Nick and Lilac (2 page)

It’s often just enough to be with someone. I don’t need to touch them. Not even talk.

A feeling passes between you both. You’re not alone.

~ Marilyn Monroe ~

With thee conversing I forget all time, all seasons and their change, all please alike.

~
John Milton
~

Talk low, talk slow and don’t say too much.

~ John Wayne ~

The First Encounter

Present Time

An imaginary light bulb lit up in Jilly Crawford’s brain when she saw the girl approaching from the opposite direction, a faraway expression on her exquisite face.

Gotcha!
Her childhood friend Lilac York was the quintessential daydreamer, more often with her nose in a book than without. She was also the perfect way for Jilly to get back at the gorgeous 23-year-old billionaire beside her --- also known as the current pain in Jilly’s ass.

“Hey, Lilac! Hi!” Jilly stopped dead in her tracks, forcing the tall, dark-haired Greek god next to her to do the same. Most other students around them did, too, since Jilly was giving them a free pass to gaze leisurely at one of the best-looking men on campus.

She watched Lilac stumble to a stop and then freeze, and Jilly knew the other girl was already of two minds about doing a 180 to escape her.

Sorry, Lilac, but I need you to bring down this arrogant asshole a peg or two.

Uncaring of all the curious looks that were sent her way, she yelled more loudly, “Lilac!” She was the freaking Phi Kappa Sorority President of Christopoulos University. As far as Jilly was concerned, that gave her the right to make noise wherever and whenever she wanted.

“Lilac! Yoo-hoo! It’s been so long! I’ve got someone here I want you to meet.” Jaws dropped at the way she was unashamedly talking about the university’s most infamous playboy, whose exploits went beyond their official paper as it headlined tabloids and blind columns in society pages.

The said playboy was also gazing at her with one coolly raised eyebrow, but Jilly didn’t care. Last night was the last straw. She truly believed that if they weren’t surrounded by his bodyguards right now, she would have cheerfully murdered him. Last night, she had begged Nick not to mess with their latest initiate and what had he done? Bang the stupid girl in the broom closet during their sorority’s Welcome Party then leave Jilly to deal with a hysterical mess the next morning.

She gritted her teeth at the memory.
“He left me a note – reminding me not to call him!” the girl had shrieked.

“This is how you’re going to make me pay? Force me to pander to an infatuated tongue-tied bookworm?” The voice was cultured but slightly accented, the product of being an heir to a centuries-old Greek shipping dynasty and a dozen or so years spent in an English boarding school.

The words oozed with icy derision. Most people would have cringed from it, but not Jilly. She was immune to it, being the childhood sweetheart of one of his closest friends. She said succinctly, “No.” And then she was making the decision for all three of them by hurrying up to Lilac and catching her friend’s arm just before Lilac could execute her usual rabbit hole trick and disappear.

****

Lord Tennyson’s garden parties were usually a bore, but today was something she would not have missed for the world. Today, he had also unveiled his newly built garden maze and it was the most complicated one so far. It even beat the one in Austria that she had visited the year past, one inspired by the labyrinth in old Greek myths.

This one had hedges so tall, she would not be able to see if the other path led somewhere even if she were to jump. But she jumped anyway. It was silly, but she could get away with being silly since she was a Nobody.

The Ton did not give a whit about what a Nobody did or said.

She raised her skirts, scandalously exposing her ankles as she prepared to jump. Her lips curved into a smile, imagining how her mother would react to the sight. Oh, the horror - if her mother saw her now, she would probably have a need for smelling salts!

“Here,” a husky voice lined with amusement drawled from behind. Sure hands suddenly circled her waist. “Let me help.” And then she was being lifted in the air, so high she felt like she was about to reach the sky.

In that moment, she felt like she had the world in her grasp.

And it was all because of the stranger who had her in his hold.

“Got you,” Jilly said as she spun her friend around.

And with that, Lilac York was trapped, torn out of her fantasy and thrown into a real-life nightmare.

Oh, Jilly, what are you doing?

Panic twisted Lilac’s tongue into knots. She had been doing her best to ignore Jilly the moment she realized her friend was
not
alone and that the man beside Jilly was
not
someone Lilac would ever be prepared to meet.

Jilly was talking about Nick Christakos, for heaven’s sake. He was everyone’s secret and not-so-secret crush, herself included. She even had a secret folder on her laptop filled with online grabs of his photos. And every so often, American tabloids would manage to get a topless shot of him whenever he was in Ibiza, the Maldives, or some other exotic and dreadfully expensive resort. Of course she saved those, too.

The point was - you didn’t need to meet Nick to
know of
him. Jilly would know that, so what was she doing?

“I’m so happy to see you again, Lilac,” her friend was saying. “And I’m so excited for you to meet this friend of mine.”

Even with her gaze firmly fixed on the ground, Lilac felt derisively measuring eyes settling on her, making her feel even more self-conscious.

When Jilly continued to wait for her answer with an expectant air, Lilac knew she had no choice but to look up.

Lud!
The old-school expression of surprise came out as a mental sigh as their university’s so-called Don Juan locked gazes with Lilac’s. His swoon-worthy blue eyes arrested her in place, changing her world in an instant.

The ancient brick walls of their college melted into ornately designed brocade-covered walls of a 19
^th
century ballroom, golden light radiating from the brightly burning candles set in the exquisite chandeliers hanging from above.

Other students slowed down as they walked past Lilac and Nick, gazing at them surreptitiously over their books and binders. But in her mind, they had been turned into debutantes and swains, dressed in velvet and silk ball gowns and elegant waist-coated shirts and breeches, the women peering over ivory-backed fans before gracefully waltzing away.

In her favorite daydreams, she was an impoverished genteel bluestocking daughter. Her favorite hero to fall in love with: a tall, dark-haired man whose face she could couldquite picture. All she knew of him was that he was a duke notorious throughout the Continent for his rakish ways.

Looking into Nick Christakos’ blue eyes, she knew that the man in her daydreams now had a face, a name, an identity.

The ballroom fantasy faded, replaced by yet another daydream.

“Saw what you’re looking for?”

The words worked like a bucket of cold water, and she recovered from her shock. “Put me down!”

The stranger behind her chuckled even as he did as bid and slowly lowered her to the ground.

She whirled around, furious and embarrassed at the liberties the stranger had been able to take with her person. But then she saw who he was---

“I see you know me, little one.”

She lifted her chin but said nothing.

 “A chit who can hold her tongue,” he murmured. “Impressive.” He gave her a lazy smile, and though she tried her hardest, she could not stop her heart from racing at the sight of it. He bowed. “Forgive the boldness, but please allow me the honor of introducing myself. My name is Nikolai Stanford.”

She held her skirts, a part of her wanting to simply run away. But then a mocking light gleamed in his eyes and she knew that he was aware of her thoughts – and was amused by it.

Infuriation replaced her desire to flee, and she curtsied slowly instead, murmuring, “Your Grace. It’s my honor to meet you.”

The amusement in his gaze turned into something deeper and darker, making her swallow. He said softly, “The honor is mine.”

“Lilac?”

The daydream disappeared, reality set in, and a lump of fear quickly formed in Lilac’s throat, reminding her of a long-ago nightmare that she couldn’t make herself forget.

Jilly raised a brow at her friend. “So…have you ever been introduced to Nick yet?” She tried not to grin when Lilac finally, slowly, shook her head, a now-familiar aloof mask falling on her friend’s incredibly lovely face. Beside her, she could feel Nick inhale sharply and she did her very best not to snicker at the sound. She knew Nick was so proficient in seducing a girl that he
might
eventually break down Lilac’s walls if he wanted to. But that was then and this was now – and the frustrated look on Nick’s face was more than enough for her.

He had it bad – very, very bad, and his irritation was becoming more visible with every passing second that Lilac did not make a move on him like all the other girls usually did.

Well, he would have to wait forever for that,
Jilly thought smugly. In the years she had known Lilac, she had never seen Lilac respond in any way to any guy.

Nick tried not to curse when the girl’s long dark hair fell forward as she shook her head, partially covering her face. She was the hottest chick he had laid his eyes on, and it didn’t matter that she was dressed like a prude about to enter a nunnery. Buttoned-up long-sleeved shirt, shapeless pants, and the ugliest pair of shoes – none of it was good enough to deceive Nick’s connoisseur gaze into thinking he wasn’t standing before a sex siren hidden under spinster garb.

Her hair was a rich dark brown, a startlingly beautiful contrast to pale violet eyes that seemed too ancient for someone so young. Her face was delicate and fine, like a porcelain figurine with a goddess’ body, full breasts, a small waist, and unbelievably long legs that Nick had no problems imagining running his hands all over before pulling them up to wrap around his waist.

Nick made an effort to keep his smile friendly but impersonal, his tone polite as he said, “Hi.” It was the most he had done in years to get a girl to pay attention to him, but he had a feeling if he didn’t make it clear to this girl that he wasn’t about to eat her alive – at least not now – then she would vanish into thin air like a figment of his imagination.

Lilac could feel Nick Christakos’ eyes boring through her, and she tried her best to appear unaffected even though she was anything but. He was too…
intense
, too much like the duke in her daydreams.

The austere-looking duke lifted his quizzing glass to stare down at her, as if needing a closer way to inspect her peculiarities. It was as if he could not believe that the girl he had met in the garden party was the same boring girl who stood before him now.

Lilia wished she had the courage to roll her eyes. However, a wallflower had no physical traits. It was just…there.

Lilac mentally shook her vision away. Stupid, stupid, stupid – she couldn’t afford to daydream now!

The girl still hadn’t said a word. When the silence bordered on awkward, Nick was stunned into accepting that Jilly’s friend did not intend to return his greeting. Jilly was smirking, damn her. He knew she knew he was goddamn interested, so much so that for the first time in his life, Nick Christakos found himself wanting to demand another person’s attention. There was something about this quiet and regal girl that brought out his possessive instincts.

Jilly said teasingly, “Nick said ‘hi’, Lilac. Didn’t you hear him?”

Not wanting to be rude but not wanting to be in any way friendly either, Lilac inclined her head to the side and gave the devastatingly handsome man beside Jilly her best Your-Hotness-Doesn’t-Affect-Me nod.

Most times, it was effective.

This time, it didn’t work.

Perplexed, she watched Nick cock his head to the side as well. And then he gave her his own kind of Cool Nod, one that had an arrogant You-Can’t-Intimidate-Me-With-Just-That flair only someone like Nick Christakos could carry off.

The girl’s eyes widened at his response, and Nick almost smiled at the sight. It was as if she was unable to believe her excruciatingly polite attitude wasn’t successful at working as a guy repellant.

Ah, sweetheart, you’re going against a pro. What did you expect?

Still, Nick had to give it to her. Her disguise was fucking great – and all these I’m-an-untouchable-nerd vibes were also just that: a
disguise.
It was probably the only reason why none of their university’s empty-headed male students crowded around her, and if he was honest – he fucking hoped it stayed that way.

When she still didn’t reply, Nick drawled out, “Maybe she’s sexy.”

Nick Christakos’ drawl was all sex and arrogance as well as bearing a distinct note of challenge. Around them, Lilac could feel more and more glances darting their way and lingering as time passed. She knew what they were thinking because she was thinking of it herself. What was the great Nick Christakos doing with mousy little Lilac York?