Nate’s whole body visibly bristled. “Shut up.”
“I can.” He brushed his T-shirt, confidence building again. “For a fee.”
Nate leaned right back into his face. “What part of ‘shut up’ don’t you understand?”
He shrugged. “Say, ten grand.”
Nate puffed a breath of pure repugnance, stepping farther away. “Scum.”
“What did you call me?”
Liza and Nate shared a look and silent agreement. Wordlessly, they started walking.
“What did you call me, you dickhead?”
“Just keep going,” Nate whispered under his breath, a hand on her back to usher her forward.
“‘Cause I can make your life a living hell!”
“Move,” he ordered, nearly breaking into a jog just as Jeff fired his parting shot.
“You’ll pay, motherfucker! You will pay for what you did to me!”
Chapter Nine
Liza didn’t breathe easy until Nate snagged them a cab and they were finally off the streets of Key West, headed back to the yacht. But as the taxi made its way through a warren of palm-lined streets with pastel houses and coconut palms, Nate stayed stone silent.
“I’m sorry,” she said to break the uncomfortable quiet.
He didn’t answer, his jaw clenched as he stared out the window.
“I feel like now I have what I want”—she patted her phone, safely tucked into her bag—”and you have a big fat problem.”
He still didn’t reply, making her heart sink.
“And I’m still in shock that I could be such a poor judge of character, because Carrie fooled me. I mean, she did have a great imagination. I used to laugh at the bedtime stories she made up for Dylan...”
He swallowed, visibly fighting some inner demons.
Liza took a chance and put her hand on his thigh. “I wish you’d talk to me.”
When he turned, the fury and frustration in his eyes were clear. “If he has that tape, he’ll release it now.”
“You can’t be sure of that. First of all, that’s a big if from five years ago. Second, what does he have to gain?”
He snorted. “Revenge.”
“If he wanted revenge on you for sleeping with his girlfriend, he’d have sold that tape years ago.”
“We stirred a hornet’s nest.”
And Nate got stung. “Will it make you feel better if I say I’ll take the job?”
He almost smiled. “Yeah. We’re a good team.”
“I outsmart them and then you beat the crap out of them?”
“I didn’t beat the crap out of him,” he said with a dry laugh, the first in hours. “I could have. Should have. You did outsmart him, though, with the whole beneficiary of the will thing.” He put his hand over hers, the tender touch surprising her. “I’m glad you have what you wanted from the very beginning.”
She studied the angles of his jaw and strong cheekbones, the warmth in his eyes, and the softness of his mouth. Without consciously thinking about it, she inched slightly closer. “The cost was high.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t pay him.”
“What if there’s a sex tape released? Isn’t that exactly the kind of thing you’re trying to get away from? Won’t that set you back with your family, and your grandfather, the Colonel?”
“He won’t like it,” he acknowledged, his tone showing just how much of an understatement that was. “And it won’t help the image of the new baseball team, especially now when we’re still looking for investors so we don’t have to sink so much of our money into it. Yeah, it would suck all around. Especially if it somehow has Dylan’s name attached to it.”
“I doubt it will, but I appreciate you thinking about that aspect.” She lifted their joined hands, surprising both of them by bringing his knuckles to her lips. “And fighting to protect me.”
He turned his hand so he could cup her jaw. “You’re worth protecting.” He rubbed his thumb lightly, grazing her skin. “And I’m reminded once again how little I’m worth.”
She rolled her eyes, giving her head a shake of disbelief.
“And I don’t mean money,” he said. “Just the shit that is my past.”
“At the risk of sounding like a page from a self-help book, Nate, you are not the sum total of your past. People change. Look at Carrie. Whatever she was in Key West, she showed up in my office contrite and reformed. I loved her for what I thought she was. Finding out that she had a messy past and a nasty boyfriend and a weakness for rich playboys doesn’t make me love her less. She changed.”
“I bet you helped her and didn’t even realize it.”
The compliment, even in the face of the other sweet things he was saying, squeezed a band around her chest. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I wish she hadn’t felt it necessary to lie to me.”
“Maybe she thought you’d judge her. I know I...” His voice trailed off.
“You know you what?”
He smiled, finally releasing her jaw but still holding her hand. “When I come face to face with someone like you, it’s humbling.”
Was he serious? “Nate, I am the most unremarkable person alive. I work in the County Clerk’s office. I live with my mom. I drive a Ford Focus with sixty thousand miles on it. The last thing I am is humbling to a..a...” Did she have to say it again? He was a gorgeous, famous billionaire. “A person like you.”
“You should see yourself the way I see you.” He searched her eyes, as close as he could get without kissing her. “You’re resourceful. You’re caring. You’re beautiful. You’re...damn.”
Damn? Damn what? She waited, but the list had come to an end. “Um, don’t stop now.”
He smiled and gently brought his mouth to hers, the first contact featherlight, almost making her shudder at the sweetness of it.
He sighed into the kiss, adding some pressure but still showing incredible restraint.
“Bottom line, Liza.” He broke the kiss just as the cab pulled into the harbor. “You’re too damn good for me.”
She inched back, trying—and failing—to wrap her head around that statement. But there were so many levels of confounding. Like the fact that he even thought about her in terms of...him.
Unless… “You mean for the job you’re offering?”
“No. For me.”