Betrayal (20 page)

I’d made an effort with my hair, but as much as my mother complained about the ponytail, the humidity in Savannah wasn’t my friend. I settled for a messy bun, but went to the trouble of putting on another of the casual sundresses she’d bought. It was the one Jane had pulled from the closet the first night. I couldn’t believe after all this time, Adelaide still thought I liked pink. Red heads don’t wear pink. Yes, usually the brown dominated the auburn, but my stay in Del Mar had brought out the reds and a few streaks of blonde.

My stay in Del Mar had done more than that, but I wouldn’t let myself think about it—about him. We’d said one week. It may have been the best week of my entire life, but that was all we had. Besides, if we ever did find each other again, it wouldn’t be the same. Del Mar was special because it was fantasy, not real life. I didn’t think my heart could take Nox in my real life. He was too
…
too
…
Nox. That didn’t mean I couldn’t daydream about him. Real life can’t ruin daydreams.

Each room I passed on my way to the rear terrace was pristine and empty. If I’d have walked around in the shorts and t-shirt that I slept in, I would have surely met Mother and Alton along the way.

I walked around the grounds. Perhaps it was because it was Sunday, but everywhere I went, there was no one but me. I wasn’t looking for anyone, but it seemed strange that no one was about.

Even with the heat of the summer, the gardens were beautiful. Path after path wove through flowers, some as tall as me. Iron benches dotted the path. As a little girl I’d pretended it was a maze and only I knew the way in and out.

When I passed by the pool, the crystal clear water beckoned and I thought about swimming, but decided it wasn’t worth redoing my hair. Instead, I sat on the edge, pulled my dress higher on my thighs, and let my feet dangle in the tepid water. My mind slipped back to the last morning in Del Mar.

It was the sunrise I’d been dreading—we’d been dreading. If I didn’t wake up, if I lay perfectly still with my body pressed against Nox, maybe I wouldn’t need to get on the plane, maybe I could stay in Del Mar forever. The warmth radiating from his skin covered and shielded me from the cool air-conditioned chill of the suite.

Skin to skin, nothing separated us.

“Are you awake,” he asked, his deep voice gravelly with sleep.

“No.” I buried my head against his chest.

“Isn’t this early for you? Yesterday you didn’t wake until, what
…
ten?”

My cheeks filled with crimson. “I think you wore me out the other night.”

“Oh?”

Nox rolled me onto my back, his hands upon my shoulders and chest against mine. “Does that mean I didn’t do a good job wearing you out last night?”

I looked into the pale blueness of his eyes. It was barely light outside, but his gaze held that hint of menace that twisted my insides. He’d done a fine job of testing my limits. I still didn’t know where they were—not with him. It wasn’t that I’d ever imagined some of the suggestions Nox made. It was that when he proposed the limit, no matter what it was, I wanted to test it, for him and for me. I saw the happiness he derived, and I knew the happiness he could provide. Nox made each and every prospect sexy and pleasurable. Even if, like the wax, it didn’t start that way, Nox made sure it ended that way.

I shook my head. “No, you did a fine job. It was just…”

The pad of his thumb tenderly caressed my cheek as his prominent brow furrowed. “Charli, why are you crying? Did I..?”

I swallowed and shook my head. I didn’t want Nox to think he’d done anything wrong. I also didn’t want to admit how strongly I felt for him, or how I didn’t want our time together to end. “I don’t want to wake up. If I stay asleep then today will never come.”

His lips gently brushed mine. It was meant as an affectionate kiss, but I didn’t want that. I wanted more, needed more. I wove my fingers through Nox’s dark hair and pulled him closer. The taste of his lips and his tongue as it wrestled with mine was the catalyst to my desire. Breathing no longer mattered as my back arched and I pushed my pebbled nipples against the hardness of his chest.

We didn’t rush. For what seemed like an eternity, we lost ourselves in one another. It was much different than our first time, and different from every time after that. Nox had said he’d made love to me the night he brought me back to Del Mar after 101, but this was more. Every movement of his hands, tongue, and body was deliberate. He played me like an expert musician plays a prized instrument.

My body ached with need and desire as he took me to amazing highs with catastrophic earth-shaking conclusions. I gripped the sheets and called out his name, afraid I’d fall, and yet each time he was there to catch me. When we both descended from the final high, I collapsed against his shoulder and slipped off to sleep.

He’d granted my wish. The day wasn’t ready to begin.

A warm breeze brought me back to reality, and I shifted against the edge of the pool. I had no idea where Nox was, but even from far away he could do things to my body. Looking down at my breasts, I thanked God that I was alone. My thin strapless bra and pink dress did little to conceal the thoughts my nipples broadcasted.

I leaned back on my arms, lifted my face to the sun, and twisted my head from side to side. The slow movement allowed the warm wind access to my perspiration-moistened skin and freed the few stuck renegade strands of hair that had escaped from my messy bun.

Is it the Georgia heat that turned up my internal thermostat or my thoughts?

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been outside when I made my way back toward the house and up the stone staircase, but when I entered the house, Mother and Alton were in the sitting room. They didn’t hear me enter and for a few minutes I stood and watched them. Last night I’d heard their exchange, but today, from their expensive casual clothes to the way Alton waited upon my mother, filling her wine glass, they appeared the perfect couple.

It wasn’t until my shoes clicked upon the hardwood floor and Adelaide’s red-rimmed eyes met mine that I knew there was more to their current charade. She didn’t speak, but sighed, bit her lip, and turned toward the window.

“Alexandria,” Alton said, “have a seat. We need to speak to you about our meeting tomorrow morning.”

I sat, but spoke to Adelaide. “Momma, what’s the matter?”

“I just can’t
…
I can’t…”

Alton stood taller by her side. “Your mother has been upset since our office discussion yesterday.”

I moved to the edge of the chair. “It’s fine,” I placated, like the good daughter I’d been taught to be.

Tears coated my mother’s cheeks as she reached for Alton’s hand.

“Momma, are you sick?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Alexandria, if only you would have tried.”

“Tried? What are you talking about?”

Her chin dropped to her chest. “The meeting tomorrow is to update you on your trust fund.”

“I thought it might be, but why are you so upset. If I get it early, I won’t do—”

“You’re not getting it
early
,” Alton said. “You no longer have access to it. It’s gone.”

“GONE? I DON’T
understand. How is a million dollars gone?” I stood, unable to contain my fury.

“You’ve lived on it for four years,” Alton said. “Stanford isn’t inexpensive. I guarantee it wasn’t a million any longer.”

“I review the online statements every month. It was
not
gone the last time I looked.”

“It’s been re-appropriated.” His tone slowed. “Before you decide to make any more threats, I assure you, it’s completely legal and within the guidelines of the clauses set forth by your grandparents.”

“Darling,” Mother interjected. “I didn’t want you to be blindsided at the attorney’s office like you were yesterday with Bryce. That was my fault. I should’ve talked to you about Bryce earlier in the day, but we were having such a nice time.” She dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.

I didn’t give a rat’s ass about Bryce. I did about my trust fund.

“Columbia?” I asked collapsing on one of the many sofas.

“That’s what we were saying yesterday. You don’t have the funds to attend Columbia.”

“Your first semester is paid,” Alton interjected. “You’ll need to transfer, or you could withdraw and receive a refund. It’s time you stop wasting money and concentrate on the future.”

I palmed my temples and pushed. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. The future? Law school was my future.

“Dear, are you all right?”

“No, Mother, I’m not. I’m not all right. I was accepted into
Columbia Law
. Do you have any idea how difficult that is? No, you don’t. You don’t because as soon as you finished your degree—in art appreciation—at Emory—you married my father. You didn’t apply to graduate school. And you…” I stared at Alton. “…your master’s is from Georgia State!”

“I don’t need to defend my degree to you or to anyone else,” Alton said, the crimson creeping up his neck. “The difference is that I use my degree. You need to face the fact. It’s time to move home, stop playing student, and get married.”

“This isn’t 1920, 1950, or even 1980! I don’t need to marry.”

“Dear, calm down.”

I blinked my eyes hoping that if I did it enough times the scene in front of me would change. “I’m not saying I’ll never marry. I’m saying I’m only twenty-three years old.”

“You’ll be twenty-four soon enough, and weddings take time. To really do it right, we’ll need at least a year to plan.” Mother lowered her voice. “We don’t want people thinking you had to get married.”

My head began to twitch. The world was jumpy, like an old television that had difficulty keeping a signal. “You
are
saying I have to get married. It may not be because of pregnancy, but what you’re discussing is a shotgun wedding nevertheless.”

“No one is putting a gun to your head. Stop being so dramatic,” Alton said dismissively as he stood and refilled his tumbler of Cognac.

I stood with a huff and paced back and forth in front of the large windows, my palms clenching and unclenching. Finally, I turned. “You said clauses. What
clauses
?”

“We can discuss that tomorrow.”

“No, we can discuss it
today
.”

Raising his chin, Alton’s eyes closed. “Hmm. I don’t have the wording memorized exactly, but there’s a clause about education. Undergraduate is specifically mentioned. Thankfully, Ralph was reviewing the document and found it.”

Thankfully?

“So you’re saying that it was intended to pay for my undergraduate degree, but not postgraduate? And you’re telling me after my first semester has been paid?”

“It was an oversight, dear.” She looked to Alton and back to me. “We discussed it at some length. It all became more pressing when Bryce’s incident became public.”

“You want me to marry Bryce. I don’t even have a say in who I marry?”

“It’s a matter of name. The Carmichael name and Montague, it’s a match made in blue-blood heaven. Your grandfather would approve.”

“Re-appropriated?” I asked Alton. “My money has been re-appropriated to where?”

“Again, the wording escapes me. However, the intended reasoning was for your focus, following college, to be on Montague. If you refuse to honor your obligation, in your absence the funds remaining in the trust revert back to the estate.”

I stared in disbelief. “To you. To both of you. You have my money available to you and you’re not giving it to me? Mother, you’re holding my education hostage so I’ll become you? Is that what you really want? You want to see me in an unhappy arranged marriage and not fulfill my dream?”

“Dear, we all have dreams. That’s what sleep is for. Life has responsibilities. Your responsibility is to Montague.” She reached for Alton’s hand and squeezed. They’d put on the performance for so long, they probably believed it themselves—when they weren’t arguing. “My marriage isn’t unhappy. Marriage takes work and compromise…”

I stopped listening to her before she began. Instead, I was preoccupied doing mental math. I had a few accounts and credit cards. I didn’t want to be in debt, but maybe if I could start class, and find a job, I could look into student loans. I’d never had a job or needed credit, but surely, a law student at Columbia was a good credit risk.

“…coming for dinner tonight. He wanted to see you.”

I turned my attention back to my mother. “Repeat that.”

“He wants to see you.”

“He, as in Bryce?”

“Well, yes. Whom else would I be talking about?”

“No.”

“Excuse me?” she asked.

I walked toward the archway. “No. I have one semester. I’m taking it.”

“Alexandria,” Alton said, “technically, we could withdraw the payment for this semester. It was made in error.”

I swallowed my pride and concentrated on my mother. Moving to her, I knelt beside her knees and reached for her hand. “Momma, give me the one semester. Let me try to do this. I’m not saying I’ll never marry. Let me do what you never could.”