by Ace Gray
I wanted to quip something snarky about taking it off to shower or swim—or give him a hand job—but he was just so earnest. I swallowed the words, and when he laughed, loud and bright, I was sure he noticed.
12.
When we crossed the wide curb toward Bergdorf’s entrance, my shoulders crept up toward my ears. Depending on the day, society women could be worse than shutterbugs when it came to privacy invasion. But Nick pressed his palm to the small of my back and I melted.
The doors opened in front of us and we were greeted by my personal shopper, Beatrice. I introduced Nick as nonchalantly as possible—as if he wasn’t Nicholas Fucking Bryant—then snaked my left arm around his torso. The moment I snuggled into Nick, Beatrice squealed a holy unearthly sound, bringing the sales floor, customers and associates alike, to a screeching halt.
My heart seized in my chest and worry filtered into my insides. Nick tensed beneath my fingers. Something blood curdling like that could only mean trouble. Both of our gazes started sweeping the floor, but when nothing seemed out of place I turned to sweep up my fiancé’s face. A giant sparkly diamond caught my attention. My giant sparkly diamond. The one Beatrice was laser beam locked on.
Murmurs broke out as an unfortunately timed ray of sunlight made my engagement ring appear even more ostentatious.
So much for secrets.
I turned toward Nick and a truly scared rather than horrifically angry man greeted me. I thanked my lucky stars that only I’d be able to tell the difference in his pinched face.
"I think that's quite enough." Thankfully Nick's voice boomed through the marble corridor then silence once again blanketed the room.
Beatrice's eyes widened and when her brain lurched into gear, she stammered an apology and ushered us up to the fourth floor salon.
Nick sat diligently as I tried on gowns. Beatrice worked extra hard, extra quietly, bringing me dresses she deemed appropriate for our New Year’s Eve gala. I showed the first six to Nick, each one receiving a mild-manner nod. The spark he got in his eye when he liked me in something, or even better, the hungry look he got when he wanted to peel me out of it, was decidedly missing. The seventh started a downhill slide.
I stepped out and Nick pursed his lips and scrunched his brow, searching for a words.
"It's okay to say it Nick. I know it’s the dress." I arched an eyebrow and flicked the hot pink train behind me on the pedestal.
Is she delusional?
"It's not that it's bad." He rubbed his chin still looking perplexed. “But it's pink."
Jaime tried to stifle a laugh behind us.
“And you don't really do pink. Ever." Nick crinkled his nose and Jaime let out a genuine laugh behind me.
Beatrice was losing all three of us quickly. Very quickly. I sighed as I wondered if I could call in a favor with Zac Posen and chalk the whole afternoon up to a massive loss. Nick noticed my restlessness shifting to temper and stood.
"I'll take a look."
Without waiting for an answer, he walked out of the fitting room. I turned to watch him go and caught Jaime's eyes instead. His look made me break into giggles. I was so obviously not a hot pink girl even he knew it. I went back into the fitting room, still laughing to myself as I shimmied out of the dress. Beatrice hung it for me and started removing the rejects.
"Try this."
Nick was back and there was the soft whisper of fabric rustling on the other side of the curtain. Moments later Beatrice stepped in with a dress that looked like liquid shimmering champagne. It was made to hug curves and had a small pooling train. The top was a sculpted bodice with a deep cut down the front, making an incredibly risqué sweetheart neckline. Even on the hanger, it was gorgeous.
Better yet, it was soft on the inside and easy to climb into, I could even zip myself with the hidden side closure. The J Mendel gown was beautiful. And it made me feel incredibly sexy.
"Well?" Nick was waiting on the other side of the curtain.
"It’s beautiful. It's the one."
"Are you coming out?"
“Nope." I unzipped it and handed it back to Beatrice. As soon as she walked away, he whipped behind the curtain.
"Are you purposely being naughty?" He pressed me up against the wall in my lingerie and I chuckled as I curled my hands into his shirt.
"I just thought about the look in your eyes the first time you see me in it.” I pulled myself closer and whispered in his ear. "I want you to be desperate for me the way I'll be desperate for you in your tux."
"Oh Mrs. Bryant, you are a cruel, cruel woman," he whispered in my ear and dug his fingers into my hips.
Jaime cleared his throat as a signal; we were about to have company. Nick didn't seem to mind, he pressed me flush against the wall and kissed me. He bit and nipped at my lips, and I could only sigh into his open mouth. His hand snaked between my thighs finding nothing but slickness consuming the thin strip of lace of my thong.
"I think we're done here. Get dressed now."
I nipped his earlobe then let him pull away. He slipped out of the room only to swear under his breath.
"Piper." Nick’s growl sent shivers up my spine and the name made my fists ball. "What are you doing here?"
“Nicholas, we need to talk.” Her purr made my jaw clench. Fire flushed across my chest too.
Before I realized what I was doing, I shoved the brocade curtain aside and lunged at her. I’d be damned if she talked to my fiancé in that bedroom voice. Neither Nick nor Jaime expected my lingerie-clad ass to spring out at her, hands headed for her throat.
She yelped like a wounded animal as soon as I got my hands on her. I had her neck and I started squeezing just before she wildly clawed at me. Her talons dragged down my right arm hard enough for me to drop my hold like I’d grabbed something flaming hot.
“You bitch,” I screeched.
The anger I’d harbored against her bubbled up in spectacular and volcanic fashion. I wasn’t remotely satisfied with one tiny assault and scrambled to find something else to pummel. I got to her ponytail first with one hand and her throat again with a second. I yanked and dug as hard as I could.
She screamed again, louder and more anguished than before. The sound gave me the slightest bit of satisfaction.
Nick’s arms squeezed around me. They were strong and sturdy without being aggressive, but they pulled my arms away from Piper’s body without even trying. He gathered me into his chest even as I fought to dive at Piper again. She was out of reach with Jaime similarly restraining her. I breathed heavily and my heart hammered against Nick’s forearm, shaking my body even more than vengeance itself.
“Sweets, I get it. Swear I do. But do you really have to do this here?” Nick whispered in my ear with the hint of a smile. I still squirmed in his arms. The desire to throttle her had me seeing red and little else.
“Kate. Leave it.” Nick squeezed me a little as a warning then kissed the back of my neck. “For me?”
I melted a little into him and finally his grip lessened the smallest bit. He didn’t let go.
“Why are you here Piper? What the fuck do you want?” Nick snarled a little too loudly in my ear and I automatically elbowed him.
He grunted then let me go. Well, mostly anyhow. His hand found its normal place on my hip and his fingers curled in exactly the amount I expected under the circumstances. I would bruise but because of Piper, I didn’t care.
“Yes, do tell, Piper? You haven’t ruined everything completely so you thought you’d come back to try and finish the job?”
“Ruin? You think your life is ruined? From where I’m standing…” I didn’t let her finish.
I broke out of Nick’s hold and bolted toward her. “No thanks to you!” I screamed and once again went to choke her.
“Stop. Please stop!” She managed in the most broken tone possible.
My hands fell away. Not because she’d asked but because she was so close to tears, it surprised me.
Nick had his hands around me a m
oment later but his grip lacked authority. He’d heard her break to.
“Did she hurt you?” Nick asked, still cold.
"No, it's not that." She yanked down the collar of her turtleneck, revealing deep purple bruises. "It's these." My mouth fell open and the longer I stared the more I recognized their familiar shape.
Handprints.
But they weren’t mine. My hands were smaller and I doubted I could squeeze that hard, even to save my life.
"Did he do this to you?" Nick asked like it was a continuation of a conversation from earlier. His snarl rumbled in his chest, vibrating against my back. I was the one who wanted to growl. How could he read her so easily? My temper was back and threatened to be even more volatile than before.
“Who is he?” My voice was raw but as soon as I spoke, I knew.
“Christopher,” they said it in unison, in matching dejected and pained voices no less.
I sucked in deeply. Sure, I imagined how my hands would fit in the edges of those bruises but my heart also twinged a little. If she was still involved with Christopher, there was something brewing that a cat fight couldn’t resolve. No matter how good it would feel.
“Why are you still involved with him? After everything that happened, I thought you’d have enough sense to get out, Piper. I told you to get out.” Nick had shifted to his cooly detached and all together scary voice. I shivered in spite of myself.
“I’m not. I mean I did.” She cowered under the weight of that voice. “Get out, I mean. But that doesn’t mean he was done with me.” She gulped. “He’s been watching…” her voice trailed off in one of those gut wrenching ominous tones.
“Watching what?” I snapped.
“Everything. Everyone. Me.” Her eyes lifted then narrowed. “You.”
“He’s watching Kate?” Nick lunged out from behind me only to roar in Piper’s face.
Her eyes dropped and her shoulders rounded beneath Nick’s withering gaze.
“Piper, I asked you a question.”
Jaime and I both stepped toward Nick when his hands balled at his sides, fury rolling off him in visible waves.
As if on autopilot, she fell to her knees and placed her palms flat on the floor, keeping her eyes on Nick’s shoes as she went. It was so automatic and so naturally submissive, I felt like I was glimpsing an intimate moment between them. My stomach heaved.
“Get up Piper.” Nick was softer now and it made the feeling in my stomach all the more violent. When she didn’t move, he added, “Get up and speak to me like an adult. That’s all you are to me now.”
She sat back and looked up at Nick with giant puppy dog eyes. The urge to pummel her all over again swept through my veins. Nick must have read me perfectly because his hand returned to my hip and pulled me to his side.
“Tell me what you know, Piper. Now.”
“He has enough blackmail on me to ruin my life. My master’s too. No matter how high ranking he is, we can’t bury this kind of stuff.” She gulped and her hand went to flit around her throat.
“And what exactly is he blackmailing you to do, Piper?” Jaime’s deep baritone voice took over asking the questions.
When I looked from him to Nick and back again, I got the feeling Nick already knew. Piper must have gotten the same sense because she reached for a bag that laid by Jaime’s feet. She shuffled around in it, searching for something, until she pulled out a small manilla envelope and held it up to Nick.
“Just take this. Please,” she whined a little.
“I’m not taking that from you, Piper.” Nick’s bone chilling voice was fading, his grip on my hip was not.
“Yes, you will. You need to know what’s coming, Nicholas.” Piper found a little bit of confidence in her voice and stretched her arm out even further.
“I’ll figure it out some other way.” Nick looked away, off into the distance, and then over at me. His gaze swept all the way from my eyes down to my toes and back again. The deep coal his had turned wasn’t lost on me.
Piper stood and stepped closer to the two of us.
“Take the envelop Nicholas. He’s blackmailing me to help with your destruction. And I’m not the only one.”
Nick’s body went rigid. I swore his heart stopped beating. Piper tried to manage a small, apologetic smile as she attempted to tuck the envelope into the crook of his elbow. When he squeezed so hard, she couldn’t, Piper turned and handed it to Jaime.
“A storms coming, Jaime. Don’t let it destroy him.”
Jaime took the envelope and all three of us wordlessly watched her walk out.
“Baby, what was in the envelope?"
Nick didn't say anything, he didn’t even acknowledge that I’d spoke. He was facing away from me, drinking scotch, watching the city go dark. He hadn’t said anything in the six hours since he’d all but dragged me out of Bergdorf’s. I hadn’t pressed him either. Instead, I studied the tuxedo that molded to his perfect frame.
“Kate." He sighed and sipped again. "Is there any way you'd leave it? Just this once? I'll beg."
He sipped again, watching my reflection in the massive wall of windows that was our living room. Judging by the bottle next to his shiny Prada shoe, this wasn't his first or even second glass. And if his rigid shoulders were any indication, they weren't helping. My heart broke at the obvious anxiety that riddled his body. My mind, however, was at war. I was just as desperate for answers as I was to console him.
“Is that a let it go permanently or just for now?” I asked quietly.
He turned to face me and studied me. His face fell as he did. “I’d beg for permanently but I don’t think you’ll let me.” His voice was even quieter than mine.
If the whole world hinged on Nicholas Bryant, that look said he was going to let it fall. He was going to let it fall to the ground and smash into a million pieces. Based on whatever had been in that envelope, he just couldn’t hold it up any more.
I scrambled to catch it, determined to hold it up for the both of us.
“Permanent is good.” I shrugged and bit my lip.
His brow furrowed as he cocked his head to the side.
“Come on Nick, I'm not completely unreasonable."
That made his scowl break, replaced by a wistful smile.
“Just this side of it I think.” He set the scotch down and walked toward me. “Unreasonable or not, you’re gorgeous." When he leaned in toward my lips I ducked away.
“Don't. You'll ruin my makeup."
"Who said I was going to kiss you?" His lips brushed against my skin and his fingertips curled into the romantic wisps of hair I'd left free. "If I kiss you now I'll have even less desire to leave.”
His eyes fell from my face but I caught fear filter in anyway. My hands went to his chest on their own accord. I definitely did not mean to flex them into his pecks.
"Are you trying to kill me?" It was our long standing joke but there was absolutely no humor in his voice tonight.
"I didn't even realize..." I let my voice trail off as I renewed my assault under his jacket and up against his low back.
"Well you do now.” Amusement colored his voice as he went back to playing with tendrils of my hair. His other arm wove around me and his fingertips started playing at the hidden zipper. "Tell me we don't have to go. Tell me we can stay here tonight." Nick’s tone, breathy and desperate up against my ear, pulled on my heartstrings.
"They're honoring you and your contributions, Nick…” My fingers disagreed as they clenched into him.
"I shouldn't have to do anything but peel this gorgeous dress off my beautiful fiancée."
Oh God, yes please.
I wanted him. Desperately. Just as I’d foretold. And not only because the all too familiar wetness was spreading between my thighs, but because it was the first time his eyes had lightened, albeit infinitesimally, since Bergdorfs. I wanted nothing more than to keep them that way.
My body caved before my mind, sagging into him and angling so he had even better access to
my zipper. "Screw it," was on the tip of my tongue when the elevator dinged behind us and Jaime, Colton, and Terrence all stepped off in classic tuxedos.
"Sir, everything has been prepared as requested, even at the venue. Are you two ready?"
Nick looked longingly down at me, and something about his face was so distraught that all my breath left me. It was like a massive kick to the stomach, and that nauseating feeling of dread landed at my core with a thunk. Before I could even think, I spoke.
"Nick I don't..."
His, "We're all set" rang out over top of my words, and his hand seamlessly slid to the small of my back as he pulled my now-leaden feet toward the elevator.
13.
The ballroom where I’d first laid eyes on Nicholas Bryant had been transformed. The room was covered in black, silver, and green gossamers, all shimmering with an iridescence that reminded me of the way my insides felt when Nick was near. Touches of holiday still lingered in the centerpieces, holly mingled with silver dusted globes and snowflakes. If that damned feeling hadn't been gnawing at me I would have relished the splendor.
“Sweets?"
Nick noticed me studying the carpet rather than the ethereal ceiling. I met his eyes and everything in me lurched.
“Something’s wrong.” I didn’t think before I said it.
“What? What’s wrong?” His eyes went flat and his frown marred his gorgeous face. All I could do was shake my head.
He gave me a severe look, and would’ve questioned me if family hadn't found us, Ari cutting off our words with a giant hug around Nick’s neck and a giddy shriek in his ear. Julia grabbed me before I could pull my hand from Nick's, making for the awkward lump of people standing by our table. I was able to manage a small smile and wave at Laura as she worked her way over behind them.
Whether we liked it or not, whether something was afoot or not, we were thrust into the very public role of gala honoree and new fiancée. The whole thing was disconcerting and knocked me off my game. I couldn't give Laura shit for another new man, or be grateful there was no awkwardness with Julia. I couldn't be myself or clear my thoughts. Dread had started snarling in my stomach like a caged and baited animal. The whirl of faces, fabric, and chatter around me was quickly drowning me. Only one voice could help me surface, and even then, I barely reacted when Nick whispered in my ear.