There’s a distinctive clack of metal. Someone is pushing open the door to the pool area. Billy and I both realize it at the same time, and I tie my robe, and he finally wraps that damn towel around his waist, butnotbefore Nick appears a few feet away. I swear he got a partial glimpse of Billy’s bare ass. His face is made of stone though as he clears his throat. “Frankie, you said if you weren’t back in your room in an hour, I should come get you.”
“Right. Thanks Nick.”
Billy raises his sandy eyebrows. “You made your bodyguard into a chaperone?”
“I have a conference call with a brand partner in a different time zone,” I say, and he smirks because he knows it’s a lie. Billy James is too smart for his own good. “See you tomorrow, James.”
“Uh-huh.”
Nick doesn’t speak again until we are safely inside the elevator, and then he lets me have it. “You’re playing with fire and breaking all your own rules.”
“No. I’m not. I was evening the score,” I reply, and that makes the shock on his rugged face deepen.
“I am too scared to ask what score involves James’ naked ass,” Nick says, and like always when he’s agitated, his French accent gets thicker.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s done,” I say, and I know I sound melancholy, because I am. I want more of Billy James. There, I said it. But as usual, Nick is there to be the voice of reason.
“Leopard’s don’t change their spots, Francesca,” he reminds me. “That man, for whatever reason, stood you up. That night led to the worst night of your life. I’m not saying that what happened next, the drugging and you almost dying, is his fault, but if he’d kept his promise to meet you, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“I know that, but do you honestly believe…” I pause and try to come to terms with the fact that I’m about to defend him. Billy James, who broke my young, naive heart. “You think if Billy knew what was going to happen to me that night, he would have still left me on that beach alone? He didn’t know. I can’t hold him responsible for the chain of events after his mistake. And he’s explained that.”
Nick doesn’t say anything as the elevator keeps chugging along. It isn’t until it opens on our floor and I’m about to enter my suite that he speaks.
Nick sighs. His brown furrows. “If you were one of my guy friends, I’d tell you you’re thinking with your dick.”
Before I can even begin to figure out how to respond to that, Nick says goodnight and disappears into his room. I blink and struggle to push open the door to my room. Is this door heavier than I remember or is it just the weight of the truth bomb Nick just dropped on me?
