Nine-tenths of the Law

Chapter Eighteen

By the time the day finally wound down and there was enough of a lull in the chaos for me to make my escape, I had just enough time to get halfway across town and be on time to meet Nathan. He wasn’t there yet, so I grabbed a table and waited for him.

It had been about a week since we’d seen each other. We’d both been swamped with work and just hadn’t been able to cross paths. By the third day, I was going out of my mind. By the fifth, I could think of nothing but tonight, when I’d finally get to relieve some of this tension. And this had nothing to do with stress from work or anything of the sort. When Jake and I went a few days like this, it was usually both sexual tension and work-related stress that snowballed until I was on the brink of the kind of madness that could only be relieved by a night of relentless sex.

Tonight, I was on that brink, but my job had nothing to do with it. Nathan was the cause and the cure, and I needed him now.

Out of nowhere, he was there, materializing on the bench across from me just like he did the night we met, and my heart almost stopped. Oh, God, you’re really here. I smiled at him and we made small talk, but all the while I wondered how I was going to get through dinner. Already, I was tempted to suggest we just skip dinner and go back to his place.

I kept myself calm and collected, though. He didn’t need to know just how much I needed him right then. He knew I wanted him, but I didn’t want him to think I was desperate. Which, of course, I was.

If you only knew what you did to me, Nathan.

After we’d ordered, I steered the conversation toward something I knew would keep my arousal at bay for a little while. “You’ll never guess who came by the theatre today,” I said.

His eyebrows jumped. “I’m going to assume it wasn’t Colin Farrell, since you’d have brought him with you tonight if you knew what was good for you.”

“You really think I’d share him if I got my hands on him?”

“Well, I’d certainly hope so,” he said, lifting his glass.

“If he ever shows up, we’ll talk.” I winked. Oh, God, what I wouldn’t do for a chance at that particular threesome-no, no, stay focused. On something other than getting Nathan naked and-fuck. I cleared my throat. “Anyway, no, not him.”

“Okay, so it wasn’t Colin Farrell,” he said. “I’m going to have to guess He Whose Name I’d Rather Not Think Of.”

I laughed and nodded, raising my glass in a mock toast. “The one and only.”

Nathan gave a quick sniff of laughter, then eyed me as he picked up his own drink. “So, what did he want?”

“To get back together.”

He put his glass down so hard we both jumped. Staring at me incredulously, he said, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

I shook my head. “Nope. He was pretty ballsy about it, too.”

“Seems a bit strange.” He furrowed his brow and absently ran his finger around the rim of his glass. “I mean, why now? After, what, almost a month?”

“Something like that,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t know what made him decide to do it now. Hell, I don’t know what made him think he had a chance at all, whether it was last week, this week, or next year.”

Nathan nodded, staring into his drink. “No kidding. But then, he is a persistent son of a bitch.” He looked at me. “Did you tell him about us?”

I smirked. “Absolutely.”

His eyes widened, looking more horrified than amused. “Are you serious?”

My smile fell. I shrugged. “You’re damn right I told him about us. Why should we hide it from him?”

He pursed his lips, then nodded. “Point taken. So, what did he say?”

“He was not happy about it,” I said.

At that, Nathan grinned. “Really? Do tell.”

“He couldn’t believe we had the nerve to see each other,” I said. “Christ, as if he’s justified in being pissed about anything we do, let alone together.”

Nathan snorted and shook his head. “He’s a piece of work, isn’t he?”

“He really is.”

“So when did he come by?”

I shrugged. “This afternoon. Maybe around two or so.”

Nathan ran a hand through his hair and nodded. “Explains a lot.”

“Oh?”

“Saw his number on my caller ID earlier,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “I’d deleted his name from my phone list, but recognized the number.”

“Did he leave a message?”

“No. He never was one to-” He paused. “I guess you know how he is, don’t you?”

I nodded. Jake hated voicemail. Always had. He didn’t even like sending text messages, which could be annoying as hell when I was too busy to talk but we needed to plan something. I wondered, then, if that was part of his method of covering his tracks. Keeping Nathan or me from stumbling across an incriminating message.

I sipped my drink, then laughed. “I can only imagine what he’ll say if he gets a hold of you.”

Nathan chuckled. “Probably ask me the same thing he asked you. How dare I find something in common with you besides him?”

“Just tell him you and he have similar taste in men,” I said with a flippant shrug. “That’s what I told him.”

With a cough of startled laughter, Nathan sat up. “You didn’t.”

“I did.” I grinned. “Oh, you should have seen the look on his face. Especially when he asked where I get off seeing his ex-boyfriend, and I said I get off pretty much anywhere I see you.”

Nathan laughed again, shaking his head. “Wow, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.”

I leaned forward and rested my folded hands on the table between us, slightly closer to him than to myself. “If you’d been there,” I said, “I don’t think I’d have been able to come up with quite so many witty comebacks.”

“Is that so?” He put one hand over mine, running his thumb across the inside of my wrist.

“Yes,” I said. “Though I would have been thinking of a few ways we could royally piss him off, but…” I let my thumb trace the side of his hand. “That wouldn’t be why I was thinking those things.”

His shoulders rose slightly as he leaned a little closer to me and his fingertips brushed the back of my hand. “So I’d be distracting you, then?”

“You always distract me.” Especially when you touch me like that. Or look at me like that. Or breathe. I swallowed. “From everything.”

He grinned. “Well, if I’m distracting you from everything else…” A single finger ran down the side of my wrist. “Then I guess that means that when I get you home…” The tip of his tongue made a slow arc across the inside of his lower lip. “…I’ll have your undivided attention, won’t I?”

I shivered.