by Cat Johnson
But she hadn’t thrown up. That was really the best he could have hoped for considering the five vodka thyme things she said she drank.
Thank goodness he’d remembered to grab her keys before they left Jess and Michael’s, so he didn’t have to pick the lock to get inside.
He'd unlocked her apartment door, carried Dani inside and dumped her, still fully dressed, on her bed, before taking up residence on her sofa.
“Are you awake?" she asked.
He was now, thanks to her. He stretched his neck and groaned. "Yeah. I'm awake."
Unless this was an early morning booty call, he wasn’t all that keen on hopping right out of his makeshift bed, or even sitting up at the moment. He’d slept like shit.
Judging by Dani’s energy, she’d had a great night’s sleep.
He squinted at her and noticed her hair was wet. "Did you already shower?"
"Yes."
And she'd brushed her teeth, judging by her minty fresh breath. If only that meant she was ready for some kissing. He’d definitely be on board with that plan.
His eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room. He saw that she sat on the floor next to the sofa. Definitely within kissing distance.
He could reach out and touch her if he wanted to. And he wanted to. Wanted to cup the back of her head. Wanted to pull her closer and kiss her.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, instead of doing what he really craved.
"Fine. But we gotta get going. My car is still at my sister's, so we have to swing by there and then get to the beach house by eight."
So they were back to the way things used to be. All business.
He squeezed his eyes closed for a second and breathed in, adjusting to this new reality. Or maybe an old one. Back to where Dani wanted him when she was drinking, but only tolerated him once she sobered up.
Yet he was still hard as a rock inside his shorts. Apparently, he was a glutton for punishment. He’d continue to want a woman who didn't want him unless there was a bottle of booze involved.
Yeah, that didn't hurt his ego too much.
“All right. Give me two minutes and we can go.” He stood and, cock deflated as much as his ego, headed for the bathroom to pee.
Half an hour later, she’d gotten into her own car to head to work after a quick thanks for the ride and he’d gone inside the house.
“Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.” Michael’s voice from the kitchen was possibly the last thing Nick wanted to hear.
“Don’t you have a job?” Nick asked.
“I do. Which is why I’m up early enough to see you strolling in from last night.” His brother grinned.
“Shut up and pour me some coffee,” Nick grumbled.
“You’re in a piss poor mood for someone who finally hooked up with the girl he’s had a crush on forever.”
Nick’s eyes flew wide. “First of all, there was no hooking up. Second, I do not have a crush on Dani.”
Yeah, he definitely lied too easily to his family. He should probably think on that. One day.
Michael set down a mug and nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay? That’s it?”
His brother shrugged. “You’re in too shitty of a mood to have slept with Dani last night. And last I saw, she was too drunk to have done much of anything anyway. So I believe you.”
“For once. Thank you.”
“But you still have a crush on her, no matter what you say.” Before Nick could get a word in, Michael snapped the lid on a to-go coffee mug and smiled.
“See you tonight.” Then he was out the door.
That was probably for the best. It seemed Nick was suddenly horrible at hiding what he was thinking and feeling. That kind of shit could get a SEAL killed.
With that depressing thought, he headed for the shower.
He strolled onto the set probably close to an hour after Dani and he didn’t feel at all guilty about it. Not after all the hours he’d been putting in.
Let them dock his pay. He wasn’t here for the money.
“Nick. Good morning. What’s going on with the investigation?”
He didn’t feel bad about being late, but he did about his answer to the director’s question. “I don’t have anything concrete yet.”
Nothing more than the knowledge that Carl and Katia were definitely not a loving engaged couple, unless loving the spotlight counted. And there was a good chance Brittany B wanted Carl for herself.
By no means concrete evidence. But he wasn’t done trying.
“I’m still working on it,” he added.
Maria sighed. “I know.”
He paused, waiting to be dismissed. He never was, but since she spun and started yelling for Dave, he figured he was good to go. He was starving, so he headed for the food table.
Since there was no bacon and eggs, but plenty of something green that could possibly be guacamole being served with a side of toast, he grabbed a banana before heading to see what was happening today on the set of good old Cold Feet.
He walked around the corner, spotted Dani's deep frown and slowed to a stop.
Something had pissed her off already and she’d only been there an hour. He’d better tread lightly.
"Hey," he said, trying to gauge the depth of her dissatisfaction before he committed to more discourse.
"Hey." She scowled.
"What's up?" he asked, acting casual as he took a bite of banana.
"The Dirty Laundry Game," she answered, which wasn't much of an answer at all since he didn't know what the fuck the dirty laundry game was.
"Okay . . ." He tried to figure out the game by the evidence.
Judging by the hampers in front of each contestant, there could possibly be actual dirty laundry involved.
"They each get a hamper filled with another cast members dirty laundry," Dani confirmed.
"God. That's . . ." He searched for a word that could accurately describe what he thought about that and came up empty.
"Disgusting?" she suggested.
"Yup.” In addition to invasive and just plain weird.
He was starting to lose his appetite thinking about what those dirty laundry bins could contain.
Although there couldn't be all that much laundry to begin with. The girls and guys were in bathing suits like ninety percent of the time. Once in a while the females would don some skimpy dresses for dinner, and the guys would actually put on a shirt over their bare chests with their shorts, but that was about it.
"Oh, the dirty clothes aren't the worst part," Dani said.
He cringed, afraid as he asked, "What is?"
"Inside the laundry is a note with a clue. It's a secret about the cast member who the hamper belongs to. The female cast member has to guess which of the male cast the clue is about."
Okay, so at least there was kind of a point to this game. That was something.
"This boy was dating four girls at the same time," Korina read from a piece of paper she'd fished out from the hamper.
She glanced up from the note and scanned the men in front of her. Then she pranced her high heels around the pool and over to Adam. There she planted a big wet kiss on his lips.
"Korina thinks it's Adam. Adam, is it true?" the hostess, who only appeared on set occasionally for organized group things like this, asked.
Adam hung his head as if ashamed. It didn’t quite look convincing though as he glanced up and grinned. "Yeah. It was me."
All the girls tittered among themselves about that information as the men gave Adam high fives.
"Dude! Were you sleeping with them all?" Hunter asked.
"Well, I wasn't not sleeping with them all," Adam said, with an unnecessarily confusing non-answer.
That elicited a round of "Oh, my God" from the girls’ side of the pool.
"Jesus." Nick breathed out.
"Yup. This is my life now." Dani sighed. "I can't believe I graduated top of my class for this."
"Hey. Maybe it's not such a bad game.
At least they're getting to know the truth about each other," Nick pointed out.
Tiffany began flinging the least masculine-looking underwear ever onto the deck from the hamper in front of her. After a leopard pair hit the ground she emerged with a piece of paper. "This boy slept with his professor in college and went from a D average to a B+ by the end of the semester."
Ooos and giggling followed as Dani turned away from the action on the pool deck and glared at Nick.
"Not so bad, is it?" She cocked up a brow. "So tell me, Mr. Nick. What's the worst thing you've ever done?"
He matched her glare for glare, confident because he knew he had a damn good answer. At least, one she couldn’t argue with.
Crossing his arms, he said, "I pushed you away ten years ago."
She was fighting it, he could see that, but eventually the twitch of her lips turned into a smile.
Ha! He’d won.
"That's definitely the stupidest thing you've ever done," she said.
"I couldn't agree more," he said. "What about you? What secrets are in your sordid past?"
Her cheeks reddened as she shook her head.
Her blush was intriguing. Now he really needed to know. "Oh, no. You don't get off that easily. Come on. Spill it."
"It's embarrassing." She kicked her foot against the ground, refusing to meet his gaze.
"I think that's the whole point of the game," he said.
She drew in a breath and finally said, "My sister caught me—you know. Alone in my room. Doing . . . stuff."
Realization hit hard and his eyes flew wide. "Oh, man. Wow. Little Dani was into self-love. I like it."
And now he was wondering if there were toys involved or if she was a do-it-yourself kind of girl.
Was he allowed a follow-up question? He really, really wanted to ask.
She scowled. "I wasn't little. I was in college."
"How old?" he asked when a thought hit him. One he really liked.
She shot him a sideways glance before confessing. "Nineteen."
He pressed his lips together to try to hold in the question, but it didn't work. "This happen sometime after the wedding?"
Her lips formed a straight, unhappy line. "Yes."
Oh my God. Could it be? He couldn’t stop himself. He had to ask.
He leaned a bit closer. "Were you thinking about me?"
She drew in a quick breath. "I'm not going to answer that, you conceited jerk."
That was a yes in Dani-speak. For sure. He laughed too loudly and cringed when some of the crew shot him a look. But that didn't erase the smile.
He had no doubt she'd been thinking of him—and now he was hard as a frigging pole just thinking about it.
"If it makes you feel any better, you've been starring in my masturbatory fantasies since that summer too."
"Oh my God." She turned a scary frown on him.
"What? I thought you'd be flattered by that. You're not?" He knew she was tough. She could take a little teasing.
Besides, it was the truth. More than that, he really did want her to know. She affected him. And he didn’t have to be drunk at the time, either.
She screwed up her mouth, but then shot him a narrow-eyed sideways glance. “Maybe."
Score!
Oh, yeah. He was winning her over. And she was stone cold sober.
Was it possible to get physically high on victory and anticipation? If so, Nick was. High as a freaking kite.
He didn't grow up a saint. He'd tried pot a couple of times, before he’d enlisted in the Navy. He'd been drinking for years before he was legal. But none of that had him feeling like he did when he was with Dani.
Maybe waiting for something, the way he'd waited to be with her, wasn't such a bad thing. It would only make it all the sweeter when they finally were together.
A bad guy might have taken advantage of Dani’s drunken interest in him. First at the wedding. Then again after her vodka thyme drinks.
He could have already experienced the wild sex he knew they would have because a man didn’t crave a woman for a decade if there wasn’t some killer chemistry happening between them.
But Nick, a good guy, didn’t do that. Instead he got to go home with blue balls and lament the one who got away . . . twice now.
He paid the price for being a nice guy in sheer frustration. To date, he had been destined to live with the unrequited lust on his part . . . unless Dani got drunk.
Life wasn’t fair.
But now her walls were starting to crumble. And knowing that, he was going to put all of his tenacity into crushing them into rubble.
Then they’d both get what they’d wanted for so long.
Finally.
TWENTY
“Nick? Can you walk me to my room?”
Dani’s brows shot high. If she heard that overly sweet fake voice of Katia’s calling Nick one more time, she was going to lose it.
A chuckle behind her had Dani spinning.
“Something funny, Dave?” she asked.
“Yes. You. Why don’t you two just go get a room already?”
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“You and Nick. It’s obvious you two have it bad for each other. Why don’t you go out on a date or something?”
Dani snorted out a laugh. Lust aside, even funnier than the idea of her and Nick dating was that Dave thought they’d have time to go anywhere.
“I don’t want to burst your bubble, but your fantasy date between me and Nick isn’t going to happen because we don’t ‘have it bad for each other’.” She added beneath her breath, “And he never leaves here before midnight anyway.”
She glanced up in time to see Dave smirk. “Whatever you say.”
Rolling her eyes, Dani chose to leave before she decided she needed to smack some sense into Dave.
Her path to the pool to check on what was happening there took her past the kitchen. She slowed down while passing the windows, craning her neck to glance down the hallway that led to Katia’s bedroom . . . where Nick was. With Katia.
Grr.
“He’ll be back out.”
“Um, what?” Dani asked, turning to see Tiffany standing behind her.
“Nick. He pretty much escorts her to the room, checks like under the bed and in the closet, then comes right back out. No worries.” Tiffany smiled.
Dani did not. Instead, she frowned. “I wasn’t worried.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Looking pleased with herself, Tiffany trotted off to the pool deck, drink in hand.
Why were she and Nick suddenly the hot topic of conversation on set? Dani didn’t have time to worry, because raised female voices drew her attention.
“You’re cheating.”
“I am not!”
She let out a sigh. This was getting ridiculous. As tempting as it was to let the two girls duke it out, she really needed to go see what was wrong.
“Stop.” The single word spoken behind her halted Dani mid-step.
Dani turned and saw Maria. “They’ll tear each other’s hair out if somebody doesn’t step in.”
This had to be the most violent group of girls ever assembled under one roof.
Maria cocked a brow high. “Then let them.”
Dani’s eyes popped wide.
Maria shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to see anyone hurt. But I need the guys or the other girls to step in. I can’t continue to cut my best footage because my over enthusiastic production assistant keeps jumping in front of the camera."
She was right. Dani pressed her lips together and nodded. “Understood. But Jesus, Maria. Is it usually like this? I mean this is my first reality set, but is all this fighting normal?”
Maria shook her head. “Not like this. Isn’t it great?” she grinned and then headed toward the action. “Camera two!”
From where she still stood, Dani heard a bunch of the guys jump into the fray. Maria got her wish. The cast was breaking up the fight. And Dani didn’t have to feel like the lowes
t of human beings for not intervening.
“Christ. Another fight?” Dave asked from behind her.
“Yup. Apparently, Maria is very happy about that.”
“I mean, it’s making editing easy. Plenty of drama to choose from. But damn.” He shook his head. “Someone should probably take a look at those pills they’re all popping.”
Dani spun to Dave. “What pills?”
He shrugged. “I think they’re some sort of diet pills. They were talking about fitting into their bridesmaid dresses. They’ve got a big bottle of them. They pass them around like candy.”
“And they’re all taking them?” Dani asked.
“Yeah.” Dave paused for a second. “Actually, no. Now that I think about it, Katia took them for like the first couple of days then started to refuse them. Said she didn’t like the way they made her feel. Tiffany told her that’s how they knew they were working, but Katia hasn’t taken them since that I’ve seen.” Dave shot a narrow glance at Dani. “Hey. What are you doing here in the kitchen anyway?”
“Uh, nothing.”
He grinned. “Waiting for Nick?” he asked, glancing down the hall where he’d disappeared with Katia.
Dani glared at his smug face. “No.”
But honestly, how long had Nick been in Katia’s room, anyway?
Too long, was the obvious answer.
And the remaining question was, what was he doing in there?
TWENTY-ONE
“Don’t go yet.”
Nick sighed, turning back from the bedroom door where he’d been about to make a clean exit. “Why not? What’s wrong, Katia?”
He’d already checked her balcony door. Under her bed. In her closet. And inside the bathroom, both behind the door and in the shower.
There was nowhere anyone could be hiding. Short of standing over her as she slept, there was nothing else he could do to make her feel secure.
“I can’t get to sleep right away. And I get bored here,” she whined. “No internet. No television. I can’t even check my Insta account. God knows what’s happening on that with my sister in charge of my social while I’m gone.”
Truly tragic, that. He restrained the eye roll he felt coming on over her Insta-drama and instead said, “You could read.”