“She’s fine, Linc. She’s your friend. You should see her. I can go into the room?—”
“Yeah, why don’t you do that?” Natasha said.
At the same time, I growled, “No fucking way.” I wrapped my arm around Nina and tapped her chest with my index finger. “You stay put right here. Withme.”Where you oughta be.
Natasha’s gritty chuckle permeated the space. It started low in her throat, then turned into a belly laugh that threw her head backward. Nina and I both looked at her. Natasha held her stomach while she laughed, looking unhinged.
Between heaves of her laughter she said, “Gosh, I’d heard you had memory issues, but this is hilarious! Lincoln, you can’t possibly believe?—”
“Natasha,” Nina cut her off. I could’ve been holding on to a steel bar, she was so tense. “No information overload. Doctor’s orders.”
Natasha pressed her lips into a thin line and smoothed the front of her blouse. After a beat, she said, “Well, that’s awfully convenient for you, isn’t it? It’s a big jump from minimum wage since the corporate ladder didn’t work out, you just climbed Lincoln’s?—”
“Enough!” I yelled.
The word echoed behind my temples, static crawling between my eyes, the force of the crackling sound needing to get out. The pressure behind my vocal cords tightened, pulled taut and thin, an elastic band at the edge of snapping as I ached with the effort to keep the words in.
I didn’t. The words came out seamlessly as I stepped closer toward Natasha. “Look at you.” I smirked, dimples digging into my cheeks. “All made up. Maybeyouwere hoping for some ladder climbing.” I eyed her from her feet to the top of her overly styled hair, curling my lip, then I clicked my tongue. “Your ugliness shows through your makeup. Next time you need to tear someone down just to stomach yourself, keep Nina out of it.” I stood a foot away from her, towering over her, letting the comment suffocate her.
My mind caught up then.What the fuck was that?My body knew this process, adrenaline rising and dropping in synchwith the rage. My mind, though, struggled to comprehend the intensity, therightnessof it all.
Natasha blinked, as if unfamiliar with this side of me, then fumbled with the plates in a way of undercutting the tension. Nina was unfazed, detached. Her gaze flicked from me to Natasha, and you would’ve thought she couldn’t care less that I’d lost it. Except she took the smallest step back when I approached her, and her expression warred between mistrust and responsibility as she offered her hand.
I took it, even though she didn’t truly want to give it, but I needed it. I caressed her knuckles with my thumb, and still, she closed her eyes. That’s not how I wanted things between us, so I let go of her.
I’d recognized that overpowering anger in my bones.Thiswas who I had been. As I pushed the puzzle pieces together, a drumline thundered in my temples, when I saw the truth staring right at me: Nina knew my rage as much as I did.
The harsh clink of ceramic pulled my focus back to Natasha. She’d laid everything out on a tray, determined to move past my outburst. Natasha needed to leave, so I pointed at the L-shaped part of the kitchen counter rather than following her to the coffee table. I pulled one stool out for Nina and took the one next to her, leaving Natasha no other option than to stand across from us. When I looked at the tray, I realized this viper deserved more than awkwardness.
“Hey.” Whatever her game was, I’d end it. “Why are there only two coffees?” I gestured at the tray.
Her eyes narrowed. “Well… you and me.”
I swallowed hard, jaw jutting at the audacity.
Nina cut in. “I can make myself?—”
“No need.”
Pressure rose in my throat again. I anchored myself with the feeling of Nina’s forearm against mine and the disarray mytouch left on her skin. The way Natasha had moved around my house. I had to be imagining this. Needing to know more was the only reason I was entertaining this charade. Please let it just be my brain overworking to fill the blanks in front of me.
I leaned into Nina, just enough for her to feel my closeness. “I’d ask her to make you one, but I’d rather she leaves quickly.”
“I made it the way you like it,” Natasha snapped. “Black, two sugars.”
Another pitiful attempt at a claim. Too bad for her, I knew exactly how I took my coffee. “Natasha, right?”
She huffed, incredulous, pulse ticking at her temple.
“It’s too hot. I only drink it room temperature.”
Nina’s lips shook with amusement. She may have been fucking with me, but this wasn’t about coffee. This was Nina and me against this snake.
Natasha’s brows pinched, and a glint of desperation turned her skin red. She schooled it quickly, but the damage had been done.
My hand slid to the back of Nina’s neck, and my pulse hiked, worried she’d slap my hand away, but I was glad when she didn’t. She shot her eyes to Natasha, cool and steady, warning me to watch her. Natasha didn’t matter, though,Ninamattered, and I’d show them both.
I lifted the mug meant for me and held it to Nina’s lips. Our eyes met for the briefest moment; she’d reject me, I just knew.
