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Nick sighs. “I’m starting to feel like this is a threesome.” He releases me. “Talk to the man so I can have you to myself.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just be done.”
I nod and answer the call. “Josh.” And then I say that word again: “Sorry. I just saw your text.”
Nick walks to the door and leans on it, and while I intend to walk to the security panel to key in my code, I instead find myself standing just above the steps, embracing my first opportunity to fully appreciate Nick without a suit or tuxedo jacket on. His white shirt stretches across an impressive broad chest, his arms—also impressive, from what I can tell—folded in front of said impressive chest.
He notices my attention, of course, because how can he not when I’m boldly watching him? He arches a brow, the look on his face a wicked invitation. Josh says something about the parking lot followed by, “And I texted and tried to call you,” while I have no idea what else he’s said.
Cutting my gaze from the distraction that is Nick, I reply with, “It didn’t ring,” and cross to the keypad on the wall, right next to the spot Nick leans on.
“And you didn’t think about finding me before leaving?” Josh demands.
“I had car problems I was dealing with.” I key in my code to have it beep in rejection.
“Which means you were leaving without finding me,” he accuses.
Giving up on the code to the door, wishing now that I didn’t let the security company convince me to use this keypad system, I rotate and rest against the wall next to Nick. Focusing now on surviving this conversation with Josh, I say, “You disappeared along with the crowd.”
“Where are you now?” he asks. “Do you need help with your car?”
“I got a ride home.”
“A ride with Nick Rogers,” Josh says, disapproval in his voice.
“Josh—”
“That’s a yes,” he says. “He’s an arrogant bastard who will fuck you and leave you. You know that, right?”
A fizzle of unease slides through me at the harsh words that do not fit Josh, but then again, he’s still close to a past that I’ve left behind. A man I’ve left behind, and I’m not going to go there with him with Nick standing here—or ever, if I have my way. “Thank you for the advice,” I say, trying to recreate the professional barrier between us that seems to have fallen. “And for everything tonight. I’m excited that you liked my new work. I can’t wait to see what happens with it.” I can feel Nick’s eyes on me, heavy, interested.
“In other words,” Josh says, “he’s with you, and you don’t want to talk.”
“Now’s not a good time,” I confirm.
“Right.” He’s silent several beats. “Just be careful.”
“I always am.”
“We’ll talk before I head back to L.A.” He hangs up, and I stuff my phone back in the jacket pocket.
“Well, that went well,” I say, glancing over at Nick. “And I have to call the security company. I don’t have a key. I use the keypad.”
Nick pushes off the wall and steps in front of me, big and overwhelmingly male, but he really makes overwhelming delicious. “What’s the code?” he asks.
“8891, but I tried it twice. It won’t work.”
He keys in the code, and the front door clicks. “Of course it opens for you,” I murmur.
“You were focused on Josh,” he says, and instead of making a move for the door, he presses one hand on the wall above my head, those blue eyes of his too intelligent, too probing as he repeats Josh’s words. “An arrogant bastard who will fuck you and leave you,”he says.
“You heard. Obviously.”
“I heard. Andobviously, he doesn’t know that the description ‘arrogant bastard who will fuck you and leave you’ makes me perfect for you. Why is that, I wonder?”
“I could ask you the same.”
