigh. "Nate," I said. I wasn't one for talking about things, but I could do with an outside perspective on this. Though when I thought about complaining that Nate wanted to spend time with every single member of the Fortescue family before me, I couldn't say it. I wasn't that pathetic.

"You mean the man who looks at you as if you're more precious than treasure?" she asked. "That Nate?"

He did? I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to tell if she was serious.

"God, men are blind sometimes."

I wondered if she'd been spending time with Ella. It sounded like an Ella sort of thing to say.

Maybe my past experience had primed me to jump to the worst conclusions. Maybe there was a very good reason for Nate's behaviour since he'd been back.

The fact remained, he'd run off somewhere with Charlie and hadn't told me where. He'd refused even to leave Charlie's side long enough to reassure me before he did so.

He'd better have a bloody good explanation. Otherwise, I'd be walking away. I'd been an afterthought too many times before.

NATE

There were no tears from Mrs Fortescue. Instead, there was ice-cold fury.

"I asked one thing of you, and you wouldn't even do that. No matter all the years I looked after you as if you were my own child. Little did I suspect I was nursing a viper in my bosom. You're a Mortimer, through and through—untrustworthy and grasping."

It was clear where Ella had got her attitude—and her phrasing—from. Mrs Fortescue's words were histrionic. The fury in her eyes wasn't. I'd never seen Mrs Fortescue as a dragon, but if we'd been somewhere outside, away from humans, I was in no doubt that she'd be in that form right now and trying to tear out my entrails.

"I want you out of my house. James seems to think you'll be useful to him, but I don't care. Tomorrow morning, you will leave."

"Yes, Mrs Fortescue," I said, filled with relief at the prospect.

She had some more choice things to say about my character and my family, and then she dismissed me, if telling me she never wanted to see my traitorous face again counted as dismissal. Charlie would have laughed himself stupid at the thought of his mother telling me off, but her level of rage hadn't been funny in the least. For years, she'd been the closest thing I'd had to a mother. That relationship was now destroyed.

I needed to speak to Alex. He always saw things so clearly, even when I was twisted up emotionally about them. I couldn't believe I'd been back in this house for almost two hours, and all we'd managed was to exchange a couple of words and some texts.

I texted him from the hallway, and he came slowly down the stairs. I couldn't read the expression on his face, which was a first. One that I didn't like.

"Car?" I asked, once the door was closed behind us.

"Let's go to that park," he said. "You know, the one where you went the night you finished with Charlie once and for all."

There was no mistaking the sarcasm in his voice. My heart sank as I realised for the first time how badly I'd screwed up.

We walked in silence to the park, and just as silently found a bench beneath a lamppost. I'd intended to do this carefully and tell him the official story, leaving out the dangerous part of it, but his silence was so unlike him and so unnerving that I blurted it out.

"Charlie was doing coke, and I had to get him away from here before his father had him locked up or killed for it."

Alex's eyes widened in shock. "Kill his own son? Are you—that can't be for real."

"I think he'd have been more likely to lock him up for life than kill him, but you have to understand—to our families, reputation is everything. If Charlie's addiction reached a point where he betrayed the existence of dragons, the Fortescue name would become forever reviled, on top of them being as much at risk as the rest of us."

"But it's not a certainty that he would reveal our existence. Why would they be so extreme?"

I couldn't understand how it wasn't clear to Alex. "Because other dragons might discover his habit. The family would be ruined."

"So the family name is considered more important than a family member?"

"Of course." How could that even be a question? "I wanted to tell you what was going on, but all I could think was that I'd be dragging you into a secret that could be deadly. I didn't know if I could help Charlie without his father learning what was going on, and if James had found out you knew…"

Alex winced. "Yeah, I can see that."

There was a constrained quality to his voice, a lack of emotion that brought home just how badly I'd hurt him. I remembered how small his voice had been on the phone after he'd found me and Charlie together. I'd thought he'd understood it wasn't what it looked like, but how could he, when I still hadn't explained it properly?

"I'm so sorry, Alex," I said, and hoped he could hear how much I meant it. I'd have given anything not to have caused this hurt in him. Anything except Charlie's life, apparently. "I swear, it was nothing to do with the fact it was Charlie. I'd have done the same for Ella. It was just, the stakes were so high, I had to help him. I didn't realise how badly I hurt you by not telling you."

They were just words. They weren't enough, but they were all I had.

"I'm sorry," I said again, hopelessly.

Alex sighed, long and deep, then rolled his shoulders back. "I'm not saying I'm happy about it, but I guess I understand the position you were in." He paused. "And this evening, you probably walked into a complete shit-show."

Clusterfuck was perhaps a more accurate description. "I wanted more than anything to see you, to explain, but everyone wanted a piece of me. In the circumstances, I had to let them take it." Even though it felt as if Mrs Fortescue had done so literally. There'd been a hollow ache in my chest ever since I'd seen her.

"C'mere," he said suddenly, surprisingly, and he pulled me to him.

He held me, his arms tight around me. I scarcely dared to breathe, unsure if this meant he'd forgiven me.

ALEX

Intellectually, I'd forgiven Nate when he explained what had been going on. My emotions hadn't got the memo. I was jealous of Charlie, commanding such loyalty from Nate, and I was angry at Nate for being so loyal. Even though he said he'd have done the same for Ella. Maybe especially because he said he'd have done the same for Ella. He'd have put me second again.

But that hadn't been what was going on. He'd been trying to protect me in an almost impossible situation. He'd been dealt a crappy hand, and there'd been no right way to play it.

It took a conscious effort to let go of my hurt and anger, though the loss on his face when he mentioned the Fortescues helped me do so. He was rigid with tension as I slid my arms around him, and with a sense of wonder, I realised how much this mattered to him. How much I mattered to him. And those last remnants of hurt, the ones I hadn't been able to banish, fled forever.

"Yeah, I was mad at you," I told him. "It's not the end of the world. Now kiss me like you mean it."

I was expecting an all-out assault on my mouth, and that's what I wanted—for him to turn me on so much that I forgot all that had happened. Instead, he kissed me with almost unbearable gentleness, his hand cupping my jaw.

Something twisted in my chest as I remembered all over again how special he was. That was why he'd been able to hurt me so easily. I'd given him my heart, and it appeared he still had hold of it.

A nearby clock struck the hour as our kiss ended. It was an unwelcome reminder. "I don't want to, but we should get back before glass slippers and pumpkins start happening," I said. "We'll have to get that bottle for Mr Taylor."

"I think he'd prefer a plant," Nate said. "He grows succulents."

I hadn't thought Nate could continue to surprise me with how different he was from the entitled banker I'd first assumed him to be. "You're awesome," I said.

He looked confused by that, though he let me hold his hand on the way back. If we ran into anyone who had a problem with it, they could take it up with my dragon. I'd nearly made the biggest mistake of my life letting Nate go over a stupid misunderstanding. I determined to be less knee-jerk in jumping to the worst conclusions in future, though I also hoped there wouldn't be a reason for me to.

We stopped outside the Circus for a long, steamy snog and made it back to the house just before Mr Taylor locked up. There was the barest hint of a smile around his lips as he welcomed us, making me wonder what he saw on our faces.

I felt as if I were floating. Nate was back, we were together, and all was right with the world.