Page 36 of Just Say (Hell) No
She started for the house and tried not to think about the three or four contradictions she’d just tossed out, and the approximately zero likelihood that Victoria wouldn’t be adding them up.
She was all the way up the stone stairway when Marko came out the door again. So fast that, if his reflexes hadn’t been so good, he’d have bowled her over. Instead, he grabbed her by the shoulders and turned with her, his momentum carrying them in a half-circle. When her back hit the wall beside the door, though, he didn’t let go right away.
His hands were so big, it felt like he had hold of her entire upper body. His shoulders were so broad, she couldn’t see around them. He was so tall, she was looking up the entire length of his muscular neck to his black-shadowed jaw, which was set into rugby-hard lines. And he smelled like leather and darkness.
She knew rugby players. They’d never felt like this.
Finally, he stepped back, dropped his hands, and said, his voice absolutely level, “Nyree. We need to talk.”
“Sure,” Nyree said, getting her breath back. “But I need to put these away.”
Marko gave her some more of the burning eyes, but he took the bag from her, which helped. The hanging clothes were getting heavy.
She headed into the house, since he wasn’t actually chucking her out. His kitten was silent at last, probably gazing up at his hard face in rapt adoration. Ingrate. Who’d got her this sweet adoption in the first place?
It was unfortunate that Marko was behind her on the stairs. First, because she couldn’t see exactly how angry he was, and second, because her shorts were riding up. She’d made them years ago when the pair of ancient jeans, worn too thin even for fashion, had finally expired. Or more accurately, had ripped under the bum while she’d been running for a bus. A memorable moment, especially since she’d been wearing a thong at the time. Unfortunately, she’d added a couple extra kilos since then, and at this moment, it felt like all of them had gone to one spot.
Which was bad enough, but the worst part was that she cared what he thought. Her body wasn’t there for his approval. If she liked pizza too much and running too little? He was just going to have to deal with it. If he’d wanted a skinny blonde TV presenter as his housemate, he’d come to the wrong place. And if he were about to tell her the deal was off, shereallydidn’t care. So she slowed her pace and twitched her hips a little more, like she’d grown her bum this size on purpose. If he didn’t like it? He didn’t have to look.
She got to the top of the stairs, edged around the pile of rubbish bags in the wide passage, dragged her armful of clothes around Ella’s mattress, which had somehow only made it halfway through the door of the second guest bedroom, then turned and said, “What.”
“You’ll want to hang those up,” Marko said. Still level. Still controlled. But she could see his chest rising and falling, and it wasn’t because he’d walked up a flight of stairs.
“You’re right.” She shoved the clothes onto the rod in the closet, turned again, and said, “What. And here.” She took the carrier bag from him, pausing while he removed the kitten, and thought,The best defense is a good offense.“If you’d brought my tallboy up instead of getting emotional, I’d already be putting things away, which would mean your flash house could be restored to underfurnished perfection that much sooner.”
He still wasn’t talking. She said, “By the way—who lets somebody move into a house like this and gives them an EFTPOS card without a credit check and a look at their arrest record? How do you know I’m not going to be stealing your identity? Or, worse, selling drugs out of your house, inviting disciplinary measures by New Zealand Rugby? Of course, you can say you had no idea, but there the stream of cars will be, coming and going as mysterious plastic bags are exchanged for cash. That would be a bad look for you.”
Some kind of expression finally crossed his face. Frustration, she’d call it. He said, “I told you I’m only going to keep a few hundred dollars in that account, and that I’d be checking it. You’re not going to fund your new business venture that way. Are you done talking?”
“Possibly.” She folded her arms under her breasts. “Go.”
His eyes dropped, then returned to her face, and he seemed to be gathering his thoughts again. “When I said you could paint, what could possibly have made you think I meant ‘my walls’?”
Ella chose that moment to come into the room, followed by Victoria with another armful of clothes. Victoria took the clothes across to the closet, and Ella said, “Did you see Nyree’s awesome tallboy, Marko? See,that’shome décor. Non-orphanage. Like, with apersonality.She’s going to show me how to decorate the front of my drawers like that, too. We bought a used one off Trade Me, and we’re going to collect it on Wednesday. Reward for doing my first day of school. They wanted three hundred dollars for it, but she got them down to two hundred. Which is still too much, since it’s almost as ugly as the ones you liked, but it’s sixteen hundred fifty percent cheaper, which shows you how shocking those prices were yesterday. They have heaps of maternity clothes as well on there. Nyree says that everybody puts their maternity clothes on Trade Me, because they’re so sick of them by then, and they only wear them for a few months, right? So it’s almost like new. I did a budget, and we can get everything, including the clothes and the furniture and all, for less than sixteen hundred dollars. And since your way, with the Android World furniture, would have been about six thousand, that’s almost the whole cost of paying for Nyree, so you see? Plus, the room will be furnished and will actually look good.”
Marko looked stunned, and Nyree had to smile. Whatever his problem was tonight, one thing was for sure. He was outnumbered. Out-femaled. And definitely out-talked.
He got his laser vision back, unfortunately, and directed it at her before informing her, “Ella’s room is yellow.”
“Yes,” she said. “It is. But it’s not going to stay that way.”
He raised his black brows. He had a scar on his temple, she noticed. It was a good look on him. “Oh?” he said silkily. “Please. Explain. You’re painting it white again? This was merely an exercise?”
“Just… going,” Victoria said. “Unloading. Come help me, Ella.”
Nyree waited until they’d left the room to answer Marko. “No. We’re going to do purple accents, like the duvet cover we bought yesterday. It’ll be pale yellow and deep purple. Quite lovely, really. Charming.”
“Painting can’t possibly be good for the baby,” he tried next. “Fumes.”
“Weak,” Nyree said. “Try harder. I did the painting. And bought zero-VOC paints. She’ll sleep in here with me tonight, and the windows are open. Painting is my profession, remember?”
“Not house painting. And in case you haven’t noticed, yellow and purple isn’t exactly to my taste.”
“Fortunately,” she said sweetly, “your female guests will have a refuge.”
He closed his eyes, then opened them again. “As long as you aren’t painting this room.”
“Oh, but I am. I have to live here for five months. I can’t live in black and white. All right, it has a sea view. But still.”
