He didn’t move his eyes from my breasts for a moment before they drifted lazily to my face.
“Why are you leaving?” he asked and I stared at him.
What did he care?
“Well, it’s getting late and –” I began to explain.
He interrupted with, “Stay.”
“Pardon?” I asked.
“Stay,” he repeated then a grin spread on his face that I did not like, not that I liked much about Nick, as in nothing. His head turned to Sandrine who he still had pinned to the windows then back to me and in a low voice with unmistakable meaning, he said softly, “The three of us, we’ll have a party.”
I blinked again even as I stiffened and saw Sandrine doing the same.
Then I stated firmly, “No, actually, I need to go home which is where I’m going.” I looked to my friend. “Sandrine?”
She looked miffed, not a little, a lot.
At me.
God, Sandrine.
Then she looked at Nick and announced, “I don’t do three-ways. It’s just me or nothing.”
He looked at me. “You uptight like that?” he asked.
See? Jerk!
“Absolutely,” I answered.
“Shame,” he muttered then, still looking at me, “Though, figure, just you’d be enough.”
Seriously?
“Seriously?” This came sharp and from Sandrine.
Told you Nick was a jerk and something else and whatever that something else was, was not good.
“Right, if that’s the gig then whoever’s stayin’ stays and whoever’s leavin’ leaves,” Nick went on and he did this eyes on Sandrine, who he had pinned to the windows but somehow, and it wasn’t lost on Sandrine or me, he was insinuating it was her he wanted to leave.
God, I hoped this opened her eyes to this dirtbag.
I should have known better. Those eyes came to me and she said, “I’ll text you tomorrow.”
God, somehow, some way I needed to get her to snap out of it. I wished Viv was here with me. She’d lay it out. Then again, she had, more often and with less gentleness than me and Sandrine never listened to her either.
“Sandrine –”
“Anya, honey, I’ll text you tomorrow.”
She was getting impatient. She was also living firm in the mistaken knowledge that her beauty (and she was beautiful), her style (ditto with the style, she had it in spades) and her abilities between the sheets (I had no idea about that one, though, according to her, she was fabulous) would twine Nick Sebring close and he wouldn’t want to break free.
“Sandrine, I’m not comfor –” I started yet again.
“Anya,” she cut me off again. “I’ll… text… you… tomorrow.” Then she gave big eyes to Nick who was looking at me and didn’t notice. These eyes indicated that I was missing the fact she had her golden goose in her snare and I needed to vamoose, and pronto, so she could work her magic.
I didn’t like this. You didn’t leave a man behind but you really didn’t leave a man behind with Nick Sebring.
But other than drag her kicking and screaming out of the apartment, down fifteen floors and into a taxi, I didn’t know what to do.
So I muttered, “Tomorrow.”
She grinned at me.
I frowned at her and tried to communicate seven thousand words about Nick being a jerk with my eyes. But she just turned back to him, lifted her hand to his cheek and turned his face to her.
Really, Vivica was right. Sandrine was living in a fantasy world. She’d had a Daddy who treated her like she was precious, told her she was beyond beautiful and spoiled her rotten. Then she’d had a high school boyfriend who did the same. Then in college, another boyfriend, the same. From birth to twenty-two, she’d had the golden life gliding on her beauty and feminine wiles. She hadn’t cottoned onto the fact that, after leaving college five years ago, she’d entered the jungle. And further, the particular jungle she chose to hunt in had bigger, more ferocious predators even after a number of them had already chewed her up and spit her out.
With no choice, I called a soft, “Goodnight,” and turned away.
I received no farewells.
I didn’t look back.
I headed to my coat and luckily I had something to do while I did it so I didn’t have to feel the eyes on me or see the looks. As I wended my way through bodies and muttered vague, “excuse me’s”, I was pulling my little (cheap but cute) purse open to pull out my cell.
By the time I got to the mouth of the hall, I had it out.
The apartment was strange. I thought this because it was huge. I’d never been in an apartment that large before. I didn’t even know they came that large. But it also had a bizarre layout.