“I was going to say mortal enemies,” Tiana mumbled almost to herself, then asked AJ, “Does Niko know Gianna is here?”
“We saw her on the way,” AJ explained.
“Are they still…do they keep in touch?” Maybe Tiana wouldn’t have to warn her off at all. Maybe Niko can handle warning his ex.
AJ didn’t respond. Tiana wasn’t offended by AJ blanking her. He was level 1 autistic, and his brain categorized social interactions differently than other people.
“Where’s Niko now?” Tiana needed to warn him, and hopefully he could warn her. “Is he still here?”
Poppy pointed to the tent. “He’s on the dance floor with Tabby.”
Tiana scanned the dance floor, and when she saw him dancing with the five-year-old, her heart slammed into her chest like a crash test dummy. The little girl was standing on his shoes, and he was leading them around the dance floor. For some reason she had a flash of this man getting ready to take their daughter to her first daddy-daughter dance. She blinked,pushing the thought from her mind, and then marched to the dance floor.
On her way, she wanted to kick herself. She couldn’t believe she’d never put two and two together, Niko Costas was the man Brock had always referred to as “Nicky C.” In fact, someone had even told her as much. The first year they were together, when Brock saw Niko right after I did, he stalked over to go speak to him. Brock’s teammate Darren, who had gone to college with both men, made a comment about a Nicky C and Brock B face-off happening and not knowing if he should get popcorn or a first aid kit when their paths crossed at the bar, because he had no idea what would happen.
She, naively, asked, “Oh, do they know each other?” He looked at her like she’d grown two heads and told her that they were Sherlock and Moriarty, Batman and the Joker, Superman and Lex Luther. He couldn’t believe that Brock had never mentioned him to her. They’d only been together a month, so he hadn’t. But a year or so later, he started telling her stories about Nicky C. It had never clicked who he was talking about.
That was so many years ago, so much has happened since then. She felt like she’d lived several lives in that time. At that time, she’d pegged Nicky C. in the roles of Moriarty, the Joker, and Lex Luther, oh how wrong she’d been. Now she knew the true villain was her ex, Brock Bartlett.
As she approached Niko, she was mentally rehearsing what she would say to him so she didn’t come off sounding crazy. The dance ended, and he swung Tabitha, Deacon St. Claire’s daughter, in the air before setting her down. She was giggling as her feet touched the wood floor.
He bowed to her. “Thank you for the dance, Princess Ninja Flower.”
She pulled at the side seams of her dress, fanning it out as she curtseyed and giggled. “You are welcome, King Gladiator Forest.”
Her giggling continued as she turned and scurried off the dance floor.
“King Gladiator Forest? I didn’t know I’d be meeting royal—” Tiana teased as Niko turned, and when his eyes met hers, she stopped talking. Her sentence stopped when all the oxygen got sucked from her lungs.
Being this close to the man and having his full attention directed at her was potent. She’d been smiling from ear to ear, basking in the silliness of the exchange she’d just witnessed, but as soon as their stares were locked in place, the strangest phenomenon occurred. Nothing else in life existed. It was only the two of them, Niko and Tiana, on the dance floor, under the tent, at Liam and Frankie’s home, in Hope Falls.
The first thing she noticed was his eyes. His irises shifted color depending on the angle, seafoam near the pupil darkening to storm cloud at the edges, flecked with amber like mica catching light in river stones. They stood so close that for the first time she caught a light whiff of musk that drew her closer to him. The scent was a heady combination of earth and fire, leather and cedarwood with hints of wildflowers. With each inhale, she felt a rush of adrenaline, a sense of adventure, and a hint of danger, a tantalizing combination that made her heart race and her knees weak once more. It also enveloped her like a warm embrace, stirring feelings of both comfort and excitement within her, leaving her feeling both protected and vulnerable in its presence. It was a bold and captivating fragrance, perfectly suited for the man before her.
“Hi.” The rumble of his deep voice rippled through her, causing a shiver to race up her spine.
This man was an assault on her senses. She hadn’t been affected by the opposite sex like this in…well, ever.
She blinked, trying to gather her composure.
He tilted his head to the side, and a lopsided grin spread on his lips, revealing a deep dimple in his right cheek. “You beat me to it.”
“I did?” Beat him to what? She had no clue what was going on. Her mind drew a complete blank. That had never happened to her before.
He took one step towards her, eliminating the twelve or so inches between them, and in a motion so fluid, one hand rested on her hip, the other held her right hand, and he was leading her around the dance floor. The heat of his breath wafted through her hair as he spoke quietly, his face only a millimeter beside her own. “I’ve been working up the nerve all night to ask you to dance.”
“You have?” She heard a voice, but she didn’t recognize it as her own.
It was breathy, needy, and borderline Marilyn’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President.”
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, snapping her out of the spell she’d fallen under and back into her right mind.
“Oh, no, I didn’t, that’s not why. I wasn’t. I didn’t want to dance,” she stammered over her words as she took a step back out of Niko’s arms.
The moment his palm fell from her hip and he dropped her hand, she missed his touch. It sounded dramatic to say, but it was true. She shook her head, trying to erase that thought like an Etch-A-Sketch. She was sure it was a biological reason, since it had been so long since she’d been with anyone.
“Oh, okay. I thought…” He looked around, indicating that since they were on the dance floor, he assumed she wanted to dance, which was totally logical.
“No, I mean, yes, no, yes, that makes sense, but I actually wanted to talk to you.” She reached into her pocket, and as she pulled out her phone, she saw her hands were shaking.
