Page 82

A Hart.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
30
ARI
“How do you know Julie?” Nathan asks as Jenkins drives toward my home in Nathan’s limo.
“You were really rude to her, Nathan.” The second I look at him, I know he’s annoyed at me for questioning him.
Irritated, Nathan unties his bow tie then undoes the top button on his shirt, stretching out his neck from side to side. “If I tell you something, you must promise to never repeat it.”
“You can trust me.” Or maybe he can’t; while I might have pressed the brakes on my personal investigation for now, against his father, I still want to eventually. According to Julie, her source and lead on the case is as solid as concrete and she reassured me tonight that the information is legit and that she will email it to me as soon as she has it.
I thought I trusted Julie but now I come to think about it, why did she give my old boss, Nick, a heads-up whenever a tabloid was about to publish a story on him and his, well… Mafia connections?
God, maybe I’ve put my trust in the wrong person. Now I’m questioning her loyalty and reliability.
I might have misjudged her.
Which is just awful.
I saw Nathan’s attitude changing when he saw her, and I knew something was off.
Nathan wasn’t just upset, he was angry, like a bubbling cauldron about to boil over.
I don’t know who to trust anymore. I’m not sure I even trust myself.
Nathan runs his hand through his hair as if frustrated, then proceeds to tell me what went down between Julie and Max, from vandalizing his car to smashing his apartment up.
It seems I might have Julie all wrong. It was a long time ago, but after what he’s said, I don’t want to be on Julie’s bad side. It sounds like she made Max’s life a living hell. Sewing dead fish into the bottom of his curtains and stuffing his mattress full of fish guts was a terrible thing to do. She even tapped his phone and tracked him everywhere he went, turning up uninvited to every family event and court hearing he was in attendance of. When Max eventually moved on with someone new, his car was vandalized with blue paint, leading the insurance company to declare it a total loss. She tried to destroy everything of his as well as his reputation. However, attempting to set up Nathan’s father by secretly filming him in his office and trying to make him have sex with her is as twisted as it gets in terms of revenge.
“And you’re sure it was Julie?” I ask, completely shocked. It doesn’t sound like the woman I’ve come to know.
“Oh, it was Julie, and I would never tell you not to be friends with someone or what to do, but that woman needs serious help.”
“Maybe she got it.” She sure seems stable to me.
“Don’t be fooled by her blonde hair, calm voice, and dimples. There’s a monster beneath that exterior, I promise.” Nathan’s voice rises an octave, but as if to steady himself and the growing anger I can feel bouncing off him, he reaches over and takes myhand in his, using me to ground him. “Anyway, enough about her, I will not let Julie Hanson ruin our night.”
I have so many questions whirling through my head now it feels like it might explode. But Nathan is right; I don’t want to spoil our first official date together which made us look like a couple.
A couple.
That sounds wild.
And oh so right.
There’s a shift in the air around us as he tugs at my hand gently, urging me to slide closer to him and tuck myself under his arm as he wraps it around me and kisses the top of my head.
“I’ve found it very difficult to keep my hands off you tonight, Ms. Donovan.”
I hum, then slip my fingers inside the open neckline of his shirt. “You have the restraint of a gentleman,” I say, keeping my voice soft and low. At least that’s what he told me he was trying to be earlier. “But what if I don’t want you to be a gentleman tonight?” I ask, undoing one of his buttons and then another.
“Arianna.” The way he says my name sounds more like a warning.
“Nathaniel.” I mimic his tone, teasing him, and glide my hand down his bare chest, drawing tiny invisible circles across it toward his nipple, where I pinch it between my fingers.