Touch Me Not (Manwhore, #1)(67)
“No.” Nikoli sat back when the waitress came to set down their food. He waited for her to take Kade’s massive order that had Lily scrunching her nose in disgust before asking, “So what are you doing here, Kade?”
“Your serial killer.” Kade’s usual carefree face was serious for once. “The Boston PD called, and we were sent to do what we can to help catch the guy.”
“Called?” Lily asked.
“I’m Special Agent Kade Kincaid,” he said. “I’m a member of the BAU…”
“The Behavioral Analysis Unit,” Lily finished for him, and Nikoli sighed. Lily was a true fan of the show Criminal Minds. She could watch that show for hours when the reruns came on. Truthfully, it had grown on Nikoli too. He found himself watching it even when Lily wasn’t around.
Kade gave Lily his best ‘come here and let me hit that’ grin. Nikoli turned so he could look his brother dead in the eyes. “No.”
Kade’s eyebrows shot up again. Nikoli knew how territorial he was being and how unusual it was for him, but he’d be damned if he sat here and watched his brother flirt with his girlfriend.
He saw Lily shake her head out of the corner of his eye, and he shot her a glare. “I mean it, Kade. Hands off my girlfriend.”
“Your what?” Kade spewed his coffee across the table and right onto Lily, who let out a dismayed gasp. Coffee stains covered her t-shirt.
“Girlfriend.” Nikoli leaned over to wipe the coffee off Lily with a napkin. She looked so shocked at his use of the dirty word, girlfriend. She was his until he broke up with her after Miami. Or until she said yes to Boy Wonder, whichever came first. A brick settled in Nikoli’s stomach at the thought. Damn, he wanted to hit something.
“You don’t do girlfriends,” Kade sputtered.
“I do now,” Nikoli growled. “Apologize to Lily Bells.”
Kade stared at her with his mouth open, and Lily suppressed the urge to laugh. The man looked like he’d been kicked in the teeth at the thought of his little brother having an honest to goodness girlfriend. So funny.
“Sorry,” he muttered at last, confused and frowning. It was all she could do to keep from smiling at his so Nikoli-ish look. She’d seen it on Nikoli’s face a lot the last month or so. If he hadn’t been so blasé about Adam this morning, she might have actually thought he cared. Nikoli confused her. He acted like he didn’t want her, and then he went and told his brother she was his girlfriend.
It was seriously pissing her off, to be honest. She loved the idiot, and he couldn’t seem to make up his mind about what she was to him. Lily knew deep down Nikoli would never be hers, but moments like this gave her hope that maybe she was wrong, maybe he did feel something for her. God, she wanted him to feel something for her. Needed it more than she needed anything else. And it scared her because she was going to be so broken when this ended.
“So, Lily, are you a senior or…?” Kade left the question hanging and brought Lily out of her dire thoughts.
“Senior.” She smiled. “I graduate at the end of this semester.”
“Same as Nik,” Kade said. “What’s your major?”
“English,” she told him. “I’m going to be working at a literary agency in New York when I graduate. They’ve already offered me the job.”
“So you’ll be working with authors? Not an author yourself?”
“Oh, I am an author,” she said, smiling. “My novel is almost done. When I finish and revise it, I’m going to try to get published.”
“You’re writing a book?” Nikoli asked. “You didn’t tell me.”
“No, I didn’t,” she agreed. “I don’t tell you everything, Kincaid.”
“Apparently,” he growled, and Lily laughed. He was in full testosterone mode this morning. “What’s it about?”
“None of your business,” she said, laughter brimming in her eyes. She knew it would drive him nuts until he found out. If he only knew…she shook her head. He’d read it eventually and understand what she wanted to say to him. It was their story. She’d write the ending once they’d ended things. That was all that was missing from their story.
“Why don’t you want to tell me?”
Kade said, “Writers don’t normally share their work until it’s published. Something about needing their privacy.”
“And how would you know that?” Nikoli asked.
“I dated a writer for about a week.” Kade popped a piece of sausage into his mouth. “She got all pissy when I peeked at what she was writing.”
“That sounds about right,” Lily agreed. “Come near mine and you’ll get hurt.”
“Come on now, Lily Bells,” Nikoli wheedled. “Let me read it.”
“No.”
“Just the first chapter?”
“No.”
“Leave it be, Nikoli,” Kade said. “She’ll hurt you. Don’t you see that gleam in her eye that says she’s ready to stab you with her fork?”
“Lily wouldn’t hurt me,” Nikoli scoffed.
“Wanna bet?” Lily asked, remembering his blasé attitude earlier.
This time it was Nikoli’s turn for his eyebrows to shoot up. Ah, he was finally getting the message of how pissed she was. He probably had no clue why, but he didn’t need to know why, only that she was.