Page 56 of Reckless Harmony

He glanced at the community center. “I’m participating in the fundraiser.”

“Oh. You’re um… you’re one of the bachelors?”

He nodded, and a gleeful little voice inside her said, “He’s single!”

So what? She wasn’t.

“That’s nice,” she said inanely. Why did she lose all of her brain cells when she was around Nix?

“Do you actually think so?” He glanced at her fallen sign, and she turned bright red as he studied the other protesters.

“Oh, I, uh…” She trailed off. What was she supposed to say? She was obviously here protesting the fundraiser, and nothing she said would change that.

Josephine joined them, smiling timidly at Nix. “Hello. I’m Josephine, and I’d love to talk to you about the healing grace of God’s love.”

“I’m an atheist,” Nix said, his gaze returning to Nola. “You look like you’re freezing.”

She smiled faintly. “At least I’m wearing a coat this time, right?”

His disapproving look did something to her insides that wasn’t exactly unpleasant. In fact, she was feeling a little tingly in the most inappropriate place.

“I forgot my hat and scarf, but I’m actually not that cold,” she lied.

“Your lips are blue,” he said. He unwound the scarf from his neck, and she stood in silent surprise as he wrapped it around hers. It was thick, delightfully soft, and warm.

“There,” he said gruffly. “You can keep the scarf.”

“You can’t keep giving me your clothes,” she said and then blushed at how incredibly improper her comment was. “I mean, your, uh, winter clothes, not your clothes, clothes.”

He grinned, and there went her stupid heart again, thumping away like she’d run a marathon and her crotch… well, she absolutely did not want to talk about what it was currently doing.

“Nola?” Abraham pushed past Nix and stood beside her, sliding a possessive arm around her shoulders.

Oh, now he was fine with public displays of affection?

She ignored her immediate urge to push Abraham’s arm away as he glared at Nix. “I saw you touching my girlfriend. You’re lucky I don’t have you arrested for assault.”

“Abraham!” Anger, an unfamiliar emotion at best, washed over Nola, and she gave into her urge and pushed away his arm. “Stop it. I slipped on the ice, and he caught me. He saved me from smashing my head on the pavement.”

Before Abraham could reply - oh, this was just perfect - her father arrived. His face was red, and he was already beginning to bleat like an angry goat.

Unkind, Nola!

“Get away from my daughter, you…” Her father’s eyes widened as recognition washed over his face. “You. I remember you. You were harassing my daughter while she ministered to the poor.”

“No, he wasn’t, Daddy,” Nola said. “He saved me from -”

“Nola, hush,” Abraham said.

She glared at Abraham as her father sneered at Nix. “Of course you would be here with the rest of the sinners. A man like you, covered in the devil’s marks, wouldn’t hesitate to participate in a whorish gathering like this.”

Her father studied the tattoos visible on Nix’s hands. “Do you think the devil will show mercy on you when you join him in hell? Do you believe defiling your body with tattoos will gain you his favour? Because I assure you, you will burn just like all the other sinners who mark their bodies as you have done.”

Nix’s gaze flickered to Nola’s hip. Just for a moment, but it was enough to make the blood drain from her face and her lips go numb. Oh God. He would tell her father about her tattoo, and she couldn’t blame him for it. Her father was being so rude, and finding out his daughter had a tattoo would be the only way to shut him up.

Of course, it would also cost her everything, but that wasn’t Nix’s problem, was it?

She stared wide-eyed at Nix and waited for him to destroy her life.

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