Page 90 of Contention

Kara allows herself to enjoy it, while it lasts. This strange illusion of having pleased him. It almost feels like fondness, the way he presses his lips to hers.

“What sparked this?” He asks casually, his voice settling into his typical coolness as he nips her earlobe. “Calling me?”

Kara twists in the seat as she replies cagily, not wanting to reminisce about the why. “I hate to be a bitch, but it really isn’t something I think you care about.”

He doesn’t take offense. Nick presses his nose to her neck suddenly, inhaling. “You smell like the lake.”

She shivers, feeling him inhale at her collarbone. It feels strangely intimate. The fucking was an empty act of vileness, but this…feels different. “Boating tends to do that, I think.”

He stiffens against her, sitting back. A frown shifts his features, making him look like a stern authority figure. “Boating? You have friends that take you boating during the work week?”

With a sarcastic little noise, Kara looks down at her fingernails. “Now I do, apparently. Quite the scandal.” She doesn’t like the way he’s looking at her. He’s quickly disappearing into that cool mask he wears and strangely she doesn’t want him to distance himself from her entirely so soon after this experience. It would cheapen it.

Idly, she asks something that’s been nagging at her. “Why were you so close to this location? Are you…on your way to meet someone? Your limo buddies? Or is your disgusting libido satisfied for now?”

His eyelids lower slightly, displeased with the line of questioning. “That’s of no consequence-”

“Ah, yes.” She gives him an unkind smile. “You’re meeting up with Dieter later. It’s written all over your face.” She’s jealous, she thinks, which is absurd. But, the idea of some other girl sitting next to him tonight is driving her up the wall the more she lingers on it. “You really are a dog.”

Lips pulling back from his teeth in a sudden expression of anger, Nick leans forward aggressively. “Dieter?” His eyes go icy, livid. “You were on his goddamn yacht today. Weren’t you?”

“Oh, do fuck off.”

He grabs her face roughly, hard enough to cause pain. “Answer me.”

Jerking her face out of his punishing grasp, Kara snaps, “What do you care if I was or not? Alright, yes, I was on his yacht. It wasdelightful. A man almost died. There was a suspicious lack of cocaine. I sat on a sun deck with a morally bankrupt man withfar too muchmoney. Gale may have gotten a grey hair. Are you pleased?”

The expression on his face clearly speaks for itself, eyes surprisingly full of emotion. His teeth are gritted. “What. Did. You. Do. To. Him?”

What did she do to Dietrich? Absolutely nothing she cares to repeat here. Well, there really isn’t much to repeat anyway. “I didn’t do anything to him. What’swrongwith you?”

An ugly, almost jealous expression crosses Nick’s features in a wave. The car is becoming suffocating. “Let me rephrase then; what did he do to you?”

Pursing her lips, scowling at him, Kara tries to squirm her way to the front of the car to turn it on so they can get some air. Nick tries to yank her back, but she angrily hisses, “I’m turning on the air, it’s hot as balls in here! Get off me, you absolute troll.” He waits as she turns on the engine, cranking up the air to the max. Kara sighs as the hot air slowly chills.

“So, is that what this was?” Nick says snidely. “You didn’t get what you wanted from him, so you figured you’d call me?”

How did this turn conversation go downhill so fast?

“What has your nuts in a bind? I already told you,nothing happened. The man wants to hire me. I gather he’s doing it to step on you, which is honestly becoming very clear to me, based on your crazy-person reaction.”

Nick scoffs, looking refined in his business casual, even with it being rumpled. He looks away from her, nose flared.

Triumphantly, Kara crows, “I’m right! You’re upset, he’s upset you! Good grief, all I did was take a boat ride and you’ve lost your mind.”

He’s quiet for a moment, looking furious at the continued twist in the conversation, not looking at her. “He’s poaching on my territory.”

The possessiveness in his tone is slightly concerning, considering this affair of theirs was never supposed to mean anything at all. Despite that, Kara feels her heart flutter.

“I’m not yours. You’ve made that very clear since day one,” Kara replies back carefully, because maybe he didn’t mean what he said. “You have no interest in commitment, remember?”

“I don’t have to commit for you to be mine,” he snaps with ill-temper, glancing at Kara sharply.

Oh, this toll bridge troll…what a hypocrite.

“I don’t know,” she whispers nastily, wanting to knife Nick a bit. “I had fun with him, actually.”

“Did you, now? If that’s true, you had fun because hewantedyou to have fun. You either dance to his tune or you’ll get another person entirely.” He’s breathing angrily, eyes bright and livid, clear as can be. “You’re not to see him again.”

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