“John Hyatt’s just full of information, isn’t he?” I signaled to the waiter to fill up my glass.
“I guess it’s a good thing you have a friend like Kate to give you a job because I heard you made a lousy stripper.”
Kate and I both gasped aloud but for different reasons. Kate, because this was the first she’d heard of me being a stripper. Me, because my secret was out. Greg was the only person to blame. He had to have been the one who told her.
Veronica gave me her praying mantis smile and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay on my best behavior. I sent a mental apology to Nick and Kate in hopes they understood and another out to my mother who was bound to be mortified once word got back to her.
I’ve mostly been the cause for every gray hair my mother has to color, so I figured she wouldn’t be too surprised when she got the news. My mother was strong stock, and nobody had better criticize one of her children. Only she had the right to do that.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I fibbed. “Does Greg know you’re sleeping with John Hyatt so you can get information on people’s financial records?”
“Please,” Veronica laughed. “I don’t have to sleep with a man to get what I want. I have other ways. I’d say I’d give you a few tips, but I saw how you wrapped Mr. Butler around your finger.”
“What does he have to do with anything? Let the man rest in peace for God’s sake.”
“You know, it wouldn’t take long for a rumor to circulate about how you found his body. About how it was you who probably killed him in a jealous rage,” she said with a snakelike smile.
Somehow, all three of us ended up in a standing position, Kate’s hand resting lightly on my arm in case I thought of doing anything rash.
“You’re a liar,” I said, but the color had drained from my face. I knew it wouldn’t take long at all for a rumor of that magnitude to get started and spread through the town.
“At least I didn’t sleep with the principal to get my job,” she said. “Do you think I wanted to teach Home Ec? I was more qualified to get your position, but it didn’t seem to matter what I did to influence Mr. Butler. He only had eyes for you. Apparently he’s drawn to women who have a body belonging to a middle-aged housewife. Tell me Addison, did Mr. Butler get tired of you just like Greg? Were you just another cast off? It’s a pretty good motive for murder.”
Veronica leaned toward me, spewing venom from her fangs, her huge breasts spilling out of her gown. I was still trying to figure out why she thought I had any kind of relationship with Mr. Butler, sexual or otherwise. We’d never said more than a dozen words to each other the entire time he’d worked at my school. And I was even more stunned by the fact Veronica thought she should have had my job. I was almost willing to trade her just so she could see the horrors she’d been missing out on. I wouldn’t mind spending seven periods a day teaching kids how to crochet hot mats or change a diaper on a bag of flour.
“Look over there, even Nick’s lost interest in the forty-five minutes he’s had to spend in your company,” she said, pointing toward the dance floor.
I shouldn’t have looked. But Nick was supposed to be my lifeline for the night. He’d told me he wasn’t going anywhere and I believed him. So I looked.
And there was Nick with his arms around some woman I had never seen before, dancing much too close for my comfort and laughing at whatever she’d just whispered in his ear. This was the last straw for me. If I was going to go down, I wasn’t going without a fight.
“Bring it on, bitch,” I said, looking straight at Veronica. “What’s going to happen in ten years when the tits you’re so proud of are hanging down to your knees and there’s no one left to give blow jobs to that you haven’t already serviced?”
I heard Kate stifle a laugh behind her hand. Veronica was sputtering and spittle was flying. No one messed with Addison Holmes. Well, sometimes they did, but not this time.
“Oh, yeah?” she said, eyes narrowing. “You’re just a sexless wannabe that looks like a pathetic tramp in black leather and just plain pathetic the rest of the time. Maybe you should have stuck with your first instinct and stayed with your lesbian friend here. Oh, wait. You can’t. Even the lesbian managed to find a husband somehow.”
I was so furious I was shaking. The room was unusually quiet, and I glanced around to see a group of people raptly paying attention to what was going on between us. My gaze found Nick’s across the room, but it was with indifference. He was nothing to me.
I was done with people who only made me look like a fool. I did a perfectly fine job of doing that on my own. I turned back to Veronica when Nick started towards me, hoping that I could make an exit and leave for home before he reached me.
“That’s a fine specimen of man,” Veronica said, her gaze also lingering on Nick. “You seem to be able to find the attractive men, but you don’t seem to be able to keep them. Why is that, I wonder?”
Veronica’s eyes gleamed like black marbles. Her satisfied smirk was more than I could bear. She knew she’d finally gotten to me, but her viper’s tongue wasn’t through inflicting damage. “I’m going to enjoy moving into that little house you’ve had your eye on. I think it’s just perfect for newlyweds starting out. Maybe you’ll have the money to buy it from us when we’re ready to upgrade.”
“That’s my house,” I said, eyes squinted and adrenaline pumping.
And before I knew it, my arm developed a mind of its own. In slow motion, wine flew from my glass and splashed all over the front of Veronica’s silver gown, making the thin material even more indecent.
She took about five seconds to assess the damage and let out with a screech that would do a banshee proud.
“You cunt!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.
You could hear the collective gasp run through the entire ballroom. The C word was never used outside of bars or gaming halls and certainly not by a woman.
I never saw her coming. The next thing I knew I was on the ground with chocolate cake squished between us and her bony knees in my stomach. I screamed in pain and pulled her hair, bucking my body from underneath to try and dislodge her. I’m sure we made a sight, rolling around across the ballroom floor.
I scratched and clawed, and it was the only time in my life I’d been sorry for being a girl because that’s exactly how I fought. I heard fabric rip and got a face full of bare breasts. I did the only thing I could before being suffocated and poked her in the eyes just like I’d learned from The Three Stooges.
Greg loomed above us, trying desperately to break up the fight. He grabbed Veronica under the armpits and tried to lift her off me. I could tell he was thinking this episode was going to be hell on the insurance business. Veronica’s head snapped back and flattened Greg’s chiseled Roman nose and I started to laugh uncontrollably.
I finally levered myself up to my knees and was able to get a solid punch to Veronica’s face. I had enough time to hear the satisfactory crunch of bone and cartilage before I felt a jolt on my ass and my brains scramble.
CHAPTER NINE
Saturday
I cracked my eyes open and looked through hazy vision to see Nick staring down at me, his face inches from my own.
“Am I dead?”
“Not yet,” he said.
When I woke again, bright light was streaming through my bedroom curtains and every inch of my body ached. In fact, it had been so long since my body didn’t ache I was getting used to the feeling.
My brain was fuzzy and I had a monster headache, so I carefully got out of bed and climbed into the shower. It was after I’d gotten in and turned on the water that I realized I hadn’t had to take my clothes off. Someone had already done that for me.
Nick.
I began searching my memory for what could have possibly happened the night before. Surely I didn’t have the only wild night of sex I’d ever experienced and then promptly forgotten it. I stuck my head under the hot spray and winced as the water hit the open s
cratches on my chest and arms.
Oh Yeah.
It was all starting to come back now. I’d made a fool of myself. Again. And Nick was lying scum, just like Greg. I was starting to see an unhealthy pattern develop and somehow I needed to change things. I vaguely remembered visions of Nick at some point during my unconsciousness, but that’s where it ended.
I wrapped a white towel around my head and put on a soft cotton robe, since that would be the least painful to my wounds, and headed into the kitchen.
“You need to put some antiseptic on those scratches so they don’t get infected. I put some on you last night, but you need to keep applying it.”
I whirled around in surprise and clasped a hand to my throat at the sight of Nick sitting at my breakfast table with the newspaper in front of him and a bowl of cereal in his hands. His hair was still damp from his shower and his feet were bare and propped up on another chair.
“Thanks for the medical advice. Now get the hell out of my apartment,” I said, turning my back on him to get a cup of coffee. I should have known he wouldn’t listen.
He was silent as he moved close behind me. I don’t know whether it was his sexy scent or the way I began to tingle as he approached, but I knew he was there. Still, I jumped when he placed his hand on my shoulder.
“Would you like to share why you’re so angry with me, when in my opinion, it should be me that’s angry with you? After all, it was my date that got into a knockdown drag out fight in the middle of the biggest social event of the year in front of my boss and all my co-workers.”
He was trembling behind me, and I was almost afraid to turn around and face his anger. He did kind of have a point. But when I turned around it wasn’t anger he was trembling from. His mouth was curved in a tight smile and he leaned against me trying to control the laughter.
“One thing you are definitely not is boring,” he said, kissing me on the cheek and heading back to his cereal. “I like that in a woman.”
I had a momentary lapse of why I was mad at him, but quickly got myself back together again.
“That doesn’t change the fact that I still want you to leave.”
“Why? We have work to do, and besides, I kind of like taking care of you.”
“Yeah, you seemed to be taking pretty good care of your sexy dancing partner last night too.”
He just smiled at the show of jealousy and continued to read the paper.
“Did you not hear anything that Veronica said to me last night?”
“I heard several choice phrases uttered last night, some of which were even said by you. Which one are you referring to?”
“All of them. Every word that she said to me was true, except the part where she accused me of seducing my principal and stealing her job. I don’t know where she got those ideas,” I said shaking my head in disbelief. “But she was right about one thing. I can’t seem to keep a man’s attention. I don’t need another man like Greg in my life, even if you are just for rebound sex. I think my ego and self esteem have taken enough hits for the next sixty or seventy years. You’re not worth it.”
Tears stung the back of my eyes and I turned around to busy myself with breakfast.
“Of course I’m worth it,” he said. “I’m one of the good guys. The woman I was dancing with was my partner for two years when I was on patrol. She’s married with four kids and would be flattered to think you thought she was sexy.”
“Oh.” Great, Addison. Real spiffy comeback. “Well, Veronica was right about everything else.” I wasn’t about to let logic and truth interfere with my mood.
“Are you done with the pity party yet?” Nick asked. “You know what you look like. You’re anything but average. Someone who could try moonlighting as a stripper doesn’t really strike me as a person who’s got problems with their ego or low self esteem.”
I groaned. “I guess my secret’s out?”
“Maybe not. You denied it, so it’s your word against hers. I wouldn’t worry about it. Besides, we’ll find out soon enough who did murder Mr. Butler and none of what she said will matter.”
“I don’t suppose you want to enlighten me on why I woke up without clothes on.”
“You were covered in chocolate cake.” Nick grinned wickedly. “Though I had no idea what the hell you were wearing under that dress. I almost gave myself a bloody nose trying to get it off of you. I finally had to cut the damned thing off.”
“Jesus, why me?”
“Don’t worry. You redeemed yourself rather well.” He folded the paper in his lap and his gaze skimmed down my body, making things tingle that had no business tingling at the moment. “I’ve got to be honest with you. I watched the tape of you squeezed into that sexy costume at The Foxy Lady, and I thought I’d gotten a good look at every curve of your body. But when I finally got that thing off you last night it was everything I could do not to wake you up and take advantage of you. There is most definitely nothing boring or plain about your body.”
“Thank you for the creepy compliment. But I still want you to leave.”
“Well, I happen to think you’re lying.”
He tossed the paper aside and stalked me until my back was to the wall. Blood rushed in my ears and my lungs burned with the effort to breathe.
“Where did you sleep last night?” I asked softly.
“I slept with you.” He traced his finger down the side of my neck and then farther down to the knot that held my robe together, working it loose until it slipped free. My robe parted and I moaned as his finger circled my breast and then skimmed across my nipple. He leaned toward me until his lips were just a fraction away from my own. I watched with eyes wide open as he took my bottom lip between his teeth and bit gently.
My eyes rolled back in my head when his tongue soothed the sharp sting from his teeth.
“I want you,” he whispered.
Yeah, the part that wanted me was pressed against my belly button. His fingers roamed lower and my brain began to function despite the new intimacy.
“Wait, this is too fast,” I panted, pushing him away with both hands. I wrapped the robe back around me and tied the belt into a double knot.
“Okay, but maybe you could give me a timeline. I’d like to be inside you before I die of old age.”
I had to close my eyes and gather my wits, because holy shit was I tempted to let him get his wish. “It’s kind of embarrassing, considering all we’ve been through, but I’ve kind of decided that I don’t want to have rebound sex with you.”
“Good, because I don’t want to have rebound sex with you either,” he said.
“Oh.” There was my prolific vocabulary again. I wanted to ask what exactly he meant. I couldn’t tell by the look on his face because he’d banked the heat in his eyes and gotten his body back under control.
“You need to put some more cream on those scratches. They look pretty nasty, and I don’t want them to get infected. There’s no telling what kind of germs were under her fingernails.”
“Oh, right,” I said, still dazed and confused from jumping in and out of intimacy so fast. Not to mention the fact he’d just told me he didn’t want to sleep with me.
I looked down at the scratches in question. They hurt worse than I wanted to admit, and I shuffled into the bathroom to get the antiseptic cream. I changed into a pair of heather gray jersey shorts and a soft white tank top. When I came out of the bedroom Nick was reading the paper again.
“Is anything else injured?” he asked.
“Just my pride. She weighs a lot more than she looks.”
“Yeah, but you got in a couple of pretty good punches before you got stunned. She’ll have at least one black eye, and her nose was bleeding like a faucet. Very unattractive.”
“You’re just trying to make me feel better,” I said, smiling. “Hey, what do you mean before I was stunned? Are you saying somebody tasered me?”
“Hey, don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do it. It was the only way anyone could get in betwe
en the two of you to stop the fight. You were cemented together with chocolate icing and you had a death grip on her hair.”
Nick shuddered at the memory.
“I got knocked on my ass twice trying to get to you. One of the beat cops pulled a taser out of her purse and got you both.”
“I guess that would explain the memory loss.”
“Sweetheart, be lucky you don’t remember. It’s something people are going to be talking about for years.”
I grabbed a cup from the cupboard and filled it with coffee. Nick had left the sugar and cream out, so I put both into my steaming mug and then put them away in the proper places. He at least had the decency to rinse out his cereal bowl and put it upside down in the drain pan. I gulped the coffee standing up and the cobwebs started to clear from my mind. There was something different about my kitchen, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then it hit me. The cream and sugar. The cereal. I had food.
“Where’d the cereal come from?” I asked. I still hadn’t had time to go to the grocery store since starting the job for Kate. I just hoped Nick hadn’t gone begging for food from my neighbors. I’m sure my mother had had enough phone calls about me in the last twenty-four hours.
“I went early this morning and got a few essentials,” Nick said, not looking up from his reading.
I opened the fridge and the pantry to see what Nick considered essential. “Two loaves of bread, whole milk, macaroni and cheese, pork rinds, beef jerky, beer, potato chips and Frosted Flakes. It’s good to see you eat such a well-balanced diet.”
“You didn’t think I kept such a manly physique by eating a bunch of fruits and vegetables, did you?”
“Hmmm,” I said, getting my own bowl of cereal. “You have some explaining to do about a few things.”
“Like what?”
“Well, for starters you said you needed my help on Mr. Butler’s murder and then you don’t tell me anything about it. And then last night you drop the bomb that Greg was there at The Foxy Lady at the time of Mr. Butler’s death. Care to explain?”
Whiskey Rebellion (Romantic Mystery/Comedy) Book 1 (Addison Holmes Mysteries) Page 12
