I Love My Man (Nicole's Erotic Romance) (9 page)

“Someone had to, because
I
sure didn’t know.” She pulls me in for
a hug. Nico gets up, runs around the table and wraps her arms around both of
us. My body relaxes and the tears dry up. Thank God for my girlfriends.

Josh takes an empty seat, saying to the men,
“This makes me jealous. Guys… want to hug?”

Chris and Mark both answer, “No.”

The three of us girls all sit by our men.
“You guys really got me. Nico, are you drinking whiskey?”

She nods. “You introduced me to it.”

“I did?” I have no recollection of this.

“You gave it to me when I came to your
house… that one time? You said it was Josh’s.” Her eyes insinuate she can’t say
more; Mark doesn’t need to know she was wrecked over some other guy. God, I’m
so glad she didn’t sleep with Michael. I would have a hard time looking at
Mark. “Oh right. I forgot.”

“You’re drinking Jameson? I’m in. What do
you want, gorgeous?” Josh asks me, rising up.

“Chardonnay, please.” He bends to kiss me,
and I smile as he walks away.

Turning back to Mark, I reach out and touch
his knee. “So good to see you.”

Grateful, Mark smiles, one corner of his
mouth higher than the other. “Good to be seen.” He turns and kisses Nico on the
lips, her eyes closing happily as she receives it.

This is how it was always supposed to be.

NICOLE

Outside JF
Gallery

The six of us walk up and I freeze. I can’t
believe what I’m seeing. The gallery that was empty just an hour ago, is now
crammed with people I don’t recognize.

“Oh my God. I can’t go in there,” I whisper,
grabbing onto Mark’s arm.

We’re all staring and Jess cries out, “Wow.
That’s a fuck-load of people!”

Amber grumbles, “Jess, you’re not helping,”
before she faces me. Both she and Josh try to tell me it’s great and what a
great turnout, don’t be nervous, blah blah blah. None of it is landing. I can’t
move my feet. Unless it’s in the other direction. That I could do.

Mark touches my cheek. “Hey hey hey. Look at
me.”

I swallow at the lump in my throat, but it
won’t budge.
 
“I can’t do this.”

He smiles. “Where’s that Mema fire? Remember
who you are.”

Memories of all the times I stood up for
myself with her flame burning hot in my blood, flood me. All this time I was
worried I took after my father, but my fire comes from her. Mark helped me see
that.

I am a woman who doesn’t back down, that’s
who I really am.

My friends silently watch us. With my eyes
locked on my boyfriend’s, I smile. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

A proud grin spreads on his beautiful
lips.
 
He leans down to kiss me,
whispering, “Let’s do it.” He takes my hand and we face my friends.

“Okay. I’m ready.”

This is the moment my girlfriends realize
– for real – that I’ve found my man.

We turn together as a group. Josh opens the
door and holds it for all of us. As we go in, he gives a tiny approving nod to
Mark that I don’t see. It’s just between them. I also don’t see the respectful
glance Mark returns to him, or the smile Chris throws his way.

I’ve got other things on my mind. My chin is
up, my back is straight and I’m walking in to meet the people.

Here we go.

My First
Reception

“The lady of the hour!” Jack holds out his
hands, smile-lines deeply framing his sharply intelligent eyes. My friends
leave to walk around, but Mark stays by my side as I reach out and take both of
Jack’s hands. We lean in and kiss each other on both cheeks; that thing I
loathe to do. Admittedly, I loathe it less with Jack because his natural
pompousness rocks this type of thing like it’s normal. With Jess and the rest
of the world, not so much.

“Jack. You did such a great job.”

He looks very debonair. “As if I know how to
do anything else. How was the whiskey?”

A dry smile plays on my lips. “Delicious.”

“Good. Now go mingle.” As Mark and I walk
away, Jack calls after us. “You look gorgeous tonight, Ms. Henry. Just as
beautiful as your work!” I throw a pleased smile over my shoulder.

We walk around the large room meeting
people, chatting with everyone who wants to. Jason kept his promise and comes
over to meet Mark, never giving away that he and I have ever been more than
friends. While I’m in conversation I hear people near me whispering things I don’t
want to hear, like,
I like this one, but
this one is hideous
, and
Look at the
knife slashes. So angry.
I make a mental note to keep my mouth shut the
next time I go see someone’s hard work displayed. I almost turn to assault one
of the bastards – which would prove their point, unfortunately –
but I’m stopped by a woman whispering, “This one. I love this one the most. So
angry… I love it.” My defenses melt instantly and I turn to introduce myself.
Some people get you, and some just don’t.

From out of nowhere we hear a woman’s
raised, angry voice. I can’t see over the heads. Jason frowns. I look up to
Mark. “Can you see?”

He cranes his neck. “A blonde woman’s in
front of that painting. She’s pretty upset.”

“Which painting?”

“The one of the guy with the red eyes.”

He’s talking about the painting of Michael.
Confusion twists my face. “I know some people are having bad reactions to my
work, but why would she be that upset?”

“I don’t know. Let’s go see.”

As the woman gets more irate, conversations
around her go silent. Everyone wants to know what’s going on. Faster, I push
through the people, saying, “Excuse me,” over and over.

I can’t believe it! Standing in front of the
painting of her husband, is Laura Benitez. She turns her head like the girl in
the Exorcist, and locks crazy eyes with me. “You have got to be kidding me! You
lying little…”

I cut her off. “Laura! So good to see you
again!” I motion to the staring crowd to go on about their lives. They’re not
having it. And Laura is seething; there is no stopping this train.

“You said you didn’t sleep with my husband!
You lied!” The music shuts off abruptly and the entire room silences, craning
to see.

I shoot a nervous look around me. “I didn’t,
Mrs. Benitez. Now why don’t you lower your voice?” It’s sort of true what I’m
saying. When I told her that, I hadn’t. Does that still count? My heart races
with fear at what she might say next.

“Bullshit!” she spits, little flecks of
saliva hitting my face.
 

The familiar rage begins to boil. This is
my
night. What is she doing here?
Bringing my hand up, I slowly wipe the disgusting wetness off my cheek. “Okay,
that’s about enough. I don’t know where you learned your manners, but I have a
feeling you didn’t receive an invite to this party. This is invite-only. Right,
Jack?” I look over to Jack, who’s walked up and stands watching.

He raises one disdainful eyebrow. “That is
correct.”

She looks around, embarrassed. Her normal
shyness comes back, and fast. But she doesn’t want to give up. She says
quietly, looking at the floor, hurt. “I don’t believe you. I know you slept
with him.”

“Laura, what are you doing?”

I turn and see Michael pushing his way
through, dressed in a suit and looking his best. He gives me a polite nod and
flashes his eyes over my dress.

The entire room starts whispering as they
recognize him from the painting that is next to him, staring back at all of us.

“Look at this, Michael!” Laura points to it.
He glances and sees the red eyes, looks back to me for half a heartbeat,
disturbed by my portrayal. Oops. I shoot a look to Mark and see my other
friends staring also, standing farther back behind him amid the strangers.
Everyone’s lips are a thin, tight line.

“Laura, you’re making a scene,” Michael
warns, quietly. He’s a private person. I’m sure this is the last thing he finds
appealing. I just want them both to leave. How dare they come here tonight?

“You fucked her! I know you fucked her!”

My stomach falls to the ground and I stare
into what feels like the end of the world. She’s right. He did. And now everyone
will know. Michael is going to let out our secret. My perfect Amber will never
forgive me for not telling her the truth, and Mark? Mark will always have the
image of me and Michael in bed together, in his mind. I have it with him and
Jess, but I can forget. Men aren’t so easily distracted from things like that.
Being fiercely territorial when they love a woman, it’s in their blood.

With my face unreadable, I look at Michael.

He reaches out and takes her hand. “We never
did, Laura. I promise you, we never did. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Stunned, I blink and my mouth falls briefly.
He lied to her face, and to everyone. And he didn’t do it just for me. I can
see it so clearly, that I was right. He loves her.

Taking the opportunity to turn the tides my
way, I give my most winning smile to the crowd, feigning amusement. “Okay
everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the show. Another will be coming in half an
hour.” The crowd chuckles and people turn away. I lock eyes with a person who’s
videoing. “If I see that on YouTube, I’ll hunt you down. And who turned off the
music?”

Jack throws me a wickedly guilty smile and
heads off to turn it back on! The big jerk, he was loving every minute of
this.
 

Michael, taking the hand of his wife, turns
to me. “I’m sorry, Nicole. Great reception.” His eyes land on Mark and the two
men nod at each other, neither of them liking it. Laura looks like she wants to
climb into a cave.

“Thank you. Now would you please take your
wife home and make violent love to her for at least a week?” They both react. I
shake my head. “It looks like she needs it.” I don’t wait for their reactions
as I turn away.

Mark takes my outstretched hand and kisses
it. He leans down and whispers in my ear, “Now you
know
it’s a party.”

I laugh as we walk. “All we need now is for
someone to pass out drunk on the lawn.”

“And for blood to be shed. A fight, you’ve
gotta have a fight. Oh, one of the investors just arrived. I want you to meet
him.” He squeezes my hand, eyes lighting up with excitement.

“Oh, I almost forgot about them.” At his
look, I add, “Sorry! So much has happened!”

He laughs. “Very true.”

“Well at least the worst is over.”

Never Say
The Worst Is Over

Looking toward the door, I’m blown away by
who I see. David, of all the people on Earth, has strolled into the gallery and
is walking from painting to painting.

“Oh no.” I search the room frantically. What
is he doing here? I have to warn Jess. I spot her and realize I’m too late; she’s
clawing her way through the crowd to get to him with murder in her eyes. I pull
on Mark’s hand. “Walk faster! Come on!”

“What’s your hurry?”

“It’s Jess’s ex-boyfriend who cheated on
her!”

I watch as dickhead David turns and
unexpectedly sees Jess. His jaw unhinges in shock. From the look on her face,
she’s going to make Mark’s wish for bloodshed come true. I can’t let this
happen! I let go of Mark’s hand, pull up my long dress to run and take off to
intercept her.

She beats me to him, her voice piercing hot.
“What are you doing here? Stop following me, you crazy stalker!”

He’s completely taken aback. “I’m not
following you, Jess!”

She fumes. “Oh really? We’ve run into each
other three times David. Now four! And you’re telling me there’ll all just an
accident. I know I fell for your lies once but I’m not stupid twice!”

I force a smile, but it ain’t pretty. “Everything
okay?”

He turns to me in shock. “Nicole. Shit. Wow.”
He looks around and sees Amber and Josh. He thinks nothing of the guy who’s
looking at him like he’s an asshole. He’s never met Chris, so why would he? But
he knows he’s completely ambushed. We all know what he did. We were all friends
with this asshole, once upon a time. He’s looking at the jury and everyone on
it knows he’s guilty.

Mark arrives behind me. He scans our faces
and says, “Hi Dave.”

Dickhead looks at him. “Hi Mark.”

I’m completely lost. Confusion slams into
Jess. She stutters as she asks Mark, “How do you know David?”
 

Mark doesn’t want to say it, but he has to. “Dave’s
meeting me here to see Nicole’s paintings.”

“What?!!” Appalled, I throw up a thumb
toward Dickhead. “
He’s
the investor?”

Jess struggles hard to understand. “What
investor? What’s going on?”

Mark gently tells her, “For my app idea. The
one I told you about?”

Poor Jess flushes beet-red and mumbles,
“Oh.” She looks at David. “You’re not following me?”

 
“No.
Not that you’re not worth stalking.” She sneers at him. He smiles, amused. The
cocky bastard, I never liked him. “You know I’m in finance, Jess. My firm and I
are in negotiations to work with Mark on his idea. He gave me the gallery name
and the address, but I didn’t hear who the painter was. These are yours,
Nicole?”

I nod, sucking in my lips and thinking of
what to say. Mark is clearly disappointed. He narrowly escaped Jessica’s recent
wrath and this new discovery does not bode well for his project.

In an awkward, strange, and very human
moment, Josh and Amber limp up, saying “hey.” David shoves his hands in his
pockets and has the good sense to look insecure as he greets them. We all used
to spend time – a lot of time – with David. He used to be in our
group, and now he’s just the asshole who broke our friend’s heart when he
didn’t have to. His eyes flicker as Chris joins us to put his arm around Jess.