Ian's Way (7 page)

“Sex isn’t about quantity. We had our experience and that’s that.”

Kaity
was studying her.
Nikky
wished she wouldn’t.

“What if he calls you again?”

“He won’t.”

“Why not?
He’s carried a torch for all these years.
Seems like one night wouldn’t quite cut it, under those circumstances.”

Nikky’s
pulse quickened. She had to admit that she was still a little uncomfortable with the idea of a man being so fixated on her.

Surely he could have any number of better-looking women, not to mention smarter ones.
So why her?

“I am sure I let him down,”
Nikky
dismissed. “He thought of me as this pin-up from high school, his ultimate masturbation fantasy. In real life I’m just…me.”

“Just being you is plenty good if you ask me,” said
Kaity
.

“Thanks, kiddo.”
Nikky
tried her soup. It was horrible with all the pepper.

The two of them ended up giggling like school girls.

“Seriously,”
Kaity
said at last. “If he calls, I mean
when
he calls, you have to see him again, for women everywhere, just to prove good things can happen.”

“He won’t call. He already got what he wanted.”

Shit.
What am I going to do, get all bitter and cry over spilt milk?
Over Ian Hamilton?

Where would that lead her except to a guaranteed heartache?

He had wanted “no strings attached” and she was just fine with that. Wasn’t she?

“Trent left me a voice mail this morning,” said
Nikky
, determined to put the Ian matter to bed forever. “He wants to see me again. Seems his ex-wife is putting him through hell over the child support. I think I might have him over for dinner, just to talk.”

Kaity
didn’t say a word.

She didn’t have to.

Chapter Four

Ian worked up the nerve to make the phone call at precisely 2:16 in the afternoon the following Saturday. It had taken nearly an hour of preliminary pacing back and forth across his sparsely decorated living room.

Blast it, his pulse was racing, his heart was in his throat. He hadn’t felt this worked up about calling a girl since college.

Nikky
answered on the third ring. She sounded so sweet and raspy that he wanted to jump right through the phone.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” she said back.

“It’s Ian.”

“I figured.”

He laughed. “Guess I’m pretty distinctive, at least in some ways.”

“You are distinctive in all ways,” she replied, her words of praise making his heart swell, not to mention his cock.

“Um, I was hoping we might, you know…” Ian cleared his throat. “See each other some time.”

He heard her breathing.
“When?”

“Tonight, if you aren’t busy.

Another hesitation.
“I have a date.”

“What about next Friday or Saturday, then?”

“No, I…I don’t think so.”

“Oh.”
Crash and burn.
He did his best to hide it. “Well, it’s no big deal. It’s not like we had any, you know, agreement between us.”

Quite the opposite.
By all rights, she could be reading him the riot act for going against his promise of no strings attached.

“No, we didn’t,” she agreed.

Seconds ticked by.
Damn it, say something.
“We could grab lunch during the week maybe…as friends,” he said.

“I am not sure that would be a good idea.”

“No, I suppose not.”

“I’m glad you called though, I wanted to…to thank you for the other night.”

“No problem.” No problem? Was that how two people brushed off the most passionate, incredible night of lovemaking ever? Certainly it had been that way for him. Had she not felt the same? This was crazy. “So I’ll see you around,
Nikky
, huh?
Maybe at the next reunion?”

Her laugh was tense, a little hollow. What was she trying to tell him under the surface? “I’m sure I will be a sight at the twentieth. Promise not to make fun of me?”

“We won’t be that old,” he said. “But I will do my best.”

“It’s a deal.”

She hung up.

Ian slipped the phone into his pocket, totally numb. Grabbing his racquetball gear he headed out the door. No telling how many hours of aggressive, punishing play it would take to calm
himself
down.

Maybe the whole night.

Maybe the whole rest of his fucking life.

* * * * *

Get it together,
Nikky
.

Trent was going to be here any minute. He had already told her he wouldn’t be able to stay more than an hour or two on account of needing to pick up his kids at their mother’s. They were supposed to stay with her for the weekend but according to Trent, his ex had thrown a fit when she found out he was seeing
Nikky
tonight and had subsequently threatened to take him back to court if he didn’t get his ass to her house by ten that night.

Why Trent had told Melanie he was seeing
Nikky
in the first place, she had no idea. He said he liked to be honest, although it hadn’t exactly been his strong suit up until now.

Nikky
wondered if he was doing it to make Melanie jealous.

Facing herself in the mirror, she did her best to comb out her freshly washed hair into some semblance of order. She was much too scattered to manage an actual style.

Where would women be without hair clips?

Maybe she wouldn’t see again Trent after tonight and end all the drama. Okay, so they weren’t exactly in a relationship, but they had a connection. For her part, she had been trying to pin him down, get him to talk about the future.

Trent was more into the next meal she was going to cook for him…and the next orgasm she was going to give him.

Something must have shown in her eyes when she answered the door. He cocked his head, momentarily suspicious, before moving on to the parts of her he preferred—her breasts, tightly confined in a scoop-neck pink tank top.

“You look so fucking hot,
Nikky
.”

She closed the door behind him and immediately smelled smoke.
Oh shit, the roast.

Trent grabbed at her from behind as she made a dash for the kitchen. “Not now, for crying out loud!” she shouted.

Trent was laughing. He pulled out the ruined roast for her, set it down on the stovetop and turned on the fan.

“It’s not funny, Trent.”

He pulled her close, putting his hands where he pleased, squeezing her ass cheeks. “Forget the dinner. You know how much I’ve been thinking about you?”

Not enough to call her, apparently.

“I’m not a mind reader, Trent.”

“I bet you can figure what’s on my mind now,” he said huskily, grinding his crotch against her.

Trent had been drinking.
Nikky
felt a sudden wave of revulsion. Ian wouldn’t do it like this at all. If he were here now, he would be comforting her about the spoiled dinner, laughing with her and not at her.

Only then would he turn to sex, for their mutual pleasure.

“Come on, sweetheart,” Trent growled, trying to paw under her top. “We’ll do it right here, just get me in the mood.”

To Trent “get me in the mood” meant oral sex.

“You know you want to, baby.”

“Want to what?” asked
Nikky
, feeling strangely detached. “Get down on my knees on my kitchen linoleum and suck you off? Is that what you think gets me hot?”

Trent looked at her strangely. “Where’s this coming from? Are you all right? Is it your period or something?”

She laughed. What else was there to do?

“Is it Melanie’s bullshit, then? You know I don’t care about her,” Trent insisted as he squeezed her breast too hard through her bra.

He always did it too hard. She had just overlooked it up to this point.

“I care about you,
Nikky
. I’ll show you, we’ll skip the blowjob and go right to bed.”

“How sporting,” she said drily.

Trent scowled. She had just gone from a mild annoyance to anger.

“What’s your problem? For fuck’s sake,
Nikky
, you don’t think I got enough to deal with handling my witch of an ex and my shit-head boss? And now you
gotta
make me jump through hoops to get in your pants?”

So these are his true colors
, she thought. He had the sulky look of a man denied what he wanted.
Nikky
was suddenly seeing his ex in a whole new light.

“I’m not your whore, Trent, so
don’t talk
to me like one.”

His lower lip was trembling. She had definitely hit a nerve. “I thought you were different. You women all think your shit doesn’t stink. I try, I fucking try. I spend time with you, treat you well, but you know what? You always get your hooks into us in the end. Oh, you may not take my money like Melanie, but you want me for a surrogate husband, to make you feel good at night. You cash out each and every time I come here,
Nikky
, so let’s just say it, you are a whore.
A fucking, ex-cheerleader, has-been
whore
.”

Nikky
slapped him hard.
Sheer reflex.
Given their difference in size and strength, it would probably only make him madder but there was no taking it back now.

Trent held his hand over his cheek, deflated. “I guess I had that coming, didn’t I? So where do we go from here?”

“There
is
no we. I think
you
should go home,” she said.

“Just because I called you a whore?”
His eyes held panic as he realized he was about to be cut off. “Hey, I’m a whore too, it’s nothing personal. We’re a whole fucking planet of whores, only some of us get to be on top.”

He seemed different, weirdly scary and…desolate.
Nikky
watched intently as he pulled the silver flask from his back pocket.
More alcohol.
That made her very wary.

Shame on her for not noticing sooner.
Too much Ian on the brain, sleep-walking through her day, imagining his lips on her bare skin, drawing her in, holding her, letting her laugh, cry…and come.

“I need to use the bathroom. I
gotta
clear my head.”

Her heart was pounding. “Sure, Trent, you know where to find it.”

“When I come out, we’ll fix things up. You get naked,
Nikky
, I’ll make this right.”

“I’ll be in bed,” she promised, her mind kicking into survival mode, already two steps ahead, planning her way to the cell phone on the counter, praying he wouldn’t try to take it from her. “You know I still need you, Trent, you know I want you.”

His eyes widened as she pulled the shirt over her head, giving him a sneak preview. She had her gray bra on, the one that did so much for her cleavage. “Hurry,” she rasped.

He nearly tripped over his feet on the way.

What a mess. A part of her wanted to run like hell out of the apartment. Another part was afraid for Trent. What if he was suicidal?

She had never seen him like this, there was no telling. One thing was sure, she definitely needed help. Should she call 9-1-1 or was there another way?

“Please, Trent, take a long time,” she whispered fiercely as she retrieved the phone and hit the button to return the last call. “And you, Mr. Sex Guru,” she whispered to Ian wherever he was. “You better fucking answer your phone, you hear me?”

Chapter Five

Ian was just messing around at the moment, hitting the ball, slamming his body against the wall over and over, forcing himself to rebound the most impossible, punishing shots. He
paused
mid-swing when his cell phone rang and walked over to pick it up from his bag.

“Hamilton,” he announced into the receiver, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

“Ian? Oh god, is that you?”

His heart stopped dead in his chest.
“
Nikky
?
What’s wrong?”

He could only make out every other word. Something about her bathroom and Trent, her dinner date, not wanting to leave.

Ian would kill the man, whoever he was.
“
Nikky
, where do you live?
I don’t know your address.”

She breathed out the number and the street. He knew the neighborhood well. It was less than ten minutes from the club.

“Have you called 9-1-1? Are you still in the apartment now? Do you have anything to protect yourself with?”

“Wait, hold on a second.”

Ian heard a man’s voice in the background, more pathetic and miserable than dangerous.

The next sound was that of a door opening. Then he heard
Nikky
sigh into the receiver. “Looks like we can call off the Marines, he’s getting sick in the toilet. I’ll take it from here, Ian. I’m sorry I involved you.”

“Baby,” Ian heard the man moan. “I’m not feeling so hot.”

Ian’s jaw clenched. “Why is he calling you baby?”

“Because it’s a date, remember?” she said sardonically.

“
Nikky
,” the man whined, his voice echoing in the porcelain bowl. “I need a wash cloth.”

Ian had heard enough. “Don’t you go near him,
Dominique.
I will be right there.”

“Ian, I told you it isn’t necessary.”

“Well it’s not your fucking choice anymore,” he growled, speaking with a passion he had never fully realized until just this moment. “If you can’t make the right decisions, I will have to start making them for you.”

“This conversation is over,” said
Nikky
. “I would say our relationship is over too, but we never had one, did we?”

Ian hurled the phone against the wall, splintering the metal and plastic. They
did
have a relationship. They always had and he was going to prove it once and for all.

* * * * *

Ian’s words had hurt. Deep down in a place
Nikky
didn’t think anyone could get to anymore. It wasn’t the content. Men were always criticizing her but she could usually see it coming a mile away. Even if she couldn’t, it just bounced off. But Ian was supposed to be different.