“Are you okay?” Nico wrapped his arms around me and drew me in to his body. “I can do this now that you’re no longer my intern, you know,” he murmured in my ear, and I grinned.
Maybe that part was the payoff. We could tell everyone now. Who was I kidding? That part was definitely the payoff.
I twisted in his arms and kissed him hard on the mouth.
“Just look at the two of you.”
I turned at the sound of the rough, slurred words.
“Hello, Malcolm.” Nico’s words were tight, and his gaze darted around the room as he looked for someone. “I think we need security.”
Malcolm wobbled on his feet and looked at us through red-rimmed eyes. I couldn’t figure him out. Had he showed up hungover? Drunk? Stoned? Why would he? Career suicide, surely? He wiped his hands down the front of his rumpled jacket as he swayed in front of me.
“I knew it.” His voice cut over the chatter and background music in the room, and heads turned our way. “I knew you and Nico were fucking. And you sent him and your brother gunning for my job so you could take over.” He jabbed a finger toward me. “Well, you know what?” He swung his arms out and spun in a half circle to talk to the room. “I had Nico before Jamie even arrived here. And we’re all friends here, right? We all know Nico has just been making his way around the office. Good old one-night-stand Nico, one-and-done Nico, fuck-‘em-and-leave-‘em Nico. Good choice, little Caldwell. But he’ll grow tired of you soon.”
A few people dropped their gazes to the floor, and my stomach dropped with them. Nico was what…? With these…with these people who could no longer look me in the eye, too?
I glanced at Nico as he turned away from the security guard he was talking to and his eyes were wide. He gave his head a slight shake, but it wasn’t enough. The look in his eyes froze me. Then my chest collapsed until the space I had to take in air grew smaller and smaller and I couldn’t breathe as the room grew hotter and I was suffocating and I couldn’t breathe. And I stepped back.
I stepped away from Nico as he grew blurry in my vision.
Oh, shit. Fuck. He’d fucked me and he’d fucked me over. I was just the next in a long line of fuck-buddies to warm Nico’s bed while he avoided commitment and relationships. What had his mom said? She didn’t want to say he had commitment issues. No, well, clearly he did. My anxiety spiked. I was clearly the next loser Nico would kick to the curb before he grabbed someone else in Hot Toddy’s. I should have seen it then, that night when he kissed me the same way I’d seen him kiss that other guy in there.
My thoughts were rational, but my heart was breaking, and it fucking hurt. My chest ached, and I clutched it, trying to reassure myself as I spun away.
Nico called my name, but I hated the sound of it on his lips, and I ignored him. How did he dare say my name? My name, when any of the others in the room would have done. I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t even want to see his face. I’d loved that face. The face that had loved so many, the lips that had told me I was special.
The lips that had lied.
Behind me, Saint called again for the security guard to escort Malcolm away, and the gossip started. It was just a whisper, a hiss of recognition, an admission of guilt, but the urge to know flared inside me.
Who…? Who knew Nico the way I thought only I knew Nico? Who had laughed at me here tonight? Who had smirked as I passed them by in the hallway…the poor little intern letting Nico fuck his brains out, thinking he was falling in love?
“Who, Nico?” My voice was strong and loud. “Who in this office have you slept with? Is sleeping with employees your thing?” Anxiety and panic roared through me, strong and loud and like they’d never been away. “Am I past my sell-by date already for you?”
Nico’s eyes widened, and he fell back a step, his shoulders low. Then he looked at me, his eyes full of hurt. “I’ve had a couple of flings.” He winced as he spoke. “And no. It’s different with you.”