Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

It was a headache. I’d raided Penn’s liquor drawer, and I was sipping from a glass of whiskey when he appeared in the living room. My eyes trailed down him. The navy jacket and gray slacks that hugged him. The bow tie hanging around his neck, undone. The electric-blue eyes that took in my own state of undress with efficiency and need. Then to the glass in my hand.

“Long day?” he finally settled on.

“Taxing,” I told him. “Who knew party-planning was so cumbersome?”

“Literally everyone.” He took the drink out of my hand and took a sip. “Oh, the good stuff. I think I’ll have one.”

“Fill mine up,” I called as he headed back to the liquor cabinet.

He chuckled and did as I’d asked, bringing his own glass over as well. He sank into the seat next to me and slung his arm across the back of the sofa. Totle crawled over me, licked his dad’s face, and then settled comfortably into his lap.

“Should I be thankful or nervous that you’re not immediately yelling at me about seeing the crew?” Penn asked with a dangerously sexy smirk.

“It’s fine,” I said on a sigh. I chewed on the end of my pen as I stared harder at the list.

“Fine? The last time, you freaked out.”

“Yes. Last time, you didn’t tell me. And…that was before you explained them to me in Charleston.” I glanced up to meet his eyes. “Do I like it? I mean, no. I don’t think it’s healthy, but I’m not going to tell you not to see them. You’re a big boy. You can make your own decisions.”

He grinned like he was about to devour me. I laughed as he nipped at my bottom lip.

“I like coming home to you.”

“Me too.”

He pressed a kiss to my lips. “So, maybe you should move in.”

I pulled back. “What?”

“We can get you out of your new lease. You can live here.”

I opened my mouth. “Are you joking?”

“Do I look like I am?”

“No. But…I like my place. We go over there still. Totle likes it over there, too.”

“That’s because he likes to hump your neighbor’s dog.”

I snorted. “True. It just feels…soon.”

“Okay,” he said easily. His eyes skittered over the list in my lap. “What’s this?”

“Wait. Okay? Just like that?”

“If you’re not ready, that’s okay, Nat,” he said, running his finger along my jaw and pulling me in for another kiss. “I’m not pressuring you into anything.”

Sometimes, I forgot how amazing he was. That we worked so well like this. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I’m going to try to get you to move in with me, and one day, you’re going to say yes. But you can’t say yes if I don’t ask.”

“Sneaky.”

He winked at me and then returned to the paper. “Why is every girl that I know on the Upper East Side in a spreadsheet in your lap?”

“Oh god, you know them all? That would be so helpful. I’m planning a small girls’ night out, and Harmony sent me a list of people I could invite. Whittling it down is…intense.”

Penn shook his head. “You don’t want to be friends with any of these people, Nat. They’re all snakes.”

“Pot, meet kettle.”

He pointed his finger at me. “Touché. I have the ultimate snake friends.” He snatched it out of my hand and then started listing off names. “That’s probably where I’d start. You do know these are all Katherine’s friends, right?”

I shrugged. “So?”

“She’s going to get pissed if you don’t invite her.”

“Well, I guess she’ll just have to get pissed, won’t she?”

“All right,” he said with a shrug. “Just be careful. I don’t want her to try to hurt you again.”

“Me either.”

“The stuff with Lewis is scary enough.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, biting my lip.

“Did you hear the shit with his mom?”

I frowned. “What about Nina?”

“They’re putting her on hiatus for her UN ambassadorship until they find out if she was involved in any way,” Penn said with a shake of his head.

I blanched. “Oh my god.”

I liked Nina. She had been the best part about dating Lewis. She was this perfect, unbelievable woman who, against all circumstances, had come out on top. She was honest and good. I hadn’t thought that this could hurt her.

“Yeah, Lewis is pretty fucked up over it.”

“You talked to him?”

He shrugged. “I called when I found out. He called Ren and filled us in while I was at Rowe’s.”

I swallowed. “I didn’t think this would affect Nina.”

“None of us did,” he said, pulling me in close to him as I swallowed bile. “Hopefully, the investigation turns up nothing, and she can go back to work.”

My stomach pitched. Lewis deserved what I’d done. Even his smarmy dad who had tried to buy me out of dating Lewis deserved this shit. But Nina? No. She was an innocent in all of this. It was an unintended consequence of this mess. And it made me feel as sick as I had that morning when I realized I’d gotten away with how I’d treated Michael. I didn’t like knowing that this hurt people I cared about.