“Oh, fuck! He can’t do this to you, can he, baby girl?” the fucker grunted.
“No! Oh god, you feel amazing.”
I rolled my eyes, half feeling bad for whatever moron he was talking about and half feeling like the guy deserved it for having piss-poor taste in women. I waited until she flipped around, the blonde hair no longer blocking my view, and settled myself in to take my shot. Until my glare caught on her face. Fucking Holly’s face.
My fucking fiancée was cheating on me with the top mafia crime lord in the country.
I saw red. Complete blind rage. The snow didn’t feel cold as it pelted down on my skin any longer, while the frothing bubbles of the hot tub remained my only focus.
Call it in, Rudy. Call it in. This is too close.
My teeth were nearly cracking, the scope shaking as my vision was blurred by angry tears.
“Rudy never could—” she started to say and…
Click. Click. Boom.
Another snap wrenched me back from my memories, so that I was now staring at the redheaded woman with powdered sugar still on her cheeks and lips.
“Where are you off to, Nosy Nancy?”
CHAPTER 5
NICKIE
“Why? You got something to hide?” The guy with the dark eyes crossed his arms and quirked a brow. Rudy, Que said his name was—he didn’t look much like a Rudy if you asked me. More like a Butch or Diesel. Something as testosterone-filled as he was.
I’d be lyin’ if I said I didn’t watch the tightening of his muscles and clenching of his jaw as he did it, though. I’d also be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t watching him for much longer than he realized. At first, it was to figure out what he was doing outside. After I saw the way his face went blank like he was somewhere else entirely—not even flinching against the cold while I was shivering in my sneakers—it was more out of curiosity.
“Me? 'Course not.” I pointed from myself to the grumpy beast of a man in front of me. “But there’s nothing wrong with keeping some things between us, now is there?”
I grabbed on to his thumb and tugged until he wasfollowing me away from Granny’s window and closer to the back door. He let me 'cause there was no chance in hell I was moving him on my own.
“Yeah? What kind of things?”
“The kind a groom knows better than to tell his bride.” I dropped my fingers to the waistband of his onesie thing, and he snatched up my wrist.
My eyes flicked to where his nails were digging into my skin, then back to his face. That distant look was still there but so was something else. Annoyance maybe? Never seen that one before. Not when my hands were in a guy’s pants.
I leaned in, cupped a palm against my mouth, and whispered, “I won’t tell if you won’t?”
I batted my lashes a few times, like I always did when Granny told me there was no dessert before dinner. It didn’t take more than a little tearing up before she was sneaking some sweets into my hand and warning me not to tell my mother.
I wasn’t a brat. I just didn’t like being toldno.
Rudy eyed me for a moment, the cold finally getting to him and causing the little hairs on his arm to stand on end. But he didn’t loosen his grip. “You think I’m the sort of guy to cheat on his fiancée?”
I lifted a single shoulder. “I think all guys are. You tellin’ me if I dropped to my knees right now and offered to lick ya like a lollipop, you’d turn me down?”
“I’m telling you if you tried it, you wouldn’t be licking shit with a busted lip.”
“Now that ain’t very nice, Mr. Broody.” I feigned shock. Truth was, a little blood never bothered me none. Neither did a little pain.
“Don’t call me that,” he grunted, and shoved my arm back against my chest. Reaching out and tugging me closer again when my foot slipped and I nearly busted my ass on a patch of ice.
“Aw! So ya do care!” I grinned and jumped up to lock my wrists around his neck and my legs around his waist. His arms shot out at his sides like he was afraid to touch me.
I didn’t let go, though. Instead, I clung to him like a human-sized starfish. Squeezing tighter with each step he took towards the door until we were standing back inside the cabin. My hair tumbling free from the rubber band I’d found in one of the drawers in the kitchen, and working its way inside Rudy’s mouth when he sucked in an annoyed breath.
