But maybe that was a good thing. Maybe she needed to let the environment say what she wasn’t ready to admit to the potential spouses. Which was that theywereher potential spouses.
Rather than asking Maxim to strip out the romantic touches, she thanked him and wheeled over to the table, passing the knee walker to Elena.
Everyone left except Nyx, who studied the room appreciatively as Nikolett checked her phone.
“Nyx, would you bring me my computer, please?” She had twenty minutes and could use that time to get some work done. She hadn’t come close to the end of today’s to-do list before she had to stop and get dressed.
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I mean no. Take a moment and just relax.”
Nikolett snorted.
“Fine. Play a mindless game on your phone.”
“I’m here early. I could?—”
“You’re about to meet the man who might be your husband.” Nyx’s voice was low as she slid into the seat across from Nikolett. “I think it would be better if you met him without having half your mind focused on something else. Without you hoping to get the dinner over with so you can get back to whatever you were working on before.”
Nikolett examined the gold-rimmed glass charger under the gilt-edged plate without replying.
“I know you, my friend. You insulate your mind…” Nyx paused, head cocked. “No. You insulate your emotions by being busy. Always having some problem or issue to focus on. There are very few people who can capture and hold your attention.”
At that, she looked up. Nyx just nodded, silently confirming that Eric was one of those “few people.”
Nikolett understood what Nyx was saying—that she should give Laszlo a chance to be the kind of person who held her attention. But she wasn’t sure her heart could take it. Maybe it would be better if her spouses were people with whom she had to make a deliberate effort to actively pay attention.
And maybe that thought made her a terrible person who would be an even more terrible wife.
“You deserve to be happy,” Nyx said softly and not for the first time. “But we might have to settle for you being safe.”
“I’d enjoy safe, though I doubt anyone in territory leadership is ever truly safe.”
Nyx shrugged. “Maybe. Now play a phone game.” She stood, head once more cocked in consideration. “Or read some porn? Get yourself in the mood.”
“I’m not going to read porn.”
“You should. It will help if you’re aroused when he gets here.”
Nikolett bared her teeth at her friend in a pseudo smile. “Vice Admiral?”
“Yes, Admiral?”
“Go away.”
Nyx snickered as she left, leaving Nikolett alone with her thoughts.
Thoughts that weren’t entirely pleasant company.
Nikolett tried to distract herself with reading and replying to email on her phone, but that just made her long for her laptop. She tried a phone game but got frustrated with the ads. She was starting to seriously consider opening her reading app when several alerts popped up on her phone. The first from the security system alerting her to motion outside the door and then the door opening, the second a message from Zoran announcing that Laszlo was here.
Nikolett tucked the phone under her butt cheek since she had nowhere else to put it, then realized it was going to look weirdthat she was just sitting here doing nothing, so picked it up again, focusing on the screen. She must have tapped her reading app as she tucked the phone away, because it was open and it was, of course, on a page midway through a sex scene.
He sat and patted his thigh. “Over my knee, pet.”
“I’ll be good?—”
