Sweet as Sin

16

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. “s**t. 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 s**t to sign on for what’s sure to be a s**t 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.”