A pair of strong arms encircled me. Nico whispered playfully in my ear, “I’m flattered, Kat. I’ve had women throw themselves at me before, but never quite so literally.”
Mercifully covered by my hair, my face flamed red with shame. I was contemplating never opening my eyes again when Nico gently rolled us both over, and tucked me into his side. He brushed the hair from my face, but I hid in the crook of his arm, groaning.
The bed began to shake with Nico’s stifled laughter.
“Quiet on the set!” Obi’s shout was shrill. He was immediately obeyed. By everyone but Nico, that is, who chose that exact moment to declare into the silence, “Fuck, you’re adorable.”
Ground, please open up and swallow me. Please.
“We’re rolling! Cue music!”
A song began to play over the speakers. A lone violin note in plaintive high C, accompanied by the bass treble of a cello, filled the room. Then, sweet and soulful, aching with longing, a voice sang out.
My heart black as midnight on hell’s darkest shore
Yearning for something, or someone, before
It’s too late and I’m damned to this place
Of silence, and madness, and endless deep space
It was beautiful, that voice. Nico’s voice.
I opened my eyes to see him there above me, staring down, the smile fading from his eyes. He swept his thumb across my lower lip, and began to sing along with the lyrics.
His voice was soft, intimate, as if meant only for me.
I’ve wandered and hungered and waited for you
I’ve prayed on my knees to find something true
And now that you’ve found me and claimed me for yours
You’re taking me deeper than I’ve ever been before
Soul deep.
Soul deep.
Deeper than I’ve ever been before.
I was breathless. Wordless. Every cell in my body was aware of him, of his heat and weight, the wind-clean scent of his skin, the glow of the lights on his hair. Mesmerized, I couldn’t look away.
In that moment, no one else but the two of us existed.
“CUT!”
Startled by the shout, I dragged my gaze from Nico. Obi stood with hands on hips beside a video camera, looking all sorts of pissed.
“Replacement—Kat! You can’t just stare at Nico with your mouth open! You’re the one with the power in this song, right? You’re the muse. The bride who’s about to leave him at the altar. Look at the wall, look at the ceiling, pretend to be bored. Look at anything but him! Yo?”
“Um, yo.”
Obi nodded. “Good. We’ll go again.”
Nico shifted his weight. His leg slid over mine. I chanced a glance at him, to find him smiling, his hair falling into his eyes. He whispered, “Your heart’s poundin’, Kat.”
He was flirting with me. The man was shameless. Even if he didn’t remember he had a girlfriend, I did.
“It does that when I’m bored.”
He grinned, clearly not believing a word I’d said. I had to be more convincing.
“Actually I have this condition where my blood pressure spikes when I’m near an overbearing asshole.”
Wow, that slipped out much too easily. And apparently with convincing venom, judging by the expression on Nico’s face. His jaw gritted so hard I thought his teeth might shatter. His voice came out in a growl.
“Why are you tryin’ so hard not to like me?”
Obi shouted, “Cue music! We’re rolling!”
I kept my mouth shut, looked at the ceiling, and tried to look like I wished I was anywhere else. The music started. After a tense moment, Nico again began to sing.
I stared off into the middle distance like a cat ignoring its owner’s calls.
This time there was no shout of “Cut!” The room was quiet. The only sound I heard was the music and Nico’s voice, soft in my ear, singing about finding love and losing it. Singing about longing, and loneliness, and loss.
Things I knew all about.
My throat got tight. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to avoid Nico’s piercing stare. As his nose was only inches from mine, this was difficult. Closing my eyes helped.
We made it through the rest of the song in one take. I had looked appropriately disinterested.
“That was awesome, Kat!” Obi fist-pumped the air. “You looked totally turned off!”
A low rumble went through Nico’s chest. I ignored it. “Thanks.”
“Okay, everyone. Ceremony’s next, yo. Let’s get to it!”
People began to hustle. Nico stayed put, his arms hard around me, legs tangled with mine.
I lifted my head, and tried to move. This was like trying to move from beneath a boulder that’s flattened you. “Um. Shouldn’t we . . . ”
“Yes, we should.” His grin was wicked.
We weren’t talking about the same thing.
“I meant shouldn’t we get up. We should get up.”
Nico stared at me, grin fading. The intensity in his eyes was more than a little scary. I blundered ahead. “You might have to help me a bit, though. This dress is—”
“I’m gonna ask you a question, Kat. And you’re gonna give me an honest answer.”
This didn’t sound good. My heartbeat kicked up a notch. I swallowed because my mouth had turned desert dry. “Which is?”
He gave me a long, searching look. Then he bent his head and whispered into my ear, “Are you wet for me?”
My heart decided now would be a good time to have an attack. I couldn’t blame it.
“Don’t be disgusting!”
Of course I wasn’t disgusted. I was too busy having a heart attack. Nico wasn’t buying it, either.
“You are. I know you are. Your face is flushed. You’re breathin’ hard. Your heart’s poundin’. And beneath your panties, your pussy is soakin’ wet.”
If my face was flushed before, now it went molten. It didn’t help matters that he was right. I tore my eyes away, escaping the intensity of his gaze.
“You’re an arrogant prick, Nico Nyx.”
He chuckled. “Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
I hated that he could read me so easily. I hated how effortlessly I was falling apart in his arms. I hated how self-confident he was, how sure of the effect he was having on me. I hated it all, but I loved it, too, which was far more dangerous.
“Actually it does. My face is flushed because these lights are hot, and my heart’s pounding because I’m nervous as hell. I’ve never been on camera before. It has nothing to do with you.”
There was a long pause as he studied my face. “You lie for shit, woman. It has everything to do with me. You know it. I know it.” His voice dropped. “And my hard cock sure as fuck knows it, too.”
I laughed to cover my shock. No one had ever spoken to me the way he did. I couldn’t believe the nerve of this man.
I couldn’t believe how much I liked it.
This was all incredibly flattering, but I had to put a stop to this before it went too far. I wasn’t going to be another notch on this arrogant rock star’s bedpost.
“Well that explains a lot.” My tone was withering.
His eyes narrowed. “Meanin’?”
“Meaning I know which of your heads is making all the decisions. Because I’m sure your brain would be reminding you right about now that you have a girlfriend.”
I looked directly into his eyes so he would see that I meant business. I wasn’t just another groupie or roadie or whatever those girls who threw themselves at rock stars were called. I had self-respect.
Battered though it might be, I still had it.
But Nico surprised me. He didn’t flinch at my words. He didn’t look one bit ashamed, as I’d hoped he would. He just stared right back at me with that intensity. His eyes were shadowed now, their color shifting like quicksilver with the light.
“Avery isn’t my girlfriend.”
Unbelievable. He thought I was an idiot.
“Oh really? You
might want to tell Avery that. I’m no language expert, but I’m pretty sure ‘mi amor’ doesn’t mean ‘good buddy.’ Besides, you already told me she was your girlfriend!”
“Said she was my girl, not my girlfriend.”
What a load of bullshit. I turned away. “That’s a pretty fine point of distinction. I’m sure my ex used the exact same line on one of the many chicks he screwed behind my back.”
Nico took my chin in his hand, and turned my face to his. His eyes were flinty, his fingers on my jaw were firm.
“One thing you should know about me, Kat. I’m no angel. I’ve been runnin’ wild since I was seventeen. But I’m not a fuckin’ liar. I don’t tell a woman she’s mine and then mess around behind her back. If Avery and I were together, I wouldn’t lay a finger on you. I wouldn’t even flirt with you, no matter how bad I wanted you.” His gaze dropped to my lips. His voice grew husky. “No matter how much I want that beautiful mouth all over my body. Suckin’ me off. Screamin’ my name when I’m buried balls deep inside you.”
I lay there gaping, my mind blank. A flush of heat pulsed between my legs. His gaze came back to mine and that pulse of heat expanded to encompass both of us. Scorching. Intoxicating.
Wrong.
Whatever this madness was, I had to put a stop to it.
I tried to pull away, but he pinned me to his side. “Nico,” I protested.
He shook his head, all hard eyes and hard jaw and hotness. “Not lettin’ you run away just ’cause you’re scared, darlin’. Not how it works when you’re with me.”
“I’m not with you!” It came out as a hiss. If it wouldn’t have ended up splashed across all the tabloids, I would have slapped him across the face, he was so infuriating.
“Not yet.” His voice was dark with promise. He sounded utterly certain, like it was a foregone conclusion that I would be his.
I would not be a foregone conclusion.
“Please help me up.”
My tone was cold. Judging by the look on his face, Nico didn’t like it.
“Kat—”
“Nico, no. Just no. Please stop it. I’m not a toy. You need to respect what I’m telling you. I’m flattered, but I’m not interested in anything except getting through today, and getting back to real life. Okay?”
He paused, gauging my tone. “Okay.”
Relief swept through me. Disappointment, too, but I ignored that. I shouldn’t have been too relieved, however, because Nico wasn’t done with me yet.
“I’ll let you up on one condition: prove you’re not attracted to me.”
I glared at him. “Would you prefer me to stab you with one of my heels, or gouge your eyes out with my fingernails?”
“Nah. A kiss will do the job.”
Was I on drugs? Had I even gotten out of bed this morning? Maybe this was all an elaborate dream, and right now I was snug in bed with the covers pulled over my head. I stared at Nico, at a loss for what to do.
My body had a few ideas, but my brain wasn’t on board with any of them.
“I don’t kiss strange men.”
“I’m not a stranger. We’ve been introduced.” His fingers curled over the curve of my hip. His head dipped toward mine.
Breathing was becoming difficult. My face felt so hot it burned. “I don’t kiss men with girlfriends.”
“We already covered that. She’s not my girlfriend. Next excuse?”
My hands were flattened against his bare chest as I tried to push him away. My voice came out small. “I don’t want to.”
Nico shook his head, his eyes hot. “Such a fuckin’ liar,” he whispered.
Before I could react, he lowered his mouth to mine.
“Dude!”
“What a jerk.”
“An insanely hot jerk!”
“Yet a jerk, nonetheless.”
Grace wasn’t nearly as impressed by my scorching encounter with Nico as Chloe was. Older than Chloe and me by five years, Grace was a marriage and family therapist in Beverly Hills who had no time for players, bullshitters, or cheaters. She clearly had put Nico Nyx into all three categories.
Rightly so.
We were at Lula’s. It was past eight o’clock. I was on my second margarita, halfway through telling the story of my incredible, insane, impossible day.
“Please tell me you slapped him. Or at least didn’t kiss him back.” Grace waited for my answer, a chip loaded with salsa poised in the air on the way to her mouth.
“Um.”
Grace was scandalized. The chip fell to her plate. “Kat!”
“I couldn’t help it!”
Chloe was practically swooning at the thought of me kissing Nico. “Oh, God, I bet he tastes like sunshine. Does he taste like sunshine?”
No, Chloe. He actually tastes like crack. Or what I assume crack must taste like: heaven.
I made a noncommittal noise instead of voicing my thoughts, and shoveled more chips into my mouth.
“Kat.”
Oh, crap. I knew that tone. I gulped down the dregs of my margarita, motioning to the passing waiter to bring me another.
Grace folded her manicured hands over the tabletop and leaned forward, piercing me with a death glare. With her flaming red hair, steely gray eyes, and take-no-prisoners vibe, she always reminded me of an Amazon warrior. I could totally picture her in a Raquel Welch fur bikini and boots, sword fighting a saber-toothed tiger. I bet she scared the shit out of the husbands who came to see her, seeking help for failing marriages. Maybe that was the secret to her success.
That, or that she’d suffered a traumatic brain injury in the car accident that killed her parents when she was a teenager, and had no recollection of life before her senior year of high school. Tragedy has a way of toughening you up. If it doesn’t kill you in the process.
Which was one of the reasons Chloe was so sweet and happy. Nothing bad had ever happened to her. Knock wood.
Grace continued, “I see this every day in my practice. You take a rich, handsome, charismatic man, who’s used to getting whatever he wants whenever he wants it. His ego is galactic. He thinks he’s invincible. Everything comes so easily, he’s frankly a little bored. Then one day someone tells him ‘no,’ and he simply can’t fathom it.”
Grace talked like this all the time. She actually used words like “galactic” and “fathom” in regular conversation. She was the one in our little group who read those Pulitzer Prize–winning novels with all the incomprehensible words and big ideas.
I love books, too. The movie versions of them.
“So how does he react when he hears a ‘no,’ this man who’s so assured of his power?”
Chloe made a few guesses. “He starts to drink heavily? He hits things? No? Um . . . he sinks into a deep depression?”
“He digs in his heels.”
This sounded ominous. Chloe and I exchanged a worried glance.
“He’s so used to a yes-filled life, a ‘no’ simply isn’t acceptable. He does whatever it takes to turn that ‘no’ into a ‘yes.’ And, as soon as it is, he loses interest. End of story.”
The horrible mariachi music playing in the background began to annoy me. I really needed that drink. “So, this is good! I kissed Nico back. He got what he wanted. Now he’ll leave me alone.”
“You think so?” Grace didn’t sound like she thought so.
“But you just said—”
“Let’s recap. So far in this story of meeting Mr. Wonderful, you’ve said it was you who walked away when you first saw each other. And the first words you spoke to him were to ask him to leave, followed by calling him a dick. With me so far? Then, when you informed him you were leaving the shoot because your services were obviously no longer needed, he offered you a job.” She paused for dramatic effect. “And thirty thousand dollars.”
“Like she’s going to say no to that kind of money!”
Chloe always stuck up for me when Grace pointed out my lapses in judgment. She was a good friend.
“Then, you had
to lie on a bed with him, and pretend you had absolutely no interest in his bare-chested, muscular, sexalicious body. And the director commends your performance, no less! At which point Nico breaks out the really big guns, so to speak, and starts talking like he’s auditioning for the part of Christian in the film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey.”
“They already made that,” Chloe pointed out.
“My point is that he’s digging in his heels! Every time Kat gave him a verbal or nonverbal ‘no,’ Nico upped the ante. And finally, when she flat-out said she didn’t want to kiss him, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He made her say ‘yes’ by taking away her choice.”
Nico was beginning to sound like a rapist.
“So you’re saying in order to get rid of him for good, I should sleep with him?” That was vaguely insulting.
“No. I’m saying you should stay the hell away from men who are used to always being told ‘yes.’ You don’t have the necessary level of conniving bitch to manage them.”
So it was unsuccessful, unattractive losers for me for the rest of my life. Great.
“I don’t see how a little flirtation could hurt.” Chloe sounded crestfallen by the turn in the conversation.
“She’s right, Lo.” I sighed. The waiter brought my fresh drink. I smiled at him as if he’d handed me a winning lottery ticket. He seemed disturbed by my enthusiasm, and skittered away. “Aside from the obvious mismatch of Adonis with a mere mortal, he has a girlfriend. And we all know I’ve had a bit too much experience being on the other side of that equation. Plus, you know. My dad.”
I cleared my throat and studied the hideous velvet Elvis on the wall above Grace’s head. “It was just a weird . . . fun . . . crazy day. And now I’m thirty grand richer. That’s it.”
Chloe hadn’t heard enough of the story yet. “But you didn’t even tell us what happened after the bedroom scene!”
“We’ll talk about it later.” I looked at Grace. “After Grandma goes back to the rest home.”
Grace threw a chip at me. It landed in my cleavage. I picked it out and ate it.
“You’ll thank me someday, Kat. These movie stars and rock stars and famous athletes, they’re not real people. They don’t function in the real world. They don’t have rules like we do. It’s just smarter to avoid them, that’s all. And you’re the one who said it: your dad. You know exactly what the story is with men like Nico. They can’t be trusted.”
Sweet as Sin Page 4