Page 23 of Sweet as Sin (Bad Habit 1)
Looking at me, Nico’s grin faded. His expression became di
stinctly hungry. I looked away and cleared my throat, squirming.
With a loud, aggravated sigh, Grace reached for the chips and salsa. “I can hardly wait to hear the rest.” She bit down on a chip, crunching violently.
I sent her a warning look. Don’t be so harsh, Grandma, he’s trying to be nice!
She narrowed her eyes. We’ll see.
“Turns out our girl Kat can act.”
Our girl?
I still didn’t look at him. Not even when I felt his thumb brush my shoulder. He began to sweep it slowly back and forth across the space between my shoulder blades. As I was still wearing the little black camisole, this meant his fingers were on my bare skin.
I tried to pretend I felt nothing. Which was like trying to pretend I wasn’t being electrocuted. I started to breathe shallowly. I could smell him, sitting so close. Leather and cigarettes and manly musk. Did he smoke? I didn’t care. I wanted to kiss him again. And again.
And again.
“So she was good!”
Chloe sounded proud of me. Of course she would be. If I decided to be a serial killer and went on a murderous rampage with a kitchen knife, she’d find some way to be supportive. She’d probably buy me a set of monogrammed cleavers.
“She’s very natural in front of a camera,” said Nico. “Obi wants her to star in the next video, too.”
“I think I’d rather have all my teeth pulled out with pliers. Without anesthesia.”
Nico’s gaze flashed to mine. “Thanks.”
I admit I felt happy he seemed so taken aback by my comment. It felt like it put us on more of an equal footing. He was so self-confident, and I was so off-kilter. But I backtracked a little, anyway.
“It’s just . . . all those people. Watching. Judging. It’s weird. I couldn’t deal with that on a regular basis. Once was more than enough for me.”
Fleeting and dark, a look passed over Nico’s face. “Yeah. Livin’ in a fishbowl has its drawbacks.”
There was so much behind that simple comment, it even made Grace pause. She cocked an ear in her “I’m a good listener” therapist way, looking at him a little closer.
As if on cue, the waiter arrived.
He was visibly shaken. He obviously knew what shining star had joined our table. I wondered if he might curtsy. Or vomit. Across the restaurant, peeking around the corner of the hallway to the kitchen, a group of workers had clustered together, staring.
And was that a crowd gathering on the sidewalk outside?
“Ladies, uh, sir, can I get you anything?”
Nico looked at me. “What’re you drinkin’?”
“Margarita. Rocks.”
“Patron Silver?”
Yes, it was now official. This was my dream man. I nodded.
Nico ordered another for me and asked the girls what they wanted.
“Nothing for us, thanks. We have to get going, anyway. You know, work in the morning. Regular people stuff.”
Grace sent him a pointed look, but it wasn’t as frosty as before. That fishbowl comment might have made her begin to thaw toward him. Grace was very sensitive about the burdens people carried. Probably because she carried so many herself.
