Nick’s Obsession (The Billionaire’s Obsession 3)

“You’re relentless,” I whined.

He trailed his eyes up, meeting mine, “Marry me, Em.”

I narrowed my eyes on him, “Nick-”

His eyes burned with an intensity which made my breathing hitch in my throat, “Marry me.”

“Fine, but if I’m marrying you I want a big, over the top wedding. With bridesmaids and grooms, a big fucking cake and a white dress so big I can barely fit in a car.” I took a deep breath, a mischievous plan forming in my head and I blamed Evan for me becoming like this, he was the original evil mastermind after all, “And I claim Evan.”

His lips curled up, “You can’t claim Evan, he is mine.”

“If you want a wedding Evan will be my man of honor.”

Nick pulled away from me, his eyes glistering with amusement, “We’ll revisit and revise. I’m sure we can find a better solution.”

“I’m not backing down, you want the big over the top wedding you’ll also need to make a compromise.”

“You’re only demanding to have Evan to make me pay for making you change your mind about the whole marriage thing.”

“I’m making a compromise, why can’t you?”

Nick seemed tired of the discussion, letting out a long, tired sigh, “We can share Evan.”

If we shared Evan he’d have much more to do, I knew Evan wouldn’t mind nor would he complain because he loved us both, but I didn’t want to put so much on his shoulders. The guy didn’t deserve that.

“We can’t, the poor guy would get buried in tasks. Probably going insane by the time we are actually saying or vows.”

Nick nodded, “Fine, you can have Evan.” He didn’t look pleased about making that compromise, “I don’t know why you can’t ask Brandon, but fine. I’ll ask Chris instead.”

“Brandon will give me away.”

I walked out the kitchen knowing Nick wasn’t okay with that. I heard his footsteps following behind me as I walked into the living room to grab my laptop. When I spun around I nearly smacked right into my boyfriend. He placed his hands on my shoulders to keep me steady, but I also assumed to keep me in place as he shared his thoughts with me.

“You have a perfectly healthy brother.” He reminded me, “But your father is still alive as well. It wouldn’t be right not to let either one of them give you away.”

“So instead of letting someone who knows me better than anyone else give me away to a man who is my other half I should ask a stranger to do that?”

Nick tightened his hold on me, “They’re not strangers. They’re your family.”

I sighed, “Can we please not go there again? I already shared with you how I feel about that.”

He released me and stepped aside to let me pass, “I’m not going to let it go anytime soon, Emily. I don’t want you to have any regrets. I’ve told you that before too. You’ll regret it when something happens to your father and you didn’t listen to his last wish. You think you’ll be okay now, but years from now, you’ll regret it. Trust me.”

I wanted to walk away at first until I heard the last part of his preach, “You’ve been through that?”

He shook his head, “No, but Evan has. He changed since then, he pretends he is okay, but he is not. He is never going to forgive himself for not visiting his mom when he had the chance.”

My hands shook as I heard the pain in Nick’s voice. He was right beside Evan when it happened. I had to tighten my hold on my laptop because I knew it would slip between my fingers if I pushed Nick to tell me more.

“What happened to his mom?”

“She had some mental issues. She hadn’t been right for a long time and Evan was tired of taking care of her. His father remarried and took his hands off her, he didn’t want anything to do with the woman. Evan was the only one she had left, but with time it just got too much for him so his visits to the home became less and less. Then there came a time that she asked of Evan to come to see her, that she needed him, but he thought she was having a fit. Then she took her own life and Evan never forgave himself for not listening to her request.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“So that’s why he is partying all the time? He just wants to forget?”

“He has far more issues than that.”

“He hates being alone too.”

I knew that because whenever Evan had nothing planned he came hanging out with us. Nick mentioned that Evan rarely spent a night on his own. I never thought anything of it until now. I bet he couldn’t be on his own because then the guilt came in waves, drowning him.

Nick placed his hand on my arm, his eyes narrowing on me, “I don’t want you to have any regrets.”

He didn’t want me to become like Evan, unable to move forward.

I nodded, “Okay. How about we visit him next weekend together and head to Tokyo afterward?”

I didn’t need to specify to Nick what I meant, because he caught on. I loved that about him, with just a look he knew where my mind was at. Maybe marriage wasn’t such a bad thing, not when you were married to the person you trusted with your life.

Nick couldn’t keep a straight face, “You want to hug him now, don’t you?”

I glared at my boyfriend or fiancé rather, since he did propose to me and I apparently accepted it.

“Shut up.”

Nick grabbed my hand when I wanted to walk away, being pouty and annoyed that he pushed me so much today. I knew he only did that for me, but I couldn’t be happy about it now. In the future I’d be grateful to him for pushing me, I was aware of that. So I didn’t pull away when he tried to pull me back to him. So I let him spin me around and pull me closer to him, his lips lingering against my temple.

“I’ll arrange a flight to Tokyo. You should contact your brother and discuss if it’s a good time to see your father. We’ll stay the weekend and head to Tokyo on Monday. Then you can hug Evan and tell him he’s loved.”

“I do love him.” I murmured into his chest, leaning closer to him as he pressed his lips against my hair.

I heard rather than saw Nick’s smile, “You should be glad I don’t get jealous when it comes to Evan.” I heard the soft chuckle he tried to hide, “Much.”

He let go of me and went back to the kitchen to continue cooking dinner. I sat down on the couch and send an email to Max. I didn’t want to hear his voice, I wasn’t ready for that after I decided to see our dad when I protested so much the other day. I knew he wouldn’t gloat but something inside me just wouldn’t let me pick up the phone. I’m sure a man like Max checked his mail frequently. If Max replied back telling me it was a good time, Nick and I would be on a plane heading to Florida to see my dad. Just the thought of seeing him again made all the stress and anxiousness crawl up inside me. Nick would be right beside me so I hoped everything would work out okay.