Skye looked up at Nick. “Uh?”
A perceptive look crossed Cian’s face. Then a long, slow smile curved his lips and a wicked light glinted in his gray eyes. Oh, he’d grasped the consequences, all right. “You know what this means now, don’t you?”
“Uh?” Skye repeated, confused.
Thea glanced at Cian warily. She knew that look. “Cian—” she started but he cut her off, speaking to Skye.
“This means that we’re a couple now.” He sent her an angelic smile.
Skye stared at him, trying to comprehend what he had just said. Then the words fully penetrated her thick brain. “Oh, shit.”
“Yep,” Cian crowed. “So darling, how about having dinner with me tonight since we’re now free to publicly declare our love? Or maybe we should head straight to you causing that scene of me ending on my back.” He took her hand in his and smiled sweetly at her.
Nick swore under his breath. His best friend could really be an idiot at times. Thea just shook her head at Cian.
For a moment, Skye could only stare at him in horror and then she tore her hand from his and got up. She took out some money from her bag and handed it to Thea saying, “Can you pay for my share, please? I’ll see you guys at the office.”
“Wait, Skye, where are you going?” Nick said.
“You didn’t even finish your lunch,” Thea protested.
“Ah, I’m not really hungry. I’ll see you later.” With those words, she beat a hasty retreat before they could stop her. She was that fast.
Both Nick and Thea turned to glare at Cian.
He looked back at them. “What?”
“I knew you were a moron but I didn’t know you were that big of one or that you could be such a jerk.” Then with a rare flash of anger, Nick went on, “You idiot! Why did you do that for? Are you trying to push her even farther away? Is that what you want? Do you want her to hate you?”
Cian was surprised by the anger in Nick’s voice. No, he didn’t want Skye to hate him. He wanted her to…
A flash of understanding jolted through him. Son of a bitch. He wanted her to love him. The knowledge hit him with the impact of a freight train.
No, no way. He didn’t want Skye to love him. He didn’t love her. He didn’t fall in love. Period. That just didn’t happen to him. He hadn’t been in love with Vanessa. For a guy who had just found out his girlfriend had been two-timing him, he sure didn’t feel all that broken-hearted. In fact, he was already way over her. She’d just been another name in a long line of girls.
He couldn’t have fallen in love with Skye. Besides they couldn’t even stand each other. Nah, no way was he in love with her.
“No way,” Cian said quickly. “I’m not in love with her. We can’t even stand each other.”
Nick lifted a brow. “I didn’t say you were in love with her. Are you?”
Cian froze. Thea looked back and forth between them. “Are you guys saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Ask the moron here.” Nick pointed at Cian.
“I’m not in love with her,” Cian reiterated.
“Okay. Why do you always watch her then?”
“I do not!” Cian vehemently denied.
“You do too.”
“Do not.”
“Actually, you do,” Thea put in.
Cian scowled at them. “That doesn’t mean anything.”
Nick decided to try a different track. “So tell me this, genius, what’s her favorite food, color, pastime, movie and music band?”
“Pizza and chocolate, blue, reading books and watching movies, Underworld, One Republic,” Cian listed without even thinking about it. Then he frowned. “Wait. That doesn’t prove anything. You guys knew that too.”
“Yeah, but we’d have to think about it. You just rattled them off,” Nick specified. “Okay, what do you know about her family?”
“She doesn’t have one. She was brought up in an orphanage.”
Nick and Thea stared at him in shock. They were silent for quite a while, thinking of Skye growing up all alone in an orphanage.
“What?” Cian looked at them in question.
“Even we didn’t know that,” Thea murmured.
“How did you find out?” Nick’s eyes were filled with soft pity. So, Skye was all alone.
“I heard her and Ash talking once.” Cian remembered the shock and sympathy he’d felt when he’d heard Skye tell Ash that. Ash, to his credit, hadn’t shown any of the pity he must have been feeling too. For all that Cian didn’t like Ash much, he had proven to be a very good friend to Skye.
“You mean, you were eavesdropping on them,” Nick corrected.
“I was not,” Cian denied, even though he had been.
“Okay fine. You’re right. You don’t love her. I mean, look at her. How could you love someone like her?”
Cian glared at Nick. “What’s wrong with her?”
Thea hid her smile at Nick’s tactics. He was purposely trying to get Cian angry by saying bad things about Skye.
“Well, you know. She’s unfriendly, rude, sarcastic, downright cold when it suits her and she doesn’t care much about people. She’s not your type. She’s not even beautiful. And you always go for the beautiful ones.”
Cian’s glare turned icy. “That’s not true. How can you say such things about her, Nick? She’s unfriendly and sarcastic because she thinks she won’t be hurt if she keeps people at a distance. She is beautiful. And she’s not cold. She cares. She cares too damn much!” Cian was practically shouting by now.
Nick smiled smugly. “And you know that, how?”
“I—” Cian blinked. “You tricked me.”
“No. I was just checking your reaction. You wouldn’t be so angry if you didn’t care about her.”
Cian shrugged, feeling normal again. Back in safe territory. “I do care about her. She’s my friend. Even if we can’t stand each other,” he added as an afterthought.
Even Thea was beginning to think Cian was only trying to convince himself.
Nick felt like banging his head on the table. Both Cian and Skye were so pig-headed! No wonder they were perfect for each other. They’d probably figure out they had feelings for each other only if something drastic happened or when they were too old to do anything about it.
If Cian grasped it first, they would have a chance of getting together. Skye would fight her feelings for him because, come on, she was contradictory that way. Cian, at least, after the shock wore off, would accept his feelings and do something about it. But no, his moronic best friend was in denial. Then inspiration struck. He cheered up. This had to work.
“Okay. Fine. You win.” Nick waited a beat, munched on his pizza. “Ash was telling me the other day he heard there’s going to be an Underworld movie marathon for Halloween, I think. Do you guys want to go? He wants to surprise Skye with the movie tickets.”
Ashton Daniels was a co-worker of theirs. He was in a different team and he looked a lot like the famous actor Ian Somerhalder who played Damon in the hit TV show, The Vampire Diaries that most girls were crazy about including Skye and Thea. However, they were both more down-to-earth fans. Ash’s eyes were green instead of the actor’s blue ones but his face bore such a striking resemblance to him, he could easily be mistaken for him. Ash was often chased by girls because of his looks and he usually took advantage of it.
Two months ago, Skye and Ash had somehow become friends when she helped a teammate of his, Sarah Jameson over something.
Nick didn’t know the details of it—Skye was pretty much close-mouthed about other people’s business, not that he wanted to know—but Ash and Skye had hit it off over a discussion about movies, probably because she was an oddity among other girls in that she loved action-packed movies, what Cian called guy movies, like The Transporter, Die Hard, Transformers, The Bourne
Trilogy. Skye and Ash’d been thick as glue ever since then. And Cian didn’t like it. Oh, he didn’t like it at all. Ash was a touchy subject with Cian.
At the thought of Ash taking Skye to the movies, Cian saw red. “Over my dead body,” he replied viciously.
If anyone was taking Skye to the movies, it would be him, not that pretty-boy-Damon-lookalike.
It would be him. Cian went still. Thoughts of Ash and Skye together went through his head. Both of them holding hands like he’d held hers today. Sitting in a dark movie theatre. Ash making a move on Skye. Ash with his hands on Skye. At those images, he was so filled with fury, he could barely sit still.
“Why is that, Cian?” Nick asked in a soft tone, a knowing look in his eyes. Thea glanced at him in alarm. Cian was looking pretty mad to her. “What do you care anyway if she goes out with Ash or not? They’d make a great couple. They have a lot in common.”
“Because I love her!” Cian snapped, his furious gaze raking over Nick, who smiled with satisfaction. Then what he had just said aloud hit him like a ton of bricks. His eyes went wide with shock.
He loved Skye.
“Holy shit.” When the hell had that happened? How the hell had it happened?
She’s the one I want.
Cian recalled the conviction he’d felt when he’d said those words. How being near her turned his brain to jelly. How a simple touch like holding her hand, had sparks flying between them. How she always made him laugh.
He couldn’t deny she made his life fun—she made him happy. If not for her, he’d probably still be with Vanessa or some other frivolous girl. Someone who didn’t rev him up with her snide comments. Who didn’t make him laugh out loud with delight.
He was in love with Skye.
Nick was watching him steadily. “It’s finally sinking in, isn’t it? It took the thought of losing Skye to Ash for you to decipher what you feel for her. Now that you’re free to do something about it, to get her to at least like you, you had to go and fuck it up, didn’t you?”
“Bloody hell. Couldn’t you have told me?”
“Of course, you would have believed me. Right after laughing your ass off?”
Nick was right. If anyone had told Cian six months ago that he would fall in love with prickly Skye Fletcher, he would have laughed in their face. “How long have you known?”
“For awhile now. You always get this dopey look on your face when you’re looking at her, man,” Nick teased. He’d discovered with some surprise that his best friend enjoyed sharing verbal blows with Skye just a tad too much. In fact, he’d never seen him laugh as much as he did around Skye.
Nick had finally come to the conclusion that Cian had feelings for her. Cian had never really cared for any woman. He’d always had women falling all over themselves for him. It had made him jaded. He needed someone like Skye. Someone who made him work for her affections.
“I do not!” Cian denied, aghast. Did he?
“Okay, I’ll give you that. You just have all those chocolate bars in your drawer because you’ve suddenly developed a chocolate fetish. Not to mention, you’re always staring at Skye’s lips probably because you want to shove those same chocolates down her throat and choke her coz she annoys you so much. Right, buddy?”
“You’ve got chocolates in your drawer? And you haven’t shared even one with me?” Thea teased.
Cian just sent her a bland stare. He swore under his breath. Nick sure could be a smug bastard when he wanted to. He hadn’t known the guy had figured out that much. “Give me a break, will you? I’m still in shock.”
“So snap the hell out of it,” Nick ordered. “You know what Skye is like. The more time you take, the harder it will be to win her over. Unless you still have doubts over your feelings for her?”
Cian grimaced. “Hell, no. I’m totally convinced on that front.”
“What are you going to do?” Thea asked gently.
“First, I need to apologize for being such a jerk. And she barely ate.” Guilt pricked at him. “You guys finish eating, I’ll have some food packed for me and Skye and go find her.”
Separating some slices of pizza for him and Skye, he called the waiter over and got him to wrap it up. He also got two bottles of water to go. With his packed lunch in hand, he started to leave.
“Try not to muddle things even more,” Nick advised.
“Did you make up that part about Ash and Skye?” Cian prodded him.
“Actually, no. They are friends, you know? Friends go to the movies all the time. And she really cares about him. So be careful about badmouthing him in front of her. It won’t earn you any points.”
Cian glowered at him. Thea elbowed Nick and said to Cian, “Don’t mind him, Cian. You know he’s just worried about her. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Thea.” Turning back to Nick, he mused aloud, “Now I understand why it always bugged me that you’re so close to Skye too. Better keep a respectable distance from her from now on, buddy, or I’ll be forced to take action.”
Nick’s jaw dropped. “What the—”
Thea giggled. Cian winked at her.
“You… son of a… come back here.” Nick glared at him.
Cian just waggled his fingers over his shoulder as he left.
Thea giggled. Nick shot her a glance. “I see you’re having fun at my expense.”
“I can’t help it. He got you back.”
Nick chuckled. “That he did. I hope they straighten things out.”
“They will, don’t worry. You know that Cian wasn’t trying to hurt her. He was just yanking her chain. But he’ll be careful now. He won’t risk pushing her away.”
Nick stared after Cian. “Let’s hope so.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Outside the restaurant, Cian stopped for a moment, trying to figure out where to search for Skye first. She had probably headed straight for the waterfront. She loved the ocean. Now that he finally knew the truth, that he was in love with her, he realized just how much he knew about her, just how well he knew her.
The waterfront was a ten-minute walk from the restaurant. Cian started walking, wondering whether he had just mucked up things beyond repair between him and Skye. What if she refused to speak to him ever again? He could probably kiss his chance to ever make her fall in love with him goodbye.
Love for her had snuck up on him. Hell, he had never been in love before, so how could he know? Infatuated yes, in lust yes, but never in love. When had he fallen in love with her? Was it that first time he had seen her? What was it about her that had caught his attention?
That one college year, even before Vanessa had told him how Skye’d told her to shut up in one of the classes they’d taken together, something about Skye had mesmerized him. He remembered the first time he’d seen her—she’d been sitting in the back, two seats behind him, her head bent over a book. She’d always had her head in a book.
Cian didn’t know why he had turned around. Something had made him. She’d looked up as if she’d sensed him watching her—even then, she’d always sensed his scrutiny—and he had automatically flashed a smile at her. She, instead of smiling back, had frowned at him as if he were disturbing her and bent her head over her book again. Her reaction had intrigued him instead of dismissing her from his mind.
He had been fascinated by her kick-ass attitude and her stay-away-from-me aura. She had just gotten under his skin and stayed there. He had tried to approach her several times but she’d always shot him down. Somehow though he’d been determined to know her. Cian had never forgotten her even though he hadn’t expected to ever see her again.
He couldn’t help smiling as he thought of how far they’d managed to come. If it had been up to her, he would never have been able to get past her impenetrable shields.
He loved her.
Damn, he had been so blind. All this time, thinking he just want
ed to play the field when in fact he had been holding out for Skye.
Cian wasn’t one to live in denial. He might have taken him some time to find out he loved her, but now that he did know, he didn’t believe in keeping on denying it or fighting it. He accepted his feelings and decided on the next course of action.
Knowing Skye, she was going to fight him every inch of the way, he thought wryly. She was difficult and prickly and she didn’t compromise worth a damn. Getting her to fall in love with him was going to take perseverance and sneak attacks. Definitely sneak attacks. Good thing he was up to the challenge.
Yes, he accepted his feelings for her but at the same time, it was scary how much she had come to mean to him. She wasn’t someone to pass the time with. She was special. There would be no getting over Skye.
Cian strode past the shops, the tourists, the various restaurants and reached the wooden benches strategically placed around the waterfront. Sunlight was glinting on the ocean, making it sparkle as if it were decorated with a sheet of diamonds.
God knew how many girls he had necked out with around here. Damn. He really had a lot of strikes against him. He knew she would never believe he was in love with her, that his feelings for her were real, genuine, as much a part of him as the color of his eyes.
He found her at one of the farthest benches in the most remote part of the waterfront. She had her arms wrapped around her drawn up knees and was staring at the sea. Her hair billowed around her face.
She looked so alone. And completely vulnerable.
Fury swept through him as he strode towards her. Damnit, it pained him to see her looking like that and she knew better than to sit out here alone, where she would be easy picking for any creep hanging about. He knew she could take care of herself, but did she have to invite trouble?
Well, they would just have it out then.
SKYE WATCHED the distant horizon and wished she could feel as serene as the ocean looked. But she knew the sea could change her moods in a flash and be as swept up in turmoil as her insides were.
Holding Out For Skye Page 5