Page 40

“Spanked a woman while fingering her until she comes.”
My breathing hitched at the memory of his skillful fingers inside me, the sting of his palm on my ass, and I could only imagine what it would feel like to have them combined.
“Next.”
Twenty-Five
Nate
The first thing I noticed when I opened the society section of the newspaper was my face. The second thing was that I hadn’t seen the photograph being taken because I’d been staring at Ashlee. We’d been caught just as we’d left the restaurant last night, and we looked just as wrapped up in each other as I’d felt. She was tucked against my side, the expression on her face matching mine.
We looked like a young couple in love.
Love.
That wasn’t a word I was comfortable using with anyone other than my mom.
I pushed it from my head and looked down at the photo’s caption, curious to see what the reporter had to say about the two of us.
Manhattan Records CEO, Nate Lexington, seen leaving One if by Land, Two if by Sea with friend.
Friend.
I didn’t like that. Any other time I was spotted with a woman, reporters would speculate about romance. It was always with possible love interest or seen cozying up to. That sort of thing. I glanced at the byline and saw a familiar female name: Marty Perez. That explained it.
She’d had a thing for me for years and had often fought her editor because she would submit a snarky caption, then be told that she had to behave because of who the women were. Models. Actresses. Singers – though never ones signed to my label. Ashlee didn’t have that protection. She had me, so the caption wasn’t insulting, but it was still dismissive.
I was tempted to call the paper and tell them that if they valued my business, they’d keep tighter control on Ms. Perez, but I knew that wasn’t what Ashlee would want. She’d want me to let it go.
There were so many things I didn’t know about Ashlee, but facts and figures would only have supported what I did know about her. She was a good person, a kind person. She dismissed things that weren’t important, and the caption wasn’t important, not as long as she knew that she wasn’t just a ‘friend.’
I couldn’t say love yet, but she was my girlfriend, and I would make certain that no one would mistake Ashlee as anyone other than who she was.
My phone rang, and I knew who it was without looking at the screen. “Hi, Mom.”
“You sound happy,” she said. “That was a very nice picture of you in the paper this morning.”
She wanted confirmation and wanted to be sure I wasn’t cheating on my girlfriend. “It is a nice picture of Ashlee and me. Her name isn’t really out there, so it’s not surprising the reporter didn’t know it. They’ll figure it out soon enough.”
“She’s as pretty as Joshua said she was.”
I didn’t like that Joshua had described Ashlee as pretty, but I supposed I would’ve liked it even less if he’d said she wasn’t attractive.
I closed my eyes. “She’s even prettier in person.”
“Does that mean the two of you will be joining us this evening for dinner?” Mom couldn’t quite keep the hopeful note from her voice, and it was that, more than anything else, that made me decide.
“I have to check with Ashlee to see if she can come with me.” I had a feeling it wouldn’t be a surprise to her that I hadn’t asked Ashlee yet. I was ashamed to admit that I’d put it off, but Mom deserved the truth.
“It’ll be good to see you both.”
I could hear the smile in her voice, and it made me smile too. Dinner wasn’t going to be fun, no matter how positive Mom was trying to be about it. Even if Joshua and I let things go, we couldn’t just magically undo a lifetime of tension. We’d had issues before I’d slept with Calah, and not only Joshua and me. I’d never really felt like I fit in with my family, and no matter how much Mom tried to fix things, that feeling would continue to be there.
Still, I was already trying to change things in my life by making a real relationship with Ashlee. I could try to make things better with my family too, at least enough that I could give my mom holidays with the whole family but without the extra drama.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said. “I’ll text you if something comes up, but otherwise, we’ll be there.”
I ended the call and took a minute before dialing Ashlee. I only hoped that she was free tonight because I didn’t know if I could handle going by myself. I would still go, but I doubted it’d go as well as it would if I had le soleil with me.