by Meg Maguire
Libby released a loaded sigh as Colin departed for the stage. A martini was set beside her wine, and she turned to find an acquaintance from the club, a local girl about her age named Sara. Libby thought she was an okay sort. For a girl. Sharp and sarcastic. Sang a mean Joan Jett.
“My, my, my,” Sara said with shifty approval. “You and Colin Nolan? Very well done.”
Libby felt a funny jolt in her middle. “Sorry to disappoint, but we’re just friends. He was saving me from that guy.” She nodded to where Rich was chatting up a mousy girl at a nearby table, glancing Libby’s way every minute or so to check if she was looking.
“You sure?” Sara asked. “That’s a shame. I just got here and I thought I’d stumbled onto some scandalous news.”
“How do you know Colin?”
Sarah shrugged. “Everybody knows Colin. He’s a Wellington fixture. Though I’ve never seen him here before.”
“He came the other week too. Wait ’til you see him sing.”
“Intriguing. And you’re sure you guys aren’t…?”
“Definitely not. I prefer his brother, actually,” Libby added, the wine making her more blabbermouthy than her sober self would likely prefer. She pointed to where Reece sat at the bar.
“The Ice Prince? Good luck. I couldn’t believe when I first heard they were brothers, hotness aside.”
Libby shrugged.
“You’re after the wrong Nolan, if you ask me. Colin’s got a bad reputation, in the best way.” Sara raised her eyebrows with lewd amusement. “I heard he’ll do anything.”
Libby frowned. She felt possessive of Colin, protective. Reputation or not, he was the most open person she suspected she’d ever met, and she didn’t like him being spoken about in hushed, snide tones, even if the words involved were technically flattering.
“He’s not my type,” Libby said dismissively.
“Right—Colin’s every girl’s type. A friend of mine calls him the Superette,” Sara said, using the Kiwi term for a convenience store.
Libby raised her own eyebrows, demanding an explanation.
Sara smirked. “Because apparently all the ladies ‘come again’. And again, and again, and again.”
Libby’s cheeks burned. “Have you…?”
“No, I’ve got a boyfriend,” Sara said in a regretful sort of singsong. “And he’s probably got a waiting list a mile long, anyway. That boy’s in high demand. Must be the whole dark, tragic, damaged-goods appeal.”
Damaged goods? Libby didn’t like admitting to being out of the loop about anything to anyone. She chose to not probe this irritating girl for further information, even as curiosity burned away at her insides. And anyway, Colin wasn’t tragic…a bit melancholy sometimes, perhaps.
“Well, I’m not interested,” Libby said blandly.
“Too bad. I hear he gives amazing head—”
“Dude!” Libby gave Sara a fakely scandalized look to cover up a legitimately scandalized lurch in her stomach. “Do you mind? So nasty. He’s just my friend.”
“Just as well,” she said, glancing at Libby’s wine glass. “I was going to tell you to switch to water. I heard he won’t go home with a girl who’s been drinking.”
Libby smiled to herself.
Sara caught it. “I know, a stallion with standards. Won’t hook up with a girl who’s got a boyfriend either. Quite the white knight in a black T-shirt. Except for…well, you know.”
Libby didn’t know, but she nodded in a knowing way to get Sara to shut up. “Excuse me, I think my song’s next,” she lied, taking her drink and slipping into the crowd.
Thanks to her tarty persona, people often felt compelled to share such sexual tidbits with Libby. Normally she just smirked and mustered some cool indifference, but not that time. Not about Colin. That was too weird. Not brother-sister-creepy-weird but definitely icky. It made her feel… Well, something. Disconcerted or intimidated. Curious, against her better judgment and way beyond her comfort zone.
Colin took the stage and slid the mic out of its stand as the dark synthesizer of his song began. One of his brows shot up, and he smiled out into the crowd, presumably toward Libby, though he probably couldn’t see her. He was clearly impressed and pleased with this assignment—Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man”.
Libby stopped in mid-stride and clutched her wine glass with both hands. She’d known it would be a pleasure to watch this and she knew Colin would do it justice, but this was more than she’d bargained for. It’d be a miracle if there was a dry pair of panties in the house by the time he left the stage.
For a fleeting minute Libby let herself feel the full effect of Colin’s charisma the way other girls must feel it all day long. The song and its lyrics were darkly, ominously sexy, and he elicited flirtatious whoops of approval from a table of women near the stage. He laughed through a couple of spots, struggling to hit the crazy-low notes, but it only added to the perfection of it all.
For the first time in two weeks, Libby forgot Reece Nolan existed. As if yanked by a powerful magnet, her eyes locked into Colin’s as he sang, and she saw him smile with recognition. She began to wonder if she’d irrevocably forgotten how to take a breath, but then his eyes closed to overdramatize a line and she was released. In an instant Libby recalled how to exhale. She recalled that this was karaoke night. That this was her friend, Colin, performing. That this was a ridiculous and disturbing slip of her libido that needed to be forgotten and never repeated. That Libby Prentiss fell victim to no man, ever…unless she was the one behind the machinations of such a seduction. She gave her head a firm shake.
Besides, she had colder fish to fry.
Libby sidled up to Reece just as Colin was finishing his song, and he offered her a friendly smile. “How come he got the good manly voice?”
“Because you got the fists of fury, lover.” Libby’s eyes looked drunker than they should have, considering she was only on her second glass of wine.
“You all right?” Reece asked.
“Oh, just ducky.”
Colin joined them moments later, holding something pink and looking mystified. “Someone threw their knickers at me. Should I bring them to the lost and found?”
Libby laughed and Reece nodded in an impressed sort of way.
Colin answered his own rhetorical question and left them hanging on a coat hook for some other confused soul to discover.
“Maybe I was too hasty about this karaoke nonsense,” Reece offered, still feeling oddly at ease.
Colin was pulled into a conversation by a pair of young women farther down the bar, and Libby turned to Reece. She seemed to have reclaimed her lucidity. “Still enjoying yourself, then?”
He shrugged. “I’m beginning to see the appeal. But I’ll never sing so don’t bother asking.”
“So,” she began, leaning closer to him, then the DJ called her name. “Shit. Last one, I promise.” She handed him her glass to hold and made her way to the stage.
Colin sat down beside Reece as “Black Velvet” started up.
“This your choice?” Reece asked.
He nodded. “There’s going to be a dangerous number of hard-ons in this room in about thirty seconds’ time.”
Reece frowned to himself, pondering his confusing position as Libby’s sexual mentor. Right now, watching her swaying like Salomé in red high-tops, he couldn’t help but feel as if maybe he was being toyed with. His mood took a nosedive.
Colin addressed Reece’s fresh scowl. “At least pretend you’re having fun.”
“I’m fine,” he said, trying to perk up again but failing. “Not to shock you, but karaoke’s not really my scene.”
“We’re going to have to get a cab some night so we can get you legless here. Karaoke’s everybody’s scene if they’re drunk enough. Libby agrees.”
Reece rankled. “Why do you two always have to double-team me?”
Colin laughed. “Because it’s hilarious.”
“No really. One of her is bad enough.”
Reece frowned. He hadn’t meant it sound quite so condemning. “She’s okay,” he amended. “She’s less psycho than she puts on.”
“See? I like her. Mum likes her, Annie likes her. Coleen doesn’t seem to like her, but what does she know?”
“Fine. I like Libby,” Reece submitted.
Colin leaned in. “But do you like her, like her?”
“Grow up.”
“Do you?”
“Definitely not,” Reece said. “But you do.”
“Yeah, which makes your disinterest all the more baffling to me.”
“Well, would you have dated Christine?” Reece asked, referring to a quiet girl he’d gone out with in his early twenties.
“God, no. She was so dull.”
“Hey, watch it now.”
“You asked. She was cute, I’ll give you that. But even Mum thought she was too boring to bother with.”
Reece frowned again. “Fine. But I fancied her.”
“Figures.” Colin sipped his water and gazed out into the chaos of the club. “Actually, I don’t see any girls here that would earn the Reece Nolan Seal of Hotness. They all have such distinct personalities.”
“Give it up, Col. I don’t like Libby that way. I can’t handle all the goading and the weird arrested-development quirks.” He looked to her on stage, so different than when they were alone. “And she’s kind of…insincere. With her emotions.”
Colin gave a muffled laugh, looking in danger of spitting out his drink.
Reece frowned. “I’m not insincere.”
Colin wiped his mouth on his wrist. “Well, no. You’d have to express some emotions to be sincere about first.”
“Steady on. I’m not that bad. And you don’t know the whole story with Libby, all right?”
Colin turned and looked him dead in the eye. “There’s something up between you two.”
Reece thought of the week’s ongoing kissing lessons and felt himself color, thankful the bar’s dim lights wouldn’t give him away. “Don’t confuse mutual irritation for sexual tension. That only happens in the movies and Mum’s steamy novels.”
Colin smiled. “I’m going to let you think you’ve won this round, but you don’t have me convinced. I mean, what a waste.”
“That’s enough.”
“And if anybody could do with a bloody good rutting, it’s you—”
The thud of Reece’s glass on the bar cut Colin off.
They exchanged a pair of cold glances, the deadlock interrupted as Libby arrived with a skinny brunette in tow.
“Boys, this is my, what? Acquaintance?” she asked, glancing at the other girl, who made an agreeable face.
“Sara, right?” Colin offered his hand. “I’m Colin. I know your friend Carrie.”
“Yes, you do,” Sara said deviously and smiled at him.
“And this is Reece,” Libby said.
They shook.
“I wanted to let you guys know there’s a party going on,” Sara said. “Just down the street. I’m heading over there in a few, if you’re interested. Carrie will be there,” she added to Colin. “You should come by.”
“Up to the driver.” He nodded to Reece.
He shrugged. “Whatever you fancy. I’ve got to be home by one, though.”
“Yeah, we’ll swing by,” Colin confirmed.
Reece decided it wasn’t a bad idea. It wouldn’t kill his brother to flirt with some women who weren’t embroiled in semi-clandestine affairs in the next bedroom. This triangle needed dismantling before someone got hurt. Though dread clenched his stomach to think it, Reece might have to admit he and Libby were becoming more than just conspirators, if only to protect Colin. Reece had failed to protect him six years ago from a far worse tragedy. Maybe this was a chance to start making up for his absence.
Libby wasn’t accustomed to arriving at parties with a man at her side, let alone a pair of them, and she had to gloat a bit, as these two were sure to be among the finest-looking specimens on the premises. Too bad she had no romantic feelings for one, and the other had none for her. Oh well. That sad fact was probably just one of many keeping the planet spinning on its sadistic axis.
Colin preceded them into the house on Elizabeth Street. The ground floor was already heaving with a good crowd, and he waved to a couple people as they squeezed their way into the bustling living room.
“Your brother’s quite the social butterfly,” Libby said to Reece, who was lingering by her shoulder.
“Grab you a drink?”
Her heart fluttered at this boyfriendly gesture. “Yeah, wine if you can find it. Either color.”
He slipped away among the bodies, and Libby sat on the back of a couch watching an attractive young woman greet Colin enthusiastically. They kissed one another’s cheeks, clearly already acquainted. Libby wondered if this was one of the many girls to whom Colin had given the benefit of his supposed talents, as Sara had implied. An unwelcome pang, like the one she’d felt when Colin had tricked her into thinking he’d had a date coming over, upset Libby’s middle. This time she thought she recognized it for what it was—if Colin brought a woman back to the flat, Libby would be a third wheel. She’d be the weird foreign girl sleeping on his couch, instead of the primary guest. The idea was troubling, and it pleased her in a dark way to see Colin diplomatically distancing himself even as the woman seemed eager to establish a flirtation.
Libby started as Reece materialized by her side holding a plastic cup of red wine.
She accepted her drink with a smile. “Thanks.”
Reece nodded, seeming content to sit with her on the back of the sofa and take in the activity around them.
It was a confusing sensation being near Reece in this crowd—he felt strangely far away. She gave him a soft nudge in the arm. His eyes met hers, and they were friendly but untouchable.
Then, with Reece at her side, practically touching her but feeling about a million miles away, Libby happened to glance back at where Colin was standing, chatting to another woman. His eyes trained past the girl’s shoulder as he spoke, locking on Libby’s, and in that second he could have been close enough to embrace. The sensation gave her a chill.
“Libby, right?”
She snapped out of her trance to find a familiar face smiling on her other side. She knew the man from the coffee shop where she bought her breakfast when she wasn’t in Kaiwharawhara. He was a good-looking guy, originally from a part of South Africa she’d spent some time in the previous year. Charming enough. She let herself be lured into a flirtatious conversation, just to see if it garnered any reaction from her ice sculpture of a love interest. If Reece was bothered, he hid it annoyingly well.
“He seemed nice,” Reece offered after the man had excused himself to go in search of another guest.
“Yeah, he’s nice enough,” she said vaguely. “Jealous?”
“I don’t think so,” he replied, equally vague.
“Who do you like, here?” Libby panned her gaze around the room. “Who turns your crank? Her?” She pointed to a sexy redhead in a vintage dress.
He shrugged. “She’s okay.”
“Who, then?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” He scouted the guests, finally nodding and pointing at a woman by the door, a petite, curvy Indian girl with shining black hair and a dazzling smile. “Her. She’s quite sexy.”
“I see.” Libby wondered if Reece could have managed to pick anyone less like herself.
Colin reappeared after making his way around the room. As he sidled up to Libby, she felt all the warmth and presence lacking on her other side, and it compounded her frustration.
“Nolan!” An angry voice cut across the room, silencing all the conversations like a gunshot. Everyone went quiet, quiet enough for Libby to make out the music and voices two rooms away, the honk of a car horn out in the street. Both of Libby’s escorts stood. She joined them, glancing from one to the other then to the source of shout.
>
A slender man about Libby’s age had entered from the kitchen, holding a bottle of beer and pointing it at Colin. He looked a little drunk and more than a little agitated.
“Where do you get off, eh?” he shouted. “Drinking? At a party?”
Colin took a slow step forward, holding up his hands up and saying, “I’m not drinking, mate,” at a calm, conversational volume. The room was still enough for everyone to hear each word. “And I’m leaving, all right?” He turned back to Reece and Libby. “C’mon.”
“I’m not your mate,” the drunk man barked, anger mounting. Whatever this guy’s beef was, he had balls. He was nowhere close to a physical match for either Nolan. “You shouldn’t be here. And you know what I mean by that.”
Reece stepped forward, his eyes narrowing and his body tightening visibly. “Watch it.”
“Let it go, Reece.” Colin put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We’re leaving, all right, Sean?”
Someone in the back of the room said, “Yeah, chill out, Sean.”
But Sean didn’t chill out. Instead he turned on Reece. “Don’t defend your piece-of-shit brother, Nolan. They should have dredged him from the fucking harbor—”
There was a flurry of activity as someone said, “Jesus, Sean, calm the fuck down,” just as Reece lunged forward, only to be held back by the arm Colin hooked around his waist.
“Let it go.” Colin struggled to keep Reece restrained. “Let him be angry.”
Reece gave a couple of desperate thrashes before seeming to admit he couldn’t break his brother’s grip. He straightened and aimed a shaking finger across the room at the drunken man. “You ever say that again and I promise I will fuck you up.”
Libby’s heart pounded, shocked by this new, violent Reece. It was frightening but also a weird sort of relief, seeing him so out of control. But mostly just frightening.
Sean held his tongue and let a friend usher him back into the kitchen. A girl Libby couldn’t see through the crowd shouted at his back, “You know it wasn’t like that,” sounding on the verge of tears.
Libby didn’t get a chance to collect more clues to this unnerving puzzle, as Reece relented and let Colin steer him toward the front door. Libby dug their coats from a pile on the loveseat and hurried after them.
