I shake my head. “Not tonight.”
“Okay. But I’m here when you’re ready.”
“You know what I really need right now?” I give her a suggestive look.
She rolls her eyes. “I don’t think so.”
“I was just going to ask to sleep in the bed. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
She laughs, and the sound breaks the last of the tension between us. Then she kisses me, soft and forgiving.
She takes my hand and leads me to her room. Once we’re in bed, she curls against my side like she belongs there. For a moment, everything feels right again.
“Nina, why’d you miss work?”
She hesitates—barely, but I catch it.
“I didn’t feel well.”
She’s lying.
I know her tells now. The way her voice goes carefully neutral. But I’m too tired to push tonight. I’ll find out what she’s hiding, one way or another.
29
NINA
“Hopeyou guys aren’t afraid of heights.”
Alessio opens his apartment door, and I immediately understand why he asked. Two massive walls of floor-to-ceiling windows stretch from corner to corner, making me feel like I’m floating above the city. The view is probably gorgeous at night, but right now it just makes me dizzy.
Austin rushes past me to press his face against the glass. “Whoa! Look how tiny everything is!”
The place screams money. Black leather furniture arranged around a TV that could double as a movie screen. Wet bar in the corner like something from a penthouse magazine. Dark hardwood floors that look expensive as hell.
Everything’s sleek and masculine and cold. Hardly kid-friendly, but Austin doesn’t seem to care.
I wander toward the kitchen, mostly to give myself something to do besides gawk. White marble countertops feel cool under my fingers. The appliances are spotless, and there’s a six-burner gasstove that makes my heart skip a little. I’ve always dreamed of cooking on something like this.
“You cook much?” I ask.
Alessio’s watching Austin with this soft expression I’m still getting used to. “A couple times a week. Not always worth the effort when it’s just me, so I order takeout a lot. Might be worth cooking more often now that you guys are here.”
Something flutters in my chest at the casual way he says it. Like we belong here already.
“What do you think, bud?” I call to Austin, who’s now pressed against the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring down at the city below.
“This place is awesome!”
Alessio grins. “Want to see your room?”
Austin turns from the window, eyes bright with excitement. “Yeah! Let’s go see it!”
“Come on then.”
We follow him upstairs. Only two doors up here, and when he opens the first one, Austin lets out a gasp that puts an immediate smile on my face.
The room is incredible. A twin bed sits against the far wall, covered in a Captain America bedspread that looks like it came straight from Austin’s dreams. Matching curtains frame the windows, but it’s the mural covering one entire wall that steals my breath. Professional artwork depicting every superhero Austin has ever mentioned, locked in epic battles with their villains.
