Fifth Avenue Devil

Chapter 10

Ten

Annalise

T he next morning, I'm leaning on the balcony of the boat, lost in thought. We're no longer just in the middle of the ocean. I see the dark outline of land ahead of us. But my thoughts are anywhere but here.

Shame fills me, coursing through my body. I hear my mother's voice so clearly.

You let a man put his fingers inside you? Only sluts do that.

I don't have to actually talk to my mom to know exactly what she would say. But is what she’d say correct? Did Nate do something naughty and forbidden?

It felt good. When he was touching me, it felt like I was on fire, being eaten alive by flames. And yet I wanted more.

But is that feeling... wrong?

My mom would definitely say yes. But my heart wants to feel that taboo heat again.

Okay, maybe that is coming from somewhere lower in my body, not my heart.

"We're going to dock in twenty minutes."

My whole body tenses. I turn around and there Nate is, looking tempting in his khakis and white button up. His dark hair is unstyled and shoved back. A golden vee of skin and dusky chest hair peek at me from where his shirt is unbuttoned. He's casual here. But not exactly relaxed.

He has that same hungry look in his eyes that he had last night before he... touched me. I gulp.

Is it bad that I'm turned on just by the desire burning in his eyes?

"I wasn't informed of any stops," I say, just to have something to say to him. The words sound foolish.

His eyebrows rise. "This is me, informing you."

"Oh." I can feel blood rushing to my cheeks. The damn things always give any kind of embarrassment away.

Nate walks to the balcony, looking out. "About last night?—"

Oh my god. Of course he would bring up how I ran out of the room. He's so irritating that I can't even let him finish.

"Can we not talk about that?" I grit out.

He hesitates, then shakes his head. "I think we'd better clear the air, Annalise. First off, I didn't know you are a virgin."

I sniff, unable to even look at him. "Was. I was a virgin."

Nate does a double take. Then he reaches out to me, turning my body so I have to face him.

"You're still a virgin," he says, searching my face. "Anybody that tells you otherwise is crazy. Also, in case you haven't heard, virginity is a really outmoded concept. If it's really important to you, fine. But your value doesn't increase or decrease just because you've had sex."

I drop my gaze. My entire body burns with shame. How can he be so casual about sex?

Before I can even think it over, the words are already coming out of my mouth. "If that's how much you care about sex, I'm glad that I haven't fallen under your spell. I only want to share a bed with someone that thinks sex is a big deal."

Nate grips my upper arms and looks at me intently. "Some sex is a big deal. Some sex is casual. I think you will come to see that when you're more—" He pauses, searching for the right words.

"Old and wise, like you?" I spit out.

He looks amused. "Emotionally mature. Listen to me, Annalise. I don't want to fight about this. I don't want you to run away from me. Can you just take me at my word?"

His face holds no hint of deception. If I had to pin his plea down, I would call it earnest. My defenses don't know how to handle that approach. No sarcasm, no hint of dark humor?

Gulp.

I slowly nod and Nate eases his grip on my arms. "Good. Come downstairs. Let's get ready to disembark."

Half an hour later, I am walking on to the sandy beach of an immense coastal estate. His mansion has a weathered Cape Cod cottage quality to it, but it is immense. Only a short walk up the decidedly private beach and we're at the front door. I turn and cast my gaze back to the rolling sea, the miles of sandy beach, and the untouched greenery. This? This is actually the first display of wealth that Nate has shown me that is somewhat impressive.

Okay, very impressive.

We are greeted at the doorway by the starched and polished staff. As we head inside the beachside mansion, several younger staff members hurry outside. Going to the yacht, if I had to guess.

I'm taken off to my room by a maid, who tells me that my clothing will be transferred here shortly. In the meantime, I might avail myself of a swimsuit and a cover up. In the large walk-in closet are racks upon racks of swimsuits and a ton of white coverups. The maid says that Nate usually likes to go to the beach right away, so I should get ready.

After sifting through the bathing suits, I find one that suits me. It's a shiny gold one-piece, low cut and nearly backless. I grab a long, loose tunic and a pair of gold sandals. Everything is my size, which is amazing. With my very short torso and extremely petite waist, I am hard pressed to find bathing suits that fit me properly.

By the time I'm changed and head downstairs, I am told that I can find Nate on the beach. So I head out, appreciating the sunny weather. It's the height of summer right now, so it's almost ninety degrees. I'll soon need sunscreen, I remind myself.

Nate stands by two surfboards, stripped bare to his waist. His ass and legs are perfectly defined in a tight Lycra wetsuit. He picks up a paddle as he glances back, catching sight of me.

He grins, although I can't see what's in his eyes because he wears sunglasses. "Finally," he says. "I thought I was going to grow roots waiting for you."

I sidle up beside him, surveying the surf boards. "No one told me to hurry. What are these?"

Nate's grin widens. "Paddle boards."

I scrunch my face up. "I hope they're not for us. Because I don't know how to do that."

"Relax. This first time, we'll just paddle out and sit on the boards. You're a paddle board virgin, so I'll take things slow. A little further each time you ride."

I can't help but feel that he's talking about more than the paddle boards. But he hands me a wetsuit, quickly moving on.

"Come on," he urges me. "I'll carry your board to the water for you. Then you can hold onto the board for balance."

Nate heads to the water, leaving me to follow behind. I feel ridiculous, like a fish that has ended up on dry land, gasping for air and quickly dying. But I don't want Nate to see my insecurity, so I hustle after him.

Even in my wetsuit, the water is cold when I wade in. I stop just a few steps in, waiting for my body to acclimate. Nate doesn't stop, yelling over his shoulder. "Come on! Get your whole body wet at once."

He sets my board down, letting it drift with the waves. While I hurry deeper, trying to catch it, Nate puts his arms in his wetsuit and zips it up.

"This water is freezing!" I complain.

"Let's go a few feet further and then we can sit on our boards."

He strides out, assuming I will follow. I take a deep breath and steel myself. Then I plunge forward, heading into waist-deep water. Nate turns around and grabs the nose of my board.

"Go ahead and climb on. I'll hold it." He smirks. "I am a gentleman, after all."

Rolling my eyes, I scramble onto the board. Nate hands me a paddle he unstraps from his board, then lets me go. To my surprise, I am not immediately swept out to sea. Instead, I float next to him as he masterfully climbs on his board, producing his paddle with a flourish.

"See? That was painless."

"It would have been harder if you hadn't held the board for me," I admit.

He dips his paddle in the water. "Let's paddle a bit. I don't want you to freeze to death."

I dip my paddle in the water, testing it out. "My mother would absolutely have a stroke if she found out that I was here right now."

Nate looks back at me. "Your mother knows where you are. Who do you think tipped me off to your presence at the bachelorette auction?"

"Wait, she called you and told you? You probably only had about twenty minutes to rush right over. That sounds pretty desperate on your part."

I should feel a sense of betrayal over my mom’s actions. But I’m too flattered by Nate’s interest to feel my mom’s claws. I have no idea why Nate is so interested in me. I haven’t done anything important or interesting in my life. Yet Nate seems to find bickering with me fascinating .

He pauses, then raises his sunglasses a few inches. "Your mom is next-level crazy. I can tell why you are the way you are, coming from a house where she was in charge. She invited me to the auction days ago, all sweet talk to butter me up."

I gape at him. "Wait... you knew that far in advance? Mom told me that a girl dropped out at the last minute!"

"Your name was in the pamphlet that the auctioneers handed out. Seems like your mom planned for you to be there as a bachelorette.”

"That... absolute... cow!" My jaw hardens. I paddle the board furiously for a few minutes, steaming about my mom's deception.

All this time I thought I was defying my mother and sneaking around with Nate Fordham. But it turns out that my mother knows everything. She orchestrated it! The fact fills me with a blinding fury.

"Anna! Slow down!" Nate calls.

I stop paddling and look back. I blink a couple of times, searching the shore for the house. In just a few minutes, I have paddled far enough that the mansion is a tiny gray dot at the edge of my vision.

My chest is also heaving from the exertion. Whoops.

I paddle back to Nate more calmly.

"Sorry. I just... I didn't know that my mom set me up. She knows I don't like crowds or being on stage in front of people."

" I would have told you sooner, but I didn’t know you were going to be ambushed. I thought you were a willing participant.”

I shake my head. " There's nothing that you could have done. It's a totally Monique Gellar thing to do to trick me to go on a date with someone she considers an appropriate match." The last two words drip with sarcasm. "My mom is obsessed with me marrying someone from old money and giving up the CEO position to be a happy little wifey. It's gross."

Nate is quiet for a long second. Tension blooms in the space between us, nearly palpable.

"I'm not interested in a wife, Annalise. I'm not even looking for love. In fact, I would say I'm pretty anti-love."

I hope Nate can't see my face turning red. "I don't expect anything like that from you. Just so we're clear, I'm not interested in love, marriage, or even dating. I have enough to worry about with Gellar Industries right now. My company is the only relationship I'm interested in right now."

He sits there, his expression impassive. "So we are on the same page."

"About dating? Yes. About everything else..."

"Annalise." His voice sounds tight. "I keep telling you. I already won the merger. This little weekend getaway is just supposed to help you open up to me. Things are going to change for your company as soon as we touch down in New York City. I'm—" He sucks a breath in. "When it comes to running a company, I'm a fucking genius. If you only agree to let me help you, tutor you, you could learn the basics of being a CEO from me."

His words are only a little surprising. I had been expecting him to make a gambit to seal the deal between our companies.

But the tutoring stuff... I didn't see that coming. Is it terrible that I desperately want someone to tell me how to play the CEO game? Maybe...

I tilt my head. "What if I say no?"

"Then I'll spend the next month leveraging the board to fire you and elect me as CEO. I'm not interested in the role, but I'll take it if I'm forced to. The question is, will you make me?"

I swipe my lips, tasting salt water. This is not a position I want to be in. But when Nate puts the question to me like that... I'm going to lean toward having him as a tutor.

Setting my paddle down, I cross my arms and pin him with a look.

"One month. You tutor me. I make the merger easier for you."

And I can stick it to my mom in the process.

"Oh, this is a negotiation?" He barks a laugh. "Six months. You make the merger easy. You warm my bed. And we move the company to my office. Yours are... not nearly as nice as ours."

"Six months! No way. And we definitely don't move. One month, final offer."

He gives me a tiny smile. "Two months of tutoring, in the office and in bed. Someone needs to teach you the ropes. And moving is a deal breaker."

Show me the ropes? What could that mean?

"Nate—"

"Kitten." He takes off his sunglasses. "Don't deny yourself. You want what I have to offer. So just say yes."

My heart is trying to beat its way out of my chest. He's right. I do want his tutoring... both kinds. What's holding me back?

When I speak, my voice sounds faint. " Yes ."

I don't know if I'll regret this, but there is only one way to find out.