Below the Peak (Sola)(17)
Voices dulled. The lady felt the lusty gazes thrown her way as she propped on the counter. “Water please Margi” leaning back after giving her order.
“You are not to come in until tomorrow?” Margi rose a brow and placed a filled cup in front of her. “Thank you” she took the cup, lifting it to her lips.
“I missed you, so I came” she smiled, placing the cup back down.
Margi snorted and laughed once at the joke then went to a shelf of drinks.
The lady sat back, straightening her shoulders in a way her body gave the message she wanted no company from the men she could sense acutely were debating and calculating in their heads on when and how to approach her. She pursed her lips when she heard a chair screeching as it was being pulled next to hers. She ignored the nuisance. What had she thought that she would find quietness in a place where people visited for one sole purpose. One would say she’s foolish to find silence in a dirty place like this? But here is where her body found stillness and control. Not her home with her mother but here. After so long she was used to here. Familiar. I guess she had deluded herself today by thinking she would be left to her own if she sat alone far from everyone. She fumed. Some men apparently thought her seclusion was an invitation. People who wanted her time all knew the days she worked, better than they were familiar with the wives’ body. She sneered.
She should have been happy he didn’t bother her, yet she gritted her teeth when the stranger didn’t talk for a long moment. His hovering silence was grating, so she cocked her head his way. “I don’t work tonight.”
Her directness made him blink. Her eyes boldly drifted over him, drinking him in under his hat, a youthful face and slender frame. Still a boy, a little younger than her. She almost rolled her eyes and sigh tiredly at the task at hand. Another one to break his little heart and any fantasy he conjured while coming here.
Nikolas shifted uncomfortably. To say he was very nervous and uncomfortable would be an understatement. The words he had planned to say when he had been walking over to her, had deserted him.
“Well, would you like a drink?” her voice was husky and soft. A voice that could coax a snake from its cave.
“Nothing, thank you” Nikolas found his voice. The seductress half twisted her body his direction and kept one hand on the table. Her movement drawing his attention to her body. “What would you like then?” her voice soft, it almost sounded like a whisper, insinuating whatever he said would be kept a secret.
“You” he blurted and quickly flushed with embarrassment.
She smiled and leant in provocatively. “Come tomorrow, and I’ll be yours.”
Heat rushed through his body, his face inflamed. Nikolas jerked slightly back and cleared his throat. “What is your name?”
“I go by many names.”
“I want to know it, please ma’am” he requested gently.
“You can name me; wouldn’t you like that huh?” her hazel eyes bore into his, her voice turning husky. “I would like that.”
Nikolas swallowed, feeling too hot suddenly. He knew what she was doing, dodging his questions to irritate and get rid of him quickly. Unlucky for her, he could be a determined man when he wanted to be, and he really did want to know her name.
“Tell me your real name” Nikolas relaxed his body, cluing her he wasn’t going to be rid of quickly. Her bottom lip tightened, seeing he was going to be pushy. She held onto little patience she had. There were two kinds of men she most despised, the arrogant ones and his kind. She preferred those who got down to business. Less time in their company the better.
She sighed. “If I tell you my name, will you let me be?”
His brows quirked slightly, Nikolas didn’t expect her to give in so easily. She seemed to be a woman who wouldn’t give in so easily. Still, when looking at her wholly, he could see the tiredness slipping through the fa?ade she hid behind in. Something was saddening about her.
“Yes, I will” Nikolas agreed.
She swallowed once then said. “My name is Nadine.”
******
Her name should have been enough to satisfy his curiosity and any interest he had. Why was he then standing outside the door of one of the rooms of the brothel, hoping once opened he would see her? Nikolas cursed at his weakness. The door soon opened with one knock. He controlled his expression when their eyes met. Playing it calmly, he stepped inside. The calmness left his body when he saw what little of the room. Just a bed and a lit lantern on the table in the corner. Nikolas fidgeted, not knowing whether he should sit on the bed or not.
“Take a sit on the bed” Nadine threw over her shoulder as she closed the door. She remembered him. They had seen each other last night, yet here he was again. She perfected her features and turned with a practised smile.
“You are a stubborn one, aren’t you?” she teased. Nikolas licked his lips, the back of his neck prickled with sweat when she took a sit next to him. She sat closer, invading his personal space.
“I wanted to see you,” he said. He bit his lip hard, scolding himself. What was wrong with him, sounding like a stricken obsessed fool?
“Mmmh, I was hoping you would come” her delicate fingers crawled to his knee and rested there. Nikolas jerked his knee back at the warmth her fingers caused, travelling through his thigh to the pit of his stomach. He closed his legs together and rubbed at his neck awkwardly.