But.
There’s always a ‘but’ in my mind.
“At least stay with me once this weekend’s over, just for a week? We can see how it goes from there,” he says for me, not wanting to take no for an answer but encouraged by my silent nod.
There’s no real reason for me not to say yes, and every part of me is screaming it from the inside out.
But what?
But I know what.
As soon as I form the thought there’s a heavy thumping knock on the suite door, making me jump.
Nathan growls to himself and is ready to go answer the door in his birthday suit, one of his hands pumping into a fist by the time he reaches my bedroom door before we both hear it.
“Lucy? Lucy!”
The knocking grows more insistent and I feel myself starting to shiver all over from fear.
“Lucy it’s me, open up.” The voice continues, sounding more worried than angry, but it’s always so hard to tell.
Especially when I’m this frightened. Startled more than anything else.
Nathan has stopped for a moment, and reading my expression, he knows.
I mouth the words ‘my dad’, not sure what else I can do or say.
He frowns with a puzzled expression, waiting for me to tell him what I want to do, but I can’t.
I feel frozen to the spot.
“Lucy!” The voice says again, more aggressively this time.
Before Nathan can even head to his own room, I’m bundling him along.
Promising I’ll get rid of my dad somehow.
How the hell he even got here, I have no idea but know there’s only one way to find out.
“I suppose I should get some clothes on,” Nathan remarks, cocking his brow as he turns before I pull his bedroom door shut, begging him not to come out until my dad is gone.
He has a pained expression on his face, but it softens as he considers our situation, and I know he won’t make this any worse than it already is, even if it’s just for my sake.
Checking my shock of hair in the hall mirror and clutching my robe tight over my still hard chest, I answer the suite door before my dad pounds it off its hinges.
I discover there’s only one thing more exhilarating than being up close and personal with a naked Nathan Cartwright, and that’s the risk of being caught with him.
Damn, what a terrible thrill to discover at the worst possible moment.
Giddy with my newfound excitement, I swing the door open, hoping to sound and look natural.
Half-dressed and unkempt, reeking of sex in a hotel suite in the middle of the late afternoon on a Saturday.
“Dad, what are you even doing here?” I hear myself hiss at him.
Not the welcome he’s expecting, but given his blustering entrance I’m not sure how else to respond.
His hand is still up, ready to pound on the door again, but his eyes have already moved past mine, peering into the suite.
“I’m glad to see you too, sweetheart,” he jokes, puffing some air out before taking a deep breath. Looking up before he says anything else.
I know my dad well enough, and can almost hear him counting backward from ten in his own mind to stop himself from busting a valve.
“I came down after I spoke to the boss. I told him what had happened with Marie and he practically ordered me himself to come down here to keep you company.”
I feel my face falling, my jaw dropping too.
Keep me company?
“This whole thing with her hooking up with some guy and ditching you… She’s your chaperone for god’s sake,” he carries on, suddenly looking like he’s burst my secret wide open but he has one of his own.
“I laid it all out to the boss, and it’s Marie who’s been called back to the office to pick up the slack,” he says proudly. “I’ve got three days off and the clerk tells me this is a two roomed suite. We can see the rest of your book convention together and then have a day with nothing but ourselves to see the rest of the city. What do ya say to that?” he asks, beaming with pride.
I can feel my dry throat trying to swallow, my mouth a crooked smile.
My guts feeling like they’re falling through the floor.
Here he is. My dad.
He’s got his bags, a full few days off work and he’s surprised me by coming down while exacting revenge on his poor choice of chaperone, Marie.
“Oh, dad. You shouldn’t have,” I murmur, almost crying.
You really shouldn’t have.
Chapter Eighteen
Nathan
There’s no time to write any of this down, so I commit what I can to memory.
Shit like this? I couldn’t even make it up. Nobody or circumstance could be so unkind.
This is real life scenario stuff.
The real meat and potatoes I need for my next novel, not just romance. But situational drama. Stuff I guess I missed out on by not mixing in real life, human circles often enough.