Page 159 of For Better or Hearse
Little.
Asshole.
“Or whatever.” He gives Nathaniel a look like the two of them are in on some inside joke that only the manliest men would understand. “I swear, this girl always had a hand in something. Am I right?”
She opens her mouth to light him up with her flamethrower tongue. Only Nathaniel gets there before she can.
“You sure have a lot to say for someone who’s currently unemployed.” Nathaniel says it evenly, but his flinty gaze holds that stern, cold edge she’s come to understand means business.
Eyes wide and her heart rate picking up, she looks at the man beside her. This is the first she’s hearing of it. Apparently, he’s done his research.
Jakob, pink-cheeked, holds up his hands. “Hey, man. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Good.” In one smooth move, Nathaniel opens his wallet and tosses two hundred-dollar bills on the table. His eyes are the blackest she’s ever seen them. “Ash has her own business. She’s top tier at her profession.”
The smile on Jakob’s face flatlines. “Oh, well. Glad to hear it.”
Tension cements the air. Ash resists the urge to chew a nail. She looks from one man to the other, her eyes bouncing like a pinball. She shouldn’t like it as much as she does. Two grown men swinging their dicks. But the way Nathaniel is sticking up for her? It’s distracting and, if she’s honest, incredibly romantic.
Solidarity, support. It’s a comfort she’s never known with a man.
Her heart swells.
“And you?” Ash asks, smiling bright. “You still shitting out your alt-lit novels? Trying to get published?” She can’t resist the dig.
Jakob makes a guttural noise of disagreement. “It wasn’t bullshit, but, uh, think what you want.”
“Oh, I will.” She lets out a shallow laugh. Grabs her purse. “Have a nice life, Jakob.”
Chin up, she tugs on Nathaniel’s hand. They march out of the pool area.
Minutes pass before they speak again. Her mind is spinning. Nathaniel pulls her to a stop in the narrow alleyway that links the pool to the lobby.
In the shadows, he’s all hard angles, tense muscles, a pulsing jaw. “Little fucking prick,” he mutters. Anger’s entrenched in his eyes. “You’ve never looked better than you do right now.” Agitated, he shoves up his sleeves, glares over his shoulder. “Let me go back and disembowel that guy.”
His protectiveness has her swooning.
“No.” She slides her palm up his chest. “Not disembowel. The pool’s perfect for a public drowning.”
Nathaniel bursts out laughing.
Flattening her palm on his chest, Ash narrows her eyes. Tilts her head. “Tell me how you know he’s unemployed.”
“Here’s a truth.” Nathaniel takes her chin between his long fingers. A triumphant gleam enters his eyes. “I’m low-key petty. If you thought for one second that I wouldn’t keep track of the asshole who hurt you, you’re wrong.”
A warmth sweeps through her body as his gaze lands on her lips. He always knows the right thing to say. To do.
She loves this man. God, does she love him.
Smiling, Ash loops her arms around his neck. “Did I ever tell you vengeance turns me on?”
“Then I better get you home,” he says. And then he’s inhaling her. Devouring her with a mind-melting, panty-dropping kiss that sends her into a whole new orbit.
“Yes,” she murmurs against his lips. “Home.”
The way she looks in his bed should be criminal.
Nathaniel sits at his desk, laptop open, but he’s not looking at it. He can’t take his eyes off Ash. Buried in the rumpled sheets. One slender, creamy leg kicked out from beneath the covers, her long wild black hair a tumbled mess.