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Jules had frozen under his hand the minute the man started speaking, and without turning Nik knew it was the man he had outbid. Nik cursed internally. In the excitement after the bid, he had missed the approach of the man who had been intent on winning the date with Jules.
Nik squeezed her shoulder, then moved his hand to cup the back of her neck possessively before he swivelled to face his competition. “We haven’t been introduced. I’m Nikos Costas. You are?”
“I assumed you knew who I was. I’m Michael Young. Julia is my wife.” He glanced down to where Nik’s hand rested against Jules, and his lips pressed tight.
His wife?Ex-wife,Nik corrected silently. The one thing he remembered clearly about their night together was that her divorce had finalized that day. This was her ex? His choice of words signalled that he hadn’t let go, even years later.
Up close, Michael’s appearance confirmed Nik’s initial age estimate of early to midfifties, making him almost two decades older than Jules. Michael’s hair was solid silver, and his face had a few lines, but his eyes were what caught Nik’s attention. They were filled with a barely concealed rage.
And Jules was clearly terrified, because she was sitting frozen in her chair, every muscle locked.
“You’re in for nothing but disappointment from her. She’s a cold, broken woman looking for someone to take care of her. I invested significant time and effort into her before she left me. I was willing to take her back, her and her daughter, but it looks like I’m not offering enough. Don’t get attached. She will take everything you give her, then leave. She’s not worth it. And if all you want is a good time? You won’t get that either. Icicles are warmer than she is.”
Michael reached his hand out towards Jules, and Nik stepped between Michael and Jules’s chair. Every word out of Michael’s mouth had been designed to hurt Jules, to tear at her self-esteem and make Nik regret his bid. It was time to fight back.
“Juleswasyour wife. That means any claim you had on her is over. I don’t know what your relationship problems were, and I don’t care. For all the years I’ve known her, Jules has been passionate, intelligent, and driven. I don’t know what you did to her to crush that, but you won’t get another chance.”
Without another word, Nik turned away dismissively. Michael Young had control issues and wanted to exercise them over Jules. As long as Nik was around, Michael wouldn’t get another chance.
Nik waited until he heard Michael’s footsteps fading away from the table, then sat down next to Jules. A single tear was sliding down her cheek, and he reached over and brushed it away with his thumb.
“Your ex is a real piece of work.” He reached for the open bottle of wine on the table and poured more into her glass. Her lips twisted into a shaky smile before she managed another slow sip of wine. He poured himself a glass and took a long swallow before setting it on the table. Right now he wanted something stronger, but the drink could wait. He needed to make sure Jules was OK.
“You have no idea. Thanks for fending him off. And the auction ...” Colour flooded her pale cheeks, and more tears threatened. “You didn’t have to. I have no way to repay—”
“Don’t,” Nik commanded softly. “Don’t let what Michael said get in your head. You didn’t ask me to bid. I had no idea who he was, but even from here I could see you were terrified he might win. I wasn’t going to let that happen when I had the power to stop him.”
“But you bid so much. You could have bid less to stop him.”
“I could have. I wanted to make a point. By doubling his bid, I made it clear that I had more than enough resources to top any bid he might make. He got the message. The added benefit was it ended the auction faster so you could get out of the spotlight.”
Nik paused, debating whether he should ask his next question. He didn’t want to offend Jules, but he wanted her to know he understood what she had been going through. He also needed to know if she was truly OK after everything that had happened. Not here, though. He scanned the room, searching for the side door that led to an unused banquet room he’d discovered during his walk around the casino yesterday.
“Let’s get you out of this crowd.” Nik helped Jules to her feet, keeping his hand on her shoulder and steering her towards the side entrance. A quick swipe of his access card and they were alone.
Nik nudged Jules towards chairs lining one of the walls, taking a seat next to her and wrapping his hand around hers. When she finally met his gaze, he asked the question that had been top of mind from the minute he’d decided to bid. “How close were you to having a panic attack? And are you OK now?”
An embarrassed look crossed her face. “You could tell? Did everyone know?”
“I recognized the signs because one of my best friends from college used to have panic attacks right before exams. I learned to pick up signals when it was about to happen and help him through it so that he could write the exam. You had some of the same cues. I doubt most people would have picked up on it,” Nik said, trying to reassure her.
Jules nodded, letting out a sigh. “It isn’t usually an issue anymore, but tonight was stressful before Michael showed up. He tipped me over the edge.”
“It’s over now. How often do you have to see him? Do you share custody of your daughter with him?”
The way Michael had treated Jules infuriated Nik. It hurt him to think she had to put up with this kind of cruelty on a regular basis. He didn’t know where this need to protect her was coming from, but Michael had awoken some primitive instinct, and Nik rarely ignored his instincts.
An emotion Nik couldn’t decipher flashed across her face, but it was gone before he could interpret it.
CHAPTER10
“He’s not Ava’s father. She was born after the divorce. Michael has no right to any contact with her.”And thank God for that.Jules had regained some of her composure as she spoke, but now she was overcome with remembered anger at Michael’s actions.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Everything about Nik signalled that the question was one of sympathy rather than morbid curiosity.
Did she? She had talked her marriage to death with her therapist, and her mother knew everything. Meg and Les suspected things had been worse than she let on, but they never pried.
Opening up to Nik would be the first time she ever discussed her trauma with a man. She still hadn’t found the courage to tell him about his daughter, but maybe if she could share the history of her marriage with him, then when she did finally tell him about Ava, he would understand why telling him was so hard.
