Dreaming Of... Bali: The Man to Be Reckoned With / Nine Month Countdown / Harry St Clair: Rogue or Doctor?

She looked as though she belonged there.

Nathan swallowed at the sensual picture she presented. Her skin was slick with sweat, and the cotton of her shirt displayed the globes of her breasts to utter perfection.

His reaction was feral, instantaneous, all-consuming. His mouth dried, all the blood rushing south. Never had deprivation of oxygen to his lungs felt so good. Never had the dizziness he felt just looking at her been so pleasurable before.

He cleared his throat and she looked up. A bead of sweat dripped down the long line of her throat and disappeared into her cleavage.

Nathan fisted his hands and shoved them in his pockets. He wanted to touch her, he wanted to push her down right there on the dirt, spread her out for him and cover her body with his own. He wanted to feel his heart labor to keep up as he plunged himself inside her and pushed them both over the edge.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“I’ve been busy with the wedding preparations. Jackie’s been waiting for so long for it and she’s so excited that she’s practically useless and of course, Robert is ecstatic that you’re here. There’s a lot to do.”

“Then why didn’t you ask for my help?”

Her movements stilled. He realized with a pang that she hadn’t even considered it.

He got onto his haunches, and her gaze flew to him. “You really think hiding is the solution? Will you hide at the wedding too? Will you hide from everything that threatens to shred your damn rules? One day, you’ll be a hundred years old, Riya, and you’ll be alone and you’ll realize you didn’t live a moment of your life.”

Her mouth fell open on a gasp, and the shears clattered to the ground. She looked as though he had struck at the heart of her deepest fear. Feral satisfaction filled him.

“Get out, Nathan. This estate is not yours yet. I could dangle it over your head just as you dangled the company over mine.”

He laughed and inched closer, the challenge in her gaze playing with his self-control. “You’re becoming reckless, butterfly.”

“Maybe. Maybe I’m tired of being dictated to by you. I danced to your tunes for my company, for Robert. Now I have a new condition. Stay away from me. Or else—”

“Or else what?” he said, a fierce energy bursting into life in his veins. A hot rush of lust swamped him. “You’ll be all alone at the wedding too.”

“No, I won’t. My plan needed modification, true. And you just happened to be the one that made me realize that. I already found someone I like very much, someone I’ve known a long time. I even have a date with him tonight.”

He tugged her toward him until their noses were almost touching. Until the scent of her, dirt and sweat and something floral, infused his very bloodstream. “With whom?”

“Do you remember Maria’s son, Jose? He’s stable and nice and dependable.”

Clenching his teeth, Nathan released her, awash in burning jealousy. Because that was what it was.

The very fact that the knowledge was sweeping through him with such impact should have warned him. But he didn’t heed. He couldn’t even see past the red haze covering his vision.

That Jose would kiss that luscious mouth, that Jose would make love to her, that Jose would have her loyalty forever because she would give it all.

“No, you went for him because you think he’ll never leave you. Jose might as well be the oak tree in the estate. You’re using him. But he’ll realize one day that he’s nothing but a security blanket for you, that the reason you actually chose him is that you think he’ll never leave you. And he’ll resent you for it, even hate you for it.”

She fell against the dirt, a stark fear in her eyes. “I don’t need advice from a man who could cut his best friend out of his life. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date to get ready for.”

Nathan watched her walk away, his blood boiling in his veins.

He told himself that he had no interest in her. He just couldn’t stand by and watch her make a colossal mistake, waste her life like this anymore. If it was up to her, she would never leave this estate, never leave her mother and Robert, never experience anything.

Everything in him wanted to fight the chain of responsibility he felt for her, shackling him.

He made a quick call to his PA and then went back toward the house, intent on finding the woman who was going to marry his father.

He’d first hated her for a decade and then avoided her for the past few weeks. But it was time to talk to Jackie, high time for someone to think of Riya.

CHAPTER EIGHT (#u172e92e6-c212-52bc-ada1-3cdabcbaaed0)

TWO DAYS LATER, Riya was rooting through her closet searching for a beige, ankle-length dress she’d once bought in a small designer boutique in downtown San Francisco. It would do very well for the Travelogue Expansion Launch event.

She’d asked Jose if he would come with her after the longest evening of her life. It wasn’t Jose’s fault that she kept imagining Nathan all evening or that Nathan pervaded her every thought.

In the end, Jose had kindly and laughingly kissed her cheek. With a twinkle in his eyes, he’d told her that, as flattered as he was that she wanted something between them, there was nothing.

She heard a knock at the door and turned around.

Jackie stood at the door. Terrified was not an exaggeration to describe her expression.

Unease clamping her spine, Riya walked around the empty cardboard boxes she had brought for packing. “Jackie, what is it? Is it Robert?”

“No. Robert’s fine.” She straightened a couple of books on the chest of drawers, her hands shaking.

Her unease deepened. “Jackie?”

“I’ve been lying to you,” she said in a rush, as though the words wanted to fall away from her mouth. Her arms were locked tight against her slender frame, her words trembling.

Riya clutched the wooden footboard, anxiety filling her up. “About what?”

“About your father.”

Her entire world tilting in front of her, Riya swayed. She felt as if she were falling through a bottomless abyss and would never stop. “What do you mean?”

“He didn’t abandon you, Riya. Things had begun to go downhill for a couple of years already. But he and I...we tried to work it out for you. Nothing helped. We were just too different. One night, he said he was considering returning to India. I didn’t know how serious he was. But I panicked. If he took you, I would lose you forever. So when he went on one of his weeklong conferences, I grabbed you and I ran.

“I’m so sorry, Riya. I never intended it to be permanent. I kept telling myself I would get in touch with him. But then I realized what I had done and I was so scared he would never let you see me again...”

Tears running over her cheeks, Jackie sank to her knees.

Riya heard the hysterical laugh that fell from her mouth like an independent entity. Hurt splintered through her, as if there were a thousand shards of glass poking her insides.

Her father hadn’t given up on her. He’d never abandoned her. The biggest truth she had based her life on was a lie.

“You ruined my life, Mom. All these years, you let me think he didn’t care about me.”

“I’m sorry, Riya. I couldn’t bear to part with you then. And every time I thought of telling you, I was so afraid you’d hate me.”

Her head hurt so much, and Riya wanted to scream. “You, you, you... It’s always about you. My whole life has been about you. You were afraid to be alone, so you ran. You were afraid I would hate you, so you hid the truth from me all these years.”

Jackie clutched her hands and Riya recoiled from her, everything inside her bursting at the seams.