Chapter 15

Nathaniel's thoughts drifted back to Harrison's delicate features, those soft lips that had tasted like summer blossoms. He could still feel the ghost of their recent kiss lingering on his mouth.

As Isabella leaned in, her perfume overwhelming his senses, Nathaniel abruptly turned his face away.

Her lips met empty air. "Why are you rejecting me?" Isabella's voice dripped with wounded pride.

The question echoed in Nathaniel's mind. Isabella was supposed to be the one he desired. Kissing her should feel natural. He didn't even like Harrison.

Yet Harrison's kiss haunted him. The memory of those lips burned brighter than any touch from Isabella. His obsessive need for cleanliness recoiled at the thought of moving between women so casually. It felt... dirty.

A sharp knock interrupted them.

"Sir, the antidote has arrived." Dominic's voice carried through the door.

Antidote?

Isabella froze. She'd taken those pills herself, and Nathaniel had actually gone to procure an antidote?

Nathaniel removed Isabella's clinging hands and stood. Enraged, she grabbed the nearest pillow and hurled it at his retreating form.

"Are you even a man, Nathaniel?"

She'd practically served herself on a silver platter, gone so far as to drug herself for him. Yet he still refused her.

The pillow bounced harmlessly off Nathaniel's back. He didn't even glance back. "Rest."

The door clicked shut behind him.

Isabella sat seething in the sudden silence.

In his study, Nathaniel stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, his silhouette cutting a sharp figure against the city lights. Dominic entered quietly.

"Sir, Isabella has taken the antidote."

Nathaniel didn't turn. "And Emerald Heights?"

"My assistant reported the room empty when he arrived. Mrs. Falcon had already left."

Nathaniel's profile tensed. "Where did Harrison go?"

What Harrison didn't know was that the visitor had come bearing the antidote Nathaniel sent.

Dominic hesitated. "Sir... someone collected her."

'Collected?' Nathaniel's jaw tightened.

She'd taken powerful aphrodisiacs. Who could have taken her?

His voice turned razor-sharp. "Man or woman?"

Dominic shifted uncomfortably. "That—"

"Never mind." Nathaniel cut him off sharply. What did it matter? He didn't care about Harrison. Their divorce was imminent. None of his concern.

"Dismissed."

As the door closed, Nathaniel stood alone, fingers working restlessly at his collar buttons. His reflection in the glass revealed a faint bite mark on his throat—small, precise, undeniably Harrison's doing.

Memories flooded back—Harrison lunging at him in Emerald Heights, teeth sinking into his throat before curling against him like a contented cat, her lips tracing fire across his skin.

Nathaniel squeezed his eyes shut, irritation twisting his handsome features. Since that bathroom encounter, unwanted thoughts of Harrison had invaded his mind repeatedly.

A fluke. A mistake.

The desire he'd felt for her meant nothing.

When his eyes opened again, all emotion had been locked away behind impenetrable ice.

Morning light filtered through gauzy curtains as Harrison sat curled in a wicker chair, a book lying forgotten in her lap. Gabrielle paced like a caged tiger.

"That bastard Nathaniel must have been kicked by a mule! Choosing that homewrecker Isabella over his own wife? And Isabella—God, I've seen desperate, but drugging herself? Trash doesn't even begin to cover it!"

Gabrielle's anger burned white-hot. Last night, when she'd arrived to collect Harrison, she'd found her best friend huddled on the floor, arms wrapped around her knees. Harrison had looked up with tear-streaked cheeks—a lost kitten abandoned in the rain.