Chapter 12

**

Nathan

I was starstruck.

The moment I entered the grand hall, my attention automatically went to the woman in white dress. Since her back was to me, I couldn't help but let me eyes drift from her bare back, that was barely covered by strings, to her butt that was covered tightly by the dress. My eyes stopped on her asset for sometime before moving along her length once more.

She could easily be the most beautiful women present in this hall. It seems like I wasn't the only one to have that thought as I saw multiple eyes on her throughout the night. I, myself found it difficult to keep my eyes away from her. Somehow, they always seem to be drawn to her whether she was talking to someone or sipping on water. I knew she could feel my stare as I saw her turn around on multiple occasions, sometimes I would look away before she could catch me and sometimes I would just let her connect our eyes.

"She's looking pretty." I heard a voice from beside me. My head snapped in the direction of the voice only to find Scarlett standing with a glass of champagne.

"I wasn't looking at Marisa." My response was instant.

"I never said Marisa was looking pretty. I just said she is looking pretty," she said, emphasising on the word 'she'. "There are many she in this room."

I rolled my eyes at her subtle tease. "I am not stupid, Scarlett. I knew what you mean."

Scarlett let out a small laugh, eyeing Marisa who was talking to one of the investors with a smile on her face. "From what I heard, Marisa worked really hard on this project. I've seen her stressing over it one two many times. What do you think?"

"How does it matter what I think? This is work. Everyone is supposed to work hard." I replied, nonchalantly, gulping the alcohol in my hands in one go.

"Why do you hate her so much?" Scarlett blurted, her filter lost in her now empty glass.

I narrowed my eyes at her as my back straightened at the talk of past being brought out. I was tense. I always am whenever someone ask about Marisa and I's past. "Excuse me?"

"We saw you at her apartment in a comprising position and we both know what went down between you two the night before. I can see the hate in your eyes but they don't stay for a longer period of time before other emotion takes over. You are clearly fighting it." She started. I opened my mouth to cut her off and stop her before she invades the space she isn't suppose to, but she never lets me. I'm surprised when she raises her hand to stop me from speaking. I always knew Scarlett to be the one with free mind but definitely not this. "No one is going to ask you about it. Sophia is constantly worried about the both of you. Your brothers would only pester you when things go extreme. I feel I'm the only one who could ask you."

I didn't speak anything and just stared at her, hoping to intimidate her despite being my sister-in-law. She was fierce as she stood my stare with her own. My jaws clenched, yet my mind going through her words.

I broke the stare when the melodies laugh rang through the hall to my ears. "I knew it." I faintly heard her as my eyes glued to the woman in white laughing at something Dad said. She was current conversing with my family and Arnold, leaving only Scarlett and I alone from this reunion.

"I hate her because she hurt me." I answered her, not looking away from the woman of talk. Tearing my eyes from Marisa, I focused on Scarlett who was looking at me with poker face. "Does that answer your question?"

She smiled at me, the smile that says 'I know something you don't' which left me confuse. "There is a fine line between love and hate. You never know when you cross that line."

"I thought you did not believe in love." I automatically say, trying to conceal my true feelings from her. I refuse to believe that I love Marisa. Sure, I was attracted to her but it was only her body and nothing else.

Then, why couldn't my eyes stay away from her throughout the night?

She laughed. "I'm married to your brother, Nate. He taught me love and made believe it. I crossed the line the minute I met him. Just took sometime to realise."

I recoiled in shame. "I'm sorry. That was rude of me. I don't know what I was thinking."

She placed a hand on my shoulder. "You love her that's why she has the power to still hurt you, Nate. If you really didn't care about her, it wouldn't affect you as it does."

"We have a fucked up past, Scarlett. Love might not be enough to overcome that." I spoke, softly this time, stopping her.

She nodded but did not say anything for a while. "How about we leave those thoughts and move to the family gathering? I can already feel Ethan glancing at me with wide eyes."

"He probably wants to intervene our talk and is eager to know what's going on here." I joked, looking over at my elder brother who looked our way and raised an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes at him and guided Scarlett to him.

As soon as we reached them, Scarlett left my side and moved to Ethan who instantly wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close. I smiled at them as he leaned down to kiss her cheeks cheekily before giving her a wink.

I took my eyes off them before I get the craving of having that and connected with the one's whom I've been following throughout the night. We stared at each other for a while before Marisa broke the stare when Sophia demanded her attention. I looked around and saw that everyone was introduced - meaning Ashton, Gwen's boyfriend and Alexis, Max's girlfriend. I'm pretty sure she knew everyone else as she has been to our house on multiple occasions.

As we conversed around the group, the background music changed. We paused and watched few people walking around at the centre of the hall with a partner at their arm.

I felt a nudge from my side and looked over to see Will calling for my attention. "You need to ask Marisa to dance."

"What? No." I instantly denied.

He gave me a deadpan eye. "Both of you are leading this work. We need you to grab attention. See it as a publicity stunt to draw attention to this partnership. Stop being a baby and ask her."

I glared at him but moved over to Marisa. She was startled by my presence and recovered quickly. "May I have this dance?"

"No." Was her reply, before she looked away.

I rolled my eyes and pulled her to me so her attention was back to me only. "We aren't given an option. Now, come on." I didn't give her time to reject me again as I pulled her to the dancefloor.

She grumbled under her breath but stepped up to me and circled her arms on my shoulder. My hands stayed on her waist as we swayed gently to the music.

Marisa avoided any eye contact and looked around the hall, not stopping at any particular spot.

"If you keep doing that people will get wrong impression." I let my voice bring her eyes back to me.

"What?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she glanced at me.

My hands tightened around her as I repeated. "If you keep looking around, people will think this is forced partnership. Don't look so guarded. I'm not going to bite you." Marisa bit her bottom lip, drawing my attention to them. "Not yet atleast." I spoke as an afterthought.

She stopped and narrowed her eyes at me while I gave her a smirk. "You never will."

"We'll see."

**

The night soon ended with Dad and Arnold shaking hands for the camera and sealing close of this event which was successful to say the least.

I was happy and satisfied with how the night proceeded because a lot of time and money were invested in this project. It was a risk we were taking when we decided to onboard this to our company. It was safe to say the decision wasn't the one of regret.

Even though, I don't want to admit it out loud, Marisa and her team had done wonders in making this evening succesful by working their asses of the last two weeks. And now that the announcement was made to the world, the actual work begins now.

However, not for us lot.

Since Will was adamant on having this bachelor gateway with Sophia, we were thrown out of this project for time being. There was a discussion on this topic with the result being that Dad will take care of this project for the coming 2 months as Will, Ethan and I took that trip along with Sophia, Scarlett and their friends.

I'm not sure how Marisa will pull that with her boss but that was none of my concern. Sophia had said in passing that Marisa was already on working it out with her boss.

Putting a countdown to this trip was in a week. Will had already made arrangements and we were flying to Miami and other places around the State. They were looking for party places where there would be strip clubs, beaches, alcohol and dance. So, Vegas was also marked on this plan. I'm not sure how they planned to travel along with this plan but apparently Will had it sorted so all we have to do is suck up and follow him because we never follow him and steal his things.

Cue, an eye roll.

"The night went better than expected." Will commented as we made our way to our respective rooms.

"Yeah. I think we did attract a lot of potential interest. I saw Arnold shaking a lot of hands." I responded.

"It was their night. This pretty much put their company on the map." He said, rolling his neck and massaging the side.

I nodded and glanced to his side where Sophia looked half dead. "She alright?"

Will glanced at his fiance and nodded. "She had pretty much a lot to drink. Something about celebrating her best friend's success."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "You don't say."

Will shrugged. "Scarlett is down too. Ethan took her home before anyone left. They should already be asleep."

I slowly nodded wondering what happened to Marisa if her friends were drunk at the night. Was she alright?

"Don't worry. Marisa is fine. I saw her drinking water the whole night." Will suddenly said.

I snapped my head in his direction, again wondering how he knew. "I didn't ask."

He rolled his eyes. "I thought of letting you know, just in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't." I snapped.

He just smirked at me and took his turn to go to his room while I went to mine. Just before I entered my room, I thought of checking on Gwen and Ryan. Going over to Ryan's room, I saw his door open with him resting on his bed with his eyes glued to his phone. His suit jacket thrown carelessly on the other side of bed while his tie hanging loosely around his neck.

Next, I made my way to Gwen's room to see the door closed. I knocked and waited for her to open. When she didn't open for few seconds longer, I tried again. Again, when she didn't open and I saw the lights peeking out from below the door, I knew she was in there.

Throwing the privacy, I barged open the door. What I saw was enough to make me mad. Crossing my arms, I cleared my throat loudly to grab their attention. When I still received no response, I banged on the door loudly with my hand, emitting a shrilling sound that echoed in the hall. The couple finally broke apart at that.

Gwen stared at me wide eyes and attempted to tame her hair as Ashton just sat on her bed. He wore an indifferent expression as if annoyed on being disturbed. I glared at him and wanted to punch his face. He maybe Gwen's boyfriend but she is still my baby sister and watching her make out on the bed when anything could happen boiled my blood.

Will was right. She shouldn't have a boyfriend until 30.

**

Hello! What do you think? I just thought of adding Gwen and Ashton in case you miss them.

From the next chapter, they will begin their trip so you might see romance, flirting and drama, throwing in some humour maybe. Anyway, until then.

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