Page 3 of Nauti Kisses (Nauti 6)

Oh yeah. She was cool. Calm. She demanded very little from him and gave even less.

He went for the whisky.

Sometimes, a man just needed a little false courage to make the decisions he had known for years were coming.

That was why he had asked Marlena to marry him. One last-ditch effort to conform to the life he had been born into, the society that was part of his birthright.

His mother’s family had been an integral part of Boston society for more than two hundred years. His last name might be Walker, but it was his mother’s Boston Brahmin side that had assured him carte blanche in the world he lived in.

It was a world he was leaving.

He accepted what he had sensed for a while now. He may have been born into this world, but it was one he found himself unable to accept now.

It was time to go.

Whisky burned its way to his stomach as he inhaled through the slow, blooming heat.

Hell, he had no right to come down on Sierra as he had. She was damned protective, and it wasn’t as though he hadn’t watched out for her in similar ways when he caught her lovers cheating on her in the past.

He’d always watched out for her, especially when she was involved with people he didn’t particularly approve of.

He downed another shot of the expensive liquor.

It was his own damned fault.

He’d had enough reservations about asking Marlena to marry him that he hadn’t asked his mother for the heirloom engagement ring to give her. He should have known when he hadn’t given her that damned ring that something was wrong.

A marriage of convenience. His money for her name. As though his family needed her fucking name. His mother’s patrician line opened doors for him that the so-called revered Genoa name would never open.

As he tossed back another shot, a key scraped in the door and it opened slowly.

Son of a bitch, she just didn’t give up, did she?

Marlena stepped into the foyer, her nose lifted with haughty arrogance.

She had definitely had a nose job and he hadn’t even cared enough to notice before.

“We need to discuss this. ” Hip cocked, that nose tilted, model thin and superior.

“When did you get the nose job?” He narrowed his eyes.

Surprise shifted in her pale blue eyes. “Months ago. ”

He shrugged. “We don’t have shit to talk about. Get your things and get out or I can have them delivered to you tomorrow. ”

“Really, John, you act as though you had no clue as to what was going on. ” She sniffed coolly. “You should have known. As perverted as you are, do you really believe any decent woman of class is going to want anything more than the bankroll backing you?”

He let his gaze drift slowly down and back up her reed-thin body. “You made a lousy whore then. ”

Her lips thinned as she pulled the engagement ring from her finger and laid it calmly on the antique table next to her. “Very well, then, if that’s how you feel. Once you sober up, you’ll call. ”

“Don’t bet your nose on it,” he grunted. “Get the hell out of here, Marlena, before I say something I’ll regret. ”

“No doubt you will,” she sighed. “Really, John, you should do something about those nasty roots showing. Just because you come from hick stock doesn’t mean you have to live down to the name. ”

“Beats living down to yours,” he informed her caustically. “Have fun with Gerard. Maybe he’ll like the ice-queen act. ”

Her lips curled. “He didn’t have the ice queen, darling. I was there for fun. You were the responsibility. ”

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