Page 170 of Boyfriend of the Hour

“Blimey…” Xavier drifted off, rubbing his chin.

“There they are now,” Nathan said. He squeezed my hand and let it go. “I’ll bring them over here to say hello.”

I nodded, and he left me with Xavier, who I had the feeling was ready to launch into the third degree.

I sighed. I didn’t need another protective sibling. I already had five.

“What areyoudoing here?” I asked, deciding to go on the offensive. “Don’t you live across the ocean? I’d think you have better things to do with your time than bother poor relatives.”

Xavier ignored the cutting remarks as he watched Nathan through the crowd. “My CFO sent me over to meet them—he wants me to invest with Huntwell.” When he returned to my blank expression, he seemed surprised. “Don’t you know who your boyfriend’s family is?”

I gritted my teeth. I was getting really tired of people saying that to me. “Nathan’s a surgeon. I know his family is rich, good at investing, and they own a lot of horses.”

Xavier shook his head. “You Zolas are all the same, you know that? For all your street smarts, you don’t question a soul, do you? Even if it would be for the better.”

I opened my mouth to protest but found I couldn’t. After all, he knew that better than most. Frankie’s decision not to look for him cost him the first four years of his daughter’s life.

“Radford Hunt is basically a king in his own right on this side of the pond.” He tapped his long nose thoughtfully. “Andyouended up with a prince? How’d that happen, then?”

I grimaced at his disbelieving tone. What was it about me that made people immediately think “no better than trash”?

“He was a customer at my bar,” I said through gritted teeth. I caught Nathan watching us as he neared an older couple that I guessed were his parents.

“And he’s a surgeon too, I hear?” Xavier nodded at him. “Not for long. Fuck me, that’s a lot of pressure.”

I shrugged. “Yeah. He seems to like it, but I’d probably freak out if I had to cut people open every day.”

“I don’t mean that.” Xavier waved the comment away. “I mean, being Radford Hunt’s first-born son.”

I frowned. “Oh. I guess, yeah. I know they put a lot of pressure on him to act a certain way. I know it’s cost him a lot.”

Vaguely, I wondered if Nathan’s history with Lindsay and her daughter was a secret everyone in this room had known but me.

Xavier just snorted. “Act? Nah. You really don’t know who you’re shagging, do you?”

I scowled up at him. Not because my brother-in-law was casually discussing my sex life, but because he clearly thought I was stupid. Just like everyone else.

“I know Nathan,” I said through my teeth. “Better than you, that’s for sure. I know he does what’s necessary to keep his life and others’ lives intact. Tonight is a formality. Then we’ll go back to normal.”

But Xavier didn’t believe me. “I’m only saying this for your own good. This here posh ‘gala’ is a sham, arranged only because they knew your boy would come. It’s an ambush. I’ve seen it a thousand times before—experienced it myself with a father just like that. Before you two walked in, the only thing everyone in the room could talk about was the fact that Radford Hunt’s about to unofficially nominate your boy as the next CEO of the Huntwell Corporation. And in front of the entire board and half the company’s investors, that old man won’t be taking no for an answer.”

I gaped. “But…they wouldn’t do that. Nathan has a job here. He owns his practice—I just met the other doctors a few weeks ago. There’s one over there.” I pointed to Charlotte Mueller and smiled. She did not smile back. “He’s a surgeon, dude, not a CEO.”

“Who still serves on the family’s board, doesn’t he?” Xavier prodded. “As his father’s proxy vote along with his own, I’m told.”

I couldn’t argue with him there. I honestly hadn’t even known. Nathan had never mentioned anything like that at all.

“I was a chef until suddenly I had to be duke,” Xavier said grimly. “When you’re born into a family like this, you don’t just inherit money. You inherit a life. Your Nathan might think he has freedom and choice now, but I promise he doesn’t. One way or another, they’ll get him back.”

I gave him a dirty look. “You don’t know that.”

Xavier held up his hands. “I wish I weren’t right. But I am.” He nodded in the direction of Nathan, who was leading the older couple toward the table. “Looks like your cue, babe. I’ll be at the de Vries table with friends. Find me if you need an escape.”

And with that, Xavier disappeared into the crowd, leaving me feeling a bit like a cornered rabbit in a den full of wolves as Nathan returned, his family not far behind.

“The Lyonses, now the de Vrieses, and now the Duke of Kendal?” he murmured.

I smiled, reaching for his hand. “It’s just family. We aren’t close at all.”