Team Niklas (The Saints Team #3) (4 page)

“Okay, thanks, but you’re wrong
there,” I said, and put my cash away. I entered the kitchen to get us some
plates and cutlery. “I think you’ve mistaken me for one of the beautiful people
who hang around you nibbling while they watch you eat, or purge up their food
later. I’m not starving to watch my figure… I eat.”

“Good,” he said. “That would be
refreshing, then we can try some different places. I haven’t been anywhere good
to eat since I got here and fuck I’m hanging for a good meal. I’d really love
to try some real restaurants.”

“Really? Is that why you’ve lost
weight?” I looked at him surprised; I wouldn’t have taken him for a food
connoisseur.

He filled two glasses with water
and shrugged. “Lucas and I used to hang out a bit before he got a girlfriend,
but he just got everything delivered. The Russian’s single now, but he only
eats meat…”

I laughed. “Yeah that sounds like The
Russian, you’ve got to keep moving around him or he’s sizing you up as a meal,”
I agreed.

Nik smiled, and continued. “If it
is not spicy, Tomás won’t eat it. Andy, do you know the physio?” he stopped to
ask me.

I nodded. “Sure, but not that
well.”

“He and his wife have invited me
around a few times for dinner,” he clarified. “She can cook; he’s lucky. So did
Elizabeth, the coach’s wife, but that’s not the most comfortable meal… a
thousand questions.”

I studied Nik as he gave an
insight to what his first few months here had been like. I forgot he was
probably a bit lonely, but at least now he was living with Alice and her
friend, Cassie.

 “That wouldn’t be fun,” I agreed,
reluctantly.

Nik brightened. “I know, so go out
with me?” He looked at me and gave me a smile that would melt any red-blooded
girl.

We spread the dishes on the
counter and helped ourselves. Nik tried some of my regular dishes and I tried
the ones I ordered for him. It was weirdly comfortable, as though we were
housemates who would soon be fighting over the remote.

“How do you feel about the
remote?” I asked, just out of curiosity.

“I have to have it.”

“Hmm,” I said. “Me too, especially
in my house,” I added.

His eyes narrowed as he took that
in.

“Buying dinner tonight is not
replacing Friday night dinner when you dress up, I pick you up and take you
somewhere nice. Right?” he asked.

I delayed my response while we
moved to the sofa again and he joined me this time, abandoning the window sill.
We sat on opposite sides to each other.

“Is this something you do… if a
girl turns you down on a date you pursue her until she changes her mind?” I
asked. “Or do you just persist until you understand why you’re not date-material
to every woman on the planet?” I wound some delicious noodles around my fork,
taking a huge mouthful with no thought of being glamorous.

He shrugged. “I’ve never been
turned down before.”

I nearly choked on my noodles, finishing
with a charming snort of derision.

“What?” I said, swallowing. “How
old are you?”

“Twenty-three,” he said. “And
you?”

“The same, twenty-three.”

“See we like our food and we’re
the same age, so many things in common,” Nik teased, and I snorted again in a
ladylike manner. I could understand why he was completely taken by me.

I continued my research. “So let
me clarify this… you’ve never been turned down before? You’ve asked women out
though, right?”

Nik rolled his eyes. “What do you
think?”

“And you’d have a lot of women who
hang around you and want to go out with you right?” I continued.

He shrugged. “Yes, but you’re the
only woman I’ve asked out who doesn’t find me attractive and won’t go on a date
with me.”

“I didn’t say that… I mean clearly
you’re okay in the looks department,” I said. That shouldn’t make his head too
big.

“Thanks, wow, big compliment.” He
feigned being overwhelmed. “Hold on, any minute we both won’t fit in here as my
head expands,” he joked.

I grinned. “Okay, you’re good
looking, happy now?”

“Very,” he said. “About what you
were saying before Sah-sha, your sister is lovely, but you are gorgeous. I
can’t believe you can’t see it,” he said.

I stopped, my fork suspended in
mid-air and I looked at him. It wasn’t fair saying stuff like that without any
warning. I stuffed the noodles in my mouth and pretended I didn’t hear it; I
avoided looking at him but in my peripheral vision I could see him cock his
head on the side and study me.

We sat in an awkward silence or
maybe it was just me that felt awkward. I swallowed. “Water top up?” I asked.

“Please,” he said. He put his
unfinished meal down on the coffee table and waited for me to return before
eating. Nice. We ate our way through the meal. It was going well. Maybe we
weren’t jinxed after all, and as soon as I thought that, it happened again.

My husband arrived.

Chapter 5

I heard the knock on
the door and looked at Nik. I’m very particular about my guests and I wasn’t
expecting a client.

“Are
you expecting anyone?” I asked and he laughed.

“Yeah
I gave out your address to everyone, told them to find me here,” he said, and continued
eating.

I
rose and went to the door. I barely had it opened a foot before my husband, photographer-cum-druggy
Adam Lattimore stomped in. Just a bit taller than me, thin, hippy, artist,
boy-next-door charm—he looked more like a musician in a band than a
photographer.

“It’s
official, we’re unofficial, babe, miss me yet?” he asked, and threw some
paperwork on the kitchen counter.

Make
that my ex-husband.

“Yeah,
well thanks for bringing around the paperwork and see ya,” I said, still
standing with the door open.

“Thought
you might want to celebrate,” he smiled, grabbing my hips and pulling me close
to him. He had a smile that was like a drug to me… insidious, dangerous, and
tempting. He rocked a pair of jeans and a black long sleeve t-shirt, his dark
brown hair was shaggy and flopped into his blue eyes and everything about him
spelled danger to me. He was a shit husband. Then he spotted Nik.

“Who’s
this?” he asked, staring at Nik from the kitchen.

I
heard Nik sigh before he rose, as if dealing with dickheads was part of the
norm when dating a girl. He came towards us.

“This
is a colleague of mine,” I said.

“A
colleague?” Adam mocked me. Nik looked equally unimpressed. Adam was always
insanely jealous; happy to play the field himself but woe betide me if I
glanced at anyone.

“I’m
the media officer for the Saints’, Adam, and Nik is a Saint, so to speak,” I
said, moving to stand between the two men. Nik was easily a foot or so taller
and wider, but Adam was street smart.

I
introduced them. “Nik Wagner, Adam Lattimore.” Nik went to extend his hand to
shake and Adam folded his arms. I felt Nik bristle beside me.

“Like
them pretty now, do you?” Adam asked me.

 “Actually
I.Qs are in now, buddy,” Nik shot back and I laughed instinctively which was
the wrong thing to do. Adam pushed me away to reach Nik and I hit the wall, he
swung one good shot at Nik connecting with his eye and as Nik reeled back with
the surprise hit, Adam took off. He was gone in seconds.

“Fucking
hell.” Nik straightened and reached for me. “Are you okay,
Sah-sha?”

“I’m fine.” I straightened my
clothes.

“Little punk.” Nik started out the
door but I grabbed his arm, my hand barely going around half of the muscles in
his arms.

“Nik,
leave it, please,” I begged, “please.”

Nik
turned back to look at me, took a deep breath and walked back inside, closing
the door. I hated to think what damage they might do to each other.

I
touched his face and he flinched slightly. He was darkening slightly around one
eye and he had a trickle of blood on his cheek from a cut. Adam’s ring must
have cut his face.

“I’m
really sorry, Nik,” I said, studying his face. “I know he doesn’t deserve to
get away with that.”

“It’s
okay, don’t worry about it.” He shrugged.

“I
will worry about it, now lean against the bench,” I ordered him. He did what he
was told which was refreshing. I opened a drawer in the kitchen where I had
some basic first aid stuff and found some antiseptic.

“Stay
put for a sec,” I said, and raced to the bathroom to grab tissues and cotton
balls. I returned, dampened the cotton balls in warm water and cleaned the cut.
His blue eyes watched me with just a hint of amusement and a bit of lust, well
I think it was lust since we’d eaten already. I leaned up on my toes and
touched some antiseptic against the cut.

“Ouch,
Sah-sha.” He pulled away from me.

“Don’t be such a baby,” I said,
returning to pat his face. He closed his eyes and let me. He really was
gorgeous, I could just kiss those lips while he leaned there looking so
peaceful. “There, that’s done. You won’t be as pretty for a while, but some
girls like rugged.”

“That so?” he asked with interest.

“So I’ve heard. I’ll make you
another coffee while you sit and hold some ice to your eye. Go relax,” I said.

“Hmm.” He grunted and headed back
to the sofa. He began to clean up our plates on the coffee table and I ordered
him to leave it. It was good that he followed orders so easily. I must remember
that, could come in handy at work too.

I came over with a tea towel laden
with ice cubes—déjà vu from his last visit—and handed them to him. Instead of
taking the ice, he took my hips.

“You put it on,” he said, and
pulled me closer. I guess it was the least I could do and he did look like he
needed some tender lovin’ care. I bit my lip and hesitated just a moment
knowing where this might lead. He took the decision away from me, and pulled me
down onto his lap to straddle him, all the time he kept his hands around my
hips. He leaned his head back on the sofa seat and closed his eyes. I applied
the ice to his bruised socket and he winced slightly at the sting of cold.

“I’m really sorry, Nik,” I
whispered. “I told you we were jinxed.”

“We’re not jinxed, Sah-sha,” he
growled. “You’ve just got a dickhead…”

“Ex-husband,” I said, finishing
for him. It was the first time I had said ex-husband out loud and I felt a
tinge of pain. I had loved Adam once, maybe still loved the Adam I remembered.
Now it was officially over. I was a divorcee at twenty-three—my first real life
failure.

“How long were you married?” he
asked.

“Four years. We met when I was
studying journalism; I was nineteen, he was twenty-four. He’s a photographer, works
for
The Daily
. We met on a job—there was this artist getting great
reviews for his avant-garde work. So, the college magazine sent me to cover it
and he was there for the paper. I guess we just clicked. We were married three
months later—my folks hated him.”

“Yeah, well I can imagine them not
being too excited,” Nik said. “They have this clever girl at college with a bright
future and she runs off and marries a photographer she’s known for a minute who
is older and more advanced than she is.”

“Yeah, thanks Dad for summing that
up,” I said. Nothing I hadn’t heard before.

Nik chuckled and repositioned
himself slightly under me—great we could both feel it now, his huge erection
pressing through his training pants against my jeans.
Apologies if I’m
squashing it.

 “It’s not like I gave up college
or anything just because we got hitched,” I told him, “but it was a pretty wild
ride. Anyway Saffron’s the reliable one, I’m sure they expected nothing less
from me.” I continued to defend myself which is strange because I never really
gave a fuck what people thought and probably still don’t. Why did I need to
make myself look better in Nik’s eyes?

“So you’re impulsive, Sah-sha,
umm, I must remember that,” he said, momentarily opening the one eye that was
ice free to study me before closing it again.

“No, just not very sensible when
it comes to love, I think. It was new to me… that sort of insane passion… it
doesn’t matter. It crashed and burned. His photographic talent was best fueled
by drugs and you need money to buy drugs and you know the story.” My voice
tapered off, I’m tired of talking about it now… enough.

I felt Nik’s hands squeeze my
hips. “It gets easier,” he said.

“Got some experience in this?” I
asked.

“Never been divorced, but we’ve
all got our skeletons,” he said. “You’re special, Sah-sha.”

I laughed.

“But you can’t take compliments,”
he said and he pulled my hand and the ice away from his eye, he blinked open both
eyes and looked at me.

“I think you’re amazing,” he said.
“Shh…” he stopped me from interrupting him again. “No denying it, no shrugging
me off. I want you to say thank you, Niklas, you are right, I am amazing,” he teased
me.

I bit my tongue between my teeth
and made a face at him. “That’s not going to happen,” I said, “and not because
I’m insecure or have low self-esteem, I know exactly my strengths and
weaknesses.”

“I know some of them too,” he
said.

“Already? I doubt it,” I said,
impatiently.
Yeah I’m so transparent that Nik can sum me up in a minute.

“You’re beautiful and trusting but
you’ve had your wings clipped so now you’re cautious and licking your wounds.
You trust your family and close friends but you’re not going to make the same
mistakes again,” he said, watching me and not stopping for breath. “You’re
ambitious and creative, you need very little company. You’re a bit hyper and if
you didn’t design, work, exercise and do flips down your catwalk you would probably
be clawing the roof. You want to make your own mark, you dress how you want to
dress regardless of what people think, and you like me,” he finished with a
grin to make it all less serious.

I smiled then bit my lip while I
studied him and thought about what he said; he read me pretty well, I had to
give him more credit for insight than I realized.

“Agree I’ve drawn you pretty well?”
he asked.

“Maybe,” I told him. “You on the
other hand… you’re a closed book. I know virtually nothing about you, your
family or friends or what you want or why you decided to come here to the
Saints.”

He shrugged. “You’ll have to spend
some time with me then.”

I wriggled to a more comfortable
position on his lap, where his erection wasn’t going to set my clit on fire.

“Keep moving like that Sah-sha and
I’ll have to take matters into hand.”

“Huh,” I scoffed.
He wouldn’t
dare.
“I still believe what I said to you before; if you want to survive
this season with the Saints’ you’d do best to avoid me.”

He leaned forward to kiss me but
didn’t account for my own superfast reflexes; I got that bag of ice in between
us so fast he dropped back with a groan as the cold pressure touched his eye.

“You’re killing me Sah-sha.”

“I know, I’ve been saying that all
along.” I rolled my eyes.

*****

I had spent the last hour or so reading in bed,
trying to relax my mind for sleep. I put my book down, slid under the sheets
and turned off the bedside light.

I couldn’t believe Adam would just
arrive like that—seeing him always set me back, dropping me in all the pain
again and I had to sort and re-file everything in my head. I sent Nik home
empty-handed, the gun in his pants loaded and with a black eye. Not a great
night for him, but hey, I didn’t invite him over and I didn’t want to celebrate
my divorce night shagging some other guy; that’s one memory I didn’t need.

I had to stop thinking of Nik as a
potential new guy on the scene, I seriously wasn’t ready yet, I had other plans
and I didn’t need a relationship pulling me off course. It had taken a while,
but Adam was out of my system—sure I slipped every now and then, but I knew
what I needed and what the pain would be like if I relapsed into Adam’s arms.
There was no better deterrent than remembering that pain. Add to this I had a
great job, I had my design business, good friends, and my wonderful apartment—hell,
I was the poster girl for on track.

Then my phone beeped. It was
nearly midnight. Who was texting at this hour? I reached for it and the room
lit with the soft glow of the screen. Nik! Really?

NIK:
Can’t sleep, black eye. R U OK?

ME:
Not playing Nik. Go find some nice safe girl. Over & out

NIK:
Found girl, not
interested in safe

ME:
Girl worried for U & her

NIK:
How bout our Friday date? One step @ a time

ME:
I’ve got some friends I can set U up with

Then there was nothing. Well, that
might have worked. Seriously, what was Nik’s game? I knew he had plenty of
girlfriends, so, was it just the challenge of getting one across the line that
turned him down? Men, they are so—my phone beeped again—persistent.

NIK: Sasha, if U really don’t like
me, say so now & I’ll go away

So there is an end point. A bloody
nose and a hit to the eye didn’t do it, but now if I said so Nik would go away.
Excellent.

ME: Go away

NIK: U didn’t say U didn’t like me

ME: FUCK

NIK: Now?

ME: Goodnight, don’t be L8 for
media call 2morrow

NIK: Yes Ma’am.

I just put the phone down and
settled back in my sheets when it binged again. For the love of technology,
shut up already. I reached out and grabbed the phone. It wasn’t Nik this time,
it was ex-hubby, Adam.

ADAM: U looked good 2night

ME: Thanks U 2

ADAM: Miss U

ME: Only cause U saw me 2night

ADAM: No. Often think of U

ME: Not doing this

ADAM: Can I come round?

ME: No. U R single, go spread your
seed

ADAM: Fuck U, Sash, same as always

ME: U loved that once.

There was another quiet break.
Maybe he was gone now too. I was on a roll tonight.
I’m bound to end up
alone and living with the offspring of Prada—actually I’m okay with that.
I
yawned. Maybe I should turn my phone off. Nope, there it was another text.

ADAM: Nite, Sash. I love U

An arrow hit my heart. I wish we
could be like every other divorced couple and just hate each other.