Chapter Nine
Nic
HE’D only made it three days before his quest to avoid Sasha crashed and burned. He should have known Sasha’s work with the kids would eventually necessitate the proximity, but today’s reason had been a surprise because they rarely needed Nic for homework help. However, Sasha had brought Ben to his office to enlist him for a family tree project, which is how he’d ended up with Sasha and Ben, standing around the dining room table where an enormous poster board and stack of construction paper lay. Once Sasha got them started, Nic with the names and Ben with the tree leaves, the quiet became unnerving and let him focus too much on the man across the table from him.
Normally, Sasha wouldn’t have been around while the rest of the family had Sunday brunch with Nicolas Senior and Evelyn Price, but Nic’s parents hadn’t even bothered canceling personally. They’d had one of their assistants leave a curt voicemail Saturday afternoon informing Nic they wouldn’t be available until the Christmas party they hosted at their own estate. Their disapproval of him couldn’t have been any clearer.
“You okay?” The warm brush of Sasha’s hand along Nic’s forearm made goose bumps rise in its wake. His eyes met and held Sasha’s for a few moments too long to be considered casual. He couldn’t help himself. Sasha’s eyes were magnetic and had their own gravity. Looking into those bright blues plucked a cord that connected to some forgotten place buried deep inside Nic, and that strum of sensation felt so damned good.
“I’m fine.” As much as he wanted to swim in the feelings Sasha brought out in him, it wasn’t helping his decision to curb his attraction to him—even though his head went pleasantly fuzzy at Sasha’s concern. In the past, only Percy had been able to tell when Nic was distressed, and Percy had known him for years. He turned his attention back to Ben’s project. He’d nearly finished drawing the diagram of the family lineage, going back a few generations, when Sasha leaned closer to read it.
“Ben, your ancestry looks like it would have papers from a breed association,” Sasha said.
His nephew’s snorting laughter turned into outright guffaws. Nic couldn’t have predicted he’d ever use the word guffaw in his life, but Ben hadn’t laughed this hard in years.
“Hey, why’s that so funny?” he asked.
Ben straightened from where he hovered over the construction paper on the table. “I pictured Grandmother and Grandfather on leashes being paraded around a ring and posed for the judges.”
Just like that, the image flashed in his head, and he had to laugh too. “Thanks a lot. I’m never going to keep a straight face when I look at them again.”
While Nic had filled out all the names and drawn a diagram of the Price family’s most recent ancestry, Ben had almost finished cutting out multicolored leaves. Sasha stood over the poster board and used watercolor markers to create a large tree, with branches widespread, in the center of the poster board and began filling in details and shading. The strokes bold and precise and colors flawlessly blended, the poster could have been an art piece.
“Wow, Sasha.” Staring at the tree, Ben stopped his scissors halfway around the edge of a leaf cutout. “You’re an artist?”
Sasha paused and lifted his head to shoot a surprised look at Ben. “Uh, no. It’s only kind of a hobby—drawing, painting, crafts.”
Nic slid over and stood next to Sasha for a better view, trying to ignore the phantom heat from Sasha’s muscular body. “This is amazing, Sasha. I can’t believe you did this in just a few minutes.”
Sasha ducked his head but failed to hide his flushed cheeks as he fanned the poster board to help dry the painting. The unexpected bout of shyness hooked Nic in the gut. Had no one noticed and complimented his artwork before? Before Nic could think twice, he slid his hand to the small of Sasha’s back, the urge to soothe too strong to deny. The man was a beacon of sweet and hot at the same time, always ostensibly lighthearted, but something melancholy took over when he thought no one was watching.
“It really is incredible. I’d love to have half your talent.”
“Thank you.” Sasha glanced at Nic, his cheeks coloring even more. How much of a bastard was Nic that his mind went straight to sex at the sight of that blush? The play of muscles beneath Nic’s fingertips sent sparks up his nerves, and his mouth went dry. Sasha’s gaze lowered to Nic’s mouth the moment he wet his lips, and that show of interest lit Nic up with a craving for more contact and pumped blood straight to his groin.
Reluctantly, he dropped his hand and shifted away, ignoring the sense of disappointment that followed. He’d only meant to comfort him, not start something he wouldn’t allow himself to finish. Sasha seemed to become aware of his surroundings, clearing his throat and leaning back over the painting. He prodded a few spots.
“I think it’s dry enough,” Sasha said. “Your leaves ready, Ben?”
Ben answered, and the two of them continued with the project, securing the leaves to the poster board in the appropriate places. Sasha worked well with Ben, always providing the right direction and the right words and making him laugh without effort. Getting to such a comfortable place with Ben had never seemed so far out of Nic’s reach, and a pang of regret struck hard. He grew more and more tense as he listened halfheartedly, but it was clear he had nothing to contribute beyond the information Ben had needed to fill out the leaves. Finally, he couldn’t take another minute of standing there frozen while his insides churned with the unbearable self-doubts he only had around the kids. He needed solace in work, the only thing he wasn’t incompetent at.
“It looks great, Ben.”
Ben didn’t acknowledge him at first, apparently forgetting Nic was there. No surprise. Nic was still waiting for the day it wouldn’t bother him to be so insignificant.
“Oh. Thanks, Uncle Nic.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll be in my office working for a while if anyone needs anything.”
“Really?” Sasha asked, his head jerking up. At seeing Nic’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “You’re working on a Sunday?”
“I got a little behind on emails while I was in Italy. It’s a good day to catch up.”
“Oh?” Sasha arched one golden eyebrow. “Emails. From over a week ago?”
Nic shrugged. Obviously Sasha didn’t buy Nic’s excuse. He glanced down at the poster and then at Nic, his jaw clenching and unclenching. Whatever he was thinking, he was either uncertain how to say it or uncertain whether he should. He shifted on his feet and then nodded. “I guess it is a good day to catch up. Will you be done by dinnertime?”
He wanted Nic around? Well fuck. That’s what the strange behavior was about. Sasha didn’t want him to retreat to his office. A spike of pleasure curled through him. He fought the impulse to step right up to Sasha and kiss the hell out of him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t successful at keeping his thoughts from showing on his face. Sasha’s expression tightened, the heat in his eyes showing Nic how onboard he was with those thoughts.
The clatter of Ben knocking over the glue gun reminded Nic they weren’t alone. Good thing too. Nic’s willpower was woefully absent in the face of Sasha’s appeal. Forbidden fruit had never been more tempting.
“I should be done by six,” he answered, barely remembering Sasha had posed a question.
He made his escape—having no illusions that it was an escape—and buried himself in work. The deal with Anselmo had nearly brought him to his sales goals for the quarter, but he needed to come up with a few more strategies to either cut costs or nail down more sales contracts. His father wouldn’t settle for meeting a goal rather than exceeding it.
COMBING his email for leads, he found a few promising responses he forwarded to his sales team. As he worked his way down the queue, he reached a memo from the board sent two days earlier. That was unusual. The email should have routed to his priority folder to be reviewed right away instead of to the regular inbox. Obviously he’d been too distracted lately, and responsibilities suffered when that happened.
As he read, his blood pressure skyrocketed, and he gripped the edge of his desk. A familiar frustration climbed the back of his throat, begging for expression, something he’d never allowed himself. The damned board—led by his father, no doubt—had approved and created an audit committee. Fuckers hadn’t convened a scheduled meeting so Nic could be present for the deliberation and vote.
Adrenaline flooding his veins made him jittery, and he launched from his seat and paced in front of the tall, wide window behind him. On the surface, the creation of an audit committee was a positive thing. Any company concerned about optimizing operations and growth would want such a committee.
Nic, however, knew his father better than that. There were only two reasons Nicolas Senior would want an audit committee. The biggest one was simply to show the extent of his lack of trust in Nic, grinding his censure in as deeply as he could. The most worrisome reason, though, was that having an audit committee was a requirement for a company to go public. Did his father intend to file an IPO?
When Nic had started at the family business, he never would have imagined his father opening the company to public trading on the stock market, diluting the family’s control. Now? The man had already threated Nic’s seat as CEO. Who knew what the hell he was willing to do? Nic just wished he knew why he’d never been good enough for his parents. Sometimes he felt the weight of a giant target on his back and a permanent bruise sinking all the way to his soul from all the hits to that target. The shining light in his life when he was growing up had always been Josephine, though his parents had eventually separated them, sending him to boarding school while she went to live with their aunt. Though he’d hated the distance, Josie had been happier there, so he couldn’t entirely regret it. If anyone knew the kind of pain his parents could inflict without a single touch, it was Nic. He would have done anything to protect Josie from that.
She’d married well, pleasing even their parents when she’d said yes to Daniel, a good man from—incidentally—a wealthy family. They’d saved all their barbs for Nic, somehow deducing he wasn’t going to provide the heirs they’d always expected of him. It had been somewhat of a blessing he hadn’t needed to come out to his parents. They’d probably known from the time he was a preteen, right around the time they’d sent him away. Strangely, that knowledge didn’t change his relationship with his parents. They’d always disapproved of him.
The alarm on his phone blared, making him flinch. It was almost time for dinner. Shit. He’d forgotten to let Vicki know he’d need meals for today. Grilled cheese was really the only thing he could manage to cook on his own. Hopefully, the kids would be satisfied with that, or else they’d be stuck with cold sandwiches.
He closed the office door behind him and turned straight into Lucy.
“Whoa!” She grabbed his biceps at the same time he caught her elbows.
“Careful. Where are you going in such a hurry?” he asked.
She patted him and smoothed the sleeves of his button-up as if he were the child. “To get you. It’s time for dinner.”
His brow creasing, he opened his mouth to ask more, but she spun and hurried away, curling her finger in a beckoning motion for him to follow. Dinner? Since when did they fetch him for dinner? Opportunities for the three of them to eat together—apart from the dreaded Sunday brunches—had always come as pleasant coincidences. At least the last few years. It’d been almost too painful for them to all be in the same room when Lucy and Ben first came to live with him, the collection of their sorrow weighing more on Nic than when he was alone.
No wonder they didn’t need him around. It’s what he’d taught them from the start.
Delicious aromas seduced his senses, making his mouth water and his stomach rumble. The scent only got stronger as he neared the dining room. The table was set for a family meal, and several dishes already lined the space in the middle of the table settings. The kids took seats across from each other right before Sasha came from the kitchen carrying a large ceramic platter with a beautiful caramelized roast. He placed it at the end of the table and served perfect slices to each plate before sitting beside Ben.
Nic sank into the chair across from him and next to Lucy. He gave a rather weak laugh. “And I thought we’d be stuck with my specialties—burned grilled cheese or takeout.”
“Nah. I needed something to do, and your pantry is a home cook’s wet dream.” The mixture of Sasha’s adorable smile with that bit of verbal imagery arrowed right to Nic’s heart and his cock at the same time. He took a big gulp of water, trying to cool the sudden heat in his skin, and he was glad for the flurry of activity around him, everyone passing roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes and gravy. The meal was outright divine, and why wouldn’t it be? A golden angel had prepared it.
By the time dinner ended with an incredible bread pudding dessert, he was pretty much overwhelmed. Every time he’d begun to feel edged out, isolated in the presence of his own family, he’d been drawn back in. The kids were talking to him, joking with him, asking him questions. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so often, the bullshit about the audit committee all but forgotten. It didn’t take a wealth of analysis to figure out who’d brought him back from the outside looking in. Did Sasha see his isolation? Was he doing this deliberately?
God, his manny really was a magician, and not only with kids. He was working impossible magic on Nic, exhilarating and terrifying at the same time because now that he’d spent time with Sasha, it was more than simple physical attraction beating at Nic’s resolve.