From The Shadows (From The Shadows #1) (3 page)

I gave him a sexy smile and I knew I had a twinkle in my eyes when I replied. “So I take it you approve?”

“Yeah, I am not sure I’ll like watching all the men undressing you with their eyes though!”

I kept smiling at him but I couldn’t stop wondering if he was serious with that comment or simply teasing me. Nathan did enjoy to tease me, but something in his eyes told me his comment wasn’t as light as he was trying to make it by plastering a smile on it.

Would I like having a possessive guy? Damn straight I would! I wanted to feel true passion and I would like to have my own caveman for a change.

Mike had never been that for me, and when he had gotten jealous he had just begun drinking and being a mean drunk instead of showing the world that I was his. To be honest drinking was how Mike handled everything that bothered or angered him.

While I was deep in thought Nathan had gathered me into his arms and was now pulling my chin up, then I noticed I had been chewing at my bottom lip.

“Don’t you think you should leave biting that lip to me? I bet I would enjoy it much more”

Getting out of my head I looked up at him.

“Sorry Nate…” I answered with a small smile

Nathan kept looking at me for a few seconds longer and he looked like he wanted to ask what was going on inside my head. He then decided against it and instead he said “If you’re ready, then let’s get going”.

Chapter 4

The drive to Hard Rock Café happened in almost silence. If it hadn’t been for the radio being turned on I would have gone mad. I kept thinking I had made Nathan mad or said something wrong but I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what it could be.

We arrived to a city very much alive and ready for a party. There were lots and lots of people outside every club either waiting to get in or taking a cigarette break. All of those people made me nervous. Nathan found a parking space and turned the engine off. He then jumped out of the car and went to open my door.

He took one look at me and asked if I was sure I wanted to go inside.

“Yea, we are here now, I can do this… We’re just going to go in and hang with some people for a little…”

“Exactly, and you wanted to go, remember?” He reminded me.

“Yea I know…” I answered while a frown slit over my face.

He put his hands on each side of my face as he told me that we could go home any time I wanted, and then he gave me a soft kiss. I jumped out of the car and tailed Nathan into the club, never letting go of his hand.

As we got in I looked around for Sasha and it didn’t take me long to spot her fire-red hair. She changed hair color so often that it sometimes left me dizzy when trying to keep up, but one thing was for sure, she always got colors you couldn’t NOT see.

“Is that her?” Nathan asked following my line of sight.

“Yea that’s Sasha alright, I better go say hi”

“Okay you do that and I will get us something to drink, are you up for alcohol tonight or are you sticking to virgin?”

He said that last part with a knowing smile that told me he was thinking about what happened this morning and how NONE virginally I was.

“Nate stop that” I giggled “And yes I think I will have a bit of alcohol tonight”

“Okay you go say hello, and I will go get you your poison. I DO know what you like”.

Nathan turned towards the bar and soon he had disappeared in the crowd, so I tried to find my way through all the exuberant people.

As I got closer to where I had spotted Sasha I noticed that I knew a few people in the group surrounding her. Those people were folks Sasha and I worked with at the restaurant. There was another female waitress called Maria and the two trainee chefs, Tim and Peter.

They all had huge warm smiles for me as I reached them, and the fact that I knew more people beside Sasha helped remove some of the nervous energy taking up space in the pit of my stomach. I really was no party person but if I had to be for a night, once in a blue moon, then I preferred none-strangers.

Sasha leaned in and gave me a hug and as I gave her a kind of awkward hug back I told her. “I hope it’s okay that I brought a… um friend with me?” it felt strange calling Nathan my friend after what had transpired earlier in the day.

“Sure! The more the merrier. But where is this FRIEND of yours?” She said with a curious look in her eyes.

“Oh he is at the bar picking up some drinks for us” I answered, now hoping that Nathan would come find me soon. I might’ve known these people but I didn’t KNOW them, if you know what I mean. I began needing my trustworthy pillar.

As I stood battling with my nerves Tim broke in and offered me a glass of some strange blue shot, which I mostly accepted because I didn’t want to be rude.

“CHEERS!” The whole group yelled after everyone had picked up a shot and they raised their shot glasses in the air.

I joined in and threw the shot down my throat without finding out what it was I had been offered before it was too late. It was strong and had me coughing a few times because I had never gotten used to strong liqueur.

While I coughed I felt a hand sneak its way around my waist and lips at my ear “Are you okay?”  

I turned my neck to look up at Nathan and smiled at him. “Yes I am alright but I don’t think those things are good for me”.

He then chuckled and said “No.. you always were a week drinker, but don’t worry I’ve got something more up your ally right here” I felt an ice cold glass running over the back of my neck and I shivered.

Nathan truly did know my tastes, in more ways than one. He had bought me a Frozen Strawberry Margarita, the drink I always looked for when it happened to be a day where I allowed myself alcohol. Smiling I reached out for the drink in his hand, but as I tried grabbing for it he pulled it farther away and sent me a cocky grin.

“So you think I am just going to hand this over to you without anything in return?”

Remembering our earlier bet I started giggling and asked “So Mr. Matthews, what is your prize?” 

“I think I would like a taste of those sweet lips of yours” He said as he leaned in.

I was about to ask if we really should do that in front of all these people. The shy part of me was trying to pop up… But I never got the chance to because Nathan pulled me into his body, my back against his front, and crashed his lips to mine. And just like that, in a matter of seconds, I had forgotten about my protest and responded like there was nobody else around us. I melted completely into him, never wanting to come up for air again.

When we did break our precious contact, my legs had turned into jelly and I was ready for us to go back to Nathan’s place where I could have him all to myself. No way was I going to admit that though. Nathan was, however, too good at reading me. He began planting soft kisses up my neck and when he reached my ear he asked “Have you regretted that we came out yet?” And there was no mistaking the smile in his voice. He was sure this game was his.

I took a deep breath to steady myself and then I answered “No way. So you better up your game!”

His eyes grew big as he looked at me and then a sexy, confident smile took over his face.

“Oh you cheeky little thing, NOW it’s ON! Soon you will be puddy in my hands and you’ll be begging me to take you home and relieve the ache we’re both beginning to feel”.

While pondering what he might be planning, it appeared to me that even though I had felt bad about us starting this up, whatever this was, Nathan had taken my nerves and my worries away. It felt right that he held me and the intimate way he was teasing me now felt right too. It felt like we were a couple, but I didn’t want to linger on that thought too long. Though he had taken away the unease, there was still too much that we needed to talk about if this really was the road we wanted to head down. Something in the back of my mind had other worries too, worries I needed to take up with him as soon as possible.

“Nikki” Nathan tried pulling me out of my sudden funk.

“Nikki, where did you go?” he asked.

I looked up at him again as he took hold of my hips to turn me around so he could look into my face better.

“You got that look again, what are you thinking about?”

I didn’t think I could talk to him about what I was thinking as long as we were here in the club, among other people, but the look of worry that now had drowned out the teasing in his eyes told me that I had to say something.

“Oh it’s nothing important… “

He looked at me like I hadn’t convinced him at all. I really couldn’t hide anything from this guy.

“Nikki, I know you, and I know how you get when you turn into thinking mode, I can see it all over your face”

“Okay okay, but I don’t want to go into heavy conversation right now…”

He nodded his head indicating that he understood.

“I was just wondering about your on-off silent moods yesterday and today, I know I space out from time to time but you usually don’t. Not something I have seen much of before any way.”

A dark cloud ran over his face then and I knew something was off, and I was right. Nathan admitted that Mike had tried to call him a few times over the last two days and he had wanted to come over, and when Nathan hadn’t answered he had begun asking for me. I could only imagine how accusatory Mike would have gotten if he suspected that Nathan was choosing me over him and it would be even worse if he suspected what was really happening. This was a subject we had to talk about later as well. Nathan had hinted earlier that he was mad at Mike and I wanted to know what had happened. It couldn’t all be because of me because there was no way Mike had already had suspected that there was anything happening between us then. We had been really good friends for a long time and Mike did get jealous more times than one, but I didn’t think there was anything else to be noticed happening between us.

Enough with the dark pondering, I had to get out of my head and lighten the mood again. I didn’t want this night to go all serious, because I had wanted to get out, get my mind away from it all and maybe finding a way to have some fun. So I reached up and ran my fingers teasingly over his neck, then I found a teasing smile and put it on my lips. “You know there was something else I was thinking about.”

“What was that?” Nathan asked confused, obviously also deep in thought.

“I was thinking how sexy you look tonight and that I love these strong arms of yours around me, I like having you close”

That did the trick. He refocused his eyes on me and his smile slowly returned.

Just as he was about to say something Sasha broke in, and we both turned our attention her way.

“Nikki, I thought you said you had brought a ´friend´. Who is this handsome man and where did you hide him?”

A slow burn ran over my cheeks and I was glad that the club was pretty dark so that my cheeks wouldn’t be a too bright red beacon for all people to notice.

“Sorry… This is Nathan Matthews”

Sasha reached out her hand to shake Nathan’s and he returned the gesture.

“So are you two finished being in your little bubble so we girls can steal Nikki with us out on the dance floor?”

I looked up at Nathan to make sure he didn’t mind. He nodded his consent and told me he would enjoy the show from the table. So I allowed the girls to pull me out on the dance floor.

I soon became really happy that the group had chosen Hard Rock Café for this evening, because that meant there was no pop music. No techno music either. The band for the evening was a cover band of
Within Temptation
. I loved Within Temptation. To be honest I just loved Melodic Metal. So I let the music flow through me and let myself move to it in a way that made me feel sexy.

I felt a hand on my waist and a few seconds after I heard Tim talk into my ear. “I hope you don’t mind me dancing with you ladies”

It made me a bit uncomfortable but I choose not to let that be known. Tim was a nice enough guy so why should I be a party pooper and tell him no, it wasn’t like he was groping or anything.

We danced to three songs and then we headed back for some much needed refreshments.

Tim walked right next to me and as we got closer to our table I noticed Nathan starring daggers his way, which told me that he hadn’t been kidding earlier when he said he would hate other guys looking at me. So I went to give him a kiss to make sure he knew I was there with him and only him. As I did, he took my hand and pulled me down on his lap. He then began kissing me deeply, forcing his tongue into my mouth. It kind of felt like he was branding me his and I found that I really did not mind. It was a side I had never seen of Nathan before. Sure I had seen him dating other girls but it had always seemed like he didn’t really care much for them, like they were easily dispensable, I was speculating why that was?

After some heated moments Nathan put his head on my shoulder and panting against my collarbone he asked me “Can we go home now? I want you in my bed, naked!”

How could I argue with that statement after he had put my blood on fire yet again? I was starting to ache for him and I was aching badly, like our sexcapades this morning had started a forest fire within my core that I couldn’t seem to kill for long.