Page 24 of Sweet as Sin (Bad Habit 1)
Nico ordered a whiskey for himself and sent the waiter away, which was when I noticed the restaurant manager herding a cluster of squealing teenage girls away from the front door. I began to feel distinctly uncomfortable with all the attention we were getting.
He was getting.
Yet he sat there as if no one else existed but the four of us. It was like a super power, the way he could ignore how people stared at him. One busty blond waitress had made four salivating passes by our table already, and we weren’t even in her section. But he never even glanced in her direction.
He was, however, regularly stealing glances at me. God, those eyes were blue.
“If you go now, you’ll miss all the good stuff. Kat and I were just about to have an interestin’ discussion. A debate, I think you called it?”
He slid me a heavy-lidded look. A smile quirked his lips.
“Oh? About what?” Grace perked up.
Damn those sharp ears of hers. She could tell he was up to something.
“Well, she’s already said she’s not gonna sleep with me.”
Chloe’s eyes looked as if they might pop out of her head. Grace merely pursed her lips, unimpressed. She was a much harder nut to crack.
“And she’s also said she’s not gonna date me. So that only leaves us at friends.” His smile now gone, he looked back and forth between Grace and Chloe. “And I don’t wanna be just friends.”
Hand’s down, most bizarre moment of my life. As hiding seemed like a reasonable response to the situation, I dropped my face into my hands.
“There doesn’t seem to be a need for a debate if she’s already told you what she wants.”
As always, Grace’s logic was impeccable.
Bitch.
“That’s just it. She hasn’t told me what she wants, she’s told me what she doesn’t want. So I think since you’re her two best friends . . . ” When Nico paused, I peeked at him through my fingers. “They are your two best friends, right?”
I nodded. He turned back to them.
“So since you’re her two best friends, and she’s not tellin’ me what she wants, I think we should all figure this out together.” His voice lowered. “Because I wanna get to know her. Because I think she’s beautiful, interestin’, and sexy as fuck, and that laugh of hers knocks me on my ass. And I think she wants me, too, only she’s afraid.”
He paused to draw a breath. “So. Tell me what I need to do to make her mine.”
Chloe’s gasp was soft and thrilled. Grace actually looked like she was impressed by his honesty.
The man was an evil genius.
“Being single would help, for starters.”
Though my ovaries had just exploded from hearing Nico Nyx say “make her mine,” I had the presence of mind to stick up for him.
“He told me he is, Grace. And I believe him.”
She didn’t miss a beat. “That doesn’t change the fact that he has a bad reputation. With women, I mean.”
“Yep.” Nico nodded at her. “And half the shit the press writes about me isn’t true.”
“Which means the other half is.”
He nodded again. “Never been a choirboy, that’s for sure.”
I could tell Grace liked that he didn’t try to make excuses.
“Frankly, that’s the problem, Nico. It’s not only the women. It’s everything together. Your entire lifestyle. You have no credibility. The way to earn someone’s trust is to be trustworthy. And that takes time. You can’t expect Kat to believe you’re not going to hurt her just because you told her so the first day you met. You have to prove it to her. And since we’re being honest here, I don’t think you can.”
