Chapter 74
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Nicholas raised his eyebrows, mouthing the words biggest mistake with a rather delighted look on his face. I rolled my eyes and avoided his gaze.
'Because I can't possibly believe that the woman I know, the woman who taught me everything I know, would possibly be so foolish. I can't even begin to comprehend how you could throw everything away just to share a kiss with—"
'Nicholas Huntington." The little rant came to a screeching halt as Nicholas stepped forward and offered out his hand. 'It's Jake, right? I think the two of us have met once or twice?"
Jake, for all his previous bluster, was stunned silent. He simply stared at Nicholas with his mouth hanging open, until a pointed ahem from me, made him reach down and shake.
'Yeah, it's...Jake, I'm...I mean..." He pulled in shaky breath, trembling all over like a recently deflated balloon. 'That's my name."
To his extreme credit, Nicholas didn't laugh. (It was another thing I loved about him, the fact that despite his social status, he took great care to address everyone he met as an equal.) Instead, he pursed his lips and shook the man's hand, offering him a kind smile when they were through.
'Well, Jake, please allow me to explain things: you see, Avy here would do it herself, but she's at the slight disadvantage of not wearing any pants."
I closed my eyes with a pained grimace, as Nicholas moved cheerfully onward.
'Things fell rather permanently apart with Elisia Campbell, and since I was reluctant to continue on with anyone who I didn't sincerely know, Avy kindly stepped in to take her place."
That British accent was coming through again. Clear and strong.
'Which I'm hoping will explain our televised kiss, as well as everything else I'm planning to do with your friend." His lips twitched up in a faint smile, as a look of pure mischief danced through his eyes. 'I'm also hoping it will relieve your obvious concern that Avy was making...how did you phrase it? Ah yes. The biggest mistake of her life."
Jake paled, glanced helplessly at me, then paled again.
'I meant of...of her professional life," he tried to amend.
Nicholas nodded graciously.
'Of course, of course."
Kill me. Just kill me right now.
With a supreme amount of effort, I straightened up as much as I could and smoothed back my hair with my best business-like smile.
'Well Jake, if that will be all..." I prompted.
He couldn't get out the door fast enough.
'Yes—right, right!" There was a slight crack as he stepped on a pair of my fallen sunglasses, but all of us were too eager to put the moment behind us to much care. All of us except Nicholas, of course, who looked like he was rather enjoying himself. 'I'll just...I'll just call you later from the office, then?"
I closed my eyes and nodded again. The beginnings of a migraine were beginning to take shape—building up a constant, pulsing pressure at the base of my neck.
'Sounds good."
There was the sound of shuffling footsteps, and a second later, the door closed shut. Jake even managed to lock it behind himself for good measure, before hurrying away—probably off to the nearest bar to purge the entire experience from his memory.
If only all of us could be so lucky.
'So..." Nicholas walked back across the room and re-perched on the edge of my mattress, looking more and more at home all the while, 'he seems a bit high-strung, doesn't he?"
I ignored this, bringing my hand to the back of my neck with a withering glare.
'You had to tell him that I wasn't wearing any pants?" I asked flatly. 'I'm not even going to ask how you knew that—but you just had to add it into the conversation?"
Nicholas nodded pragmatically. 'Oh yes, I think so."
My cheeks flushed, but at this point, I was so far beyond embarrassment that it didn't really register. Instead, I stretched out my legs beneath the comforter—pushing and kicking against him with all my might.
'Well in that case, I think you should probably go too. I'm sure you have a whole list of other people's lives to ruin. And I'm going to need to get started finding a good therapist to guide me through this damn—"
'Avy?"
I looked up to see that he hadn't moved an inch from where he'd started. Not only had my feeble attempts to kick him off gone completely unnoticed, but his every attention was now focused one hundred percent on me—freezing me in place again with that x-ray vision of his.
'I want to add on another condition to our arrangement."
I stared back at him for a second, sure that I'd heard wrong. Then, in the first bout of relief I'd gotten all morning, I threw back my head with a giant laugh.
'You do, do you?" I managed, when I finally resurfaced. 'After all the shit you've put me through, after this little stunt you pulled this morning...you want to add another condition?"
He didn't even blink.
'I do."
His lack of banter made me pause, as did that unflinching, undaunted look simmering in his eyes. Finally, when the silence could go on no longer, I had to ask.
'Okay...what is it?"
He smiled, but when he spoke, his voice was as steady and serious as I'd ever heard it.
'You don't cheat on me either."
