To manage the uncomfortable silence, I took a swallow of my drink.
Chloe muttered, “Killjoy.”
“All right, ladies, enough of my sad story. Grace, any news on the man front?”
Grace made a face like she’d just been served a steaming pile of shit. “After the story I heard today in session, I think I might swear off men forever. Honestly, it’s like they’re a different species entirely. A race of giant walking penises with peanut brains. Or small penises with giant peanut brains.”
I snorted. “You’re just now figuring that out?”
“What happened? Spill!” Chloe was excited. She loved to hear how depraved people were, even if Grace had to change the names and certain details to protect the innocent. She guarded her clients’ privacy ferociously, even with us.
“Did you know that dressing up like animals is a thing?”
Chloe’s eyes grew wide. “What, like a sexual thing?”
Grace nodded. “Role play. Costumes. Even a whole unique language. I had a client today who walked in on her husband having sex with his secretary at his office. They were both dressed like Bugs Bunny. The secretary was shouting, ‘Yiff! Yiff!’ Welcome to the world of furries, my friends.”
“That must involve some strategically placed holes in the bunny outfits.”
That was my contribution to the conversation. I had become distracted by my cell phone, buzzing in my purse. I dug into my handbag as Grace and Chloe continued to talk. It was a number I didn’t recognize.
“Hello?” As Grace did an impression of Bugs Bunny achieving orgasm, I put my finger into my other ear to muffle the cackling.
“Kat.”
One word, and the world fell out from under my feet.
“Are you there?”
Three more, and all the blood drained from my face. It was a moment before I composed myself enough to speak. “How did you get this number?”
Grace and Chloe stopped cackling to stare at me. Chloe mouthed, Is that him? Grace mouthed, That better not be him!
“Can you talk?”
Barely. But that wasn’t what Nico meant.
“Hang on a sec.” I put the phone to my chest and looked at the girls. “So. It’s Mr. Galactic Ego. He wants to know if I can talk.”
Simultaneously, Chloe said, “Of course!” and Grace said, “Absolutely not!”
I looked at them. “Guys. This isn’t helping.”
“Did you give him your number?” Grace demanded.
“No. He asked for it, though.”
“You see? That’s exactly what I’m talking about! The man can’t take ‘no’ for an answer! Hang up! And change your number! And, by the way, he has a girlfriend!”
Grace had an excellent point.
“Give him a chance! What if he and Avery really did break up? He’s obviously into you!”
Chloe’s enthusiasm was met with another death glare from Grace. I sat for a moment, nursing a minor nervous breakdown, trying to decide.
“Okay. I’ll be right back.”
“Kat!”
I slid from the booth and walked quickly to the restroom before Grace could tackle me and wrestle the phone from my hand. Once inside, I hid in a stall and sat on the toilet. I put the phone against my ear, waiting.
“I can hear you breathin’.”
“It’s something people normally do.”
“Yeah,” said Nico, “except you seem to be doin’ it pretty loud. Were you runnin’? Like you ran away from me earlier?”
“How did you get this number?”
The silence that followed was deafening. Then: “You’re not happy I called.”
“I had a stalker once. I didn’t like it.”
“Did you call the police?”
“I shot him.”
There was a longer, even more deafening pause.
“I’m kidding. I just had to move, and change my phone number.”
“Just? That’s more than a just.”
“Well, yeah. Which brings me back to my original question.”
There was some rustling on the other end of the phone. It sounded like he was sitting up, or lying down. I pictured him reclining in bed, and resisted asking him what he was wearing.
“Hungry Man.”
That was the production company that hired Chloe for the job, who in turn recommended me. This meant Nico had probably only had to make one or two calls to get my number. That wasn’t very stalkerish.
Only it sort of was considering I’d told him I had a boyfriend when he asked for my number at the end of the shoot. Grace would have a field day with that little tidbit.
“You’re not sayin’ anything.”
“I’m trying to decide if this relationship is going to end with me calling the police on you.”
I felt his grin through the phone. “So we’re in a relationship now.”
Rubbing my forehead, I closed my eyes. “Remember earlier today, when I said I had a boyfriend?”
“Yeah, I do. And remember before that, when I said you were a liar?”
“Do you think you’re being cute?”
“I’m a lot of things, Kat, but cute isn’t one of ’em.”
He said the word “cute” as if it tasted really bad coming out of his mouth. I had to smile at how much that irritated him.
“Well, my friend Grace would agree with you there. She thinks you have a huge ego, you never hear the word ‘no,’ and you’re only interested in me because you hate not getting your way.”
The pauses in this conversation were growing longer and longer.
“Hmm. Your friend already hates me, and we haven’t even met yet? Bummer.”
“Well, Chloe doesn’t hate you. She thinks I should give you a chance.”
“I like Chloe better than Grace,” Nico said immediately.
I had to laugh. Talking with him felt good. Also incredibly strange, but mostly just good.
“Love that fuckin’ laugh of yours, Kat Reid.”
His voice had gone all low and rough. Which, in turn, made my face get hot. I didn’t know what to say. I fiddled with the toilet paper dispenser.
“I wanna see you again.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m not that girl, Nico,” I said softly.
“We have chemistry that’s off the fuckin’ charts, Kat. You ever felt like that before, first time meetin’ someone? Because I sure fuckin’ haven’t. There’s somethin’ between us. I wanna get to know you, find out what it is. Gimme a chance.”
His words thrilled me. But then again I was a closet romantic with a long and glorious history of shitty choices in men. My judgment couldn’t be trusted.
However, he cursed more than me, which was no small achievement. I liked it. And I liked hearing him talk. I liked the deep, lilting timbre of his voice. It did something to me.
All that was beside the point. The glaringly obvious point.
“Avery—”
“Is not my girlfriend.” His voice was rough, but in a different way. He was frustrated. “I told you, I wouldn’t ask you out if she was.”
Did I believe him? Could I? I’d unrolled half the toilet paper onto the floor before I spoke again. “Is that what you’re doing? Asking me out?”
“Just tryin’ to get to know you. We can go out, we can stay in. We can just drive around in my car if you want. I do that sometimes, drive around, nowhere in mind. Just to clear my head.”
“Me, too.”
I was surprised we had that in common. Why would Nico Nyx need to drive around and clear his head? Too many choices about how to spend his money?
“Is that a yes?”
I heard the hope in his voice. My heart, which to this point had been doing a reasonable job of not bursting, threatened to do just that. Determination wavering, I bit my lip.
“My boyfriend wouldn’t like it.”
“Yeah, if he fuckin’ existed, he probably wouldn’t. Quit playin’ games with me, Kat.”
I faked offense. “How do you know I
don’t have a boyfriend? Do I look like I couldn’t get a boyfriend or something?”
I might have been fishing for a compliment there.
Nico didn’t take the bait. He made an aggravated sound, halfway between a sigh and a growl. “All right. Here’s the deal. If you really don’t want me to, I won’t call again. I’m not a stalker. But I think you’re bullshittin’ me about havin’ a boyfriend. At least be up front about it.”
He was quiet for a moment, just breathing. “Well?”
Again, that hope in his voice. Who was this badass rocker/hopeful boy with the filthy mouth and that beautiful, sweet soulfulness? The combination made me crumble.
“I don’t have a boyfriend.”
His exhalation was relieved. Hearing it, my stupid, never-learning heart soared. “Do you have a girlfriend?” I asked.
“No.” His response was immediate and unequivocal, as hard as two fingers snapping.
We were quiet. Something was happening here. I felt it, I knew it, but I couldn’t trust it. Not yet.
But I could be real about how I felt. I could own my confusion. If nothing else, at least I could be honest. I took a breath, and leapt.
“I don’t get it. The whole thing with Avery. I want to believe you, but it seems really weird. And honestly like you could just be bullshitting me to get me to sleep with you. I’ve been down a lot of crappy relationship roads, Nico. Yes, today was amazing. Yes, I loved meeting you. Yes . . . I’m attracted to you.”
His intake of breath thrilled me. I imagined Grace wagging her finger in my face.
“But I’m not interested in being the on-the-side girl. The one-nighter girl. The meaningless-fuck girl. That’s just not me.”
There was silence. When he finally spoke again his voice was quiet. “You ever have somethin’ in your life you can’t talk about, not just because people wouldn’t understand, but also because keepin’ your mouth shut was the right thing to do? For someone else?”
That one was a no-brainer. A painful bitch of a no-brainer. “Yes.”
“It’s that. With me and Avery. And honestly? I’ve never had to explain this shit before, because the women I usually run into don’t give a fuck about who else I’m with.”
I formed a mental picture of Nico’s dick “running into” several women, and grimaced.
“But you do. So I’m explainin’ it. Because I want you to understand, and to believe me. Because, like I said, I wanna get to know you. Avery isn’t my girlfriend. She’s important to me, and I care about her, but not in that way.”
I had finally managed to unroll all the toilet paper from the plastic dispenser on the stall wall. I stared down at the pile at my feet, debating with myself. Trying to convince myself I didn’t really think he was telling the truth.
Only I did.
“Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“Okay, I believe you.”
Silence. Then, softly, “Fuckin’ A, Kat.”
He was happy. More than happy, judging by his voice. Ridiculously, that made me happy, too.
But first, some rules.
“This doesn’t mean I’m sleeping with you. Or that we’re going to date, in any normal sense of the word. It only means that I get you need to protect whatever it is you have with Avery, and I believe you when you say she isn’t your girlfriend. Everything else is still up for debate.”
“Well, let’s get to it, then.”
I frowned. “Get to what?”
“Debatin’. I’m outside Lula’s now. I’ll be right in.”
Nico disconnected the call.
My stomach dropped to the general vicinity of my ankles. I shot off the toilet, slammed out of the stall, and ran back to the table.
Grace took one look at my face and knew. “Shit. He’s coming here, isn’t he?”
I sank into my chair, too freaked out to respond.
“What? Here? When?” Chloe jumped up, craning her neck, looking around the restaurant in terror as if it were a mafia hitman she was expecting.
And not just, you know, one of the most famous, handsome, sexy, famous men in the country.
I managed a rational question. “What do I do?”
“You ask him how the hell he knew you were going to be at this restaurant, is what you do! Did he follow you here?”
Grace was indignant. I could tell because she threw her napkin on the table, leaned back in her chair, and crossed her arms over her chest. Plus, her nostrils were flaring.
Chloe took her seat again, looking chagrined. “I . . . uh . . . I might have said something about it.”
I was confused. “You talked to Nico?”
“Not exactly. I mean, when I was leaving Greystone, Jeff asked me what I was doing later, and I told him I was meeting you guys here for drinks around seven.”
Jeff worked for Chloe. He was one of her event setup and strike guys. “I don’t get it.”
“Well, when I turned around to go, Nico was kind of right there. He overheard.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
Chloe shook her head. “He just smiled at me. And then I forgot how to talk.”
Yes, I was familiar with the effect.
“I mean at that point, I had no idea that you guys . . . that you and Nico . . . ” Just then, Chloe’s mouth fell open. Looking over my shoulder, she’d stopped paying attention to me.
“Kat, introduce me to your friends.” Low and amused, the voice from behind me sent a shiver up my spine.
Chloe gulped. Her eyes were so wide they took up half her face.
Nico took the empty seat beside me. He turned to me, slung an arm over the back of my chair, stretched his long legs out beneath the table, and grinned.
Damn, he made a black leather jacket and a pair of jeans sexy. His dark hair was a little disheveled, as if he’d been running his hands through it. His jaw was shadowed with stubble. If possible, he was even more beautiful at night. Or maybe it was the candlelight. Either way, the man looked positively edible.
Ignoring the hubbub arising around us, the looks and whispers coming from every direction, I tried to act nonchalant, as if this kind of thing happened to me every day.
As if I wasn’t about to pass out.
“Well. I’ll start with the one least likely to cause you bodily harm.”
“Nice to meet you, Chloe.” Nico nodded at her. He hadn’t even needed me to tell him which one Chloe was. He could tell by the “die, asshole, die” vibe coming off Grace that she wasn’t his biggest fan.
“And you must be Grace. Kat tells me you don’t approve.”
Grace raised her brows at me. Apologetically, I lifted a shoulder.
Always direct, Grace turned her attention back to Nico, and went right for the jugular. “I’ve seen her through too much shit to sign on for what’s sure to be a shit storm of epic proportion. So no, I don’t approve.”
If I had to decide on the top five most embarrassing moments of my life, today would account for at least four of them. I chugged the remains of my margarita, wishing for another.
Nico smiled at Grace. I wondered how she managed not to combust. “Good. I like it that Kat has protective friends. Pleasure to meet you.”
He’d also liked it when I’d stuck up for Avery. Bossy women seemed to be his thing.
“But really it’s me who needs protection from her. Did she tell you the story of how she threw herself at me today?” He glanced at me, gently teasing. “Shameless.”
That sexy drawl, paired with that sexy grin, warmed me from the inside out. Oh, I was in so much trouble with this man.
Heading off what was sure to be an arctic response from Grace, Chloe chimed in. Unfortunately it was to blurt a sentence that made me slouch lower in my chair in horror.
“She only told us up to the point where you kissed her on the bed and her panties melted.”
Thank you, Chloe. Who needs enemies with friends like you?
Looking at me, Nico’s grin faded. His expression became di
stinctly hungry. I looked away and cleared my throat, squirming.
With a loud, aggravated sigh, Grace reached for the chips and salsa. “I can hardly wait to hear the rest.” She bit down on a chip, crunching violently.
I sent her a warning look. Don’t be so harsh, Grandma, he’s trying to be nice!
She narrowed her eyes. We’ll see.
“Turns out our girl Kat can act.”
Our girl?
I still didn’t look at him. Not even when I felt his thumb brush my shoulder. He began to sweep it slowly back and forth across the space between my shoulder blades. As I was still wearing the little black camisole, this meant his fingers were on my bare skin.
I tried to pretend I felt nothing. Which was like trying to pretend I wasn’t being electrocuted. I started to breathe shallowly. I could smell him, sitting so close. Leather and cigarettes and manly musk. Did he smoke? I didn’t care. I wanted to kiss him again. And again.
And again.
“So she was good!”
Chloe sounded proud of me. Of course she would be. If I decided to be a serial killer and went on a murderous rampage with a kitchen knife, she’d find some way to be supportive. She’d probably buy me a set of monogrammed cleavers.
“She’s very natural in front of a camera,” said Nico. “Obi wants her to star in the next video, too.”
“I think I’d rather have all my teeth pulled out with pliers. Without anesthesia.”
Nico’s gaze flashed to mine. “Thanks.”
I admit I felt happy he seemed so taken aback by my comment. It felt like it put us on more of an equal footing. He was so self-confident, and I was so off-kilter. But I backtracked a little, anyway.
“It’s just . . . all those people. Watching. Judging. It’s weird. I couldn’t deal with that on a regular basis. Once was more than enough for me.”
Fleeting and dark, a look passed over Nico’s face. “Yeah. Livin’ in a fishbowl has its drawbacks.”
There was so much behind that simple comment, it even made Grace pause. She cocked an ear in her “I’m a good listener” therapist way, looking at him a little closer.
As if on cue, the waiter arrived.
Sweet as Sin Page 5