Playing With Fire. Kayla Perrin

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СКАЧАТЬ the curtains that gave their table privacy. Knowing that Nicholas wasn’t able to see her, she gave Wendell the finger and then stormed off.

      She was almost at the exit when her heel slipped on something. And unlike earlier, when Nicholas had been there to catch her, this time she went down on her knee.

      Zienna heard the collective gasp of nearby patrons, a group of five who were standing in the entranceway.

      “Oh my goodness!” The hostess rushed over and offered her an arm to help her up. Zienna took it, not facing the woman. She got to her feet unsteadily, tears filling her eyes. As she extended her leg, pain shot through her knee. She winced.

      “Zee—”

      Zienna looked up at Nicholas, who was suddenly beside her, gazing at her with concern. Wendell stood about a foot behind him. In the distance, she saw a concerned-looking Youssef heading toward them.

      Zienna swatted Nicholas’s arm away and walked off.

      The cool night air washed over her when she stepped outside. She wished she could be like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and simply click her heels together to make a quick getaway.

      “Come on, baby,” she heard Nicholas say. “I was just surprised.”

      Anger consuming her, she faced him. “You’re treating me as though I was cheating on you. For God’s sake, you just introduced me to Wendell last night. Of course I wanted to tell you. But I was trying to figure out the best way to do it. And it’s not like the relationship mattered,” she added, the words tasting bitter on her tongue.

      “Come back inside,” Nicholas said. “Finish your dessert.”

      “After I’ve been humiliated in front of everyone?”

      She hobbled to the street and threw her arm up to flag a passing cab. As the taxi came to a stop, she was already digging her phone out of her clutch.

      Alexis didn’t live far from here. Zienna could go to her place.

      “Where are you going?” Nicholas asked.

      “You’re so good at figuring things out. I don’t need to spell it out for you.”

      “Come on,” Wendell said. “It’s done now.”

      Zienna turned to glare at him as she pulled open the taxi door. It was the only thing she could do. And she hoped that her eyes conveyed just how much she hated him.

      Then she got into the taxi, slumping into the backseat. She felt crushed.

      If only she’d driven herself here tonight. She had dressed to the nines for her man, bought special lingerie.

      All gone to waste.

      “Eight-fifty West Adams,” she told the driver, giving him Alexis’s address. When the cab made a U-turn, she glanced out the window, saw Nicholas throw up his hands in frustration.

      As she expected, a few seconds later her iPhone rang. She saw Nicholas’s photo pop up on her screen, and she quickly pressed the icon to reject the call.

      Zienna knew how this was going to play out. No matter what he said, he wouldn’t be able to handle the fact that his best friend had once had a relationship with her, meaningful or not. The fact that she’d slept with Wendell was the hurdle she and Nicholas wouldn’t be able to overcome.

      It was that man code, much like the female code, in that respect. You didn’t date someone your best friend had been involved with.

      Zienna’s iPhone made a little musical sound, and she glanced at the screen to see that Nicholas had sent her a text message.

      Come back. Let’s talk.

      She didn’t bother responding.

      Craning her neck for one last look as the taxi drove away from Café Tagine, Zienna saw both Nicholas and Wendell still standing on the street.

      God only knew what they were saying.

      “You know what, take me to the Near North Side instead. Kingsbury.” Last night, Alexis had told her that she needed to come clean with Nicholas. And Zienna wasn’t in the mood to hear any I-told-you-sos.

      She just wanted to be alone.

      She eased her head back and closed her eyes. Why had Wendell spilled the beans to Nicholas? Without even a heads-up to her beforehand? What was his game plan?

      And that’s when a fleeting thought came to her, one that was no doubt ridiculous.

      The thought that Wendell had brought up his past with her because he’d deliberately wanted to sabotage her relationship with Nicholas.

      7

      Zienna was asleep in bed when she heard the door buzzer going off several times in rapid succession. She had barely drifted off before she’d been jarred awake by the loud, annoying noise.

      Her eyelids heavy, she lifted her head to glance at the clock: 2:21 a.m.

      Good Lord, she thought, plopping her head back down. It was Nicholas. It had to be.

      He’d called her several times since she’d abandoned him at the restaurant, and had left her at least six text messages. But she hadn’t responded, and had ultimately turned the phone off.

      She wasn’t ready to talk to him about her relationship with Wendell. Not after his reaction at the restaurant.

      The buzzer sounded again. Zienna didn’t get up.

      If she were honest with herself, she knew that a big part of why she wasn’t ready to talk to Nicholas was because it would require telling the absolute truth. And the last thing she wanted to do was confess to him that her feelings for Wendell had been stronger than she’d let on.

      It wasn’t that it mattered anymore, because it didn’t. It was how Nicholas would deal with the knowledge.

      She certainly couldn’t deny that seeing Wendell again had left her reeling. No matter what she said, Nicholas would be smart enough to figure out the truth. And Zienna could only imagine that he would conclude Wendell was a threat on some level.

      Nicholas was tall, dark, handsome and successful—but an ex-past girlfriend had devastated him when she’d had an affair. It was the reason he had put Zienna through the ringer in the beginning. Not in a way she hadn’t been able to handle, because she knew what it was like to have your guard up. But she’d had to work extra hard to put his mind at ease and assure him she was the faithful sort.

      They’d gotten to a happy place...and now Wendell had threatened everything.

      The buzzer sounded again. Clearly, Nicholas wasn’t going away.

      Zienna rolled over, wondering if she should continue to ignore him. If only she knew his frame of mind... If he regretted what had transpired over dinner was one thing. If he still felt she had betrayed him, that was another thing altogether.

      It СКАЧАТЬ