AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I . . . I don’t know what to say.”
Nick’s full lips tilted in that sexy smile he used when—No, no, and no.
“You don’t have to say anything.”
“How did you . . . I mean, how did you and Izzy?—?”
“I came to sign the contracts earlier and Izzy and I got talking.”
Cheryl trusted Izzy with her life, but when it came to matters of the heart Izzy was the queen of Hallmark Channel love stories ending with everyone hugging and singing Christmas carols.
“Talking about what exactly?”
Nick nodded to her glass. “Have a little more of your martini.”
“Do I need to?”
“You haven’t unclenched your fist for the last four minutes and your shoulders are hunched up to your ears, so yeah, you need it.”
He sipped at his drink and she followed with a big gulp. The vodka burned down her throat and hit her mostly empty stomach and she swore she knew the exact moment it entered her bloodstream.
“Take a deep breath.” He stared at her until she obeyed. “Now, take another sip.”
She did and a few seconds later her fists unclenched and her neck loosened. Perhaps alcohol did have a purpose in extreme situations, and this was about as extreme as it could get.
“I just wanna talk.” Nick’s overall calm unnerved her. Talk? Was he kidding?
She placed her glass back on the bar and stared at him. Last week in the suite she was so overcome with shock she mostly concentrated on breathing, then the other night at the club they were frantic and rushed, but now in the bright casino lights she was able to take in every nuance. The way the darkness of his eyes always had a way of mesmerizing her. His full lips quirked and her chest tightened to the point of pain.
Her sensible brain screamed push away from the bar and run, but her impulsive, reckless brain, which she’d locked down for the last ten years yelled, fall into this luscious man’s arms and never let go.
“You never did tell me the meaning of your neck tattoo.”
He pointed to his neck. “This is what you wanna talk about after ten years.”
“It’s a start.”
Nick shrugged. “I got it when I left New York. The skeleton represents the death of my old life and starting new in Vegas. Forgetting the bad and putting it all behind me.”
“Am I part of the bad you wanted to forget?”
“I never forgot us.” Nick ran his finger around the rim of his glass as he studied the golden liquid. “It just got too hard, and if I hadn’t moved forward it would’ve wrecked me.”
“The past has a way of doing that.” Although it was the immediate future that haunted her now. The here and now of where this conversation could take them. She had too much at stake to make any mistakes.
“Hmmm, you and me.” He paused and she waited unsure of his next words. “We started off fast and ended just as fast.”
Truth. Most relationships of their magnitude took years to cultivate, but they’d smashed into each other and in only a few months ignited an impulsive passion burning everything in its path.
“You haven’t changed.” His smile widened. “You look great.”
Cheryl lowered her head. “Izzy wasn’t happy with my outfit. Of course, I didn’t know I was going to have drinks with an old friend.”
“Friend? I think we’re way more than friends.”
“All in the past.” Her gaze raked over him from head to toe. “I’m sure after all these years you’ve found someone, or many someones.”
He took a long swallow of his drink and motioned the bartender for another. “Never.”
