Tarnished

by Becca Jameson

  “Take care of him, I’ll take care of them.” Sheila walked away, leaving Selina alone with Nathan once more.

  “You didn’t have to lie.” Cute and noble too.

  “You seemed distressed.”

  “I could have handled it.” She smiled because she liked that she hadn’t needed to.

  Just then his friends reappeared with two water bottles. She took the one the shorter of the two offered her, dumped some water onto some fresh gauze, and began to clean up Nathan’s nose.

  “I believe it.” Nathan nodded, his face stoic and serious. “But now you don’t have to.” She was a proud woman, but this man was so cute and such a smooth talker that he had her smiling.

  “What brings you to The Falls?” She was stalling now. He was pretty well cleaned up, but she didn’t want to pull away just yet.

  “Charlie here’s obsessed with Ripley’s.” The cute blond motioned to his friend.

  “I’m convinced this is the greatest place on earth, at least the greatest vacation I’ve ever had. Well, except that Dylan can be a real buzzkill.” Charlie ribbed his friend back. Then, in a stage whisper, said, “He hates Ripley’s.”

  “I don’t hate it,” Dylan said, first to Charlie and then repeated it back to Selina. “I just don’t like watching the same exact show a million times over again.”

  “Ah.” Selina nodded and looked down to realize she couldn’t keep touching Nathan’s face, and yet she was still reluctant to pull away. “There.” She handed him the half-empty bottle of water. “All good.”

  “Thanks.” Nathan took the bottle from her, their fingers brushing. “This is sort of our last hurrah. Dylan and I just completed our last semester, and Charlie here has only one more to go. We decided we needed some kind of celebration. This is it.”

  “Just the three of you? The rest of the house didn’t want to come?” Selina pointed at the Greek letters emblazoned on the front of his hoodie.

  A slow, sexy smirk crept across his face. “Yeah, just the three of us. It’s a long story.”

  Selina opened her mouth to say she’d love to hear it sometime, but she stopped herself. Flirting with him was absurd. He was only here visiting. So she closed her mouth and smiled at him and then at his two friends. She couldn’t think of anything else she could stall with. She waited for a long, quiet, drawn out second, for what—she didn’t know.

  He eventually nodded and smiled back at her. “Thank you again.”

  “It was nothing.” Selina walked away, taking the bloody gauze with her to throw out. She headed to the staff bathroom, which was about the size of a closet, to clean up in. She had quite the knot on the back of her head, and once she was alone with clean hands, she began to laugh to herself and at her circumstances thus far today.

  Her laughter subsided when she thought about the missed opportunities with that man. They had a significant amount of chemistry. Being under his gaze had made her skin feel hot and tender, like a sunburn.

  She looked up and met her face in the mirror. She didn’t look different, but she felt different. It’d been a while since she’d met a man who made her nervous, and she didn’t understand why Nathan did. He seemed friendly. He had a nice, open face, one that didn’t seem capable of hiding anything malicious. He was tall, tan, and handsome. There was something about those bright-green eyes that almost didn’t fit his face. They made her feel a little edgy.

  But he would be long gone soon; she had to remind herself of that. He was obviously just visiting, and Niagara was big. She would probably never run into him again. Just as well. With a shake of her head, she cleared his face and those green eyes from her mind.

  By the time she was out of the bathroom, the boat had docked and people had already started to leave. Selina unconsciously checked the bench seat. The three college kids who had taken up residence there were gone. Selina let the air fall out of her lungs in a deep sigh. She knew he couldn’t stay there forever, but she’d never known a boat ride to take so little time before.

  She grabbed her squeegee and began to run it along the floor, pushing the accumulated water off the deck.

  •

  “Forget it.” Dylan slapped a hand on Nathan’s shoulder as he looked down behind him, hoping to catch one last glimpse of her. “She was out of your league.”

  “I think you should go back down there and ask her to come out with us tonight,” Charlie countered.

  Nathan’s stomach swarmed with butterflies so intense it nearly doubled him over. He couldn’t imagine taking one more step away from this boat without at least giving it a try.

  “Charlie, that’d be dumb. She’s just going to turn him down.” Dylan gave Charlie a playful shove on the shoulder.

  “Maybe she won’t.” He shrugged.

  The two of them kept arguing and walking, but Nathan stood in place. He then turned around and jogged back down the incline before Dylan or Charlie knew that he was gone.

  “Nathan?” Dylan hollered down to him.

  Nathan spun, jogging backward expertly. “I’ll be right back,” he shouted up to his friends. “It’ll take one minute.” He held a finger up in the air. Nathan was out of breath by the time he got back to the boat, but it wasn’t from the run. It was sheer exhilaration.

  Selina looked up, apparently startled to see him again. He was mildly panting from the jog back down to her, and her eyes drifted to his chest and back up to his face. Selina eventually stood from her slouched sweeping stance and just stared back at him.

  “Did you forget something?” she finally asked. A smirk appeared on those beautiful, shapely, pink lips. He hated to admit it, but something about that smile alone had his heart doing flip-flops in his chest.

  “Kind of.” He laughed and stepped back on board the boat to stand in front of her. “Yes.”

  Selina glanced around the deck she’d been cleaning. Obviously her eyes were scanning the boat in search of whatever it could be that he’d left behind.

  “Selina.” He hated how breathless her name sounded on his lips.

  She looked back to him, and he could have sworn she blushed. “Yes?”

  “Come out with me tonight.”

  Selina hesitated. He didn’t blame her. He was, by all definitions, a complete stranger. Except that she didn’t feel like a stranger to him.

  “I don’t know.” She nibbled on her bottom lip and tipped her head back. She eyed him in a way that made it very clear to him that he was being sized up.

  “Do you have a boyfriend?” Nathan hedged.

  She took her time answering but eventually shook her head no.

  Nathan could feel the wicked smile spreading across his face. He tried to contain it because it must have looked goofy as hell, but he’d just received the best news he’d gotten in a while. Good.

  “I’m not in town very long, but we’re going to The Bulls Den tonight if you want to meet us there.” He ran a slightly sheepish hand through the dark brown locks of his hair.

  “I don’t know what I’m doing tonight yet.”

  Nathan felt his brow quirk. Was she playing with him? Or was she always this coy? Was this her playing hard to get? Why was his easy charm powerless when it came to her? Was it wrong that it only made him want her more?

  “Right. Well, what time are you off?”

  She gave Nathan a knowing smirk. “Eight o’clock.”

  Nathan checked the time on his watch. “Perfect.” Although he didn’t quite know how perfect it was. Eight was a long way off.

  “Perfect?”

  “My friend, Charlie, he’s been dying to go to Ripley’s.”

  Selina smiled in understanding. “Right.”

  “So … maybe I’ll see you tonight, then?” He waited for the slow nod of Selina’s head to come before he started to walk away. He turned around on an afterthought to ask, “Do you like The Bulls Den?”

  “Love it,” she responded with a wide smile. She tried to restrain it, though, with a bite to her bottom lip.

&nbs
p; His eyes drifted there briefly. He hoped before this trip was over he’d have the chance to taste that mouth. Hell, he hoped it happened before the night was over. He smiled then too before turning back around and walking away.

  •

  Selina couldn’t help herself. She watched him go. He had nice, broad shoulders that tapered to a trim waist. He looked solid. She could tell this because every once in a while the wind would ripple his damp sweatshirt against him, outlining the strong, muscular lines of his back. Even under the mildly baggy material of his jeans, she could tell he had a great ass.

  Nathan turned back around just then and caught her staring at him as he walked away. “See you after eight,” he reminded her, and she gave him a quick wave. He continued to walk back up to where his friends were.

  He was halfway there when he turned around, and in a mildly desperate fashion, he hollered back down to her again. “Come on, just say you’ll be there?”

  His enthusiasm was contagious, though, and yeah, maybe screaming down the hill to beg her to agree to a date was a little desperate, but it was also kind of strangely romantic. So much so that she could feel her cheeks getting warm.

  Glancing around, Selina made sure he wasn’t making too big of a scene, at least not one large enough to attract Sheila’s attention.

  She nodded at him, afraid to speak just then in case her voice didn’t come off as cool and aloof as she hoped it would. She didn’t want the excitement to seep out into her words. She did her best to swallow it and then eventually attempted to speak through it.

  “Okay, oui. I’ll see you. The Bulls Den. After eight.”

  With a satisfied smile, Nathan turned back around and continued the jog back up to his friends.

  The rest of the afternoon, Selina went about her job. It was just an ordinary day, except she couldn’t quit replaying their exchanges in her mind. She’d sometimes catch herself staring off with a dorky, broad smile on her face. She kept trying to shake him off, but he was there in the back of her mind all day.

  He was a tourist. Tourists didn’t stick. This was fine by her because she didn’t want him to stick. She did, though, want to have a good time with him while he was around. Nathan looked like he could be a real good time.

  The day dragged on, and when eight finally rolled around, Selina headed home to get cleaned up and changed. Walking through the front door, she was stopped by Angeline, who looked to be on her way out, looking fresh and pretty. Selina vaguely remembered hearing her say something about a date earlier in the week.

  “How was your day, love?” Angeline opened the shoe closet in the entryway. She squatted, obviously digging for a specific pair of shoes.

  “I don’t know yet.” Selina let out a sigh that had Angeline looking up with a worried expression.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Selina slowly climbed the stairs, turning at the landing to look down at Angeline. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

  “All right?” Angeline seemed concerned about her sister and was just about to follow her upstairs when a car honked outside. “That’s me. Au revoir!” She slid on her shoes.

  “Who is honking?” Selina became defensive. Her sister was already half out of the front door.

  “My date.” Angeline peeked around the closing door. “I have to go, we’ll talk later.”

  Selina shot her sister a look that was full of warning and concern. She did not approve of anyone honking for her sister. It was unacceptable behavior, and she knew that Angeline wouldn’t approve if it had been the other way around.

  “I know.” Angeline sent her a sad smile.

  Selina knew that Angeline hadn’t had many boyfriends, and the ones she did have were barely men enough to be considered as such. Selina didn’t think that was reason enough to quit being picky. Angeline was beautiful, smart, and courageous. Men looked, but she was often too focused on something else to notice them. Selina was happy she was going on a date, but she thought her sister should be holding out for a gentleman; a man who could, at the very least, walk up to the door and take her out properly.

  “No, get back in here and make him come to the door.” Selina snapped her fingers and pointed as she came down a few steps.

  Angeline looked over her shoulder at the waiting car and then back at her sister. “I can’t, Selina, I’m already outside.” She laughed nervously.

  “I don’t care. Get back in here, or I’m going to come out there and give him the old one-two.” She slapped the back of her hand into the palm of her other hand.

  “I’m just going to go. We’ll talk later,” Angeline promised, backing out of the door again and grabbing her keys from the white-wicker entryway table.

  “Why bother, Angeline, he’s obviously not the one.”

  At Selina’s persistence, Angeline gave her sister a pleading look to drop the matter. Selina did not want to, and she wasn’t happy about it, but she dropped it and waved her sister off.

  “Je t'aime.” Angeline smiled graciously at her sister before bowing out the door.

  Selina hustled upstairs, took a quick shower, and hastily changed her hair into a cute, low and to the side, messy bun. Curling tendrils spilled from her hair tie. She jumped into a pair of faded blue jeans that sat low on her hips and hugged her perfectly. She slid on a sexy, green, lace top with cap sleeves and a completely revealing corseted back.

  A beaded and crystal necklace with a pendant of a casting of the Eiffel tower dangled over her modest breasts, nearly to her navel. It was one of her most treasured pieces of jewelry. She wrapped a braided leather belt around her waist and let it hang loosely. The fringe hung down her leg on one side, making her appear taller and accentuating the soft curve of her hip.

  She glanced at the sitting pendulum clock on her dresser and realized it was nearly an hour later than she’d figured on meeting him. She hurriedly took the stairs two at a time. Reaching the bottom step, she pulled on a pair of scruffy, brown leather boots that had been her sister’s when they were teenagers. Selina took one last look at herself in the entryway mirror, and she was finally out the door.

  — • —

  “Nate, look at all these girls in here.” Dylan stood there allowing some blonde girl, who had a few too many shots of Cuervo in her, to hang all over him. “They’re hot, they’re drunk, and they’re riding a bull for Christ’s sake.” Dylan pointed across the dance floor to the giant bucking, mechanical bull.

  Girls had been flocking to it for hours. Nate checked his watch again; it had been hours.

  “Seriously, stop it.” Charlie slapped Nathan’s hand. The Bulls Den bragged of an extensive beer list from “local breweries,” some in Canada and some across The Falls in New York.

  Charlie had been hitting it hard and fast, alternating between Genesee, Buffalo Kolsch 716, and something called Doggy Style. The last one had a pretty sick-looking label. He’d pounded one right after another. He seemed pretty sloshed from the first whiff he took coming into the bar. “There has got to be sixty girls to one dude in here!” Charlie exaggerated, having only come back to the table for another glug or two from his beer before he followed another alcohol-enhanced beauty out onto the lively dance floor.

  “Yeah, dude, seriously, she’s not going to come.” Dylan looked down at the girl draped all over him. “Annie, do you have any friends here?” She didn’t stop nuzzling his neck; she just pointed toward the mechanical bull.

  “She said she’d be here.” Nathan tried his best to not start believing what these guys were saying.

  “She’s not coming,” Dylan said again, this time more tenaciously. “Time to move on with one of these other women.”

  “Who isn’t coming?” Nathan felt a warm hand on his shoulder and an unmistakable lilting voice behind him. He just smiled at her, and she looked from Nathan to Dylan, who put his hands up in admitted defeat.

  “Babe?” Dylan spoke to the vampire at his throat. She pulled her face away to look at him. “Let’s get you in line fo
r that bull.” He dragged her away from the table.

  Selina hopped onto one of the tall stools, putting her at almost eye level with Nathan.

  “I thought you were going to stand me up,” he admitted, leaning in and speaking close to her ear so she could more easily hear him over the loud clamor of the bar, the music, and the squealing that came from a redheaded girl riding the mechanical bull.

  “Oh, ye of little faith.”

  Nathan laughed and then so did she. Even her laugh was sexy—he never would have thought a laugh could be sexy, but hers was. He hoped to hear more of it.

  “What are you drinking?” she asked as the waitress approached.

  “Uh, not much of anything yet.” He hadn’t wanted to be drunk when she got here. He’d been a mess of nerves waiting for her. He’d never been so clumsy and awkward around a woman in all his life. He’d never been so concerned with being stood up before, either.

  “Can I get you something?” The blonde, frizzy-haired waitress pulled a red notebook from her apron.

  “Pitcher of the white peach sangria.” Selina then looked to Nathan, who just shrugged. “And some chips and salsa.” Selina motioned to their table.

  The waitress pulled her notepad out but hadn’t written any of it down.

  “Sure thing.” She winked at the both of them before she moved on to the next table.

  “You are in for a taste of the best chips and salsa in all of Canada,” Selina raved to him with a smile.

  “In all of Canada?” He laughed at her embellishment.

  “You think I joke, but I am serious. They make their own chips. They come out warm. The salsa gets made daily. It’s delicious.”

  He believed her.

  The pitcher came with frosted wine goblets. Nathan had never seen that done before. Their drink was unquestionably girly with balls of fruit floating in the pitcher.

  “What are we drinking?” Nathan leaned in to ask as she poured them each a glass.

  “Sangria.” She looked up, and he found himself staring into her hauntingly dark eyes. “This kind is white wine, peach schnapps, and fruit juice.” She handed him his glass.