I’d give him that—even if it meant I’d probably spend a lot of nights in his guest room pulling off what he’d done in mine.
We turned a corner where he took me down a large hallway where there was an office, an actual library room with a vaulted ceiling and a ladder that took you to the highest shelves. They were mostly empty. Garrett wasn’t a big reader. But there was a gorgeous, dark brown leather chair in one corner that looked brand new.
“This is… this is incredible.” I spun in a slow circle, envisioned all the books I could fill those shelves with while looking out in the backyard that he hadn’t been joking about. There was a six-foot privacy fence made of brick. What should have been the yard was all dirt and stone. Desert living. Palm trees and other scarce plants that probably thrived with no rain.
“I’m thinking this could be yours.” He scrubbed the side of his jaw. “You know. Your office, if you want.”
My vision blurred as I took him in, shuffling on his feet like he was as nervous as I was.
“I’d like that,” I whispered, my throat thick. I couldn’t hold back. He might want slow, but he had to know I was all in. I went to him and pressed my hands to his cheek. Pulling him down, I rolled to my toes and met him halfway. I kissed him, slowly slid my lips over his and kept it chaste, pouring my emotion into it at the same time. “Thank you. This is perfect.”
“Good.” His hand slid to my back and he held me against him until I settled back on my feet. “Then let’s see the rest.”
He showed me his workout room and we headed up the stairs where he quietly pointed out three more bedrooms. Not a lot of furniture in there, he said, but there were beds for his mom and sister. But not me. He didn’t give me a chance to look in the rooms, or choose which one I’d be staying in, before he walked toward the end of the hallway to a door that was closed.
“This is my room,” he whispered, for whatever reason, possibly he was trying to figure out sleeping arrangements like I was. He opened the door, stepped in, and then, to my utter shock, stopped so fast I ran into his back like it was a wall of steel as he bellowed out, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
12
Garrett
Nadia.
She scrambled off the bed faster than I’d ever seen anyone move.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I barked out. Holy Mother of God. How had our wires gotten so damn crossed?
Two small hands pushed at my back and then to the door and Lizzie skated in next to me asking, “What is it—Oh…”
Oh was right. Her jaw dropped and as she came into view, Nadia shrieked, reached for something silky and scrambled off the bed faster than I’d ever seen anyone move.
“Oh I’m sorry. So sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t think anyone would be here.”
She moved, throwing on that robe over something I assumed was supposed to be sexy lingerie, but I averted my eyes to above her face.
“Nadia—”
“Nadia?” Lizzie asked. Next to me, she froze, but I reached out and grabbed her hand, moving us both into the bedroom and out of the doorway.
“I’m sorry. So sorry. I just… I thought… I hoped…”
“You hoped wrong.”
This wasn’t happening. André was going to have my ass if he knew this was happening. Hell, he was going to kick me straight to his mother country if he thought I’d screwed over his sister. The whole reason I’d agreed to the charade in the first place was because all three of us knew the score.
How in the hell did I just lose the game?
And this was happening now? When I told her about Lizzie? When I told her we weren’t going to the next event?
Fuck me sideways.
“I’ll just…” She was still grabbing shoes, a small bag she’d brought. Every time she grabbed something else, my eyes widened. What in the hell was she thinking? “I’ll just… I’ll get out of here.”
She took off then, leaving both Lizzie and I alone in my room in the dust from her quick running.
Something banged into the wall, followed by her curse, and I was left gaping at my bed, the messed-up duvet with Lizzie still holding my hand in complete silence.
“I swear to you, on my life,” I growled, shaken, pissed, and humiliated. “Nothing fucking happened between us. Nothing ever would.”
“I believe you,” she said and she squeezed my hand. “You’ve already said that, so I believe you. But she was really upset. You should… you should go talk to her. Calm her down before she gets behind the wheel.”
Had she not just witnessed the same insanity I had? “You want me to do what?”
“Garrett…. that was intense. At least for her. She was in serious pain and I don’t know if she hurt herself, but obviously she thought something… so go talk to her. Clear the air. And then later… maybe explain why she thought she could do that.”
“Fuck.” I scrubbed a hand down my face. She was right. Of course she was. Normally I wouldn’t react that harshly—to any woman. But hell. That wasn’t what I expected.
“Go.” Lizzie shoved at me and got me moving. This was not the conversation I wanted to have, even if I’d shown up at home all alone.
I ran down the stairs right as the front door closed. The metal gated door slammed shut in the small outdoor patio area and I caught it and flung my way through it.
“Nadia!” I called out but she kept running, still barefoot. Her arms full of whatever she’d brought with her.
Shit. I hadn’t even noticed her car at the curb I’d been so caught up with Lizzie and thinking of what she’d think of my place.
“I’m sorry. So sorry. Again. Crap. I am so embarrassed.” She said it all in a rush as she reached her car. Everything in her hands fell to the street as she opened her purse.
I bent to help pick things up, and she slapped my hand away. “No. I have done enough trouble. Stop. You do not need to help with this.”
“Nadia.” I stood. Setting my hand on the car. “Stop. Calm down. Please.”
She didn’t. She dug through her purse until she locked on her keys and the doors unlocked.
“I need to go.”
“You need to take a minute. Or five and take some deep breaths so you don’t crash once you get behind the wheel.”
She shook her head. She still hadn’t looked at me. Nadia was gorgeous. Of course she was. She was still in school getting her master’s in landscape architecture. She’d done it all with her brother’s help. Their parents had both died years ago, right after André made the pros in the US. He brought his sister over, and he’d helped pay for her education ever since.
They were good people. Knowing I’d hurt her—however unintentionally—killed.
“Please. Look at me,” I said, trying to soften my voice and kick the remaining rage out of it. Had Lizzie not been Lizzie—that entrance could have gone so vastly differently.
Her head lifted, tears stained her flushed cheeks. “I’m sorry. I know what we were. Or that we weren’t anything. But you’re so good and so nice. I started thinking… well, and then you said you couldn’t go to the gala next week and I just… I hoped I could make something happen.”