บททั้งหมดของ HER BULLY'S REGRET: บทที่ 91 - บทที่ 100

Finally, I can talk to someone else about this hot, sweet, confusing thing that’s happening between me and Nathan. Also, she can give me an opinion on what to wear to the gala tomorrow night. Nathan’s mom’s stylist sent plenty of dresses over. They were sleek, sexy, sophisticated.But none of them felt like me.It probably shouldn’t matter if I feel like myself when I’m already pretending to be someone else’s fiancée. Living in someone else’s apartment. Working a corporate job where I don’t fit in, and plan to leave as soon as possible.But all the lies are having the opposite effect. I’m finding myself clinging to anything that still feels like the real me. Maybe if I can hold on to who I am, I won’t get swept up in Nicole.Ria holds up a silver column dress. “What about this? You have the legs for it.”“Eh. The stylist already sent me something like that. I want something more...” I wave at the slouchy sweater dress I’m currently wearing. “Something more me.”Ria wrinkles her nose.

“Of course you weren’t,” Nathan says dryly. He meets my gaze.His mom definitely has our number. But unlike his dad, she doesn’t seem to mind the deception.She spends the dinner asking me about myself. Where I went to school, whether I’m close with my family, whether I’ve been married before. Her questions are so briskly confident, I answer them automatically, even the nosy ones.Nathan barely has a chance to get a word in edgewise. Not that he’s trying very hard. He’s spent the meal with his hand on my thigh, twisting and toying with the fabric of my skirt. The casually possessive gesture is comforting and arousing at the same time.We’re halfway through the dessert course a rich chocolate mousse I could swoon over when Jackie finally runs out of questions for me.She watches me and Nathan with a wistful smile. “You really are quite lovely, my dear. He’s finally met someone ambitious enough for him.”“Thank you,” I say, unsure why she seems sad about that.Jackie shifts her focus to

She half rises, leaning forward and squinting until she can read the writing. “On loan from the collection of Hart Coleman. Oh.Oh.”She looks at me, guilt flashing across her face. “Is it bad if I still love it?”I laugh. “Not at all.” I capture her hand and tug her toward me, so we’re sitting facing each other, legs tangled, faces close enough to kiss. I raise the back of her hand to my lips and kiss her softly. “If this painting brought you to New York” brought you to me“I could even love it too.”Something hesitant fills her brown eyes. “Nathan. Can I ask you something?”“Anything.”Still, she hesitates. I wait.“Why do you hate your dad,” Nicole asks.I sigh. “It’s not one thing. It’s just him. Who he is.”Now it’s Nicole’s turn to wait. I realize I owe her more.“You know he’s got a gambling problem?”“I heard rumors,” Nicole says. “No specifics.”I nod. I feel like I’m dragging the words out of a deep pit inside me. “He gambled off and on my whole childhood. It was embarrassing,

“I don’t give a damn if it’s ok. I need you, Nicole.”He says it like that’s the end of the discussion. And maybe for Nathan, it is. He needs me, so he’ll have me, society be damned.Fuck, why is that so hot?Nathan kisses his way down my neck, lingering in a spot that has me squirming and panting. Then his mouth is moving again, feathering over my collar bone, the curve of my breast, then my nipple. He sucks and nibbles, until my hands are buried in his hair, urging him on.“Fuck, Nathan, that’s...” I moan.I notice one of his hands fisted in my skirts. I tighten my hand in his hair, and he groans in pleasure. There’s something about knowing how much he loves this part that turns me wet and needy.I remember what he said the first time we had sex.Touching you like this, making you come? That’s not for you. That’s for me.As hot as it still is to think of those words, I don’t think they’re true anymore. What he’s doing is for him but it’s also for me. It turns him on to take care of m

Her mouth twists. “You’d pay me to marry you?”“I...” when she says it like that it sounds bad. “It would be what we’re already doing. But longer. Better.”She looks down at her coffee, thinking.I wait.“What happens if after a year, we want to extend it?” she asks.My heart leaps. “Then we extend it,” I say, casually. “As long as it’s beneficial for both parties.”Nicole chews her lip. Then she slowly shakes her head. “Nathan, I don’t know if this is a good idea...”Crap. I’m losing her. I asked for a shadow of what I really want, and she’s still turning me down.I imagine my life without Nicole’s color, without her warmth, without her voice, but it all feels gray, cold, quiet.I can’t lose her. I can’t.I pull out the napkin contract and add each of the new terms I’m proposing to our original contract. My normally confident scrawl feels cramped. I’m running out of room on this goddamn napkin.I sign it, date it, and slide it across the kitchen island to Nicole. “Just think about it