Holding Out For Skye (4 page)

She looked at him with feigned seriousness. “It’s a small ape with long arms.”

A gust of delighted laughter burst out of him. She’d just called Alastor an ape! He shook his head as she grinned and laughed again, astounded by her.

The restaurant,
Delizioso,
which was Italian for ‘Delightful’—she’d looked it up—was only a few minutes away so they got there fast. A popular hangout for all ages, it was one of Skye’s favourite restaurants. The atmosphere was warm and friendly. It was owned by an Italian family who made, in her opinion, pizzas which were out of this world. Red leather-covered booths filled the downstairs section. The upper section had round tables with pretty red and white checkered table-cloths and comfortable red-cushioned chairs if you wanted a more romantic atmosphere.

They found Nick and Thea waving at them from a back booth and headed in their direction.

“Hey, you guys, we were about to—” Thea stopped in mid-sentence, eyes wide.

“Why are you two holding hands?” Curiosity flickered in Nick’s eyes.

“What?” Skye tugged her hand from Cian’s. Of course, the idiot wouldn’t let go. “Give me back my hand!”

“Why? It’s mine now.”

The gall of the guy! “If you don’t, we’ll just have a scene here where you end up on your back on the floor,” she warned.

“Oh, my, are we being forward already? I like it but, darling, isn’t this place a bit too public?” He wiggled his eyebrows, his gray eyes laughing at her.

“Arghhhhh!” She balled her right hand into a fist. If he didn’t let go of her left hand in the next minute, she was going to deck him.

Nick and Thea stared at them, wide-eyed.

Having a sixth sense where Skye was concerned, Cian knew she was probably getting ready to hit him. He finally let go of her hand. She wiped it on her pant legs and the gesture didn’t go unnoticed by him.

“What is this fascination you have with me again?” she griped, sliding in the seat next to Thea.

Cian sat next to Nick. “Oh, you mean how I can’t get enough of your insults and sarcastic personality? Oh, I don’t know,” he mused aloud. “Must be because you’re never nice to me. If you started being nice to me, I’d stop feeling so entranced. But no, we all know that it’s an act beyond you. So I guess you’re doomed since I’ll forever be fascinated with you,” Cian finished, flashing her a quick, easy smile.

Thea giggled while Nick coughed to try to hide his laughter. Skye glared at all three of them.

“Okay, spill,” Thea prompted.

“Food first.” Skye wasn’t looking forward to explaining what she had just done. The food had already arrived and they had been waiting for them. The others stared at her as she grabbed a slice of pizza and took a huge bite. Hmmm, her favourite; chicken-mushroom-jalapenos. Yum.

Swallowing, she looked up and found them staring at her. “What? Do I have food on my face?”

Nick shook his head, smiling. “It’s always a wonder to watch you eat.”

“Shush, Nick, you’ll make her self-conscious,” Thea told him.

“What’s bad about my eating?” Skye grumbled, taking another bite.

“Nothing bad.” Cian smiled widely. “We all know not to get in the way of you and food. Plus, it’s amazing how deceit can make you so hungry.”

Her mouth full, she glared at him with annoyance. He was never going to let her live this latest episode down.

In the past, Skye had mostly lived on peanut butter sandwiches. She loved food but she hadn’t been able to afford anything but the basics. So now that she could afford it, she ate all the stuff she had previously denied herself.

They all knew she loved food and pizza was her favourite. It was a good thing she never seemed to gain any weight or she’d be as big as a cow by now.

“So are you going to tell us what happened?” Nick asked.

Cian sighed wearily and she knew he wasn’t looking forward to talking about it either. It must have been painful and humiliating to see his girlfriend with another guy and finding out she’d been two-timing him. Especially when that guy was his cousin Alastor.

There was no love lost between Cian and Alastor. From what Thea had told her, all four of them had grown up together. Cian, Thea, Nick and Alastor were a year older than her. They had gone to the same high school and Alastor had this stupid notion that Cian had always taken what should have been his.

From what she’d guessed herself, Cian had been very popular in high school. You only had to
look
at the guy—with his spiky dark blond hair and mercury-gray eyes, lean angular face, rangy build, broad shoulders and golden tan which brought out the pallor of his eyes even more, he knew he was handsome and had no qualms about using it to get what he wanted, namely girls. And he had dated a
lot
of girls.

Plus, he was smart. Oh, he was very smart and he worked hard even though he pretended to be laid-back and lazy. He had excelled in his studies whereas Alastor had labored four paces behind him. All the girls Alastor had wanted had had the hots for Cian. No wonder the guy hated his guts, not that she was taking his side, of course.

“Vanessa’s been two-timing me with Alastor.”

“What?” Disbelief sounded in Nick’s voice.

Thea sent Cian a worried look. “Are you okay?”

“Thanks to Skye, yes.”

All three of them turned to look at her. Skye kept eating and tried not to squirm.

“Explain,” Nick demanded.

“Vanessa was giving Alastor mouth-to-mouth near the office, more like trying to pull his tonsils out,” Cian elaborated disgustedly.

“
E
wwwwwwww
.” Skye made a face. “
Please
. Not when I’m eating.”

An unexpected laugh erupted from Cian, erasing the humiliation and disgust at catching Vanessa with Alastor. Why was it Skye always managed to make him smile? “I didn’t think anything could get you off food, Fletcher. Seriously, you can even eat during gruesome horror movies.”

The three of them had managed to rope her into going to a zombie movie with them after work once. Skye wasn’t big on hanging out in groups but somehow they’d managed to drag her with them. Thea had spent most of the movie closing her eyes over the gruesome parts and even Nick and Cian had both been a bit queasy. But not Skye. She had been happily munching popcorn while on-screen people were being dissected or eaten alive. What could she say? She had an iron-clad stomach. Plus, she loved horror movies.

“Shut up.” God, what was with this guy? He was always getting on her nerves!

“The story please,” Nick reminded them, exasperated.

“I’ve shut up on her orders.” Cian pointed at Skye and calmly resumed eating.

Thea groaned. “Guys, you two never let up.”

“Oh! He’s so infuriating!” Skye complained. “Fine. We caught Vanessa and Alastor red-handed, who were obviously waiting for Cian to appear and see them locked up like that.
Yuck
. So I told Vanessa that Cian and I were secretly in love and had been holding back all this time because we didn’t want to hurt her but since she’s been two-timing Cian, she had just done us both a favor and given us
carte blanche
to go out without any guilt,” Skye finished really quickly and looked up.

Nick and Thea were looking at her as if she was an alien from Planet Crazy. Cian watched their expressions with amusement.

Nick was the first to break out of his shock. “They believed you?”

“She was very convincing,” Cian inserted.

“I thought you were shutting up,” Skye remarked sourly.

“Just giving you the opportunity to fill in the bits, love.”

“Don’t call me love!”

“Seeing you guys like that, they’d never have believed it,” Thea pointed out.

Cian smiled. “Skye reminded Vanessa of a conversation we had once when she unexpectedly dropped by.”

“What conversation?” Nick looked from Cian to Skye.

Skye let out a small sigh. “The one where this
idiot
here was annoying me as usual especially since he couldn’t take the silent treatment with you guys out to see a client with Marina. He was bugging me about helping him find a gift for his beloved for her birthday.”

Thea and Nick laughed. At her glare, they both sobered up.

“The idiot kept bugging me while I was trying to work. I was like
‘No way!’
He was like
‘Come on, it’s for Vanessa’s sake.’
And I was like
‘It’ll only hurt her when she finds out.’
He’d replied,
‘She won’t
find out.’
And I was like,
‘I said no, and I mean it, you
idiot.’
Vanessa walked in just then. You know how she must have been listening in before deciding to make her appearance.”

She could see Nick and Thea had grasped the implication and were trying not to laugh again. Skye sighed. Again.

“So she drew her own conclusion that we were talking about our ‘unrequited love’. And then she was like
‘OMG, it’s true.’
Alastor just looked bored and well, the rest is history.” She casually bit into her pizza.

“Not so fast,” Cian countered. “You left out the part where you threatened Alastor.”

“I did no such thing.”

“You little liar,” Cian chided.

She glared at him. “I’m not! And what about you? You threatened both Vanessa and Alastor.”

Nick and Thea sat back and watched them exasperatedly. They were used to their arguments.

“Those weren’t threats. They were just mere promises.”

“Oh, so you
promised
Alastor you’d beat him up?”

“And you said you’d break him into little pieces
or had you
forgotten
?”

Skye scowled. “I did not threaten him.”

Nick decided to butt in or else they’d be here all day. “Skye, you threatened—” When she glared at him, he quickly rectified his words, “Ah—sorry, you
told
him you’d break him into pieces?”

Before she could reply, Cian chimed in, “Yeah, she did. She called him a gibbon.”

“What’s a gibbon?” Thea asked.

“It’s a small ape.” Skye looked at Cian in exasperation as he snickered.

“With long arms,” he added.

A giggle escaped Thea’s lips and Nick laughed out loud. “Man, you have a lot of guts.”

Thea added, “He’s really nasty, Skye. You shouldn’t have said that.”

“Don’t worry. I can handle him.” Skye had always had to take care of herself so she’d taken self defence classes and knew how to fight. Being alone and a woman at that, you could never be too safe. Plus, bullies like Alastor needed a come-to-Jesus talk. She could do that very well.

Cian smirked. “If he’s ever stupid enough to come after you, God help him.”

Skye bristled. “You—”

Thea interjected, “Cian, she just saved your reputation. You should be grateful.”

“Yeah, buddy, you owe her one,” Nick put in his two cents’.

“No, he doesn’t,” Skye fidgeted.

“Yes, I do.” Cian looked at her pensively. “Why did you do it?”

Skye’d been dreading just that question. She should have known he was too smart not to finally come around to that.

“I annoy you like hell, you can’t stand me, I’m a flirt, I’m infuriating, exasperating, arrogant. I never shut up,” he counted his traits on his fingers, “So why’d you do it?”

Skye looked at him straight when she answered. “Because no one deserved that kind of betrayal.”

They all fell silent. The look in Cian’s eyes was making her nervous. She had never seen that look before.
Damn, damn,
damn. Say something!
Why didn’t he say anything? He kept staring at her with those eyes, those piercing pale-colored eyes that felt like they saw right through her. No one should have eyes like that.

Nick watched them, a smile hovering on his lips. Were they finally going to understand they had feelings for each other?

“You’re still a moron though for making Vanessa your girlfriend. Anyone can see she’s a skunk,” Skye proclaimed, pulling her eyes away.

Or maybe not
, Nick thought, resigned. Of course, Cian argued back. They were like fire and gasoline. They just kept rubbing each other the wrong way or the right way, depending on how you looked at it. “So what happens now?”

They both froze. Thea sent him a
‘What are you up
to?’
look. Oh, he knew very well that neither Skye nor Cian had realized the consequences of their little masquerade. Cian would grasp it quickly. Hopefully he wouldn’t screw up this opportunity. But then this was Cian. Better cross his fingers.

Skye looked up at Nick. “Uh?”

A perceptive look crossed Cian’s face. Then a long, slow smile curved his lips and a wicked light glinted in his gray eyes. Oh, he’d grasped the consequences, all right. “You know what this means now, don’t you?”

“Uh?” Skye repeated, confused.

Thea glanced at Cian warily. She knew that look. “Cian—” she started but he cut her off, speaking to Skye.

“This means that we’re a couple now.” He sent her an angelic smile.

Skye stared at him, trying to comprehend what he had just said. Then the words fully penetrated her thick brain. “Oh, shit.”

“Yep,” Cian crowed. “So darling, how about having dinner with me tonight since we’re now free to publicly declare our love? Or maybe we should head straight to you causing that scene of me ending on my back.” He took her hand in his and smiled sweetly at her.

Nick swore under his breath. His best friend could really be an idiot at times. Thea just shook her head at Cian.

For a moment, Skye could only stare at him in horror and then she tore her hand from his and got up. She took out some money from her bag and handed it to Thea saying, “Can you pay for my share, please? I’ll see you guys at the office.”

“Wait, Skye, where are you going?” Nick said.

“You didn’t even finish your lunch,” Thea protested.

“Ah, I’m not really hungry. I’ll see you later.” With those words, she beat a hasty retreat before they could stop her. She was that fast.

Both Nick and Thea turned to glare at Cian.

He looked back at them. “What?”