“What’s the matter, he doesn’t like it when you get compliments?” Damn, he wanted to kiss her right now. She was angry, but her rosebud lips were right there and presented such temptation.
“It’s the way you said the words and the way you looked at me when you did.”
He shrugged. “If your man is that insecure, maybe you shouldn’t be together.”
“He’s not the one who’s insecure,” she said.
Reese laughed softly, though he wanted to find a wall to punch his fist through. Having her back in town should be a pleasant experience, but it only stressed him out. “Thought we were friends.”
“Nothing has changed. You’re the one making up new rules because… Because I don’t even know why.”
“Keep playing dumb,” Reese said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You know how I feel.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Everything. Everything we had.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Because you refuse to acknowledge that there’s still something between us. When I kissed you three and a half years ago, are you telling me you didn’t feel anything?”
She stared at the small group playing bocce ball nearby and swallowed. “Nostalgia.”
“That’s it? Your panties didn’t get wet?”
Her head whipped in his direction. “Don’t talk to me like that!” she said in a fierce whisper.
“Why not? You like it too much?”
“Fuck you.”
“Wish you would,” Reese said, his voice filled with the hunger that consumed him from being mere inches from her and unable to touch.
As if he gave off too much heat, she stepped away and put more distance between them. He counted it a plus that she hadn’t run off.
“Stop staring at me,” Nina hissed.
“I’m staring?”
“You know you are.”
“That’s cause I’m hungry,” Reese said in a low grumble.
Her breath hitched, proving she wasn’t as indifferent as she pretended to be.
His eyes ate her up from bottom to top, but a glint on her finger snagged his attention. What the…?
Reese stopped breathing. He couldn’t have been more out of breath if someone had snatched out his lungs.
“What’s that?” he croaked.
Slowly, she looked down at her left hand as if seeing the piece of jewelry for the first time.
“An engagement ring,” Nina said softly.
“An engagement ring? But that would mean…” He stared at her hand. “If that’s an engagement ring…” he said, sounding strained. He could barely bring himself to accept the obvious. His chest hurt, and he felt as if he were having an out-of-body experience. “Th-that would mean you’re engaged.”
He lifted his eyes to hers.
“I am engaged. Two days ago, Andy asked me to marry him.”
The ring glinted at him, mocking with its size and clarity. All he could think about was tossing her over his shoulder and taking her home, away from the man who’d placed himself between them—his new enemy.
“You’re actually going to marry him? You’re just running around getting engaged?”
“I’m not running around doing anything. I’m engaged. It’s a thing people do. Not everyone wants to chase ass all their lives.”
“You think that’s what I do?”
“I know that’s what you do. You’d just left some woman—or women’s—bed when I saw you at The Winthrop less than a month ago. Give it a rest, Reese. We’re done. Been done.”
She almost walked away when he caught her wrist and switched his body in front of her, barring prying eyes from watching her during his interrogation.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Living my best life like I’ve always done. Now that includes getting engaged.”
“You barely know him, Nina,” he grated.
“I know him well enough. I’ve known him for over a year.”
“You think I’m going to let this happen?”
“You don’t get a say!”
“You’re running from me.”
“I am not running.”
“Yes, you are, and we both know marrying him is not the answer. He’s a poor substitute for me.”
“God, you’re arrogant! Could you stop for one minute and think about this from my point of view? Could you just be happy for me?”
“Would you be happy for me if I got engaged?” Reese could hardly breathe. The hold she had on him was indisputable and nerve-racking.
Her eyes flicked away from him, and several seconds passed before she answered. “Yes.”
His heart squeezed with pain. “Then you’re a better person than I am. But we already knew that, didn’t we?”
She briefly closed her eyes and then opened them again. “Let me go, Reese.” Her eyes dropped to where his fingers remained wound around her wrist. He tightened his hold for a second before reluctantly letting her go free.
Nina walked by him, and he turned slowly to see her take her place beside Andy. She was engaged. Wearing another man’s ring.
Stephan came up beside him. “Easy, brother. You look like you want to kill someone.”
His eyes remained on the woman he loved and then switched to the man she planned to marry. “Maybe I do.”
Chapter 10
Andy stretched his arms over his head as he walked to the mini-bar in Nina’s apartment to make himself a drink. He’d insisted on coming over after they went out to dinner, but she’d hoped to sit with her own thoughts tonight.
“Can I fix you a drink?” he asked.
“No, I’m fine.” She sat on the sofa and crossed her legs. Agitated since Richard and Ingela’s party, she bounced her foot up and down. Not even the soothing creams and soft browns of the modern furniture could calm her nerves.
Unfairly, she kept replaying the conversation between Andy and Reese at the day party, and each time she found Andy lacking. As her boyfriend, Reese had never put up with another man coming onto her in his presence.
“You’ve been kind of quiet. You hardly said a word at dinner or on the way over here.” Andy sat beside her on the sofa with a vodka on the rocks.
“I have a lot on my mind…work stuff. Dealing with the Helping Hands project, and of course, I don’t feel prepared to take my father’s place.” She gave a little embarrassed laugh.
Andy’s eyes filled with sympathy, and he reached over and held her hand in his. “I hate to keep saying this, but taking over as CEO is not for you. Didn’t you tell me you made some kind of mistake a while back that resulted in the firm losing a couple thousand dollars? It’s not a lot, but it could’ve been worse if someone on your staff hadn’t caught the mistake.”
She had expected him to be supportive, not make her feel worse. Nina carefully withdrew her hand from his. “Not everyone is perfect and knows exactly what to do in every situation,” she said defensively. She needed a boost of confidence, not a confirmation of her inadequacy.
“And for those of us who do, we’re here to pick up the slack.” He kissed her on the temple. “You know I love you, but you have to give yourself a break and stop worrying about things you can’t control. Not everyone is programmed to be a CEO or an entrepreneur, and that’s okay. Besides, what are you worried about? The company has run fine without your input for years, and once we’re married, I’ll make sure you never have to worry about anything except being a wife and mother. Let me deal with the stress of work and our security. That’s my job as a man. And I want to take care of you. Okay?”
“Andy—”
“Love, listen to me. Just like when my parents married, our marriage will be the perfect synergy between two companies. Together, our holdings will total nearly a billion dollars, and I can only see us getting bigger from there. Stop worrying and let me take care of everything.”
The conversation with Sylvie Johnson came to mind. “Are you saying you want me to be a housewife?” She hadn’t expected him to lean toward old-fashioned roles in their relationship.
“I think it would be best, don’t you? My mother never worked when we were children—not outside of the home, anyway. That came later.”
“I don’t want to be stuck at home while you’re off, flying back and forth between New York and Atlanta.”
“This is only temporary while we set up the Manhattan office.”
“Is it?”
“Of course.”
Nina played with the engagement ring, turning it around and around in a circle on her finger. “I don’t want us to be strangers to each other. I want us both to be an influence in our children’s lives.”
“And we will be. I promise the schedule I have now is only temporary because I’m working hard with my father to learn the ropes while helping him set up our office in New York. There’s a lot of work to do, tasks my mother handled when she was alive. Love, I’m not saying you have to sit at home doing nothing while our kids are at school. You could still have your charities and nonprofit work, but I think a merger between our two companies would be beneficial, and my father and I should handle The Winthrop for you since we both have more experience in the corporate world than you do.” He patted her knee.
Disappointed, Nina stared down at her hands folded in her lap. Maybe he was right. Maybe she was in over her head.
“On another note, I have to agree with your friend, Reese. You looked particularly beautiful today.”
She smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“I prefer your hair like that—straight. My father likes it, too—did I mention that? I hope that’s how you’ll wear it for the wedding.”
Nina touched her hair. “I hadn’t really decided yet.”
“Wear it straight,” Andy said decisively. He laughed softly, in a patronizing way, before taking a sip of vodka.
She didn’t mind switching up her look, but his comment unnerved her a bit. Reese liked her hair any way she fixed it—straight or curly, he always paid her compliments. With a sense of unease, she studied Andy. Since they’d been back, something was different. He didn’t seem like the same man she had met in New Zealand.
Was it because he had to take on his responsibilities at the family business? Or because she kept comparing him, unfairly, to Reese?
Reese, who was also behaving differently. The ring should have put him off, but instead, he’d become more aggressive. He’d never been an angel, but the don’t-give-a-shit part of his personality had been stripped bare at the party.
Andy set his glass on a coaster. “You know, there’s something about Reese that bothers me. He gives off a vibe as if he still likes you. Maybe I’m wrong?” He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to alleviate his concerns.
“We’re friends,” Nina said in a neutral voice.
“Was your relationship serious?”
They spent every free moment together before they went to different universities. Her parents had grown concerned about the intensity of their relationship, but they’d been young and in love. Inseparable. That’s why she’d never suspected he could hurt her by saying they needed to break up. Then a mere week after their split, he slept with Kelly, of all people. Kelly, her nemesis. For some reason, she’d always been jealous of and disliked Nina and had hooked up with Nina’s first boyfriend, Mark, when Nina wouldn’t sleep with him. Nina had been called a prude for wanting to wait, so to have Reese hook up with the same girl had been like twisting a rusty blade in an old wound.
After they split, every morning had been a battle to get out of bed, yet because of her age, people dismissed her feelings. But she knew what she felt—a brutal sense of hurt and betrayal.
“Our relationship was a long time ago. We were teenagers, and he was my first…” Her gaze skittered away from his, and she shrugged.
“First what?” Andy pushed.
Nina straightened and faced him fully. “My first love, I guess.” And my first lover.
“Any other former boyfriends lurking around the party that I need to know about?” he asked.
“Reese wasn’t lurking.” At his raised eyebrow, she hastily added, “And of course there weren’t any other exes there. I would have told you. Look, you have nothing to worry about with Reese and me. We were young, foolish, and caught up in hormones. That’s all in the past now.”
Andy stroked his jaw, looking hard at her. “Completely over, right?”
She wouldn’t mention the things Reese said to her or her own inexplicable desire for him. Besides, when would they run into each other again? Malik and Lindsay’s wedding was over, and the garden party a fluke. She’d be careful about the places she went to because they knew the same people, but soon Reese would calm down, accept she’d moved on, and behave better when they saw each other.
“Completely over,” Nina confirmed.
Andy stared at her, and she forced herself not to look away.
Finally, he gave her a kiss. “I’m going to take a shower.”
When he disappeared, Nina slumped against the back of the sofa. Why did she feel so guilty when she hadn’t done anything wrong? And would Reese really stop? Because the look in his eye suggested that not even a ring could stop him from coming after her.
Chapter 11
“Are you alone?” Reese’s voice cracked like a whip.
Nina clutched the phone. “Yes. Why?”
“We need to talk.”
“About what?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“I don’t want—”
“Open the door when I get there.” He hung up.
Nina let out an angry scream in the middle of the empty room. Who did he think he was, making demands like that? She paced the floor with her arms crossed. How far away was he? She’d forgotten to ask—
Loud pounding made her jump. He must have been in the elevator. She hadn’t had time to change out of the black shorts and tank top or release her hair from its freshly braided cornrows.
Oh, what the hell. Reese had seen her dressed casually plenty of times.
“Nina!”
She raced down the stairs and yanked open the door. “You don’t have to yell.”
“I didn’t know if you’d open the door.” His dark gaze swept over her body, pausing at her braless breasts before dropping lower to where the shorts clung to her hips and thighs. His angry expression shifted into something carnal and his nostrils flared, and now she really wished she’d changed.
Fighting the urge to cover her body, she demanded, “What do you want?”
The question snapped him out of the temporary trance, and he barged in and went into the living room.
Nina shut the door and followed, keeping a safe distance. He looked angry enough to chew through iron.
“You can’t marry him.”
“I figured you’d say that. Please, tell me why not.”
“He’s not right for you. I am.”
“You? You told me a serious relationship was too much and unrealistic because we lived in different cities. You tossed my love back in my face.”
“I didn’t toss it back in your face. I panicked.”
“And now you’re ready, ten years later? No thanks, I’m not interested, and I’m not changing my mind.”
“We both know you still have feelings for me. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“Yes, that I need to have my head examined.”
“So, you admit you feel something.” He seized on her admission with the quickness of a cat.
“Something, yes, but I don’t know what that is. Nostalgia, probably.”
“That’s not nostalgia. You can deny your feelings all you want, but we both know they’re real, and they’re there. Damn it, Nina, how much longer are you going to punish me? I fucked up, I admit it, but it’s been ten years. I didn’t know Kelly hated you and slept with your first boyfriend.”
She stepped away from him. “I’m not trying to hurt you. The decisions I make have nothing to do with you. They’re for me. Do you know how many people have told me to give you another chance? He’s a good guy, they say, while you fly in women from all over, like a sultan with a harem.
“He made a mistake, they say. But they didn’t have their heart ripped out.” Her voice shook. “It’s over. Accept it. Life would be so much easier for both of us if you do.” She flashed her ring. “My life is with Andy.”
“No.” The words were spoken through clenched teeth, sounding more like a snarl than a simple statement.
“I’m wearing his—”
“No!” His voice dropped sharp and hard, like a judge’s gavel. “I will never accept that.”
Nina took a quivering breath and spoke in a calmer voice. “I’m wearing his ring, Reese.” Maybe if she kept saying the words, he’d finally accept them.
He briefly closed his eyes and then reopened them. “Take it off.”
“I’m not doing this with you. I want you out of my house. Now.” She jabbed a finger toward the door.
“I’m not leaving until I change your mind.”
“Then I’ll call security and have you kicked out.”
“You won’t do that.”
She wouldn’t, but she desperately wanted him to believe that she would.
They faced off against each other in the silence. Then Reese took her palm and pressed it to his lips. He sighed heavily, his shoulders dropping with the weight of emotion.
“You loved me once, you can love me again,” he said softly.
With a little shiver, Nina dropped her gaze to the floor. The softness of his lips brought back so many memories. She should tug away, but she couldn’t move. This was Reese, the man her younger self had thought she’d marry, grow old with, raise a family with.
Her greatest love. Her biggest mistake.
She shouldn’t have allowed him to come in. Being alone with him conjured too many memories. More than friendly thoughts. Wild, dirty thoughts about his lips and hands and what he could do with them.
Silence strained the air between them, and she couldn’t look at him. Not only because of what she would see in his eyes but what he would see in hers.
Deeper Than Love (Brooks Family Book 6) Page 7