Chapter 40: Shitty Taste in Women
Nico
Oh, fuck, thiscannotbe happening! Not now. Not when I'm so damned close to have everything I have ever wanted in my life.
"Sunshine, I didn't touch - "
My heart seized in my chest as Allie gently patted my face and whispered "You need to wash her lipstick off your jaw, honey."
Fuck! I was going to kill that bitch. I swiped at my jawwith one hand while still holding tight to Allie with the other. I had to make her understand that I hadn't done anything.
"Sunshine, please, you have to believe me, she just - "
"Really, Nico, you're going to pretend that we weren't going to pick up where we left off last time?" The snarky voice made the blood boil in my veins as I felt Allie's body stiffen even more in my arms.
"Last time?" Allie whispered shakily, so softly that I could barely hear her. She wouldn't meet my eyes, and I whirledaround to look at the trouble-making bitch I only remembered in my nightmares.
I tried to keep Allie behind me, so that she didn't have to see the smug look on the bitch's face, but she wasn't having that. She shifted to my side, pushing my arm off of her waist so that she could move around in front of me. I pulled her back against me, grateful that she at least let me wrap my arms around her again. I couldn't fucking lose her, I just couldn't.
I narrowed my eyes as I looked at the last woman I'd slept with two years ago. I only remembered her because of the way I'd felt when I had walked through my front door less than an hour later. I'd already been disgusted with myself for trying to use another woman to get over my obsession with Allie. That feeling of disgust had only gotten worse when I'd stepped foot inside the house that Allie had helped me pick out, reeking of sex and the overpowering stench of this bitch's perfume. That had been the last time I'd touched another woman, until I'd kissed Allie at the Grammy after-party.
I narrowed my eyes at the still-smirking bitch and told her, "I don't know what the fuck you're trying to pull, butweweren't doing anything. I assumed that it was Allie when the door opened, and you grabbed on to me before I even had a goddamned chance to turn around!"
The icy fury dripping from every word seemed to drop the temperature in the room by about twenty degrees. I chanced a look down at Allie, to find her shooting daggers at the booking manager. The bitch was glaring right back at her as if she wanted Allie dead.
Allie felt my gaze on her and looked up, her furious expression morphing into one of pain and uncertainty as she gazed at me solemnly.
I let every ounce of the fear and devastation I was feeling show on my face as I turned her in my arms and held her close.
"I swear to you, Sunshine, nothing was going on. I was getting ready to shove her off me when you walked in."
Allie gave me a small smile and squeezed my waist gently. "I know, I heard you right before I opened the door," she whispered so that only I could hear.
The tension in my body eased for a second, right before the bitch opened her mouth again.
"Well, it's not the first time you've mistaken me for your preciousAllie, now is it?" Her voice was harsh as she tossed out that fucking little gem and I couldn't help but flinch at the fuzzy memory of that night. I really had been such a sorry sonofabitch then, but that was no excuse for the shit she was trying to pull here.
"Look, Jenny, I - " I began.
"It's Jenna.Jenna!" she screamed at me, completely losing her shit that I hadn't remembered her name correctly.
I winced, and shot an apologetic look at Allie for being such a bastard in my previous life. I loosened my hold a bit as Allie tried to shift to stand next to me. She put her arm around my waist, softly running her hand up and down the small of my back. I relaxed a little more at her sweet touch.
"Sorry,Jenna," I corrected. "I don't know why the fuck you would think it's OK to jump on me like that, but -"
"You sure as hell didn't mind me jumping on you two years ago, did you, Nico? she asked slyly, looking at Allie to make sure she understood the implication. Allie looked up at me and rolled her eyes, and I tightened the arm lying on her shoulder.
"That was a mistake, one that I regretted as soon as it happened. I was drunk and didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I am sorry if you think I led you on or something." I was so fucking uncomfortable having to get into this in front of Allie. I had already confessed to her about that night, but having to come face-to-face with a former hookup couldn't be easy for her, especially one as nasty as this bitch was being.
"You must have been even drunker than I thought if you mistook me for this cow!" Jenna spat at me angrily. "Do you even remember calling me 'Allie' that night? It was bad enough when I just though you got my name wrong, but then to find out that Allie was an actual person and that you had called me byhername? I mean, really, how the fuck could you have been so drunk that you thought that this body," she ran her hands along her skinny figure," belonged to that fat dumpy woman?"
I felt Allie's body tense again, and her hand dropped from my waist to wrap around herself, as if warding off a physical blow.
"That's fucking enough!" I roared, pulling Allie back into the shelter of my arms. I wrapped myself around her, praying to whoever might be listening in the universe that this wouldn't drive us apart.
I heard footsteps pounding down the hallway and looked over my shoulder to see Matt and Josh appear in the doorway, with Tony just a couple of steps behind them.
"What's going on here, man?" Matt asked with a wary look as he stepped into the room. I moved aside to give them room to come in, and had to let go of Allie in the process. Tony took one look at her pale, strained face and reached for her, drawing her away from the battle brewing between me andJenna.He'd clearly put the pieces together, remembering my confession to him after the Liam debacle.
