Elastic Hearts (Hearts #3)(85)

“She’s really pretty,” I said once they walked away.

“Not as pretty as you.” He took a step toward me. I swallowed.

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” I whispered, tilting my face to look at him when he stood right in front of me.

“I only speak truths,” he said, his voice low, making my heart stutter.

“Stop.”

“Hey, is that Nicole?”

Victor groaned. “I’m in a house full of cock-blockers.”

I sidestepped him until I reached his mom. She wrapped her arms around me. “Hi, Hannah.”

“I’ve called you a couple of times so you could come over and see the dress. I can’t wait to show it to you. The seamstress was very, very impressed with your design. She really wants to meet you,” she said, her words fast and close together.

“Mom, she just got here,” Victor said.

“I was in Argentina for a little while.”

“Oh, you visited your mom? How was it? Did you have fun?” She pulled me toward the back of the house, and I was glad for the intrusion of whatever moment it was Victor and I were sharing. We couldn’t have those anymore, especially now that he’d clearly moved on. I hated my dad right now. Why would he call me and tell me all those things if Victor had clearly moved on? He should have just kept his mouth shut, then I would have never known that Victor had thought about me at all.

Hannah took me around the yard, introducing me to the people there, which was interesting in and of itself. Some of the people were artsy, painters and such, others were doctors, architects, housewives, you name it, they were at the party. I’d already met Oliver, so I said hi to him, and he introduced me to some of his friends. At least there were hot guys there. Maybe they’d help me keep my eyes off Victor.

I excused myself and walked back to the drink table to pick up a glass of wine.

“I’m assuming your dad told you we spoke,” Victor said, his voice making me shiver. I took a long sip of wine, hoping it would calm my nerves.

“He did.”

He put his right hand over the handle of the pirate sword sticking out of its holster. I couldn’t imagine how he thought he looked ridiculous. I’d never seen a sexier pirate in my life.

“What did he tell you?” he asked. I tore my gaze away from his hand, those long fingers of his, and looked back into his eyes. Big mistake.

“Are you going to cut off my tongue if I don’t tell you?” I asked, smirking. His gaze heated as quickly and my breath caught in my throat.

“I can think of more than a few things I’d like to do with your tongue. Cutting it off isn’t one of them,” he said, bringing the hand he had on the sword up to my hair, pushing some of it behind my ear. I closed my eyes as he adjusted the bandana I had on.

“I really don’t think it’s nice for you to say things like that,” I whispered, eyes still closed.

“Why?”

“Because you have a girlfriend, and I don’t think she’d appreciate it,” I said, opening my eyes to look at him. He frowned.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Really? You’re going to the ‘let me pretend I don’t have a girlfriend’ route while she’s here?” I paused to take another sip of wine and tipped my head a little to glare at him. “I’m not a good candidate for bullshit, Victor. I see right through it.”

He balked at me. “And as you know, I’m not good at practicing patience. What the f*ck are you talking about, Nicole?”

“Mia,” I said, a little louder than anticipated. His face morphed from confusion, to amusement, to anger, and back to amusement as he started to laugh.

“You’re f*cking insane.”

“Yeah, well—” I started. Before I could finish, he was pulling my hand and practically dragging me to where Mia was standing with Oliver and the hot guy crew. “Victor.”

“No,” he said, stopping in the middle of the yard to look back at me. “If you’re going to accuse me of something, you should have the sense to get your facts straight. Do you know how f*cking mad I am at you? Do you know . . .?” He stopped to take a deep breath before pulling me again. “We’ll discuss that later. Just . . . come.”

Oliver, Estelle’s husband, turned around with a frown. He pushed his long hair out of his face and looked between Victor and me.

“Everything okay?” hot guy number two said to our right.

“Mia, why are you here?” Victor asked, his voice strong.

Mia pulled a face. “I’m not sure I’m understanding the question.”

Hot guy number two, I was pretty sure his name was Jensen, hid his smile behind the bottle of beer in his hand.

“Jensen, stop f*cking laughing. Tell Nicole why Mia’s here,” Victor said.

Jensen started laughing and shaking his head, then Oliver joined in, and the other guy they were talking to followed.

“I told you,” Jensen said when he finally stopped laughing.

“No, I told you,” Oliver said.

“Fuck you. I said it first.” He paused, wiping his eyes and looking over at Mia. “Babe, what did I say about Victor last week?”

Babe? My eyes widened. Oh f*ck. No.

Mia frowned. “I don’t know, Jensen.”