I want You Deeper

Nicholas squinted at the clock next to his bed. Six twenty-two a. m. Why was he awake?

It wasn’t because he’d turned in early, that was for sure. The

bachelor party had gone until well after one a. m. Maybe later. Nicholas had headed to bed around the time one of the groomsmen suggested leaving Nate’s suite to hit the town. He figured the rest of the wedding party would be sleeping until at least ten.

But Nicholas was definitely up.

After a quick shower, Nicholas got dressed and headed down to the lobby. He told himself he was just grabbing some coffee, maybe a muffin. But, deep down, he was hoping to run into Charlie.

Sure enough, she was seated at a table in the dining area next to the breakfast buffet, sipping from a paper cup and staring down at her phone. There was no denying he’d come down here to see her at that point. His heart rate immediately sped up at the sight of her.

But first-coffee.

She didn’t even look up as he veered left and grabbed a cup from the stack next to the coffee dispenser. He quickly loaded sweetener and creamer into it, grabbed a lid, and headed straight for Charlie’s table. It didn’t occur to him until he stood over her that maybe he shouldn’t assume she’d want him to sit with her.

“Hi,” he said as she looked up at him.

They hadn’t spoken last night after things had gotten weird between them. He’d admittedly been a little too defensive over her mention that maybe he should talk to his mom about everything. It was something he immediately regretted when he saw her expression harden slightly and felt an imaginary wall go up between them.

“May I sit down?” he asked with as much humility as he could muster. At the same time, he gauged her expression, looking for signs that she was mad at him. She was one hundred percent unreadable.

“Sure.” She shrugged and returned her attention to her phone. She lifted her coffee cup and sipped.

He pulled his chair back, took a deep breath, and started speaking as he took his seat. “I wanted to apologize. I was rude. I guess I just get a little… weird where my mother is concerned. I know I have some issues I need to address. You’re right about that.”

Now that he’d blurted all that out in one big burst, he decided it was time to be quiet and let her speak. He found himself holding his breath while waiting for her response.

Weird how much it bothered him to think she might be mad at him.

She set her phone down and looked at him. “I get it. I was upset about high school friends, remember? That was silly compared to this. This is family.”

Taking a deep breath, Nicholas nodded. He’d been pretty hard on himself over this, but he loved his mother. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, despite the fact that her behavior continually hurt him.

“She means well,” Nicholas finally said after taking a long sip of his coffee. He needed caffeine for this. “My parents divorced when I was in middle school. It was kind of a cliche.” He laughed. “My dad was having an affair with one of his co-workers-a woman who had befriended my mom. The whole thing was ugly, but my mom got a pretty hefty divorce settlement out of it. She turned the pressure on us.”

“Pressure?” Charlie tilted her head, eyeing him curiously.

“She’d set up this image of us as the perfect family. We lived in the perfect house in the perfect gated community and her marriage was, of course, perfect. When all that fell apart, some of her friends wanted nothing more to do with her. To try to win them back, and make new friends, she put her focus on her perfect kids. Only we weren’t perfect. Still aren’t.”

“You seem pretty perfect to me.” When he didn’t respond right away, she seemed embarrassed by what she’d just said. She looked down at her coffee cup and tried again. “I just meant that you seem to have plenty for your mom to be proud of, right? Successful company, perfect house and belongings, and all that. I’d be proud of you if you were my son.”

It was just a sentence, but he felt the impact throughout his body. He couldn’t have imagined just how powerful such a simple statement could be, actually.

“Thank you.” He coughed to cover up the emotion that had come through in his voice. “Anyway, I know I need to confront her on this, but I think getting through this weekend is top priority. Then I can have a talk with her about her meddling.”

Charlie nodded slowly while listening to him talk. It felt like she was assessing him, maybe even seeing him in an all-new light. He could respect that. After last weekend, he’d seen her differently, too. Instead of merely being the cool, well-put-together, stoic professional he’d met in Justin’s office, she’d shown herself to be vulnerable.

And it was that vulnerable side that had deepened his feelings for her.

Maybe showing his vulnerable side would deepen her feelings for him.

“Nicky!”

Nicholas winced at the sound of the voice behind him. Only his family called him Nicky, mostly because they were the only ones to keep calling him that when he’d asked, repeatedly, for them not to. In this case, though, the voice was soon-to-be-family. It was the bride, Elizabeth, and when he turned to look in her direction, he saw she had three of her bridesmaids with her.

“Your brother isn’t anywhere around here, is he?” Elizabeth asked as she neared the table. Two of the bridesmaids headed off for coffee, but Caroline, the one his mother had said was his “perfect mate,” stayed by Elizabeth’s side.

“He’s sleeping in, I’m sure. Late night.”

Nicholas picked up his coffee cup and took a sip, even though there was barely any liquid left in it. He hoped she’d get the idea to go grab her own coffee and leave him and Charlie alone here.

“I hope you made him behave.” Elizabeth gave him a teasing smile, but he knew she was more serious than she’d show.

“I did my best. It was pretty much a boring night.”

That wasn’t one hundred percent true. Not if they were referring specifically to Nate. Nicholas had been bored, sure, but she wasn’t all that concerned about what Nicholas had done last night. Elizabeth wanted to know about her fiance.

The image running through his mind was of Nate flirting with some woman they’d met at the hotel bar. The woman had somehow ended up in Nate’s lap, at which point Nicholas and the other groomsmen had gently pulled her away. Nate had been drinking. Otherwise, Nicholas was sure he wouldn’t have been nearly that flirtatious. He was starting to think Charlie had the right idea in avoiding alcohol.

“Good.” Elizabeth nodded. “It’s not like we can see each other anyway. We just came down to get some coffee. We’re getting our makeup done if you want to come hang out, Charlie.”

Nicholas looked over at Charlie, hiding the amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth. He could hang her out to dry here, but he wouldn’t do that. Instead, he’d help her out.

“She wanted to see Danielle Steel’s house,” he blurted.

Charlie’s eyes widened. He couldn’t tell from it whether she saw that as a good or bad thing.

“The author?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes. I figured I’d take her through Billionaire’s Row,” Nicholas said without taking his eyes off Charlie. She seemed to be fighting back a smile.

“You’ll love it!” Caroline gushed. “My mom’s best friend lives on Lyon Street in one of those gigantic mansions. I would love to live there.”

“You will,” Elizabeth told her. “You’re going to marry a tech billionaire and be right there with Larry Ellison and…well, Danielle Steel, apparently.”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“If you want to see a thirty-five-million-dollar house, I have you covered,” Nicholas said. “Are you ready to go?”

Charlie’s eyes widened even more. “Now?”

“I have to be at the church at noon. I figure that will give us time to get back here and change before we go.”

He realized he was making it sound as though changing was something they would do together. Not a stretch if they really were engaged, although his future sister-in-law may be well aware that the two of them were staying in separate rooms. He wasn’t sure. But it couldn’t hurt to make them sound coupled up.

“Let’s go.” Charlie pushed her chair back and stood, grabbing her phone and coffee cup. “I’m going to get a refill. I’ll catch up with you in a second.”

Elizabeth waited until Charlie was out of earshot to step closer and whisper, “We like her.”

By then, the other bridesmaids had joined them, and two nodded in agreement. The other looked bored. Caroline just stared at him, seemingly studying his reaction. He wondered if she suspected that he and Charlie weren’t really a couple for some reason.

Nah. There was no way. He was just being paranoid.

“Thanks,” Nicholas said as he stepped away from them to follow

Charlie out the door. “I’ll see you guys at the altar.”

Caroline still stood there, watching them, as Elizabeth called out her goodbyes and the group turned to head back to the elevator. Weird.

“Did you notice something about that Caroline person?” Nicholas asked while they waited for the valet to pull his car around.

“The one your mom wants to fix you up with, you mean?” Charlie added a teasing smile to that question, which lessened the impact a little. He smiled in response. “She stares at us. I noticed.”

“Weird, huh? It’s almost as if she’s onto us.”

Charlie stared at him, her lips parted slightly, as though she was preparing to say something. But before she could speak, his car appeared in front of them, interrupting the conversation.

That was fine with Nicholas. The last thing he wanted was to talk about Caroline, his mom, the wedding, or anything else. He was here to enjoy spending time with Charlie while he could.