Page 64 of Away With You
With that mike-drop moment to complete what was an all-round awful conversation, I turn and take off back down the beach, all Zen-like feelings now gone. My stomach churns with the aftermath of the confrontation, and I wish I hadn’t sunk to their level. I wish I’d been the bigger person. In the months since everything went down, since I discovered their betrayal, I had been the bigger person. All it took was one word spoken against Katie to turn that all to ash. I will go to any lengths to protect that woman. Especially from my family and the woman who is joining it.
No one will hurt Katie. Not on my watch.
CHAPTER 17
KATIE
“Wow.”
The word is out of my mouth, and my brain is too scrambled to even be embarrassed. Because standing in front of me is Nathan, shirtless, glistening with sweat. Wearing a backwards baseball cap.
Now, I’ve read the romance novels and watched the movies, so I’m familiar with how this particular look can turn a woman’s knees to jelly, but I thought I was built of tougher stuff than that. I thought I’d be the one woman on Earth immune to this brand of hotness.
I was wrong.
“Pardon?” Nathan’s brows float up to the top of his forehead, his mouth curving into a delicious smirk.Gosh, dial down the gorgeousness, Mr Jackson. I’m trying not to combust over here.
I shake my head, all my knowledge of words jumbling around my brain. This whole thing is so surreal. First, I’m fake dating a sexy Formula 1 driver as a favour tohim, then we share one bed and I wake up by myself (and not wrapped around him as the trope dictates), and now he’s a walking cliche of hotnessand I can’t get my shit together. And oh yeah, I’d also been an audacious princess last night and had labelled the man as mine.Alwaysmine.
“Nothing.” I suck in a mouthful of drool and tear my eyes away from their happy exploration of the land known as Nathan’s naked chest. A land I’d like to move to, plant a flag on and never leave. “How was your run?”
His expression darkens, and he moves to grab a bottle of water from our well-stocked minibar, finishing the entire thing in one long gulp, his throat bobbing in a tempting way.
Get your hormones in line, Katie. He’s just hydrating. That shouldn’t make you sweat so much.
“It was fine.” He scoops up a piece of paper, small, A5 in size, from the floor where it must have been slipped under the door during the night. I’d been too obsessed with the sleeping arrangements and then the backwards baseball cap. I hadn’t noticed it. “What’s this?”
A frown grows on his face.
“What is it?” I inch closer, leaving lots of space between us while peering over his shoulder. “An itinerary for the week?”
The piece of paper in Nathan’s hand looks like silk. It’s embossed with love hearts and is handwritten in perfect calligraphy. It is one expensive-looking itinerary.
“Wow,” I breathe. “Fancy.”
Nathan tosses it to the ground, glaring at it like he wants to stomp on it. And perhaps spit on it for good measure.
“It’s over-the-top. Garish. Just like them.”
He paces away to stare at the horizon, and I follow him, picking up the itinerary and dusting it off. It may be overly opulent, but it’s still important information.
“We’re going on a yacht today?”
His shoulders bunch. “We don’t have to.”
What happened during that run?I stand next to him, nibbling on my lip as I try to work out the best way forward. “Um, isn’t that the point of being here? At least, of me being here with you? That we attend these events…together?”
He turns, turbulence in his lake blue eyes. “Not if you’re uncomfortable. Not if it means they sharpen their claws on you. Not on my watch.”
My breath catches at the intensity of his expression. Even though he asked me to be here to flaunt his new (fake) relationship in front of his family, he’s not doing it at my expense.
I melt. “Nathan, I’m stronger than you think. As long as you’re by my side; I’ll be fine.”
Indecision dances over his face, and I inch in closer, squeezing one large (oh-so-firm) bicep in my hand. “Truly. It’s fine. I want to go.”
“You do?”
I laugh. “I mean…I’ve never been on a yacht before. And if things get hairy with Vicky or George,”—I push at his chest a little to illustrate my point—“it will be man overboard.”
