Home to Me (The Andrades, Book 2) (3 page)

Nick met Gio’s eyes over Rena’s head. “Nothing new.”

Gio glared back at him. “I’m not doing this. I’m not getting sucked back into the lies.”

“I hoped I could talk you into doing the right thing, Gio, but if you can’t be kind to your mother when she’s fighting for her life then stay the hell away from her. She doesn’t need your version of love.”

“I told her what she needed to hear.”

“Don’t do it again, Gio. Your reign over this family is over. It ends now.”

Gio barked a humorless laugh. “Are you threatening me?”

Rena said, “I’m sure that’s not what Nick meant.”

With a steely voice, Nick said, “Don’t test me on this, Gio. You won’t win.”

Gio ran his hand through his hair. “Nick, you’re letting Mother get in your head. This is what she does. She twists things around to suit her agenda. You can’t believe anything she says.”

“But I can trust you? You’re honest with me? Tell me, how long were you going to wait to tell the rest of us we have a half sister?”

His question hung heavy in the room. Gio waved a hand in frustration. “I planned to tell you when we returned from the wedding, but . . .”

“Really? It’s hard to believe anything you say.”

“I didn’t know about her until I went to see Father’s mistress in Venice.”

Rena asked, “You have a half sister? Does Luke know?”

Gio’s jaw tightened and his face went red with anger. “No. When we returned from Stephan’s wedding, we received the call that Mother had had a heart attack and I decided to wait.” He clenched and unclenched his hands at his sides. “I didn’t want to upset her.”

Nick shook his head in disgust. “I can’t stomach another moment of this. Stay away from me, Gio. Stay away from all of us or I will take from you the only thing you’ve ever cared about—Cogent.”

***

“Nick . . .” Rena said, but Nick was already walking out the office door. As she rushed to follow him, she heard Gio mumbling behind her.

“What the fuck would he do? He doesn’t even know where his office is.”

Rena sprinted down the hallway after Nick. Years of high school track paid off as she beat him to the elevator door. “Don’t go . . .”

He looked down at her, and the pain in his eyes chased the rest of what she was going to say clear out of her head. Normally he hid behind sarcasm and empty flirtation, but in that moment she saw the man behind the playboy façade, and the sadness in him ripped at her heart. “Stay away from me, Rena. I’m not in a good place.”

She took his hand in hers. “That’s when you need friends the most. Come back and try talking to Gio again. You’re brothers. You can figure this out.”

“I wish it were that simple, Rena, but your loyalty to him is misplaced.”

“I don’t believe that for minute.”

“Then you are a poor judge of character.” Nick tried to pull his hand away from hers, but Rena held on tighter. She had to make him see that walking away wasn’t the answer. When it came to why they didn’t get along, neither brother was entirely blameless.

Nick was right: Gio was brutally honest and most comfortable when he was fully in control of a situation. He didn’t delegate well and didn’t have the patience to wait while others worked out a problem he had already solved. She didn’t doubt Nick’s version of what it was like to speak at a meeting run by Gio. But she also knew Gio would do anything for his brothers, and that Nick’s criticism had hurt him, even if he didn’t show it.

Gio was right: Nick hadn’t been ready to run the company. Yes, he’d graduated with a business degree from a good university, but he hadn’t spent enough time at Cogent to make informed decisions.

Gio should have let Nick make mistakes—and learn from them.

Nick should have worked with Gio instead of turning the situation into a rivalry. Nick could be successful at whatever he chose to do, but maybe he’d have to come out from Gio’s shadow to do it. Just as Luke and Max had.

The problem with Gio and Nick was they were more alike than either would acknowledge.

Both too proud.

Too angry.

Too unable to see past the faults in each other.

“I have very good instincts when it comes to people. That’s why I know you didn’t mean what you said about taking Cogent.”

“You think I couldn’t do it?”

“No, I know you’d never intentionally hurt your brother. Just like I know you’d never hurt me.”

The expression on Nick’s face softened. He raised a hand and tucked a lock of hair gently behind Rena’s ear. “Take off your rose-colored glasses, Rena. You think everyone has some good in them, but we don’t. Not Gio. Not me.”

“That’s not true, Nick. You came here today because you care about your mother. That’s admirable . . .”
Even if misguided.

“Stay out of this, Rena. There is no Hallmark card for a family as fucked up as mine is.”

Classic Nick. Hurt and lashing out. That got others to back off, but Rena knew him too well. “You can’t leave things the way you did. Go back in there and—”

“No. We were both clear enough.”

Rena pulled Nick closer, holding both of his arms as she tried to reach past his anger. “No, you weren’t. You didn’t tell him you love him. You didn’t give him time to explain his side of the story. If you did—”

Nick pulled back from Rena abruptly, his eyes burning with anger Rena couldn’t understand. “Stay away from me.”

There has to be something I can say that will make him see this isn’t irreparable.
“Luke said he’d come by later today.”

“You called him?”

Rena nodded.

“Of course you did. You talk to him more than I do. I’m surprised you’ve never dated.”

“Me and Luke? No. I don’t think of him that way.”

“Are you sure? The two of you seem to find reasons to slip away to be alone whenever we’re all together.”

“He’s funny. And we’re usually talking about—” She stopped before she finished the sentence. She’d almost said, “You.” But Nick would take that the wrong way.

She took Nick’s hand again and said, “I know you don’t like to discuss your family with anyone, but maybe this time you should. I could help you—if you let me.”

Nick shook his head. “No.”

Rena held on tight, advanced and persisted. “Why not?”

“Because I . . .” He pulled her into his arms and ravaged her mouth with his. It wasn’t how she’d imagined he’d kiss. It was bold and hungry. It may have been meant as a warning or as punishment, but it was too full of passion to be either. He held her face between his hands and plundered. At first she was too surprised to kiss him back, but his touch sparked a heat that rose within her.

This was the kiss she’d always imagined they could share. It had a sizzle, a wildness that swept through both of them, making time and location irrelevant. All that mattered was his mouth, his touch, this fire.

His hands moved down over her, molding her to him with a roughness that only heightened the heat between them. She arched herself against him and felt his erection pulsing against her stomach. His lips left hers and claimed her neck, one hot kiss after another, until all Rena could hear was her own heavy breathing.

And she panicked.

She shoved him back from her and said, “What the hell are you doing, Nick?”

His expression was dark and angry even though his eyes raged with need. He glanced over her shoulder and Rena’s confusion grew. She demanded, “Is he there? Don’t use me to get back at Gio. I deserve better than that.”

He frowned at her accusation but didn’t deny it. Without saying a word, he turned and walked away.

One of the secretaries from marketing paused when she saw Rena standing in the hallway and asked, “Rena? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“What are you doing?”

“What?”

“You look like you’re waiting for someone.”

“No,” Rena said with a shake of her head. “Just thinking.”

Holy shit, what was that?

“And that’s when the alien abduction turned ugly and they brought out the probes.”

Nick put down his seltzer and pulled his attention away from the crowd below to frown at the red-haired woman next to him in the club’s VIP balcony. He’d come there to forget—forget the argument with his brother, and the kiss he’d planted on Rena.

It didn’t matter that his brother had deserved everything he’d said to him.

He wasn’t proud of how he’d handled the situation.

And Rena.

Fuck, what was I thinking?

He could blame it on the heat of the moment, or on her for cornering him, but he knew the truth: He’d done what he’d wanted to do for a long time and, damn, it had been good. So good he was having a hard time convincing himself repeating it was still a bad idea.

She wanted him as much as he wanted her—that much was obvious from the kiss. So, what was stopping them? Gio? Kane?

Fuck them.

“What did you say?” he asked the irritated beauty, who was waiting for him to answer her.

She flipped her hair over one shoulder and huffed. The action revealed a long bare expanse of neck that yesterday would have been a temptation. She was dressed in a pricier version of the skintight, attention-getting bits of material worn by the masses below. If he cared enough to ask her, he’d bet she could tell him who made it. But he didn’t—care, that is. He couldn’t remember how he’d met her, but they’d hung out in the past. Even fucked a few times. But she meant nothing to him. He hadn’t asked her to join him that night. She’d followed him when she saw him walking up the stairs. How much she was or wasn’t entertained wasn’t of much importance to him.

And she knew it. “Have you been listening to me at all?”

Nick had done many things in his life he wasn’t proud of, but he wasn’t a liar, and he had no patience for those who were. “No.”

“What’s your problem tonight?”

Nick shrugged and turned to look down at the crowd below. He had a growing list of issues but none he wanted to discuss with her. He wasn’t about to tell her anything personal, so any reference to his brother or mother was not possible. He doubted she wanted to hear about Rena.

I wanted to be alone tonight.
To some, finding solace at Club Skal might have sounded like a contradiction, but he was more comfortable there than anywhere else. Serge Boyd, the club’s owner, had even given him his own VIP section for his twenty-first birthday.

Not long ago Nick would have turned the balcony into a party that would have gone on until dawn. None of his friends wanted to grow up to be king or CEO. They were famous for being young, rich, and wild. Who wants to be first in line, when second has all the fun with none of the responsibility? For a long time he’d lived by that philosophy, but something had clicked within him when he’d been with his brothers on Isola Santos, the island of his ancestors. He’d stood there with generations of his family, many of whom had built successful financial empires or birthed football teams’ worth of new Andrades, and felt ashamed of the path he’d chosen. At the wedding reception, his uncles had spoken of family members who had passed—his own father in particular. They’d told stories of how each generation of Andrade worked hard to make sure the next was taken care of, and how proud Gio Sr. must be when he looked down on his sons.

Proud of me? I don’t think so.

I’ve done nothing with my life.

That realization had given way to another one:
And I won’t if I keep drinking.

He hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol since.

The woman moved to stand in front of him and said, “I know how to cheer you up.” She leaned down, placing her hands on both of his shoulders, and hovered her lips just above his. “Remember that night at Siviti’s?”

He did, but the memory didn’t move him or his cock. He took her hands in his and stood. “It’s been a long day, Melissa. You should—”

Her face went red and she pulled her hands from his. “My name isn’t Melissa.”

Fuck.

“Like I said—long day. I came here to clear my head.”

She stood before him angrily and stared up at him, refusing to let him off the hook until he remembered her name. He tried, but the times they had spent together had always been after he’d given himself over to a substantial buzz.

If she’d ever said her name, he hadn’t heard it.

And it had never mattered until just then.
I think it starts with an M . . .

“Michelle . . .”

“Megan,” the woman hissed. “My name is
Megan
.” She reached down, picked up her drink, and threw it at the front of his pants.

Nick jumped back, but it was too late. The vodka darkened a large circle around his crotch and spread down one leg. He grabbed a napkin from the table and wiped as much off as he could. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

Megan stood angrily in front of him. “Maybe now you’ll remember me.”