Page 103 of Whirlwind

Chapter 2

Nina

Nina looked up and nearly spilled the tray of drinks she was carrying. Angel was watching her again.

And she wasn’t being subtle about it.

Nina felt like prey.

She tried sneaking in little looks, wanting to catalogue all of the changes of the past decade while she repeated the new name in her head. Angel.

She truly was.

Nina delivered the drinks to the waiting table and then cast a glimpse to the side.

Somehow, she was still the person who Nina had known before. Thomas Hartford. Passionate and sexy, with a fire burning from within. The fuel for all of her teenaged dreams.

But where Angel had been wild and casually handsome before, now she was gorgeous and controlled, like her rough outer edges had been burned away to reveal the diamond within.

She moved with languid precision, her posture statuesque and her femininity only enhancing her leashed power. Her mahogany skin glowed and her soft breasts pressed tantalizingly against her soft dress. Her neck was bare and she made no attempt to cover the bulge in her throat, but looking at her, you would never notice it.

Angel had crossed her legs daintily, and Nina traced down those long legs to reach sexy high heels. Fuck, those heels. The thick black straps accentuated the elegant arch of her foot and the riveting bones of her ankles. At the rounded tip, she could see just a flash of Angel’s toes, her nails polished to a shine with a warm peach color. She watched as Angel shifted in her chair, dangling one long leg over the side of her chair.

And looked up to find coal-dark eyes blazing into her.

Nina scurried to the safety of the kitchen. She wished she could have made her walk seductive and confident, because she knew that Angel was watching. But it took all of her attention just to move in the right direction without tripping over herself.

Her head spun with questions. Why was Angel here, after all of these years? Well, probably because of Ben, honestly. But why was Angel watching her?

She felt almost nauseous with stress, but she couldn’t figure out if it was arousing or terrifying. Did Angel really want her, or was this all a trick?

Angel had been the best thing that ever happened to her once.

And then the worst.

She loaded her tray from the window, carefully balancing four plates and six glasses for another table. She told herself that she wouldn’t look up this time. She needed to stay focused so nothing spilled, and Angel was an unnecessary distraction.

She quickly dropped off the order and went back to fetch mustard and an extra plate. She was doing fine.

And Angel was talking with the group now, so she could maybe sneak in one more look.

She wore her hair natural, in crisp, dark curls that adorned her head like a halo. It was longer than it had been back in high school, falling lightly on her shoulders. Nina wondered what Angel’s skin smelled like now, but then told herself that it didn’t matter.

Angel was in the past. A very difficult part of her past that she didn’t want to remember.

She took one more look, though. Angel was laughing, her eyes sparkling and her gestures relaxed. Her mahogany skin was radiant, and now touched by a shimmer of gold at her eyelids and a shiny, neutral pink at her lips. Nina thought that her cheeks might be subtly rounder and her chin and forehead softened, but it was difficult to tell from a distance. She gave the unmistakable aura of confident femininity, like someone who was at home with her body and knew how attractive she was to those around her.

Angel turned her head and caught her again.

Nina’s face burned. God, she couldn’t do this. Her heart was pounding out of her chest and her legs didn’t know where to go. Tom— Angel was here, after all of this time.

She somehow made it back to the kitchen window so she could wait for one of the other servers. “Mandy, can you take care of table 10?”

Mandy looked over at the corner. “Wait, Parker and Eric’s table?” Everybody knew their crew since they came in once or twice a week. “Are you sure? They tip well.”

“Yeah, I’m very sure. In fact, maybe switch sides for the rest of the night?”

“Did anyone bother you?”