#oceanfrontnicole

It had been quite the successful party; even Nicole herself had to admit.

What a lovely evening, Nicole, darling. We’re so happy you’ve come to join us here.

How refreshing to have a new face amongst this droll crowd. You’re such a breath of fresh air.

Charming party, Miss Ackerman. Quite charming. You’ll simply have to tell me the name of your caterer!

She smiled that perfect smile at each of the ladies as they passed, shaking hands and pressing kisses to the air next to cheeks. Everything like clockwork as she had been taught from the womb.

Perfect hostess.

Perfect daughter.

Perfect soon-to-be-wife.

This party had been all part of Frederick’s grand scheme of course. An afternoon tea social for all the influential ladies of VA Beach. She’d even invited the fearsome Kitty Porter in the hopes of a show of solidarity for the joining of their families. The woman had politely declined, of course, but Nicole had been quite open in sharing that her future mother-in-law had assured her it was only due to a slight cold that she would not be coming.

Whatever helps her sleep at night, that cold hearted bitch… Nicole thought to herself, waving a hand to the last of the guests as she stepped into her towncar and drove away.

“Thank God it’s all over.” She murmured, kicking off her kitten heels and pulling the diamond chandelier earrings from her ears. “I wouldn’t have been able to stand these fucking harpies one second more.” Dropping the jewelry in a bowl next to the door, Nicole wandered through the archways of their pebbled drive, past the rose garden where the servants and catering crew were picking up the remnants of the party. The head of the catering company looked up as the golden goddess made her way past, picking up a clipboard and hurrying over towards her.

“Miss Ackerm—“

“The party is over. I’m not on duty anymore, so you have nothing you could possibly say to me that I care to hear about. If you have any questions, talk to my father. He’s the one paying you after all.” She muttered, brushing past the woman as she peeled the straps of her dress off her shoulders and tossed it to one of the servants without a second look.

She’d been wearing her bathing suit under the floral contraption the entire time, having promised herself that the instant she was free of the clucking hens of this place that she would give herself a good half-days’ worth of sun and mojitos by the pool. Working on her tan was listed under the unofficial acceptable activities listed sanctioned by Frederick Ackerman, after all. Along with anything else that could possibly help make her more desirable to the opposite sex.

“Disgusting.” Nicole ruffled a hand through her perfect curls, mussing them as much as possible as she wandered through the gardens towards the pool. She wanted nothing to do with the girl she just had to play for the world outside of this cage. Nicole hated that woman. Simpering smiling fool she was.

Only a few more months… Then you’ll be married and all of this will be over…

The thought should have been more of a comfort than a burden. And yet…

Ice-cold blue eyes settled on the entire reason that her impending nuptials weighed heavy upon her heart the moment she passed through the gate to the pool. The dark-haired Adonis of her dreams lay in her favorite lounge chair, sunglasses perched on his nose and droplets of water glistening like diamonds upon his skin. It was only the uneven rhythm of his breathing and the twitching of his forehead at the sound of the gate closing behind her that made Nicole certain that he had not fallen asleep.

“Here I thought you knew better than to steal my chair when I’m not around.” Nicole teased as she walked over and perched next to Harry on the chair. Slowly she leaned over him, pulling the sunglasses from behind his ears and slipping them upon her own face. “Unless, of course, you’re simply here to reserve it for me and not, as I suspect, trying to hide the fact that you were spying on my party.” She grinned widely at the young man.

Had they been more concealed, perhaps she would have risked dipping her face to his, brushing a gentle kiss to the corner of his lips, taking the chance that he wouldn’t stop her. Instead she contented herself with her hand braced above his shoulder, staring down at him as she swallowed her want back. He’d denied her once. She knew better than to press again. She would not ask him for anything he did not want to give.

It was something akin to a sacred ritual.

Every other night, with the air of a cool goddess woken from her marble sleep, Nicole Ackerman, heiress to the Ackerman name (and only nominally to part of its fortune) floated through the halls of her father’s summer home at Virginia Beach. 

A flick of the wrist one way and she would snatch up two fluted glasses from her step-mother’s prized crystal cabinet. A glance over her shoulder and soon Nicole would have two bottles of a rare vintage her father had been hoarding for a special occasion under each arm. A wisp of a breeze and she would have taken up a tray of hors d’oeuvres left over from the bullshit dinner party she’d been forced to host in order to celebrate this sham of a marriage Nicole was about to enter into.

Had hardly seemed fitting to tell all of their social elite friends how Daddy all but had a gun to her head in order to be assured this Porter-Ackerman union would be seen through to its logical conclusion.

Would have been better of course if Daddy hadn’t barred Harry from coming. Nicole still wasn’t sure as to what it was this time that Daddy had devised as his latest slight against her beloved brother. But it certainly had done its job of keeping Nicole from, well... being distracted from her duty to the glorious Ackerman name.

But that was all behind her now, Nicole reminded herself silently as she padded down the halls in her bare feet, silk chemise billowing softly behind her like the fluttering of the wings the young woman sometimes wished she had. He’d been kept away because her father knew Harry was the last thing he could use to control her.

If only he knew to what extent his daughter’s heart had been entwined with that of her step-brother.

?????? I’m not really sure what kind of relationship this will be haha???? So, I know that Harry hATES the Porters and wants their lives to suck more than they already do and so he’s trying to turn the Connors against the Porters (more than they already are haha -- I mean, I think they are cool w/ Ian, but whoa not cool w/ Lex). And anyway, so Harry is basically gonna tell Valerie that his sister is head over heels in love with Lex, but Lex just runs around on her, but Nicole doesn’t believe it b/c of how much she loves him.