you going to let me in?”
“Why should I?”
“I’m sorry. I was just shocked. But I talked to Wendell, and everything’s cool.”
“Everything might be cool for the two of you.”
“Let me in, Zee,” Nicholas pleaded. “Come on.”
Inhaling a deep breath, Zienna unlocked the door and took a step backward. Saying nothing, she pulled it wide, allowing him to enter.
He looked wary, his expression uncertain. “I’m sorry,” he said without preamble.
Zienna walked the short distance to her living room and took a seat on the armchair, where Nicholas couldn’t sit beside her.
He dropped to his haunches in front of her, the look in his eyes making it clear that he truly regretted having freaked out. He delicately rubbed her right knee. “How’s your knee?”
“I’ll live.”
Several seconds passed in silence. Nicholas was looking at her, she knew, but she wasn’t meeting his gaze.
“You’ve got nothing to say?” he finally asked.
“Seems to me you and Wendell have it all figured out.”
“I didn’t dream Wendell would tell me he used to sleep with you. That was the last thing I was expecting tonight.”
You and me both. “It was a long time ago.”
“I reacted badly. I admit it.”
“You didn’t even want to have a decent discussion about it. You just acted like I’d screwed around on you.”
“No,” Nicholas said firmly. “I didn’t. But I acknowledge that I didn’t handle the news in the most mature fashion. I was caught off guard, and yes, I get that you were, too. But now that Wendell’s investing in my business, I don’t blame him for wanting to get this whole deal into the open.”
“Why should you blame him when you can blame me?”
“Zee...”
They stared at each other for a long beat, neither saying anything. Zienna was the one to speak first. “So...now what?”
“I told you I was sorry, didn’t I? I talked to Wendell and he assured me that your relationship wasn’t serious. Nothing like what you and I have together.”
“So Wendell drops his bombshell, and yet he’s the one to reassure you when I can’t? How do you think that makes me feel?”
“What do you mean?”
“When I told you the relationship meant nothing, you got mad at me. You weren’t hearing it.”
“We never got to have a real discussion.” He quickly held up a hand. “Not after my knee-jerk reaction. That’s why I called you all night. That’s why I’m here.”
“You remember what you said to me, right? You had no problem believing that I meant nothing to Wendell, but you didn’t seem to believe that he meant nothing to me.”
“I came to apologize,” Nicholas said, sounding a little exasperated. He stood and turned toward the window that faced the river. “But it seems to me you want to keep fighting. I can’t help wondering why.”
Well, that hadn’t gone the way Zienna had hoped. She stood and wrapped her arms around her torso. “I’d like to go back to bed.”
Nicholas spun around and stalked toward her, and she actually reeled backward as he reached her. Then he placed both his hands on her shoulders.
“I got upset, yes. But it’s not so simple.” He paused. “When I heard...” He expelled a sharp breath. “The truth is, Wendell’s my best friend, but we’ve always competed. This isn’t the first time we ended up dating the same girl.”
Zienna narrowed her eyes in question, but said nothing.
“Some of the best of friends have the biggest rivalries, even if they love each other. You and Wendell...it brought me back to our college days. In a way, my reaction wasn’t even about you.”
“Really?” she asked disbelievingly.
“Yes. The point is, it’s over now.”
Suddenly, Zienna was hit with a disturbing thought. “How do I know that you didn’t already know about me and Wendell? You two were always competing, maybe you got involved with me because you knew he was coming back to town. What better way to one-up your friend than to be dating the girl he used to sleep with?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Isn’t it? You question my loyalty, but maybe I’m the one with reason to question yours.”
“Enough,” Nicholas said. Both his hands went to her face. “Enough.” He brought his lips down on hers, ever so softly. “Enough.”
He eased back and pinned her with a gaze that was now filled with lust. Taking her hand in his, he forced it to his groin. “I am really tired of fighting.”
He was rock hard.
“This is our first real fight, isn’t it?” He trailed the fingers that were on her face down her neck, to the opening of her robe, dipping them between her breasts. “I’m ready to make up.”
Zienna said nothing, but her breathing became shallower.
Nicholas’s hand slipped lower, parting her robe a little more, but not fully. “This is what I was looking forward to. From the moment I picked you up and saw you looking so incredible.”
Zienna’s lips parted. But all that escaped was a wisp of air.
“Are you going to tell me you don’t want this?” Nicholas asked, his voice low and sultry.
She could, but she would be lying. She’d been turned on the moment she started getting dressed for dinner hours ago, anticipating what was to come. Wendell’s appearance and bombshell had thrown her plans for one hell of a hot night down the toilet.
“I’m still mad at you,” she told him. But she was also aroused. Her chest was heaving from a mixture of anger and lust. And all she could think was that makeup sex was just about the best sex there was.
“You won’t be mad for long.”
His words were a promise.
And with that, he loosened the knot on her silk robe and let the folds fall apart. As his eyes traveled downward, taking in the sight of her, he groaned with pleasure.
She was still wearing the lacy bra and thong she’d bought earlier. Just seeing the look of desire in Nicholas’s eyes had her forgetting all the unpleasantness of the evening.
He reached for her, pressing his warm palm against
