Instead, I used a bit of bread to mop up broth left from a bowl of mussels, then popped it in my mouth. Nina watched with obvious desire. She had enjoyed most of the things we’d ordered, but I noticed she’d passed on the bread.
“Want a piece?” I asked, offering the baguette.
She shook her head. “Oh…”
“Come on, doll. You already broke your diet for me. The broth is amazing. You have to try it.”
She sighed with a doleful grin. “You’re a terrible influence.”
I smirked. “I’m the best, baby. Now, open up.”
She did, and I delivered another soaked morsel into her mouth.
“Ohhhhh, that’s so good,” she said after she swallowed. Her eyes closed with pleasure, and again, I had to adjust my pants. Good fuckin’ God, if that’s what she did when she ate, what would she sound like when she came?
I fully intended to find out. Tonight, if possible. Again and again, if she’d let me.
When her eyes opened, Nina almost looked drunk. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve eaten bread,” she admitted.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those no-carbs people,” I said as I tore off another piece and handed it to her.
She immediately dunked it in the bowl. “Clothes don’t fit themselves, you know. I cut out pretty much all gluten years ago. And sugar. And dairy.”
“No bread? Ice cream? Cheese? No pasta?” The idea was fuckin’ horrifying. “And you did that voluntarily?”
Nina giggled. “Gluten is very inflammatory.”
“Gluten is fuckin’ delicious.” I shook my head. “You’ll pry pasta out of my cold, dead hands. That’s it. Next time, we’re eating Italian. I’ll make it for you myself, and then you can’t say no.”
Her face fell a bit at the words “next time,” but she didn’t reply. Instead, almost as if to make me happy, she ate another piece of bread drenched in the leftover drippings from a bit of pork cheek. And really, really enjoyed it.
“Happy?”
My throat was suddenly very thick. “Ah, yes. Very. Now do it again.”
So she did. And I stared like it was an Oscar winning film while my pants became stupid tight and my appetite pretty much disappeared. Well, except for one thing.
“Nina,” I said. “What do you say we get the check?”
She swallowed, then looked at her plate. “I—I’m not quite finished.”
She picked up the wine and emptied the last of it into her glass. Was she trying to be coy? Did she think there was any point? Electricity was practically jumping off the table. It was time to go.
I reached across the table and took her hand, then drew my nails up her wrist. She inhaled sharply.
“You sure about that, doll?” I asked.
Nina blinked. Then, finally, she guzzled her wine like it was water and set it back on the table with clear intention.
I raised my hand. “Check, please.”
Seven
Hand in hand, Nina and I bumped into each other in a daze of wine and food as we exited the restaurant. Just above the city, I caught a gleam of one of the few stars that emerged on the other side of the city’s haze of light. The sky was clear. The rain was gone. And I could not wait to pull this woman into my arms.
“Well,” I said as we stopped at the curb. “What now, beautiful?”
She looked up, and her lips parted. “I suppose…it is late…” Her eyes darted around, as unwilling to meet mine as she was to finish a damn sentence. She obviously wanted this night to continue, but for some reason wouldn’t say it. Nina was a lady, through and through. She needed to be finessed.
“It’s still early,” I said. “Technically speaking. We could grab a bagel somewhere. Or maybe some more bread.”
She rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t hide her smile. “Oh, no. I couldn’t eat another bite.”
We were searching for reasons to stay together. Every reason but the one that was clearly on both our minds.
Well, I’d had enough of that.
“Or we could call it a night,” I said. “What do you think?”
I tipped her chin toward me, urging her to look at me. When she did, I found I couldn’t meet her eyes anyway. I was too hypnotized by her mouth.
Her tongue, a tease of pink, slipped out. “Think about what?”
I took a step closer. “Nina.”
“I—yes.”
I didn’t need any more than that. My mouth found hers in a fury, fitting to her sweet, soft, pillowy lips. She opened naturally, and my tongue slipped in, eager to taste as much as she would offer.
Jesus. Mary. All the fuckin’ saints. I’d forsake every one of them for another kiss like this.
When I broke away, Nina’s hands were gripping the lapels of my coat so tightly the thing would probably be permanently wrinkled. Her knees had buckled—she was fully dependent on me to hold her up at the waist. She gasped, like she had just emerged from a deep dive.
“You all right, doll?” I asked, licking my lips. I needed another taste.
She exhaled. “I’m fine, yes. It’s only...well, no one has ever done that before.”
I balked. “No one has ever kissed you? How old are you?” The idea was fuckin’ unfathomable.
Nina grinned, and then pressed her forehead on my shoulder and laughed. Hard.
When I was a kid, our priest, Father di Lorenzo, told us that if we got to heaven, the pearly gates would open, and the angels’ singing would sound like bells. Now I was fucking sure I heard them, but it was in this woman’s laughter. And I wasn’t dead. I was very much alive, standing on a dark street corner in New York City with Nina Astor in my arms.
And in that moment, I knew without a doubt: I’d sell my soul to the devil himself to hear that sound again.
“No, silly,” she said as she pushed me lightly, seemingly unaware of the sudden spell she had cast. “I’m twenty-nine years old. Of course I’ve been kissed.”
But as soon as she said it, her gaiety faded. Like a sudden shadow fell over the streetlamp.
“You’ve been kissed,” I said, “but not like that?”
Her gray eyes, now more like velvet, met mine. “No. Not like that.”
I brushed a stray lock of blonde away from her face, then weaved my fingers into the silky thicket just behind her ear. “And not right here?”
“No,” she croaked as I leaned down. “Not—not right there.”
She glanced around, like the very thought of this dark corner made her fearful. It wasn’t anything special. Just another gray sidewalk, another beaten building. They were a dime a dozen in this city, but we were safe here. I would keep her safe.
She licked her lips. Okay, then. Fearful, but also turned on.
I brushed my mouth to hers.
She whimpered. “Matthew.”
But I didn’t dive in again. Instead, I slipped one hand around her jaw, brushing my thumb across that razor-cut cheekbone. I nibbled on her bottom lip, then the top. Traced my tongue around both, dipped in to twist with hers, then back out.
If the first kiss was born of furious need, this one was about savoring. I wanted to take my time and explore this woman, luxuriate in all the ways she had clearly never been enjoyed. I didn’t know who had hurt her or failed to appreciate her. I didn’t know who could kiss a woman like this and not fall to his knees.
Fuckin’ idiots, all of them. It had taken me all of a few hours to know without a doubt that there was no other woman like Nina Astor. And the fuck if I was going to let her slip through my fingers.
“Are you ready, doll?” I murmured as I drifted my mouth around her jaw, over her pulse, down her ballerina’s neck to where her collar begged to be pushed aside. “I think it’s time we found someplace a little more private.”
I took her chin between my fingers and pressed a longer, more appreciative kiss to her lips. Her tongue slipped out and touched mine, a shy kitten of a thing, though I could tell she wanted to do more. Fuckin’ lord, I wanted dev
our this woman. And oh, we’d get there. But there was no need to rush anything. Nina Astor and I had just met. We had all the time in the world.
I deepened the kiss, measuring it, tasting the depths of her. Nina’s head tipped back, and she accepted everything I had to give, a low groan thrumming from the back of her throat.
When at last I broke away, she had melted against me. Her eyes were dazed, drunken stars.
“Matthew,” she whispered, her breath warm on my neck. “Oh-oh, my.”
I smiled. “It’s just the beginning, sweetheart. Come on, let’s get a car.”
But as if my reminder of the basic necessities of transportation jolted her out of our haze of lust, Nina immediately pulled away.
“No,” she said.
One word. Like a fuckin’ gavel.
“What?”
She tried to pull her hand away. I wasn’t quite willing to let it go.
“Nina,” I said. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“I can’t stay out any longer,” she said. “I really shouldn’t. Matthew, I’m so sorry, but I have to go.”
“You have to…”
As I trailed off, dumbfounded, she managed to slip out of my grasp. The sudden loss snapped me out of my stupor.
“Nina.” I snatched her hand again before she could get too far. “Do you really have to go, or are you just scared?”
The electricity was as strong as ever.
“I’m a little nervous too, baby, you want to know the truth. I am. Shit, I was starstruck the second I spotted you in the bar.”
Again, no answer. Fuck. Fuck.
Usually I was good with bullshit. I was a lawyer, after all, and a damn good one. I could convince anyone of pretty much anything.
But for some reason, all the garbage lines, all the ways I managed to connive invites into women’s apartments, their bedrooms, hell, even the back of a cab…they all disappeared. I couldn’t bullshit Nina. I couldn’t be anything but myself.
I found her other hand and pulled her around to face me.
“Nina, when I walked into Envy tonight, everything in this fuckin’ city seemed wrong, you know? I was looking for something, but I didn’t know what. Then I saw you. And everything changed.”
She stilled. Didn’t look up, but she was clearly listening.
“You seemed like you were in the same space. Am I right?”
She swallowed. “I…yes. Yes, you’re right.”
“Then, just tell me one thing,” I said, shaking her hands a little. “Did you feel it? When you saw me, Nina, did you feel it too?”
Finally, she looked up, and her eyes shone brighter than any star I’d ever seen.
“I—yes,” she admitted softly. “Yes, I did. But, Matthew—”
“That’s all that matters,” I interrupted, tugging her closer. “I don’t know what life you have to return to. I don’t know who wants you back. I only want to know the answer to one question. Do you really have to go home right now?”
Our gazes locked. No one blinked.
“I…no,” she said softly. “I suppose that tonight…I don’t.”
“Then, come with me.”
“Where?”
That, I supposed, was the question. I didn’t want to go home. I couldn’t enjoy this night with a woman like Nina in my two-bit house at the edge of Brooklyn with my sister and niece sleeping in the next room. But at the same time, Nina hadn’t exactly invited me home with her. I had a feeling she didn’t want to go there either, wherever it was.
“We could get a hotel,” I ventured, wishing immediately it didn’t sound so damn creepy. “Somewhere nice. Somewhere special. Uptown. The Plaza, maybe, or the Waldorf. One of them swanky joints on the Upper East—”
“No,” she interrupted sharply, though she didn’t pull away. Instead, she stepped closer.
I guided her the rest of the way so she was where she belonged. In my arms. Bodies pressed together. I groaned inwardly. I didn’t care how much she liked my suit—I wanted these clothes gone.
“I just want to be with you,” I said as I cupped her face, examining its perfect symmetry once again. “We don’t have to do anything more. I just don’t want this night to be over. Not yet.”
She gazed up at me, her eyes silver moons of anticipation. And fear. Always a bit of fear. “And if I told you…if I said it could only be one night?”
What? Inside, I reeled. One night? How could something like this only last for one night? This was already the stuff of legends. Nina and I hadn’t done anything more than kiss, but I knew it would take years, decades even, to penetrate the depths of what we could be together.
One night? She might as well have asked for one second.
But her gaze didn’t waver. She was completely serious.
The tip of her nose had reddened in the cold, and her lips were swollen from our kisses.
“One scarlet night,” I murmured as I swept my thumb over her plump lower lip. “Well, if that’s all I get…I’ll take it.”
My heart plummeted the second I said the words, but I knew they were true.
Nina’s hands slipped around my head and sank into my hair. Then she brushed her lips against mine, and this time she took control, her mouth setting the pace of a kiss that practically stopped my heart. Jesus Christ. This wasn’t some innocent angel. She was a temptress after all.
“Matthew.” Her breath danced around us in clouds of white. “Please. Somewhere close.”
Close, close. Where the fuck was nice enough down here that I could actually take a woman like this?
“The Grace,” I blurted out. “It’s maybe two blocks away.”
Nina finally relaxed, and her a smile bloomed, transforming her as much as her laugh. “Take me there.”
Eight
One night. One night.
Nina obviously had a secret. And whatever it was, she wasn’t giving anything up. Not yet. But her finger didn’t have that telltale dent from a wedding ring. No tan lines, nothing. I still thought she was from out of town (even if she was originally a local). In the city on a lark, getting away from something major for the night. Her family, maybe. The shipping tycoons. Loads of pressure on their princess.
So, maybe she wanted to slum it for an evening. Well, I wasn’t going to give her that. No seedy motels for this one. No mirrors on the ceiling, shared bathrooms down the hall. If I had only one night with Nina Astor, I was going to make it the best of either of our lives.
“Evening.” I approached the front desk amiably while the clerk eyed us both. Our intent was likely written all over us. One in the morning. No luggage. Hands all over each other. “We’d like a room, please.”
Nina nickered into my shoulder. She nickered, like a baby horse, and it was the cutest damn thing I’d ever heard.
“You okay there, doll?” I murmured, but it only made her chuckle harder.
“It’s…just a new experience…”
I assumed she meant asking for a room, brazen as the day. Well, she could be shy. I’d take the heat if that’s what she was worried about.
The clerk, a stocky man with a snubbed nose, peered at us over the rims of his glasses. “I’m sorry, Mr…”
“Zola,” I said with a wink at Nina. I plucked a rose from a bouquet on the counter and tapped it on her nose. “It’s Zola, baby. Remember?”
Nina offered a small smile. The red petal tickled her cheek, bright crimson against the snowy perfection of her skin. I watched the progress of the flower as it trailed over her skin, casting goose bumps in its wake.
Yeah. We really needed that room.
“Well, Mr. Zola, I’m so sorry,” the clerk replied. “But we’re booked up tonight. All we have available is the owner’s suite, which I assume is too—”
“It’s fine,” I interrupted, too busy flirting with Nina to pay attention to this asshole. He was making flip assumptions based on what? My slightly out-of-style suit? The grubby edges of my trench coat? I didn’t care. What difference did a fe
w hundred dollars make? I’d eat ramen for a month to make this happen.
“Are you sure? It’s one thousand, five hundred dollars per night.”
My head snapped back around at that number. “What?”
The concierge looked halfway between apologetic and smug.
I swallowed. Fifteen hundred dollars a night was more than half my mortgage payment, which I only managed by being very careful about my spending. I’d already surpassed my budget for the month by a few bucks, but fifteen hundred dollars? Shit.
I could put it on a card, but I needed that money. Frankie and Sofia needed that money. Nina was…well, Nina Astor was a chance in a lifetime. But my family came first. They had to.
“We’ll take it.”
Before I could stop her, Nina calmly handed a black American Express card to the clerk. My eyes just about fell out of their sockets.
I already knew that Nina came from money. She glowed with it, from the diamonds in her bracelet to the luxe clothes to the immaculate grooming. But this—this was something else beyond a few extra thousand in the bank. Only a select few people worldwide carried one of those. Maybe ten, fifteen thousand. Out of billions.
And one of them was her?
“I don’t mind.” Those big, dove-gray eyes begged me to let it go.
It wasn’t easy. It’s not that I had any problem with women paying their own way. I had five sisters, for fuck’s sake. I’d heard enough stories about men paying for shit and thinking they were owed something back. I never wanted to be one of them.
This wasn’t about that. With any other woman, I would’ve been happy to let her do this, but for some reason, I wanted to give Nina this night. If we only had one together, I wanted it to be my gift to her. One hundred percent.
But I just couldn’t afford it. And Nina wasn’t going to tramp around looking for an empty room at every shitty hotel in the city. It was this or my place, and I sure as hell wasn’t bringing her there to endure Frankie’s curiosity and Sofia’s occasional nightmare. I wasn’t interested in that…reality. Not yet.
Not ever, I reminded myself with some regret.
The Scarlet Night (Rose Gold Book 0) Page 5