Chapter 90
648words
It was perhaps the only thing he could have said to make me pause.
The moment I pulled away, he pounced, pinning me back down onto the mat, my legs hitched around his waist. If it weren't for the mischievous grin tugging at the corners of my mouth, he might have had me right then and there.
"What is it?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of him.
I just shook my head with that same mischievous smile. 'I have this terrible feeling that little lesson is going to come back to bite me."
He chuckled darkly.
'Oh—I can assure you it will. Quite literally. In fact," he lowered his lips to the curve of my shoulder, 'I see no reason to wait. Let's see if I can't make you beg a little..."
I sucked in a breath. My skin flushed with anticipation.
Then a neon blue flash lit up the room.
What the fuck?!
I jerked back with a gasp, as his body automatically shifted to cover mine. The two of us whipped around, eyes wide with shock, but by that time—the door was already swinging shut. A clattering of quick footsteps echoed down the hall, before vanishing entirely into the night.
There was a split second of silence, then Nicholas bowed his head with a sigh.
'I'm sorry." He glanced up cautiously, trying to gauge my expression, 'that...that happens sometimes."
It happened sometimes?! That's all he had to say?!
His heartbeat had already returned to normal. I swear—I thought he might have actually kept going, if I hadn't curled my knees into my chest in blind horror, wrapping my arms around my chest in a belated attempt to protect something already racing down the hall.
'Nicholas, we've...we've got to do something!" My voice rose in panic, shaking more and more with every word. 'We can't just let him publish those!"
Nicholas flashed me a look of pity, before shaking his head.
'He's already gone. There's nothing we can do."
I wasn't accepting that. I couldn't accept that.
'There has to be something!" I cried, leaping to my feet. My dress was most definitely ruined beyond repair, so I settled for my black lingerie and the jacket of his suit. 'Nicholas, we can't just let him—"
His hands closed upon my shoulders, drawing me soothingly into his chest. I hadn't even heard him get up behind me, but I took no comfort in the words he said now.
'Honestly, Avy—there are worse pictures of me out there."
There was a pause. Then I turned slowly around to face him.
'Yes, but there aren't worse pictures of me."
His eyes lightened in sudden understanding, and he turned his head to gaze at the door.
In hindsight, I think it honestly hadn't occurred to him. When you live so long one way, sometimes you forget that there's another. That not everyone has already been as violated and exploited as you. That some people still remember what it means to have privacy.
A look of sudden determination flashed across his face, and the next second, he took off running. I stared after him in shock, whiplashed at how fast the night had taken a turn, before crying out the only thing that came into my mind.
'Nicholas—you're naked!"
I should have known that wouldn't be enough to stop him.
'It's cold," I added as an afterthought.
There was a hitch in his stride, and the next second, he lifted up his hand. I tossed him a pair of boxer-briefs, and he slid into them on the spot. He flashed me a roguish grin, and the next second, he threw open the same door the man had vanished through a moment before.
A half-naked billionaire, chasing a paparazzi into the cold Manhattan night.
And just like that, the game was on...
