Chapter Seventeen
Nathan had always enjoyed playing the part of voyeur.
This new angle, watching Tara and Nick while he was set aside, was incredible. How they each looked, glistening with exertion, their expressions when they hit that peak of passion...
It all added to the ache of not being able to interact. The thrill of anticipation. The edge he hovered on that insisted he might come the instant someone touched him.
Tara turned to face him, mischief splashed across her face. She crawled across the floor, holding his gaze, looking like a stunning feline stalking her prey. “You like this.” It was a statement.
“So, so much.” His reply came out a dry croak.
She reached him, and licked a trail up his shaft.
A low, desperate groan tore from his chest.
When she took him in her mouth, he had to summon the last of his restraint to keep from thrusting as deep as he could go.
She licked his cock, drawing circles with her tongue as she bobbed her head.
The need for release clenched in his belly and spread across every nerve ending. He didn’t know if he wanted to close his eyes and fall into Tara’s ministrations, or watch her enthusiasm.
Nick approached as well, naked and glorious like a Raphael painting brought to life. He yanked Nathan’s head back hard enough to draw a gasp, then crashed their mouths together.
Nathan couldn’t give his attention to any one feeling. Nick’s hungry kiss. Tara’s delicious sucking.
He came hard, fucking her face while Nick devoured his grunts.
Nathan’s head swam and stars danced behind his eyelids. The cloud he’d found yesterday was back, denser and more compelling.
He was vaguely aware of being unbound, and working some circulation back into his shoulders. He didn’t care about the lingering sting. The haze that encompassed his brain was incredible.
Then again, everything about this triad was pretty fucking amazing.
NATHAN HAD MISSED WAKING up here. Rolling over and knowing Tara would be in bed next to him. Spending mornings here. But at the same time, the entire arrangement gnawed at him.
Would tonight the night she put her foot down and said no more?
Moving around the house was jarring with Nick there. He and Tara already had a rhythm of their own. Somehow in less than week, he’d become as much a part of the routine as Nathan.
It was foreign, but felt right. Could he do this long term? Regardless of what Tara or Nick said, they didn’t see this as a fling anymore.
All Nathan had to do to get that part of his life back was accept one thing. But it was a big thing.
He could be a dad. Couldn’t he? Or was he saying that because he was desperate to hold onto Tara, and even Nick?
Nathan didn’t know, and that was the problem.
Tara’s cellphone chimed, and she smiled when she looked at the screen. “It’s Dad’s friend,” she whispered before answering with, “Ciao.”
The new building. More ambivalence rocketed inside Nathan. He was grateful they had a place to go, but there was so much tied to this spot.
It was just a building, though. He still had what mattered. Or, he would if he could make up his fucking mind.
Tara’s conversation flowed easily and in Italian. Her tone was pleasant and casual.
Then her smile wilted, and more Italian tumbled past her lips. He caught perchè? She was asking why. The question, combined with her scowl, was enough to tell him this call wasn’t going the way they hoped.
“But...” She trailed off with a sigh and clenched her teeth, letting a hiss escape. “Io capisco. Grazie.”
She disconnected, and let her phone clatter to the table as she dropped her face in her hands. “Fuck fuckity fuck fuck.” Her groan squeezed through her fingers with a hiss.
“Beyond not going well, what did he say?” Nathan squeezed her knee.
“He won’t lease to me.” Tara’s words were muffled. “He refused to tell me why beyond the favor doesn’t outweigh the repercussions.” She looked Nathan in the eye. “I wanted to argue from here to Hell and back, but it wouldn’t do me any good. Not with a favor like this.”
He hated the resignation in her gaze and the downturn to her voice. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Why is this such a big problem?” Nick asked. “I realize you’re already asking that, but does someone have a vendetta against you?”
Tara laughed bitterly. “The bitch who’s dating my ex-husband seems to...”
“Do you think this was her?” The same questions that Nathan had from a few days ago rushed back, feeling more like an aha moment than ever.
Nick looked between them, brow furrowed. “Why does she care where you work or live? If she’s dating your ex—a man I’ve never heard you speak kindly off—she should already think she has her prize.”
“I don’t know. I wish to Christ I did, but I don’t.” Tara tapped her fingers lightly on her phone, making it rock on the table.
“It has to do with what she was asking me at the airport,” Nathan said. “How curious she was about you not living here anymore.” But what? That missing link was just out of reach.
Tara shoved back from the table with a heavy sigh. “Does it matter? If this is her, she wins. We need a shop outside of her influence, and that either means a massive commute, or giving up this building completely.”
Neither of which was an option.
Fuck.
Chapter Eighteen
Nick sat in a cafe a few blocks from Antonio’s office. He wasn’t ready to go back to Tara’s yet. He needed to process the news.
His meeting with Antonio didn’t take long. There wasn’t a lot of time needed to say no.
There was more to the conversation than that, but not much. A bit of Antonio saying he hated to make this decision, but when it came right down to it, he couldn’t tie his company to Nick’s based on financial history.
And Nick replying that he understood, when mentally he was screaming.
Bianchi International was still licensing the product. In a year or two, Antonio would reevaluate the rest of the partnership.
Nick was running out of options. He shouldn’t have counted on this, but he didn’t have a choice. What was he going to do?
Call Fiona and give her the news. That was top on the list. He’d gloss over the severity of the situation, but she was waiting to hear the news.
“Hey.” Her tone was flat when she answered. “I was about to text you. How’d it go?”
Getting a different greeting than he expected made him stutter in his response. “Good. Or rather, the meeting was pleasant, there are options there for the future, but they passed on the partnership for now.”
“Ah.”
What was he supposed to do with that? “What are you up to? What’s up?”
“I tried to order that new hardware we talked about, and the bank is telling me we don’t have the funds,” she said in an eerily even voice.
Tension cranked through him. “We’re not making that purchase until next week.” After the next Rinslet check cleared.
“I get that, but there’s a sale today. New Year, New Deal kind of promo, that saves us a lot of money. Why don’t we have enough money for this? It’s not like I’m making a million-dollar purchase.”
He hesitated, the truth stuck in his throat. How much longer could he keep doing this? Floating them from payment to payment? Praying that the next big deal dragged them far enough into the black that he didn’t have to worry? “It’s not—” What? A big deal? Anything for her to be concerned about?
“Do you want me to guess? Because about ten minutes online, and I’ll have digested a couple years’ worth of deposits and withdrawals, and I can make up some pretty good theories.” Emotion was leaking into her words. Hurt. Irritation. Disbelief.
He’d rather have this conversation someplace other than a crowded cafe. But he was also grateful to be doing it here, and not in front of Tara and
Nathan. “We’re about one bounced check away from bankruptcy.”
Her chuckle faded into a sigh. “We can’t be. There’s no way we’re that far gone.”
“Given the snowball effect that happens with something like that, we are.”
“I can’t believe this. We’re... I knew things were tight, but I can’t believe you didn’t tell me. We’re broke?”
“Not—” How had Nick kept up the facade this long? “Yes. What was I supposed to tell you?”
“How about, Hey, this company we both own? It’s sinking faster than I can bail it out.” She was getting louder.
He knew this Fiona. He’d only talked to her a handful of times in his life, but the experience left an impression. And the most recent time was when she told him she’d hooked up with Wyatt. That was about to bite him on the ass too, wasn’t it? “I had it under control.”
“But you don’t. Especially after today. You were banking on that money more than you let on, weren’t you?” She was almost yelling now.
A few heads turned in his direction. They probably heard her too. “We’ll be fine without it.”
“Because thanks to Wyatt working his ass off, we’re still solvent.”
Nick winced. She was right. He hadn’t done anything for a couple of months. Send out a few emails. And the rest of the time he was fucking around with Tara. Not that he regretted that part of things. “He has a lot to do with it.”
“This is unbelievable. After all the shit you gave me... After everything you put me through... The names, you called me, the things you implied about my impulse control... At least what I did worked out.”
Yup. They were back on Wyatt. “And it will this time too.”
“Except I slept with a guy who could have cost us a single contract. You’re going to cost us everything.”
“And if his old employer had sued us, we would have lost it all before now.” Nick needed to stop arguing. Not because what Fiona had done was right, but because he was still wrong. “Besides, losing that contract is part of the issue. This isn’t about anything I did out of line.” Shut up now.
“But his company didn’t sue us, because he bailed us out. And didn’t do anything out of line? This isn’t about the money, Nick. It’s about the fact that you made me feel like shit for my mistake, when you’ve been lying about solvency for our entire fucking company.”
He was pretty sure anyone within a ten-foot radius heard her as clearly as he did. “I’ve got it under control.”
“Did you believe me when I told you that?”
“No. But I should have.”
“No, you shouldn’t have. I was lying, just like you are.”
Now she was arguing both sides, and that wasn’t fair. “Are you pissed because I didn’t like the idea of Wyatt, or because I’m okay with it now?”
“I’m furious because you didn’t warn me we were about to lose everything. If you’d given me a heads-up, we could have worked different angles, or brainstormed. Changed our priorities. Something. Anything. Is that even an option now?”
“It has to be.”
“Are you sure? Because I’m not really in the mood to brainstorm with you.”
“You’re being childish.” He bit back a hiss the instant the words passed his lips. He’d not only taken this a few steps too far, he’d jumped over the line and pissed on it to obliterate it from existence. What he needed to do was ask for help.
“Fuck you.” Fiona disconnected.
So much for that.
TARA WAS DRAINED. SHE could flip a coin, roll the dice, or draw a random card from the deck. It didn’t matter—none of the options were appealing.
And that indecision was bad enough without thinking about Nathan. He’d been here despite her initial insistence he not be, and she’d wanted him here.
She’d also been right that it was going to be impossible to ask him to leave if he decided he wasn’t interested in being part of her child’s life. That was an obstacle she could deal with later.
Nick had been quiet since he got back from his meeting with Antonio. She understood the deal didn’t go through, but he was somber and contained even for him. Especially based on recent him.
“I’ll focus on me after this,” He insisted. “I have a month or two to discover and implement something. You need to be filming this week.” He paced the length of the living room. It would be a stunning sight if the combined tension of the three of them didn’t buzz through the room like the air before an electrical storm.
She didn’t blame him for wanting to focus on their problem. She’d rather solve someone else’s issues too. Those might have answers.
“Maybe if we understood what Matilde’s deal was...” Nathan sat on the couch next to Tara. There was no cuddling today. They shared a laptop screen to scour for recording alternatives.
And talking about her ex’s girlfriend was the last thing she wanted to be doing. Except maybe punching said woman in the face. It wouldn’t solve anything, but it would make Tara feel better. “Maybe she doesn’t like that I’m happy without the man of her dreams. Or he’s fucking around on her too, and she doesn’t want to admit it. Do we need to understand more than she’s a twat? ”
“Wait... Give me more details about what happened at the airport,” Nick said.
Nathan’s tension coiled through the arm pressed against Tara’s. “There’s nothing else to say. She was prodding me for information about if Tara was moving. Each time I brushed her off, she tried again. Insisting it made sense to sell. To go someplace else.”
Inspiration tickled Tara’s thoughts, and she grasped for it and the laptop. She hovered her fingers over the keys. What was she thinking? Real estate sales. She started her search.
“What are you looking for?”
She only half-registered Nick’s question as her fingers alternated between keyboard and mouse. There were so many more local property sales than she’d realized. Seventy percent of her block and the surrounding ones.
“Properties purchased in the area recently,” Nathan said. “And who bought them.”
Tara was building a picture in her head, but it was laden with assumption and conspiracy theory. “Permits issued. Zoning laws changed.”
“Anything that indicates a single entity interested in the area.” Understanding filled Nick’s voice.
“Because if someone is buying everyone out, for whatever reason, Tara’s one of those property owners who won’t be swayed by a simple offer of money.” Nathan got it too.
Tara saw one other reason. “Also that bitch has it in for me.”
“Also that.” Nathan’s laugh was dry.
Another memory clicked in Tara’s mind. Someone had offered to buy her place a couple of years ago. They approached her right as she was leaving Marco. She was so close to giving up on so much, she would have sold if she hadn’t had Nathans’ support.
The reminder clenched like a fist around her heart. She squeezed his leg. He’d been here for her through so much. It would feel wrong to ask him for just one more thing, if it were anything else. But she wouldn’t budge on her child’s life and happiness.
He covered her fingers and squeezed back, meeting her gaze. Whether he had any idea what was in her head or not, he was here for her right now. She knew that without question.
Each of them grabbed their computers, and for the next several hours, they sifted through local zoning, building permits, and purchases.
That same corporation’s name was attached to all but one of the purchases made nearby in the last couple of years.
“Wait. Give me that company name again.” Nick hunched over his laptop, focused on the screen.
Tara spelled the Italian name for him.
Keys clacked in the otherwise silent room.
“Got it,” Nick said a few minutes later. “It takes following a few threads, but they’re owned by a US shell company. That traces back to...” More typing. The furrows in his brow grew deeper the longer he worked. “Compag
no Nautilo.”
Tara’s gut soured and she clenched her fists. “Of course it all points there.”
“Why?” Nick met her gaze.
“Marco’s family. That’s their real estate empire.”
Nathan let out a long, slow breath. “He started dating Matilde right before the two of you divorced. She was already on the city council.”
Marco was a manipulative asshole, but he hadn’t been with the same woman for two years just to get a series of zoning laws changed.
“It’s kind of comic book villain,” Nick said. “But it also makes a lot of sense.”
Tara wasn’t surprised at all. “We’re talking about the man who put an end to our open relationship, because cheating was a bigger turn on than permission. He smeared me to the media when he was the one fucking around. Marco embodies fictional bad guy.”
Nathan leaned back against the sofa cushions and stretched. “So, he dates the head of the city council to get her to approve a series of sales, permits, and rezoning requests for his family’s company. Why not just buy it all outright? Why jump through all the weird hoops?”
“It’s a historical district.” Tara was grasping for answers for this ludicrous theory. They were easier to find than she expected. “A lot of these properties have certain rules that are supposed to be met.”
“But why here?” Nick asked. “They could go any number of places and not have to manipulate the system.”
That was the part Tara hadn’t figured out yet. What was special about this spot?
Nathan groaned as he rolled his neck. “There’s something here. There are too many pieces for it to be a coincidence.”
“You should email what’s-her-name... Matilde? See how she feels about being used like this.” Nick pushed his laptop away too.
Tara didn’t blame them. They’d been going for hours. They needed a break. “She’s not going to care if she’s in on it.”
Nick shrugged. “Then telling her doesn’t make things worse.”
Beauty Awakened Page 12
