Page 41 of Ties That Bind Us

I knew Nick was busy, but he was supposed to take tonight off; that was the point of all this. We hadn’t seen each other for a few days and tonight was supposed to be only about us. Instead, I was sitting here nursing my second drink a half an hour after we were supposed to meet. I was about to leave when I saw him weaving through the crowd.

“Is this seat taken?” He flashed me a charming smile as he appeared next to me. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell something was off.

“By all means.” I smiled, gesturing to the chair. “I’m just waiting on my fiancé.”

Nick sat down and waved down the bartender, who placed a cup in front of him without even taking an order. “Lucky guy, your fiancé.” He grinned, shooting me a devilish wink.

“He is.” I smirked, pursing my lips. “But he’s late.”

Nick cringed, downed the amber liquid, and pushed the cup toward the edge of the bar to be refilled. “I bet he’s sorry.”

“He better be.” I arched an eyebrow at him.

“He is,” Nick agreed, leaning forward and giving me a harsh kiss. It had been too long since I had felt his lips against mine. “How was your day?”

“It was good. I met Bella for lunch and had class. How was yours?” I sipped my drink.

“Nothing unusual.” He sounded distant. I got the feeling something had happened at work, but it didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about it. Nick turned to me, putting his arm around the back of my chair and leaning in so his lips were only a few inches from my ear. “I was planning on having a nice dinner here with you, but seeing you in that dress, all I can think about is getting you back to my place. What do you say?”

I blushed, trying to mask the fire his voice ignited inside of me. Honestly, that was the only thing on my mind, too, but I wanted to make him work for it a little bit. “I’m hungry,” I purred, twisting a piece of my hair between my fingers.

“Oh, I’ll give you something to eat.” Nick smirked, resting his hand on my thigh.

“You’re awful.” I rolled my eyes, batting at his shoulder.

“Only for you, babe.” He offered me his hand and slapped a fifty-dollar bill down on the bar to cover our drinks. I followed him out of the restaurant, and he waved at Leo on our way out. Leo gave him a strange look but Nick didn’t seem to notice.

Nick drove quickly and whipped his car into the garage of his building even quicker. The entire elevator ride to his penthouse, he couldn’t keep his hands to himself. It wasn’t his usual gentle touch, but rougher and more urgent. Everything felt off, but I couldn’t place my finger on what exactly was going on.

When we got into the apartment, he didn’t waste a single second before hoisting me onto the kitchen island and ripping my dress over my head. He stood between my legs, burying his face in my chest, kissing and nipping.

“Nick.” I pulled away just slightly. “Take a breath.”

“I need you, Ava,” he growled, his voice filled with emotion. He stroked his hands up and down my inner thighs, not taking his eyes off my chest. It looked like he was holding back tears. I had never seen him like this before, so detached and unhinged, almost like he was out of control. It was scaring me.

“Hey.” I put my hands on both of his cheeks and forced him to meet my eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said, shaking his head and snapping out of his daze. “It was just . . . fuck, I had a bad day at work, and the only thing that got me through it was the thought of seeing you tonight. I couldn’t help myself.”

I bit my lip, not sure how to respond. Part of me was screaming to ask him what had been so bad, but the other part knew it was probably difficult for him to talk about.

“I’m sorry I ruined dinner.” He shook his head in frustration. He seemed in such disarray, such a stark contrast to his usual calm and collected personality.

“Nick, you didn’t ruin anything. I’m just worried about you. You seem . . .” I wasn’t even sure how to finish that sentence. Stressed? Lost? Scary?

“I killed someone today,” he said flatly, staring back at me with such confliction in his face.

His abruptness caught me off guard. I pressed my lips tightly together, not trusting what was about to come out of them. I wasn’t naïve enough to think this was the first time, but it was different to hear the words out loud. Nick had killed someone. My Nick. My future husband. My head tried to get me to hightail it right out of here, but my heart saw the amount of pain he was in. I couldn’t bring myself to leave him no matter how logical I knew it was. I couldn’t run from this, from him. I recognized how much he needed me to tell him it was okay, that he did what he had to do, that I understood. He needed me to make some kind of sense of it, to talk him off the ledge and make the world seem right again.

This was ripping him apart, and in a sense, that was comforting to me. He didn’t like to kill. It pained him, it hurt him, it made him crazy. That was so different from what I was used to. All the men I had grown up around had no problem killing. Sometimes they even did it for sport. If anything, this only further proved my notion that Nick was different.

Nick stared back at me expectantly, but the right words wouldn’t come. Instead, I reached forward, pulling him closer to me. He hesitated at first, but then came forward willingly.

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I peppered his neck with kisses, running my tongue along his tender skin slowly.

“What are you doing?” Nick asked, his voice unsure.

“Let me help you,” I whispered, running my fingertips across his forearm.

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