Chapter Fifteen
NICK
I knew Karli was beautiful. I’d noticed it the second I saw her, and I hadn’t stopped noticing it, but tonight she looked like a fucking movie star.
Not one of the tall, willowy ones, but like an action star in one of those martial arts movies. Her dress was gorgeous and the shoulders and arms that came out of it had perfect muscle definition. I’d never found a woman’s bone structure sexy before, but hers made me crazy, and that was before I even mentioned her flawless skin, like glass over silk.
I was pissed that she was here with my brother, but even more pissed that my cock was already aching in my shorts. Thank God the tailor had left ample room in the front of my slacks. Maybe he recognized me as the pervert that I am.
I grabbed a glass of champagne off of a passing tray and to my brother and Karli, I said, “You two kids be good. I’m going to check out some art.”
I felt Karli’s eyes on me as I walked away. I was having a hard time dissecting my emotions. I’d never been jealous over a woman – ever. I’d usually been the one women were leaving their dates to be with, for one thing, and I’d always looked at women as a dime a dozen. If one did walk away for whatever reason, there would be five more waiting in line to take her place.
Karli would tell me that attitude was arrogant or narcissistic, but in my mind, it was simply a fact, or it had been until tonight. Karli was here with my brother and from what she’s told me so far about what she’s looking for in a man, Ethan was the embodiment of her fantasies – and I was exactly the opposite. I bypassed the art and went to the bar.
“Hey, give me a Scotch and water,” I told the girl behind the bar. She was young and attractive, but when she sat her boobs up on the bar next to my drink, I didn’t even feel the slightest bit of interest. I turned my back to her and sipped the Scotch while looking across the room at Karli and my brother. He was holding her hand and introducing her to people.
I couldn’t help but think that should be me. But then of course, instead of looking at her like the elegant, beautiful woman she is, these people would be wondering how I dressed up a cage slut so nicely. She deserved to be with a man like Ethan, but I was just selfish enough that I wanted her to be with a man like me.
“Hi there.” I looked down toward the voice. It was Camille, a girl that grew up in the house next to us. I wasn’t home all that much, but when I was, Camille had been my go-to girl from the time I popped her cherry until she married an A.D.A. at twenty-one and started popping out babies. She was twenty-four now and last I heard, she’d just had number three.
“Hi, Camille. How are you?”
“I’m good,” she said. She surprised me by stepping close and actually rubbing herself against my arm. I glanced around the room, looking for her husband. “Vince is not here,” she said, reading my mind. “We’re getting divorced.”
“Oh no. I’m sorry to hear that.” I didn’t know Vince, but I was sure after three years and three kids, it had to be hard for her. Of course, that was not evidenced by the fact that her tits were now pressed into my suit jacket.
“Don’t be. He couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. Knocked up the nanny.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Yeah, oh shit about sums it up. He tried to pay her off to go away and have it in secret. She took the money and then came straight to me. I kicked them both out. I hope they’ll be deliriously happy together. I’m glad he’s gone.” She stood up slightly on her toes and whispered, “But I’m so horny. What do you say, Nick? How about we get together, for old time’s sake?”
Camille was hot, even after three kids. Tonight, she was wearing a short, burgundy cocktail dress with a black-lace skirt that flowed from the back down to her ankles. Her black stillettos highlighted a pair of sexy feet with toes painted the same color as her dress. Her highlighted, blonde hair was swept up off of her long neck into some kind of twist in the back and a diamond choker hung elegantly around it. Even with all of that, I wasn’t aroused, not in the least.
“Maybe, Camille, but not tonight. I have to be present and on my best behavior. Old man’s orders.”
She rolled her pretty, green eyes. “Since when do you take orders from your old man?”
I chuckled. She was right. Back when Camille and I partied together, I stole liquor from the old man and I fucked her in his bed when he was at work. I left the covers rumpled so he would know and while he was yelling at me about it, I smiled from ear to ear.
Now, I could see how immature it all was, but then it was the only way I knew how to get back at him for all of the wrongs I’d perceived him doing to me.
“Since he reminded me that his money paid for my lifestyle before I started making my own. I have to be good tonight, Camille, but like I said, maybe later.” I scanned the crowd again. This time when my eyes landed on Ethan, Karli was no longer beside him. I looked around again and didn’t see her. I forgot Camille was still there until she asked me,
“Who are you looking for?”
“Nobody. I was just seeing who was here. Excuse me for a minute, Camille, please.”
“Sure. Call me, Nick…” I was already three, big steps away. I headed out of the ballroom and down the short hall to the bathrooms designated for company. A woman stepped out as I approached and I said,
“Hey, is there anyone else in there?”
She looked at me like I was crazy. It wasn’t a multiple stall bathroom. It was huge, but it had a single toilet and sink. “No, just me,” she said.
I smiled at her and the look went from “this guy is crazy” to “this guy is hot.” I winked at her, thanked her, and once she was gone, I stuck my head into the bathroom. No one was there. I went back out into the ballroom.
Ethan was still alone, talking to the retired D.A. of Clark County. He was networking. It was one of the things my brother did well. His career was hugely important to him, and I didn’t doubt that one day he would hold the D.A. position.
I went around the outside of the dance floor and behind the bandstand to the French doors that led out to the gardens. As soon as I stepped outside, I inhaled deeply. No matter what was going on in my life, the smell of the roses made me feel better. It was like nature’s perfume. In one of his rare moments, Dad had told me about Mom planting the rose bushes when they first moved in. I couldn’t remember her, so when I wanted to feel close to her, this was where I came.
I walked along the cobblestone path that led through the dozens of multi-colored roses. When I reached the center where the hand-crafted bench, I found exactly who I was looking for. Karli was sitting on the bench, staring at the blood-red roses in front of her.
She looked up at me with a surprised look on her face. “Nick, what are you doing out here?”
I went over and sat down next to her on the bench. “Looking for you.”
“Why?”
I reached for her hand. She pulled it back. “Karli, how do you think it makes me feel to see you with my brother?”
“I didn’t know he was your brother.”
“I know, but it still hurts.”
“I thought we were just friends.”
I looked at her profile. She was still staring at the roses. I cupped her chin in my hand and turned her face up toward me. The strings of lights across the canopy covering the rose bushes from the weather lit up her pretty, hazel eyes. I wanted to kiss her, but I fought through that and said, “I agreed to be your friend because you said that was as much as I could get. I knew it was going to bother me to see you with other men, but I can’t even describe how it feels to see you with Ethan.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Nick.”
I knew what I wanted her to tell me. I wanted her to tell me that she’d never see Ethan again. I wanted her to tell me that she wanted me as badly as I did her. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want her. If Ethan ended up with her instead of me, I was afraid of what it would do to the relationship I had with the only family member I care anything about.
I decided that truth was better than regrets. “I want you, Karli. I don’t just want to fuck you. I want to take you to places like this and show you off. I want to work-out with you and cuddle on the couch with you. I want to wake up on Christmas morning and have breakfast with you before we exchange gifts…” She reached up and put her fingers on my lips.
“Nick, I think I want all of those things, too.”
My heart sped up. I felt everything open up inside of me like I’d just taken a hit of an inhaler. “Really?”
She nodded. “But I just can’t believe that would be possible with you. I told you before that I like you and I think it’s obvious that I’m sexually attracted to you, but that’s not enough, Nick. I don’t want to date a fighter. I don’t want to date a man that lives his life on the run from fans and the tabloids. I don’t want my boyfriend’s face and body hanging naked all over the city I live in.”
I wanted her, badly. But I didn’t think I was at a place where I was willing to give up my career – the only thing I was really good at – to have her. Living with the consequences while training with her father would be hell. At least if I didn’t have to see her all the time, I might be able to find other ways to occupy my mind.
“Even if I promised that I only want to be with you, Karli? I mean, would it matter who else wanted me as long as I was faithful?”
“I think you telling me now that you would be faithful would be like lining a table with candy bars and telling a child they have to look at them every single day, but never touch them.”
“You don’t trust me.” It wasn’t a question. I could see it in her eyes. The guys that she’d been with in the past must have done a number on her.
“It’s not specifically you I don’t trust, Nick. It’s guy’s like you. It’s the lifestyle itself. Let me ask you this: have you ever been faithful to one woman?”
“No, but I’ve never been in a committed relationship, either.”
“I don’t want to be your trial run,” she said. She pulled out of my touch and stood up. “I should get back inside.”
I nodded, and she waited like she expected me to say something else. What else was there to say? I couldn’t prove I’d be faithful unless she gave me a chance, and she didn’t seem willing to do that. Fuck my life.