Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154525 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
He had kept a distance.
“Quite a knack you’ve got there.”
“Oh, for what?” he questioned.
“Bending the rules.”
“Yeah, that’s a real skill. Trust me.”
She reached for the heels, but he gave her a look.
“Seriously, what am I going to wear, then? Carina would kill me if I came back barefoot.”
“I’ll go get those silk flats you like from your room. It’s not hard. I’ll be gone a few minutes, max.”
She considered it.
He went in for the kill and closed the deal.
“I will be asking you to put the heels back on later. You know, when everybody’s gone.”
“Oh, yeah?”
Nico cleared the huskiness from his tone, murmuring, “Oh, babe. Yeah.”
“Get me the flats.”
He nodded, already turning around. When he did get back, a short while later like he promised, she wondered...
“How did you know where I was?” she asked as he picked her up and placed her on the vanity counter.
“I asked Carina where you went.”
“You haven’t stopped watching me, have you?”
“I had to.” He picked up the shoes from the floor and placed them on the counter under the mirror. The flats, he waved them at her. “Once my sister left, I mean.”
“At least they’re pink,” she said of the flats. “Kinda matches.”
“Looks, comfort. A constant battle.”
“You have no idea. She looked so happy to see you.”
He seemed to know exactly who she meant as he slipped the flats on her feet one at a time. “Yeah, me too. She stayed through the dinner, but...”
“Vanna took her home, right?”
Nico shrugged. “I’ll get more days soon enough.”
“Did you talk to your father?”
“Nope.” Nico stayed on bent knee, his hands flat against the silk covering her thighs. “Unless he calls on me, I don’t plan to.”
“Ever?”
Something changed in his expression, and his eyes. A darkness seemingly carved into the planes of his face like she’d never seen.
“I thought I knew what I wanted,” he murmured, “but I don’t think I ever did.”
“What do you mean? Like, me—”
“No.” His fingers bit into her thighs, making her breath catch. “Hell no.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t worry about it. Tonight is not the time for that conversation, because I haven’t even unpacked what it really means to me. I’ve only just realized recently how much my perspective has changed in certain areas of my life. Priorities change. It is what it is.”
“What about your brother, or his...friend? Did you talk to them?”
“Carcoli?” Nico scoffed. “No, just viewed from a respectable distance. Gasoline and fire, me and them. Not the time or place.”
“He’s...a lot different than you.”
“Marco?” he asked.
She nodded. “Scary almost.”
Nico licked his lips, taking her statement in before properly replying. “Bullet meet gun. With us, you never know which one is which. People only figure out I’m exactly the same—scary like that—when it’s too late. You know with Marco straightaway. We’re two sides of the same coin, I think. Both of us wanted the same things for a large part of our lives, and maybe he still wants some of it, but we made different choices to get there. It’s why he is who he is, and so am I.”
“Like what?”
“Well, we both wanted Dad to love us, for one. And trust me when I say, that’s the easiest part of the mess between him and I to deal with.”
Her teeth found her inner cheek because she could tell he didn’t want to talk about it, and so she let the conversation go. They could get back to it another time like so many other things between them. She didn’t mind.
“Okay, help me down here. I’ve got to get back.”
He stood up and backed up before helping her down. She put away the lidocaine spray but paused to watch Nico in the mirror behind her when she straightened to her full height again.
“I don’t know,” he said, like he was scrolling on his phone and not gazing upon the swell of her backside, “but I don’t think you need the heels for that ass, Frankie.”
Heat washed her cheeks.
“What was that shit earlier about periods and weight, anyway?”
Her blush deepened for a different reason now. “How much of that did you hear?”
“Enough that I’m concerned.”
“Fuck off,” Frankie muttered, turning around fast to leave and poking him with two fingers against his chest, “eavesdropping is a bad habit of yours, Nico.”
“Hey.”
He slammed the bathroom door closed before she could leave and snatched her right back to her spot locked with her back against the vanity. His hands found the edge of the counter, holding tight and locking her in as he leaned closer. Something akin to fury, but it looked a lot like passion, too, found her in his unwavering stare.
“Fucking right I worry about you,” he said low and dark, “ever since I watched you do to yourself what you did that night. Did you think I brought you those cinnamon rolls you like from a place thirty minutes out of my way every night I showed up at your place for nothing? Oh, and that iced coffee I bring you in the mornings? Vanilla protein powder added, every single time. Girl, if I ever find out you’re doing that shit to yourself again, you and me are gonna be reevaluating what we want together. Do you hear me?”