Chapter Five

Nic

NIC had spent all day Saturday holed up in his office across the Sound in Seattle, and then he’d stayed in his office’s attached mini suite overnight. Would Percy say he was hiding away in complete avoidance? Not only would his assistant do so, but he had taken up nearly an hour of Nic’s time with his conjectures about Nic’s motivations.

Truth be told, Percy wasn’t far off, but it was the anxiety gnawing at him that had kept him working more than anything else. His father and mother coming to his home for brunch this morning made his jaw clench and his stomach queasy, so eating was the last thing on his mind.

He straightened his deep plum tie and double-checked the matching cufflinks as he jogged up the steps to his front door. As he assessed the mansion’s exterior, he blew out a hard breath. So far, so good. As expected, Sasha had cleared the debris from the front yard and removed the lights around all the windows. For the first time, Nic’s nerves began to settle. Maybe he would feel a little better if he’d arrived home early enough to inspect the house before he expected his parents, but a delay at the helipad had made that impossible.

As he reached the door, a long town car pulled around the drive, and Nic braced himself for a hellish morning. He’d prepared something of a brief on how he’d driven Leighton Price back into high profitability this quarter and turned the company around. Okay, so that was a bit of a stretch, and he had a lot of work ahead to get even close to that goal, but his parents didn’t need to know the details right now. It would only become a problem if he couldn’t get enough new contracts in time to meet his father’s ultimatum.

When the driver assisted them from their car, their familiar austere faces told him nothing he said would satisfy them. His mother Evelyn’s dark eyes glanced over the house, her lips pinching tightly together. He opened the front door to invite them inside, and she avoided eye contact, passing a bejeweled hand over her perfectly coiffed, salon-bottled brunette hair as she pushed by him with his father following right behind.

“It’s late to have no decorations up, don’t you think, Nicolas?”

His teeth would surely crack with the amount of pressure he applied to them a moment before he answered. “Yes, Mother, a bit late, but I’ve been away on business. I have a decorator scheduled for tomorrow.”

Neither of them looked his way as they handed their outerwear to him as if he were a servant. No, rather like a coatrack.

“Seems like the children could benefit from a well-run household.”

“It’s handled, Mother.” Anything further he would have said died in his throat as they passed through the foyer and caught sight of the den. Dear mother of God.

His father spun to face him. “What the hell is this?”

Speechless, Nic stared at what appeared to be the aftermath of a tornado. Bottles and dishes littered the tables and carpet. At least a dozen pizza boxes were scattered around the furniture with what appeared to be an entire pizza completely flipped facedown on the carpet with a halo of splattered sauce. Board game pieces spread haphazardly around the room. If there’d been booze, underwear, and cigarette butts, Nic might have guessed his home had been invaded by a motorcycle club. But no. This was the work of unruly, unsupervised teens.

His skin grew icy, and his muscles tightened as he turned to face his parents. Of course. Now they deigned to look at him, and he hated what he saw in their eyes. As if on cue, they both pivoted and headed toward the coat closet where Nic had placed their belongings.

“Seems you’re unprepared for company,” his father said. “Josephine would be disgusted with how you’re raising her children.”

Without any further words, they walked out the door, leaving that parting shot to cleave into Nic’s gut. He stumbled back against the wall and fought to catch his breath. No matter how he tried to harden himself, they always knew how to flay him open, but maybe knowing how to eviscerate adversaries was how his father had become such a successful businessman. What Nic would never understand was how he’d become a target of his own flesh and blood.

He strode into the middle of the den and made a slow spin. Yes, the pitiful Christmas tree was gone. All the popcorn was gone. The decorations on the walls were gone. Obviously, Sasha had fulfilled his promise to remove the disruptions to Nic’s home. As much as he wanted to point fingers at the manny for the mess, he really couldn’t. Technically, Sasha wasn’t on duty over the weekend. Even asking him to remove the decorations had been outside of the hours Nic required.

What to do about this mess, though? He’d been having trouble controlling the kids lately, but this was too much. As painful to admit as it was, his father had been right. He needed to do right by his sister and get the kids proper care, discipline, and education. Raising them himself wasn’t going to give them that.

Swiping a hand down his face, Nic hit the first contact on his cell.

“Hey, Percy. Where are you, and what are you doing right now?” He paced as he listened to his friend’s answer. “Good. Meet me in the den when you’re done, please.”

Nic hurried down the hall and across the way to the kitchen to let the chef know brunch was off, but instead of the catering team, he found another disaster area in the kitchen and a note left on the island countertop. They’d already left. Unwilling to deal with the mess and unable to locate a responsible adult, the chef and his team had abandoned the job.

Fuck.

His insides were so twisted up, he couldn’t even tell what he was feeling. Was this cold, sick feeling anger? Was it despair? Maybe a combination. Heading back to the den to meet Percy, he didn’t notice Sasha at first. Nic’s head jerked up just in time to stop short of running right into the man’s muscular back and firm, round backside.

He couldn’t resist a quick dip of his gaze. Sasha’s jogging pants hung low around slim hips, and Nic’s eyes feasted on the upper curve of flesh revealed there. The urge to grip those globes while he pounded his hips against that tight flesh drove away the chill that had settled in Nic’s chest.

Forcing his eyes up a second before Sasha turned around was fortuitous on one hand and pure torture on the other because now Nic faced Sasha’s well-formed pecs, dusted with golden hair and glistening with perspiration. The formfitting tank top did nothing to hide that toned body from Nic. The scent of clean linen, evergreens, and a hint of musk filled his senses and begged him to rub his face all over that chiseled chest.

“What happened in here?” Sasha’s question brought Nic back to his senses.

“You don’t know?”

Sasha’s jaw clenched, and suddenly Nic felt like a complete ass. He hadn’t meant to accuse the man of wrongdoing, but he supposed it had sounded that way.

“I left yesterday afternoon to do some sightseeing. Spent the night on the other side of the Sound because I haven’t left the island since I arrived a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I came in through the service entrance early this morning.”

Nic sighed and ran both hands through his hair. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to pin responsibility on you.”

Something softened around Sasha’s blue eyes, turning them from harsh ice to warm summer skies. “No problem.” He glanced over his shoulder at the disaster area before turning back to Nic. “You know, this is a big flashing neon sign.”

“What do you mean?”

With a sigh, Sasha’s hands went to his hips, drawing Nic’s eyes right back to them and making his mouth water. With no light effort, Nic dragged his focus back to Sasha’s face, which now held the barely subdued smile of a man who knew he was being admired.

“You know how dogs get into the garbage and chew your shoes when you’re away from home?”

“You’re joking, right?”

“Nope. Kids act out too when they need attention.”

Well, this was some bullshit. “These kids aren’t neglected, Sasha. If they’re acting bratty, it’s because they’re overindulged and need more discipline.”

Sasha held up his hands. “I’m not trying to interfere, but I have a lot of experience with kids. If you could sit down with them and talk about this”—he gestured behind him—“and why it happened, maybe spend the day with them, I think you’d get better results than with punishment.”

A headache throbbed at the base of Nic’s skull and behind his eyes. He’d had his hands full with Leighton Price, and the last thing he needed was escalating trouble with the children. They couldn’t have picked a worse time to rebel.

Yes, Sasha seemed to have a long history of working with children on his résumé, but Nic was in no mood to have yet another heap of criticism added to the pile already on his shoulders. His parents, Percy, and his own guilty conscience were enough to deal with.

“Thank you for your concern. I’m sure we’ll handle everything just fine.” There. That was the right tone. Not too dismissive but clear on who was in charge.

Piercing blue eyes seemed to look right into Nic, and he may as well have been naked for all he hid from the Adonis in front of him. Holy fuck, what those eyes did to his insides. The urge to fidget struck him while a gentle flutter settled into his belly. It was inexplicable. Nic directed boardrooms full of powerful men. He was smooth, calm, and cultured when meeting other commanding CEOs and influential politicians. Yet this man took him back to his late teens when he’d had his first real crush on one of his professors. Ironically, it had been his math professor.

Sasha sent Nic a curt nod before heading up the stairs toward his personal suite. Damn his eyes, he couldn’t drag his gaze from that luscious backside until Sasha was no longer in sight. Of course, this would be the moment Percy showed up, the bastard.

“Get some.”

“Go to hell, Percy.”

“Holy shit. What the fuck happened here?” Percy weaved through the carnage in the den, pivoting his head to survey the damages. Then he looked back at Nic. “Never mind. Not like someone would break in, vandalize, and leave without stealing anything. All while the staff were home in their respective rooms. Kind of obvious who that leaves.”

“Yeah.” Nic entered the den, swept aside an empty chip bag and pizza box, and sat on one of the sofas. The arm was sticky where some mystery gunk had been wiped on the fabric. “They’ve never gone this far. It’s ten times worse because it ruined our Sunday brunch, and my parents saw the mess. I haven’t seen Lucy or Ben yet this morning, so they must have known it would.”

“Hate to agree, but I do.” His brawny assistant flopped onto the sofa across from him and propped his feet on the coffee table. Almost noon and Percy still lounged in his plaid sleep pants and loose gray T-shirt the color of his eyes. His dark hair and somewhat pale skin made him look like a vampire on a good day, but even more so against the light cream sofa. Now, he shoved that dark hair back from his creased brow, a frown on his face. “So what will you do about this?”

“Well, first things first. They need to clean all this up. Not going to have a housekeeper wiping their asses for them.”

“Reasonable.”

Nearly a full minute passed before Nic admitted what had been developing in the back of his head the past several weeks. This incident, more than anything, had shoved it to the forefront.

“I need a favor.”

“You pay me, Nic. You don’t need to call it a favor as if I have a choice or something.”

He chuckled, and Percy grinned, the tension finally relaxing from his features.

“Whatever.” Nic balled up the chip bag next to him and tossed it at Percy’s head, but Percy dodged it with ease.

“Don’t ever try out for sports.”

“Too late. Where were you when I was away at school?” Nic cleared his throat. “Speaking of that, your newest task is to find a couple of the best boarding schools around. Not too far away. Keep it in Washington unless there’s nothing adequate here.”

Percy’s eyebrows shot up, and for the first time since Nic had known him, he was speechless. Then that tension coiled right back up in his expression, and the crease in his brow returned. He opened his mouth, but Nic already felt awful enough for considering sending the kids away to school.

“Don’t,” Nic said with a wave of his hand. “I know you want to argue. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and it’s been your voice in my head bitching at me about it the entire time.”

“But this is some serious shit, Nic.”

“I’m aware. For now, I only need the information. Believe me, I haven’t made a decision yet. I’m not going to ship them off right now, but I have to consider it might do them good. Maybe more good than sticking around here with me. What do I know about raising kids?”

“You don’t have to know everything. You don’t have to be perfect. They only need quality time and attention.”

“Yeah, see, that’s the problem. I can’t afford either of those. Hanging on to the business is taking everything right now. Maybe in a few quarters things will improve, but I’m in the middle of a battle for my seat at this company.”

“Would it be so bad to lose that battle?” Percy rose from the sofa, shaking his head. “You can do better than Leighton Price. You telling me manufacturing is your grand dream?”

“Of course it’s not, but it’s a little late to change things. I’ve invested too much to give up on it.”

Percy headed out of the den, making a sound reminiscent of a disapproving grandmother, which Nic ignored. “All right. I’m rounding the kids up to clean this shit. And I’ll get you the info. Sometime this year.”

Raising his middle finger, Nic waved his friend away. Percy’s absence didn’t resolve the turmoil in Nic’s head. He’d been groomed from a young age to take over Leighton Price. What would he do if he didn’t have that? Be a stay-at-home dad to his sister’s unruly children?

You don’t have to be perfect.

Not true. He’d always had to be perfect. When he wasn’t, his shortcomings were inevitably rubbed in his face. At work. At home. There was no escape. So what if he did get fired as CEO?

For one shining moment, relief shook Nic to his core at the image of him free of his parents’ control, free of the job he was good at but secretly despised. In the next moment, panic set in. So much of his life was out of his control, he couldn’t imagine what life would look like if he got control back. Weighing the pros and cons, it was too much risk to give up his position.

Someday—when the children were grown—they would understand.