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Nick shrugged. Tam smiled coolly back at him. “Plying her trade,” he said. “Nothing out of the ordinary. Hey, Tam.”
“Nikolai,” she cooed. “At last we meet. You’ve been avoiding me like a pro all day. And here I was, dying to meet the virgin sacrifice.”
“Yeah? Were you?” His jaw was taut. “And?”
“She’s absolutely succulent,” Tam said. “I congratulate you on your lovely acquisition. So my confidence was not betrayed in vain, hmm? And my contact was not put in mortal danger for nothing. At least you’re finally getting properly laid. There’s an upside to everything, eh?”
Becca leaped to her feet. “It wasn’t his fault that I showed up and ruined everything! So you can just back off, lady!”
Her voice rang loud enough so that people from the other tables started to look around, intrigued. Nick gave her a startled look.
“Lay off, Tam,” Erin said, her face somber as she cuddled her suckling baby. “Don’t be a horrible bitch.”
“Sorry, Erin. Face reality. Unfortunately, Iama horrible bitch,” was Tam’s crisp rejoinder. “Let him defend himself. Our Nikolai, the constant fuck-up. You’ll see what I mean, honey, when that inevitable day comes that you’re on the receiving end of one of his big, fat, mortal errors. If you live long enough to realize what happened, that is.”
Becca bristled. “He is not a fuck-up!”
“No?” Tam’s crack of laughter had a brittle edge to it, like broken glass. “Ask him to tell you about Novak sometime.”
Davy’s chair scraped as he rose to his feet and glowered down at her. “Goddamnit, Tam. Leave, if you can’t bring yourself to be civil.”
“Civil?” Tam snorted. “Civility is just the denial of reality. I’m very bad at denying reality. I suppose that’s why I tend to be unpopular.”
Becca grabbed Nick’s hand. It was stiff and unresponsive.
The look on his face made her stomach clench. The man she’d been kissing and laughing with and dancing with was gone. His face was pale and his eyes had that dead flatness they’d had during the very worst moments of their deadly adventure this weekend.
She hated to see him like that. All the life drained out of his beautiful face, grim, iron-jawed endurance in its place.
“I think it’s time for us to take a break,” she said, to the table at large. “It was a fabulous party. Thank you for being so welcoming and sweet to me. It was great to meet you all.” She shot a cold glance at Tam. “Except for you.” She grabbed Nick’s hand. “Come on, Nick.”
He followed her like an automaton.
CHAPTER24
Nick allowed himself to be towed along. His limbs felt stiff.
He was a fool for giving in to it. Letting himself go, getting mushy and mellow. After a lifetime of training, he ought to know better.
Well, hell. He was used to being a disappointment, after seeing that look on his father’s face for years.
There was a trick to surviving it. You just had to not give a shit.
He’d mastered that trick with his father, though it had taken years of practice to get it right. But it was entirely a different proposition to do it with Becca.
They’d reached the room. He stood, passively, while Becca dug for her key in her tiny pink purse. He felt her soft hands at the small of his back, herding him into the big, comfortable room. It was still in wild disarray from the frantic speed with which they’d dressed when they arrived. They’d run late, on account of that transcendental blow job.
He sank down on to the bed, which was covered with discarded clothes. His back to her. His eyes fell on the ice bucket, the champagne.
God. He covered his eyes, gut churning. So much for that.
Becca waited a couple of minutes and then started in on him, an edge of frustration in her voice. “Nick? Do you want to tell me what the hell that was all about?”
“No,” he said.
She let out a sharp, angry sigh, and came around the bed, facing him. One high-heeled foot tapped with nervous energy, her hands were on hips, legs apart. Ready to give him hell. He braced himself.
“All right. I guess I phrased that wrong,” she said, her voice sharp with anger. “Let me try it again. Nick, what thehellwas that all about?”
