Chapter 83
2392words
There was a sudden pounding on the door, causing both of us to spring apart, gasping as though we'd just sprinted across town. We blushed furiously, trying desperately to avoid each other's gaze.
"Mr. Huntington?" came an anxious voice from the other side of the door, likely one of the waitstaff. "Mr. Huntington, is everything okay?"
The door rattled again, and Nicholas lowered his head with a barely noticeable sigh. He shot me a quick glance, his lips twitching into a regretful smile.
"Yeah, Jake. Everything's fine."
Fine was one way to describe it. I'd never felt so off-balance in my life. It was as if I was trapped in some surreal dream, unable to wake up.
I tried to snap out of it, hastily smoothing down my dress. Nicholas, pressed against the far wall of the small room, struggled similarly to fix his attire. Despite his outward calm, his hands trembled uncontrollably.
To worsen matters, this Jake—whomever he was—proved incredibly persistent. Before a second had passed, the bronze handle rattled again.
"The door's locked—"
"Yeah," Nicholas cut in, a touch impatiently. "I'm opening it right now."
Before opening it, he cast a quick glance over his shoulder. Our eyes met, and seeing my clothes neatly arranged, he sighed again, deeply frustrated.
"Ready?" he asked softly.
No. Not at all.
"Yeah," I replied, giving my dress one last unnecessary pat. "Lead the way."
A small crowd awaited us as we stepped out. Mainly comprised of butlers, security personnel, caterers, and several others who had worked themselves into a panic over one of the wealthiest men in the world supposedly barricading himself in a coat closet.
At the forefront stood Max Marino—Nicholas's long-suffering bodyguard and close friend. His eyes twinkled with amusement as Nicholas awkwardly emerged from the closet, a scene he had surely witnessed many times. However, they widened almost imperceptibly when it was me who followed Nicholas out.
My cheeks burned bright pink, and I made a conscious effort to avoid his gaze. It was bad enough that he and I usually covered for Nicholas in these types of situations together. I couldn't begin to comprehend how I'd somehow ended up on the other side of the door.
Nicholas, as was his habit, fell into his usual routine.
Like he did in most cases where he needed an escape, he made a bee-line for the imposing man, glaring viciously over Max's bulky shoulder as the rest of the crowd scattered and fled. It was a well-tested strategy. Max tended to have that effect on people.
'What's new, boss?" Max asked quietly. It was the standard question he asked whenever his charge got in over his head, but under the present circumstances, it suddenly sounded entirely different. 'I heard some chatter over the staff radio and came to find you."
'Came to find me after the siege had already started," Nicholas retorted, taking a moment to quickly tuck in his shirt. My face blanched. I hadn't realized he'd begun taking it off.
Max's dark eyes twinkled, gazing down with the affection one might show to a wayward younger brother. 'Perhaps if you had given me a bit of warning—"
'Aren't you supposed to have my back with these sorts of things?" Nicholas interrupted impatiently. I blushed and hid my eyes as he straightened his crooked tie. 'Stand as a lookout or something? What the hell am I paying you for?"
Max graciously suppressed a smile as he batted away his boss' manic hands and straightened the tie himself. 'I'm supposed to stand as a lookout for you and Avery? Since when?" His voice was innocent enough, but the implication was overwhelming. 'I wasn't aware of that."
Nicholas's eyes shot up to his, before he dropped them quickly—running a casual hand back through his messy hair. 'Yeah, well...now you are."
This time, it was my turn to look surprised. This wasn't some ‘heat of the moment' kind of thing? This was to be a regular occurrence? One that came with a lookout?
One that was going to happen again?
'Are you two an item now?" he asked. 'And when did this exactly happen?"
I looked up at him. 'I'm his fake girlfriend, since he fired his last one."
Nicholas rolled his eyes. 'I had no choice! The woman was impossible. But I've got you now and that's a million times better."
Max smiled. 'I'm glad to play along. I can do anything you want. If you need me Nicholas, I'm here for you."
'No offense, Max. But I'm not into men."
He laughed. 'Funny one, boss. But I get it now. Avy is playing the part of Elisia."
I nodded.
'Okay, you guys better get into character."
Nicholas wrapped his arm around me. 'I'm crazy about this woman. She simply takes my breath away."
My pulse instantly skyrocketed, but fortunately, two years of professionalism kicked in just in time to save me. Choosing not to linger in the awkward moment any longer than I had to, I stepped forward with what I took to be a rather brave smile, and held out my hand.
'Shall we head back to the party?"
Max smothered another grin, while Nicholas looked at me in a way that told me he was still very much imagining me with my clothes off. A second later, he took my hand.
'We shall."
Leaving the Italian bodyguard behind us, we headed back down the hall and out to the main ballroom—ignoring the whispers and stares of the entire stadium as we went.
It was a strange building. One that was built to accommodate everything from concerts, to plays, to athletic performances. Mostly, it was simply equipped to handle a great number of people. And right now, it seemed as though every one of them was looking our way.
'I don't get it," I murmured, gripping tighter onto Nicholas's hand as we made our way into the ballroom. 'How do you handle this, day after day?"
'Handle what?"
I snorted incredulously, as I glanced around the several hundred people in the room. All of whom seemed to be simultaneously glancing back at me.
'This. How do you handle all this? It's overwhelming..."
With a little grin, he spun me suddenly around, pulling me into his chest as one hand wrapped around my lower back. I sucked in a gasp of surprise—relieved beyond words that my skyscraper heels hadn't sabotaged me—and only then realized that we were on the dance floor.
'How do I handle it?" Nicholas repeated, offering out his other hand with a smile. 'I have a great publicist."
That was the last the two of us spoke for a long while. I placed my hand lightly in his, and together, the two of us began spinning across the marble floors in a slow waltz.
It didn't matter that we were only ones dancing—the second we started, the rest of the room was quick to join in. It didn't matter that the orchestra was playing a bit fast for the leisurely speed we were moving—the second they saw us, they slowed the tempo down. It didn't even seem to matter that I didn't actually know how to waltz. Considering the way Nicholas was holding me, I might as well have been floating above the ground.
'This is insane." I giggled softly, glancing around at the couples dancing around us. They looked like paper dolls on parade—each more colorful and lovely than the next. 'I was worried about just staying on my feet, but I think you're starting an entire craze. Taking the city back to sometime in the seventeen hundreds."
Nicholas chuckled, squeezing my hand tighter in his own.
'The seventeen hundreds was a good time. I would have liked the seventeen hundreds."
'I bet you would have," I scoffed sarcastically, as a thousand different Casanova scenarios flashed through my head. Did they have publicists in the seventeen hundreds? That man would have needed one for sure. 'If you were rich—that is. The seventeen hundreds weren't so great for the rest of the world."
'That's true." Nicholas gazed out over the heads of the crowd, his eyes glassing over as he imagined it. 'And I don't know what you mean about ‘staying on your feet,'" he murmured as he released my hand, then spun me back into him, 'you're a wonderful dancer."
'In a club, maybe." I tossed back my curls and flashed him a smile. 'But not all of us had ballroom dance lessons when we were a child."
'Come on—this isn't so bad."
'You're not the one doing it in heels!"
'Avy, you should know that I'm the one taking all the risk here." He glanced down at our feet with a grin. 'If you step on me even once in those things, I'm bound to lose a toe."
We both laughed, as I made a conscious effort to pay more attention to where I was stepping. But I somehow knew that no matter what I did, Nicholas would never let it happen.
He would never let anything bad happen. Somehow. Impossible as it might seem.
From the second I'd stepped into his arms, an overwhelming feeling of security had washed over me. A feeling I had never felt before. I feeling I didn't think existed in real life.
Leave it to me to ruin all that.
'So, um...about what just happened—"
Before I could say another word, Nicholas spun me around—twirling me out onto the floor before pulling me back to the safety of his arms. The second I landed, he looked down at me with a sudden grin—a grin that completely dissipated all the tension in the air between us.
'I told you it would be work related."
'Work related?" I gasped breathlessly, unable to decide whether to laugh or rip out my hair in frustration. I'd settle for the room to stop spinning. 'You call that work related?"
'I certainly do." He laced his fingers innocently through mine, pulling me extra close under the guise of making room for another couple. 'You are posing as my girlfriend, are you not? Well...that's the way I like to touch my girlfriends."
For a second, I just stared up at him—bowled over by the sheer audacity of such a statement. Then he flashed me a little wink.
'As long as they agree to dance with me afterwards..."
I was still laughing as the song came to an end. As the couples drifted apart in a rousing wave of applause. As Nicholas bent down to give me a soft kiss on the cheek.
Then, before I knew what was happening, a dozen ushers appeared from out of nowhere and began politely herding people to the sides of the room. A team of men came out shortly after with a roll of mats and rope, and a minute later, a microphone descended slowly from the ceiling.
'What is this?" I asked Nicholas quietly. It was easy to have a private conversation amidst the noise and growing anticipation of the crowd. 'What's happening?"
'You'll see."
His eyes glowed excitedly as he gazed out toward the mats, but he refused to give away the secret. I was about to press, but just a moment later, a tuxedoed announcer did it for him.
'Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for..."
A drumroll accentuated his every word, creating a huge windup for the big finale.
'Allow me to present, for the first time in history, heavyweight champion Frankie McConnell versus Orlando Forester!"
It took me a second to understand, then two enormous men walked out from separate corners and knocked hands together in the center of the ring.
'...boxing?"
I turned to Nicholas in genuine surprise. Organized fighting wasn't really his thing. Nor could I imagine it held much interest for the rest of the people in the room. High society tended not to involve themselves with activities that involved mouth guards and profuse amounts of sweat. They tended to stick to things like polo and the opera instead.
'You wanted to take me...to a boxing game?"
Nicholas pursed his lips, stifling a smile.
'A match, Avy. It's a boxing match."
I'm sorry, I never saw Cinderella Man...
And no," he stuck his hands in his pockets, gazing out toward where the two men had started circling each other in the ring, 'I don't give a shit about boxing."
'Well then—"
Nicholas spun me to face him, putting his hands on my shoulders.
'These two men are champions who have never fought each other before," he said in a low voice. 'That means that while it might not necessarily be interesting, it is rare. And in my world, rare means exclusive."
His eyes flickered out over the room, at the crowd of people sparkling like little dolled up mannequins before him.
'Tickets for tonight were twenty thousand dollars each. But you don't come for the match. You come to get drunk, and get seen. And that, my dear, is why we're here."
No sooner had he finished talking, then the Mayor of New York tapped him on the shoulder. He spun gracefully around, lacing his arm through mine to pull me with him.
'George," they shook hands warmly, smiling like old friends, 'good to see you."
George. Of course he called the mayor by his first name.
'And you, Nicholas! You know my wife, Evelyn."
'Of course." Nicholas released me temporarily to kiss the woman on both cheeks. 'How's the redecorating coming along? Did you give Bernardo a call like I told you?"
The woman tilted back her head with a tinkling laugh.
'Oh bless your heart—you remembered!"
'Evelyn is in the process of converting her back parlor into what can best be described as a prohibition-style speakeasy," Nicholas whispered conspiratorially into my ear. 'Not easy to get all the necessary permits for that. Trust me—I've tried."
She laughed again, patting George indulgently on the chest.
'Well it helps when you've got some political connections."
'I'll bet."
'But never mind about me," she abandoned the men completely, and stepped forward to take my hand, 'who is this beautiful creature?"
I blushed as pink as her dress, trying to keep myself together.
'This is Avery Winchester," Nicholas answered, pushing me casually forward. 'The woman I've been seeing."
