Chapter 4
Nathaniel was dreaming. He could see Lillian’s face smiling back at him as they walked through Frear Park. They left the park, and suddenly they were in their old neighborhood, walking down the sidewalk with their hands held tight. “Welcome home,” someone called out, but Nathaniel could not identify the voice. He just smiled because he felt home here in Troy.
“Nate,” Lillian’s voice called, and suddenly they were in a bedroom. The mood of his dream shifted from pleasant reminiscing to sexual in a flash. In the dream, Lillian was dropping to her knees. “Give it to me,” she said, and for a moment he could swear she sounded like Eliza.
Nathaniel’s eyes opened when he felt a tingling sensation in his groin; he was still on the couch in the hotel suite. Glancing down, he saw Eliza plain as day sucking on his dick. “What the fuck?” he started to sit up, but Eliza hopped up on top of him, and he could see she had already removed her pants and underwear.
“Morning,” she said with a wink and sat herself down on his cock.
This is rape. This is what rape is, he thought for a moment but quickly brushed the paranoia and confusion away. He remained on his back and reached his hand around to grab her waist, pulling her all the way down onto his cock. “Damn,” he said when he realized how wet she was. She was certainly a natural as far as bedroom affairs went. “Maybe give me a heads up before you start giving me a blow job at the crack of dawn next time,” he told her.
“Come on, you know you liked waking up to that,” she said, sliding her hips up and down. She pressed her hands against his chest to keep herself steady.
Lillian’s face kept flashing before his eyes. “I think I’m still asleep,” he said and shook his head for a second.
“Well, relax then,” she said. “I’ve got this.” She leaned down and pressed her lips against his, suffocating him slightly –still moving her hips up and down in perfect rhythm. “Ooh, that feels so good,” she said and bit down on his throat.
“Easy!” he snapped; she sure was rough. It was too early for that sort of thing. He was still half asleep when he came into her.
She hopped up, grinning as she cleaned herself up and started looking for her pants. “Ugh, I am not looking forward to that flight back home. I had Tony order us some room service this morning, by the way. I figured we can have some breakfast before I have to go.”
Nathaniel rose up off the couch, shoving himself back into his pants before walking into the kitchen. There were pancakes laid out, and his stomach growled. He helped himself to some of the pancakes, somewhat thankful she had ordered room service –although slightly perturbed that she had had Tony pay for it without asking him first. “So,” she said as she took a bite of pancakes, “when you get back to California, I need a date to this wedding I’m getting drug into.”
He nodded. “I’d be happy to,” he said, although his stomach ached when he said it. He took a breath. “Listen, Eliza, I haven’t been entirely honest with you. Since I’ve been in Troy, I’ve been seeing someone else.”
She laughed. “The homeless chick, right?”
Nathaniel put his fork down. “How did you know about that?”
“Adam,” she said. “He’s kind of got a loud mouth. I knew something was up when you booked me that spa appointment, so I pressed him for answers and he kind of caved.”
“Damn,” Nathaniel said, somewhat disappointed in his friend for laying him out like that.
“I’m not mad,” she said with a hand wave. “I think every guy goes through some sort of phase. I mean, if playing the knight in shining armor is what does it for you, fine by me. Have your fun while you’re in Troy, I don’t care. I’m not stupid, though, and neither are you. It won’t last. You’re not like her. You’ll want to settle down eventually, and you’re not going to do that with some street bum. When you’re ready to get real, then I’ll be the real woman waiting for you, but I won’t wait forever, got it?”
Nathaniel felt his cheeks grow warm. He was not entirely sure how to respond to her. She was acting like this was nothing. Like it was almost expected. She finished her breakfast, took a shower, and finished packing up her bag. “Mind calling me a cab?” she asked.
“I’ll take you to the airport,” he said, and she smiled.
He carried her bags down into the lobby, and she followed. The calmness in which they had discussed Lillian was somewhat alarming to him. Was Eliza so in love with him that she didn’t care? Or was she so dead set on marrying a rich guy like her father that she’d settled with a guy who’d sleep around on her? Or did she just honestly understand that the two of them were not exactly official, so she figured it shouldn’t upset her? He couldn’t figure it out.
The valet pulled his car up, and he threw her bags in the back. He stared at Eliza as she looked at herself in a little compact mirror to powder her nose. “Ugh, I need a different makeup brand,” she mumbled. “This crap falls off my face, I swear.” She put her mirror away and smiled at him as he opened the door for her. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a kiss.
“Nate?”
Nathaniel looked back, and there was Lillian. He cringed. Had she seen him and Eliza kiss. Eliza smiled at Lillian. “Who’s this?” Eliza asked in a friendly tone.
“Um…” Nathaniel bit his tongue.
“I’m Lillian,” Lillian said, introducing herself.
“Lillian,” Eliza said with a smile. “I have heard so much about you.”
“And who are you?” Lillian asked.
“Eliza,” she said with a smile. “I’m Nathaniel’s, well, I’m not sure what exactly. I’m practically a fiancée at this point.” She laughed and climbed into the car. “Come on, Nathaniel, I don’t need to miss my flight back home.” She waved at Lillian. “Nice meeting you!” and with that, Eliza closed the passenger’s side door.
“Nice,” Lillian said with an eye roll.
“Lillian, she’s not my fiancée,” Nathaniel said.
“But you have a girlfriend?” she asked.
“No, not really,” he said, and she just shook her head.
“Did you sleep with her?” Lillian asked, and Nathaniel’s hesitancy to answer was enough or her. She spun around on her heels, flicked him off behind her back, and shouted over her shoulder, “Get your girlfriend to the airport before she misses her flight, asshole.” She headed back into the hotel.
Nathaniel shook his head, knowing that this was going to be difficult to fix. He got into the driver’s seat, deciding that the last thing he needed was for Eliza to miss her flight and be stuck in Troy for another day. He tried not to look at Eliza as he drove; the woman had pissed him off. Fiancée? Who was she kidding? She had said that just to get at Lillian, and he was furious.
Chapter 5
After dropping Eliza off at the airport, Nathaniel sped through the streets of Troy in a desperate attempt to make his way back to Lillian as soon as possible. She had seemed incredibly angry, and while he knew her anger had certainly been justified, he wanted to try to make amends as soon as possible. He certainly did not want her running off again, and he was regretting taking Eliza to the airport at all. He felt that he should have stayed at Lillian’s side, but it was all said and done now. He called Tony as he drove by Frear Park which was becoming a painful reminder of what could happen to Lillian if he sent her running off again.
Tony answered with a yawn; it was supposed to be the poor guy’s day off. “What’s up?” he asked, clearly having been taken advantage of his allotted time off by sleeping the morning away. Nathaniel felt bad, but he was quite desperate at this point.
“I need a favor,” Nathaniel said. “Lillian caught me taking Eliza to the airport, and Eliza acted like a damn psychopath and told Lillian that she was my fucking fiancée. Lillian is pissed!”
“What the hell? Yeah, you need to get rid of that one. She sounds nuts. Didn’t you just meet Eliza a few weeks ago, and she’s already going around telling people she’s your fiancée?” Tony said. �
�What do you need me to do, man?”
“Just make sure Lillian does not leave the hotel. She might have already. I don’t want her running back to some shady neighborhood again just because she’s pissed off at me,” he said.
“All right. I’ll check, but hold long ago was this?” Tony asked.
“An hour at least,” Nathaniel said.
There was a long pause on the other line. Nathaniel assumed that Tony was debating whether or not to give him a reality check or just agree to do his bidding. Nathaniel knew that Lillian was probably long gone by then, but he was holding out hope. I should have stayed at the hotel, he thought.
“All right,” Tony finally said, deciding to pretend to be just as hopeful as Nathaniel was being. “I’ll head down to her room and make sure she’s still there, and if not I’ll check out the hotel's restaurant. She might have gotten pissed and decided to use your card to buy herself a nice brunch or something.”
“Here’s hoping,” Nathaniel said half-heartedly. “Thanks, Tony. I know you’re supposed to be off today…”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. Troy was not exactly my idea of a vacation anyways. You have been putting me through hell up here, you know. I want a real vacation when we get back to California,” Tony said.
“Tell you what, Tony,” Nathaniel said with a slight chuckle, “If you can keep Lillian from running off and this all turns out well for me in the end, I’ll pay to send you on a cruise myself.”
“Really?” Tony questioned.
“You and a lady,” Nathaniel promised. “Now stop talking to me and go find her.”
“On it!” Tony said, hanging up the phone.
Nathaniel continued his traffic-filled ride to the hotel. It took him another half hour before he was pulling up to the front door and handing his keys over to the valet. He darted inside, and he almost ran right over Tony in the lobby. “Geeze, Tony!” Nathaniel snapped, glancing around to see if Lillian was anywhere near.
“Easy!” Tony said. “She’s still here. She’s in her room, and she’s pissed. She threw a vase at the door when I knocked because she thought I was you… the hotel is putting that on our bill, by the way.”
“Great,” Nathaniel said with an eye roll. “All right, I’ll go talk to her. I can’t believe she’s still here?”
“She must really like you to have stuck around after that,” Tony said. “I was just guarding the lobby in case she decided to come down.”
“Thanks,” Nathaniel said, heading past Tony to take the elevators up to Lillian’s floor.
“Good luck!” Tony called out as Nathaniel boarded the elevator. The elevator doors closed, and it began its slow ascent up to the fourth floor where Lillian was currently residing. Tony had said she was still in her room, but Nathaniel could not be sure. It was not as though Tony had been guarding the hallway on the fourth floor to make sure she didn’t try to sneak off.
Soon Nathaniel found himself standing outside of Lillian’s hotel room. He took a breath and used a keycard to enter the room; he had held onto one just in case he needed to get inside. He was paying for the room, after all. Lillian was seated on the couch, and she sat with her arms crossed staring him down. She had cooled off since that morning, he supposed, since she had not thrown anything his way. “Listen,” Nathaniel started to speak, but she did not give him a chance.
“Am I some sort of side chick?” she asked. “Is that what this is? You wanted to have a little fun before you got hitched?”
“No!” Nathaniel shouted. “No, not at all. She’s just some crazy woman my mother was trying to set me up with. She showed up unannounced to my hotel room.”
“But you didn’t make her leave? You slept with her, right?” Lillian asked.
Nathaniel hesitated to answer. He stammered slightly, trying to come up with a good excuse that would keep her from getting too angry, but he was at a loss. “Look, Eliza is crazy,” he said. “And my mother has been giving me hell about her for the past couple of weeks. I was supposed to take her out to dinner when I got back home to California and that was supposed to be the end of it.”
“But you figured you could get you some extra ass when she showed up here in Troy?” Lillian questioned and rose up from her seat. “I guess I was stupid for thinking I was anything but something to entertain yourself with while you were staying here in Troy.”
“No, that’s not it!” Nathaniel retorted, not realizing that she had slowly been inching towards the door.
“Get out!” she shouted and shoved him back, flinging the door open as she did so. “And you can go fuck yourself!”
The door closed in his face, and he shook his head. She was still at the hotel –surely that had to be a good sign? She could have left, but then again it was not as though she really had anywhere else to go. Was he merely her meal ticket? Or was she staying because she wanted to try to work things out? Nathaniel could not really be sure, but he knew he cared about Lillian and wanted to make things right. The last thing he had wanted to do was hurt her.
He slumped his shoulders and headed downstairs to the lobby. Tony was no longer guarding the exit, and he wanted to be sure that Lillian didn’t leave without speaking to him again, so he certainly wasn’t going to go back up to his suite. He found himself a seat in the lobby and watched the elevators, unsure of what else he could do.
Chapter 6
Nathaniel jolted in his seat, realizing that he had almost fallen asleep in the hotel lobby. He was not sure how much longer he could keep this up. It seemed that Lillian was not going to be leaving anytime soon, but the last thing he wanted to do was be up in the presidential suite with no way of knowing whether or not Lillian decided to leave the hotel. And he wasn’t going to ask Tony to guard the elevators all day. He looked at his watch, and it was three in the afternoon. His stomach growled; he had missed lunch.
After debating with himself for several minutes, he decided to go to the hotel restaurant and ask for a table near the exit where he could see the lobby. It was slow at this point during the day –right after the lunch rush and long before the dinner crowd would start pouring in, so he was able to get the table he wanted. He could, if he leaned slightly out of his table, see the elevators.
He ordered himself a steak, deciding to treat himself a little bit. When the steak came he had a hard time eating it; his stomach was in knots, and he was constantly leaning out of his chair to take a look at the elevators. Suddenly his phone started to buzz. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw his mother’s face flash across the screen. “Great,” he grumbled. “That’s just what I need right now.”
Against his better judgment, he answered the phone. “Hello, dear!” his mother’s voice called out.
“Hey, Mom,” he said, his voice monotone from his lack of excitement.
“I thought I would call and see how your visit from Eliza went?” she asked.
Nathaniel frowned. “Did you know she was going to be coming for a surprise visit?” his voice raised slightly.
“I had no idea,” his mother said. “I didn’t know until she texted me that she was in Troy.”
Nathaniel huffed. “Sure, Mom, whatever you say.”
“What’s going on?” his mother asked, clearly sensing his tone. “Did something happen, Nathaniel?’
Nathaniel sighed slightly. “A little,” he admitted. “I just did not expect to see Eliza in Troy.”
“What’s going on?” his mother pressed.
It was not as though he had much to lose, so he decided to come clean with what had been going on with him in Troy. “Mom, do you remember Lillian Thompson?”
There was a pause, and then a laugh. “Oh, how could I forget that little sweetheart? You two spent a lot of time together as kids.”
“Well, I ran into her,” Nathaniel said.
There was another long pause from his mother. “You ran into her?” she asked to confirm.
“Yeah,” Nathaniel said. “My first day in Troy, she came into the shelter.”
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“She was a volunteer?” his mother asked.
“No, Mom, she wasn’t,” Nathaniel said, causing yet another bout of hesitation.
After a moment, she spoke. “That’s a real shame. She was such a sweet girl. Do you know what happened to her?”
“Troy was not as good to her as it was to us,” Nathaniel said simply, deciding not to go into too much detail about Lillian’s personal life. He sighed and continued. “She and I have been spending some time together, you see, and, well-”
“Wait,” his mother said. “Is Lillian the reason you decided to stay an extra few weeks in Troy?”
“Yes,” he said honestly.
His mother laughed. “Don’t tell me –have you two been dating?”
“Well, I suppose you could call it that,” Nathaniel said. “Yes, we have.”
He waited for a response. What would she think about him seeing some homeless woman? There was a happy sounding laugh. “Nathaniel, that’s such a relief to hear,” she said, surprising him.
“A relief?” he questioned.
“Nathaniel,” his mother chastised, “All I want for you is for you to be happy. I know I have been pushing Eliza on you, but that’s only because I thought that perhaps she would make you happy. Yes, she comes from a nice family –that would be a lovely perk, I’ll admit, but if Eliza does not make you happy, then don’t be with Eliza. But if Lillian makes you happy, then I’m happy too.”
“You’re telling me that you don’t care that Lillian is homeless?” Nathaniel asked.
“Honestly, Nathaniel, with how poorly off your father and I were when you were younger, do you honestly think that something like that would upset me? We lost our house twice when we were first starting out. We lived with your father’s parents for four years right after you were born –if it wasn’t for them, we would have been on the streets too –and with a child no less. Everyone has points in their lives when they struggle. If Lillian is a good person, and if you like her I suspect that she is, then that’s all that matters. If she makes you happy, Nathaniel, then I’m happy too.”
Utterly Yours (Book Four) (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 2