Page 46 of Master Debater

Nate propped himself up on his shoulder and looked down at me, casting a soft smile that thawed some of the ice that’d automatically formed around my heart. “So, when would you like me to kill him?”

I huffed a laugh, surprised to find one so easily after a call with Eric. They usually darkened my mood for hours. “Kill might be taking things a pinch too far. How do you feel about maiming?”

“Pretty damn good, after what I heard. Stopping myself from going too far will be the hardest part.”

My palm fit to the side of his face so perfectly, and I savored the tickle of his whiskers. “All I want is for the divorce to be over and done already. To the point I told him he could keep the house—it wasn’t like I wanted to stay in his hometown and live there anyway. But now he’s trying to coerce me into giving up any claim to the business, not an ounce of appreciation for the fact that I helped him build it from the ground up and that my name is still on the lease. I did all the bookkeeping and database entry for the patient charts, to the point it became my career over the last six years. I deserve to be compensated for that.”

“Why don’t you let me take care of it? I’d be happy to step in and offer you legal advice—in an unofficial capacity, anyway. Through my contacts, I’m sure I can find someone licensed in Maine to take over as your legal counsel”

“Thank you, but no. You have plenty going on here, and honestly, I don’t want you caught up in my mess. It’s also something I need to take care of myself.” I sighed, already hating the extremes I was going to have to go to.

Nate’s heavy exhale had me arching an eyebrow. “I hate feeling helpless.”

“Me too. And that’s how I’ll feel if you step in to take care of everything instead of proving to him, and to myself, that I can take care of this. I’ll drive back to Sugar River next weekend for the mediation and show him he can’t push me around. Once he sees that I’m a stronger, different person, he’ll cave—I’m sure of it.

“Shit,” I said, the reality of another situation hitting me. “I don’t have a car anymore. The mechanic informed me that it’d cost more to fix it than the car was worth.” I rubbed my fingers over my forehead. “I told my mom I’d visit her in Vermont on my way there, and I planned to bring back my grandma’s hope chest. It has all my family heirlooms, a quilt she made and one my mom did, and old composition notebooks filled with my original songs. I hated to leave them, but there just wasn’t room.”

The wheels in my brain whirred into motion, a mixture of problem-solving and calculating costs and anxiety bubbled up within me.

“Will it fit in the Porsche?”

I crinkled my forehead, struggling to connect the dots. “Probably. And I know you’re stubborn to a fault, but you did hear me say I need to do this myself, right?”

“I did. You’re insisting on going yourself, and I hear and understand you. But in the name of protecting my personal asset…” He dipped his head and softly kissed my lips. “That’s you, by the way. My personal asset.”

If it weren’t for the amount of elation pumping through me, I might’ve contested his declaration. The truth was that he did currently possess me, though, body and soul.

“When you head to Maine for that meeting, I want you to take my car. Then you can grab the last of your belongings and visit your mom.”

That cleared the fog that’d overtaken my brain, I peered deep into his eyes, sure I’d heard wrong. “Do you have another car I’m not aware of?”

He stretched out beside me, curling me closer and tucking me against his chest. “No, but if I need to go anywhere, I can take the Red Line or the Green Line, or I’ll just call a car. Maybe I’ll even take a card from your deck and rent a bike.”

I trailed my fingertips along his jaw. “It’s just that I remember very clearly, this conversation that we had, where you claimed you’d let your friends fuck your girlfriend before you’d let anyone else drive your car.”

Nate repositioned his hand so it circled my throat. He didn’t squeeze, simply left it there as if to demonstrate the breadth and power in his grip. “Are you my girlfriend?”

I swallowed—well, I tried, anyway. The hand around my neck made it more of a challenge, but I enjoyed it too much to request he release me. “I’m guessing that was what you were getting at before the phone call ruined the mood.”

“It was.” His hold on me shifted from dominating to adhering. “I have no business entertaining the idea of a relationship, not with my track record, and not while I’m in one of the busiest stages of my career. But I’m hoping that if I know you’re all mine, it’ll clear up some space in my brain so that I can occupy it with thoughts besides you.”

My heart expanded, testing the confines of my rib cage. “Of course I’m yours, Nathan. If I’m being honest, I have been since the day you helped me pick up my box of sex toys. And every day since you’ve just claimed that much more of me.”

My nipples tightened at the wicked grin that spread across his face. “Then, hell no, I’d never give my friends or anyone else permission to touch you—that’s my job, and mine alone.” His gaze bore into mine, and his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “You’re way more important to me than my car, Willa. Evidently, I’ve turned into one of those whipped men who needs their woman by their side.”

“If you ask me, when there’s whipping going on, then everyone wins.”

A laugh spilled out and he crushed his lips to mine. Snuggled up against him, we kissed and laughed and clung on, like we were each other’s lifeboats in a storm.

Next weekend, I’d take a short trip to my past and put that chapter fully behind me. Because this guy, who excelled at devouring me as wholly as he protected me, was definitely my future.

Chapter 26

Willa

Snapping pictures while driving was a no-no, but I would’ve signed over a significant portion of the dental practice to capture Eric’s face as I stepped out of Nate’s Porsche.

My ex had tracked the vehicle as it pulled up to the building, admiration shining in his features. His jaw practically unhinged when I was the one who emerged, proving the tinted windows were as good as protecting the privacy of the interior as Nate claimed.

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