Kiss the Girl (35 page)

“Are you threatening her?” Erik asked.  His voice was mild, but something hard and cold ran just under the surface.   

“
What?  Of course not
.
”  Karl gave him a startled frown.  “But I know Nixie.  I know her better than she’ll ever know herself, and
this isn’t her
.
  She needs to just settle down and remember who she is.
”

“Let me go,” Nixie said
slowly
.
  She looked into
his round, genial face, the face
of the man who’d been her
father
, her teacher
, her mentor
for so many years, and saw a stranger
.
  “
Please, Karl.  You’ve got to let me go.”

“You’re
upset about
James
,” he said.

“No, I’m not.”

“It’s okay.  We’ll talk when you’ve had time to cool down.”

Karl opened his hand and Nixie scooted out of the booth, rubbing her wrist.  She turned to E
rik.  “Will you take me home, please?
  I’m done here.
”

“Yep.”  He slid out of the booth and Nixie marched to the door, her knees watery with adrenaline. 
She climbed into Erik’s Jeep parked at the curb, but her hands were shaking too badly to manage the seat belt.  She folded into herself, arms banded over her stomach, forehead to knees, and wheezed a few breaths in and out until she felt a little less like passing out.

She heard Erik get in on the driver’s side.  Then his hand was
on the back of her neck,
his
strong fingers digging through the mess of her hair to press lightly against her skin. 

“Nice work, princess,” he said.  “First time you’ve told off
an authority figure
?”

Nixie tried a shaky laugh.  “You could tell?”

His fingers drew slow circles on the corded muscles of her neck, gentl
ing the tension there in tiny increments
.  Nixie closed her eyes and
finally filled her lungs
.  She felt like she hadn’t breathed in twenty minutes.

“Better?”
he asked.

“Yeah.  Thanks.”  She sat up
slowly, his fingers still threaded through her hair
.
  She gave him a shaky smile, and he sighed. 

“Liar,
”
he said, and h
is
hand curled around the back of her neck, drawing her forward until his mouth touched hers
. 
Panic zipped along her skin, but she couldn’t make herself pull away.  She was already awash in adrenaline from the fight with Karl. 
Another blast like this and her heart was going to explode.
 
Then s
he thought about all the times she’d faced death before and gave a mental shrug. 
If she had to go, she’d go
kissing Erik.  It
was definitely better than a chopper crash
. 

But as his mouth moved over hers
--
warm, firm, coffee-flavored
--
an unexpected peace settled over her.  This
, she realized dimly,
was a whole different kind of kiss. 
Sweet, uncomplicated and infinitely more dangerous. 
The first
kiss
had been all shock and awe, a kind of sexual pyrotechnics she’d been completely unprepared for, and it had sent her entire system into orbit.  But this, this was different.

This kiss
was...
gentle.  It took nothing and offered everything
--
comfort, support, safety.
  The harsh buzz of adrenaline leaked away, replaced by a warm honey glow. 
Her very bones softened under the undemanding press of his mouth, and when he
drew one knuckle down the
edge
of her cheek, Nixie’s lips curved under his.
 
God
, she could love this man.

He drew back and let his hands fall away.  “That’s more like it,” he said.

“Like what?”  Nixie blinked slowly at him, still smiling like an idiot. 

“Like you.  That other smile was awful.
  I couldn’t stand it.
”

“Oh.”  Nixie gave herself a brisk mental shake and made an effort to reconnect the synapses that had clearly come unglued under the delicious heat of his kiss.  “You kissed the boo-boo better, is that it?”

He shrugged.  “Did it work?”

She took a quick inventory of her injuries.  The fight with Karl was history, yes, but now her heart was dangerously exposed.  Good lord.  “I guess,” she said.  “Yeah.”

“Is he always like that?”  Erik glanced into the side
view mirror and pulled into traffic
, cool as you please.  Nixie, hot, flushed and unhappy, wanted to kick his shins in
.  “I mean, my mom’s no slouch when it comes to planning futures for her offspring, but even I thought that was a little disturbing.”

She pulled her focus back to the conversation at hand.
  She could
berate herself
later.
 
“
Karl
’s not a bad guy.  He’s just a believer.”

“In what?”

“In the idea that people are honor-bound to give back to the universe in equal measure to what they take
,” she said.
  “Or in my case,
what they’ve
been given.”
 

“
And he’s what, the universe’s enforcer?
”

“Not exactly,” she said.  “It’s just that his particular gift is for direction.  He’s like a chess master.  He can see to the end of every game,
right?  A
ll those moves, counter-moves, back up plans?  They’re all in his head at once and he can access any one of them at any moment, no sweat.” 

“Scary.”

“No kidding.  Sometimes when I feel like arguing with him I just go and slam my hand in a car door instead.  Easier.”

Erik was silent for a moment, then said, “What’s the deal with his tattoo?”

“The one on his inner arm
?”

“Yeah.
”

“Those are the coordinates for
Auschwitz
, along with the words
never again
.”

“
Auschwitz, t
he concentration camp
?”

“
Yep. 
There’s a movement that pops up every couple of years to dismiss the Holocaust as an urban legend
,
and with the survivors dying and physical evidence disappearing,
Karl
felt the need to put
the evidence on his body.  His own personal mission statement, I guess.
”
Nixie
clicked her seatbelt into place
.  “
I have the face, the money and the fame to be a big part of making sure
never again
holds
but
Karl
h
as the vision to use my gifts--and me--to the maximum possible potential
.  For him,
nagging
me into doing my duty is fulfilling a sacred responsibility
.” 

“I don’t
know, Nixie.  He sounded a little unhinged there toward the end
.”

“He’s not.  He’s just
--”
  She broke off as Erik
stomp
ed the brakes and sent
her flying into
her seatbelt’s
strangle hold
.

“What?” she yelped
, hands on the dash, hair in
her mouth
.
  She spit out a curl looked around
wildly
.
  “What?” 

Erik gripped the wheel and stared straight out the windshield.
 

“I forgot Mary Jane.”
 
He closed his eyes
, laid his forehead on the wheel
.  “Again.”

“I’m so sorry,” Erik said for the third time
, peering into the
rearview mirror.  Mary Jane lay
across his backseat, one arm dramatically over her eyes.
  “Will you please sit up front now?”
 

“
No. I’m punishing you.  Plus I need to lie down.  My nerves are shot. 
Y
ou abandoned me with the holy roller fern killer. 
I thought I was a goner.”

“Nixie said he wasn’t dangerous.”

“Nixie thinks
C
heez
W
hiz is yummy.”  She peeked out from under her elbow, caught Erik’s eye in the rear view.  “You’re totally into her.”

“What?”

“You are.”  She sat up, leaned her chin over the bench front seat.  “You tried to play it cool, I’ll give you that.  You were all
oh everybody’s hot for Nixie. So what?
  But you’re totally into her.  She did her wounded princess routine and you about killed yourself getting to the door so she could sweep through without missing a beat.”

“I don’t like seeing anybody bullied, Mary Jane.  It wasn’t personal.”

“Oh, please.”  Mary Jane flopped back against the seat.  “She had an emotional tiff with her father figure and you
forgot your girlfriend
.  For the record, that’s me.”

“I didn’t
forget you,” Erik said.  “I just got caught up in the moment.”
 
In kissing Nixie
, he thought. 
Again
.

She threw her arm back over her eyes.  “I don’t think this is working out, Erik.”

“What?” 

“This.  Us.”

“We’ve been dating a week, Mary Jane.  Give it time.”

“We’ve had
five
years, Erik.  That’s plenty of time.”

He pulled to a halt in front of her apartment building and hooked his elbow over the seat.  “So what, you want to break up?  Because I forgot you at a coffee shop?”