Chapter 9 #2
Niko had always thought of himself as a man with a highly developed sense of self-preservation.
He’d survived Yaya’s experimental old-country home remedies, dodgeball at Costas family reunions, and coaches who drove grown men to tears and therapy.
He was unflappable, unshakable, and a glutton for every kind of torment, except the emotional kind.
But the second his lips met Tiana’s, the scaffolding of his identity crumbled like a sandcastle in the tide.
There wasn’t just heat, though there was a lot of heat, the kind that made the tips of his ears tingle and his knees threaten to buckle, there was an actual full-body paralysis.
If he’d been standing on the edge of a cliff, he would have toppled over with no awareness of the void beneath.
If a meteor had obliterated Main Street in that instant, he would have died happy and blissfully ignorant.
The world existed only in the microscopic space between their mouths and the way Tiana’s breath hitched against his cheek when he tilted his head a little to the left to give him better access to her.
He’d planned for a symbolic, scenery-setting PR stunt of a kiss. What he got instead was a supernova detonating in his skull, a rupture in the spacetime continuum reconfiguring all his previous ideas about desire.
Her mouth was soft against his but insistent, demanding, lips slick and warm as they moved together. The heat of her tongue sent electricity down his spine, her mouth working against his with bruising pressure. Her lips were fever-hot, the slide of her tongue against his turning his knees to water.
She made a small noise in the back of her throat, half-sigh, half-growl, that vibrated between them, causing every cell in his body to light up with awareness.
Their breathing had gone ragged, quick gasps stolen between the collision of run-on kisses.
A deep, guttural moan ripped from his chest, which should have embarrassed him but only made him pull her closer, his arms tightening around her.
Tiana responded with a fierceness so raw that it caused him to lose any sense of self-control.
Where he expected resistance, he found her matching him, tongue against tongue, her body arching to close the gap, her hands clutching at his coat in a desperate, greedy fist. He had a flash, a cinematic split-second, of what it would be like to have her like this forever, this woman who was wary of letting anyone in, who wore her independence like chainmail, now pressed head-to-toe against him, making noises that shorted out all the higher functions of his brain.
He couldn’t remember ever being kissed like this, like someone was starving and he was the only thing that could stave off hunger, like this moment was the only one that mattered and every previous kiss in his life was just rehearsal.
Dimly, through the blood roaring in his ears, he registered that they were in public, on a sidewalk in full view of Brewed Awakenings’ broad front window, and possibly a passing church group or a flock of impressionable children.
But he couldn’t bring himself to care. The world had faded to grayscale—no Golden Years, no Brock and Gianna, no strategy or ruse, or even the possibility of his own humiliation.
There was only the taste of Tiana, coffee, citrus lip balm, the faintest trace of wintergreen from her last breath mint, and the way her hair tangled in his fingers as he deepened the kiss, unable to stop himself even if he’d wanted to.
Someone cleared their throat loudly behind him, and a deep voice sounded, “Excuse me.”
The man’s request broke through the fog that Niko was floating in, causing him to reluctantly break the kiss, lifting his head up.
The moment their lips were no longer touching, reality came crashing down around him.
He realized where he was, what he was doing, and why he’d just kissed Tiana Matthews.
He gently guided her to the side, allowing the man who cleared his throat to pass.
Her eyes lifted up to his, heavy lidded.
If someone gave her a roadside sobriety test, he wasn’t convinced she would pass.
Her raspberry lips were swollen, and every cell in his body was alive with the knowledge that he’d been the one to make her look drunk and branded with his kiss.
Knowing that they still had an audience, he lowered his forehead down and rested it on hers. “I had to make an audible, we had an audience. We still do.”
“What?” she asked as her breaths came in short pants, sounding dazed and confused.
He moved to press a soft kiss to her neck, not because he needed to, just because he wanted to, before he whispered in her ear. “Brock. He’s at the corner table looking out the window watching us.” Then he returned his head to press against hers.
“Oh, right.” She nodded her head against his forehead, both their breaths still coming in short pants. “Okay, yeah.”
“Are you good?” Niko couldn’t help but grin at the difference in her entire being. “Ready?”
She licked her lips, still breathless as she blinked and nodded.
“Alright.” He pressed one more soft, chaste kiss on her mouth. The kiss he’d intended the first to be. Then reluctantly straightened and opened the door, allowing her to enter first.
He kept his hand on her back as they walked in, and he scanned the space. He saw Zion, who stood immediately, waving his hand, and next to him Karina’s face lit up as she extended her arms.
As they headed towards their friends, Niko heard a familiar asshole’s voice.
“Tiara.”
Niko felt Tiana tense beside him. He wondered if he’d purposefully called her Tiara, if it was a nickname, or if it was some psychological negging situation, like he’d gotten it wrong on purpose.
Tiana turned her attention to the corner where her ex was seated with Gianna, and Niko did as well.
When he glanced over he saw Gianna was taking photos of her drink as well as selfies.
He didn’t miss that, the constant photo taking.
At first he hadn’t minded being an “Instagram Boyfriend” and taking photos of G.
He’d appreciated the attention not being on him for a change.
But after a while, it got old and repetitive.
He wanted to live in the moment, not constantly be trying to get the right lighting and angles, and he definitely didn’t miss his partner’s moods being determined by how many likes or shares a post got.
As they walked closer to the corner, Niko could feel Tiana’s entire body shaking. Underneath his breath, without moving his mouth, he whispered, “You’re good. I’ve got you.”
He had no clue if she heard him or not. It was a volume he only ever used with his twin, who could hear him. He was surprised when he felt her body relax as she exhaled.
“Hi,” Tiana said brightly as they approached the table.
“Hey, G,” he greeted his ex.
For the first time Gianna glanced up from her phone. The second her eyes lifted, she did a double take at the fact he had his arm around Tiana. “Niko, what are you…” Her eyes bounced between Tiana and Niko. “Wait…are you two…?”
“No,” Brock refuted the inquiry, staring directly at Tiana with a look Niko didn’t like one bit, a look that said, You belong to me, you are my property.
Niko’s hand wrapped even further around Tiana’s hip. His fingers dug into her flesh as he tucked her more firmly against his side. He noticed Brock’s jaw tic as he did so.
“We’ve been together for a while.” Niko glanced down at Tiana, who appeared to be staring at Gianna’s coffee order as if it was the eighth wonder of the world.
“We’re just keeping it private because I think we both realized right away that what we have is so different, so special.
Honestly, I don’t want to share her, to share this, what we have, with the world.
I want to protect it.” Niko glanced at Gianna, then looked directly at Brock.
“I will do anything to protect it, protect her, and what we have.”
Brock looked like he was about to lose his shit as he slowly rose to a standing position.
Before Brock was able to respond, Zion and Karina interrupted the unhappy reunion.
Karina slipped her arm through Tiana’s. “Hey, are you guys ready?”
Zion stepped between Brock and Niko. “Hate to interrupt, but we are going to be late if we don’t leave now.”
Karina smiled down at Niko’s ex. “Nice meeting you, Rhiann—”
“Gianna,” G corrected Karina.
“Right, sorry, Gianna.” Karina touched her chest and played it off as if she had genuinely made a mistake, but Niko could tell it was a power play.
Niko’s blood was boiling as Zion shifted his body, basically boxing him out so he had to turn and head towards the door. He wasn’t sure what Zion’s initial “plan” had been, but he was 99.9% certain he’d improvised once he’d seen Brock stand up.
As the foursome stepped outside into the crisp mountain air, Niko could feel himself vibrating with unspent anger.
Brock hadn’t done anything overtly egregious, but his demeanor, the look in his eye, and the ownership he seemed to feel he still had over Tiana made Niko want to pound his head against the wall.
He thought he’d hated Brock Bartlett in college. His level of disdain for the man had just amplified by a million.
“Well, that escalated quickly,” Zion remarked as the group rounded the corner of Brewed so that they were no longer visible in the large glass windows. “I thought for sure blood was going to be spilt.”
“Would have been fine by me.” Niko forced his shoulders to relax as his hands fisted.
“What was your plan? Why did you ask us to go there?” Tiana asked.
Karina lifted her hands up in front of her.
“That was my fault. When I saw how much of a fan Gianna was, I thought if you came in and I made a big deal about how amazing your classes are, which they are, by the way, that would start things off by showing them that they can come to your town, but your town has your back. I figured seeing them on your terms would be better than them ‘randomly’ running into you on his terms.”
Tiana nodded. “It was a good call. It probably was better.”
Karina turned to Niko and swatted him playfully in the chest. “I didn’t expect Hot Lips Houlihan over here to play 7 Minutes in Heaven before you even walked into the shop.”
Niko wasn’t going to apologize for the best kiss of his life. If he had to do it over, he would. In fact, he wished he could do it over and over and over and over and over and over again.
“That definitely changed the tone of the reunion,” Karina said pointedly towards Niko, “but at least it’s behind you.”
Tiana inhaled slowly through her nose and exhaled through her mouth.
“Are you okay?” Karina touched Tiana’s arm.
Niko was hoping they were at the wrapping up portion of the debrief and that Karina and Zion would move along to whatever they had planned for the rest of their evening. All Niko wanted to do was get Tiana alone and make sure she was okay from seeing Brock, from Gianna, and from their kiss.
Tiana exhaled once more and nodded.
“Are you coming to book club tonight?” Karina asked hopefully.
Tiana blinked as if she’d totally forgotten there was a book club, then nodded.
“I’m going to go grab an appetizer tray from Sue Ann’s and a couple things from the grocery store, I’d love some company,” Karina invited her.
“Okay, yeah, sure.”
Niko’s heart dropped. It seemed dinner tonight was not going to happen.
“See you guys.” Karina lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss Zion’s cheeks. He stood an impressive six-foot five, so she needed every inch her tiptoes gave her.
Niko did his best to mask the disappointment he felt that he would not be able to make sure Tiana was good, but he was glad she wasn’t going to be alone.
He wasn’t convinced that if Zion and Karina had taken off, she wouldn’t have just ditched him, claiming to need time to think.
This way, at least he knew she was going to be surrounded by friends for the next three to four hours.
He’d heard of the infamous Hope Falls Book Club, and it sounded to him much more like a wine social club than a discussion of literary works, which was most likely exactly what Tiana needed.
While Karina was giving her Hollywood kisses to Zion, Tiana lifted her gaze to Niko. It was the first time since their kiss that she’d looked at him directly in the eyes. The moment their eyes met, he felt a shudder run through him.
She licked her lips and grinned. “Thanks.”
“For what?” he asked, his voice a little deeper than it typically was.
A blush tinted her cheeks. “Everything.”
Shit. Had she just gotten flushed because she was thanking him for the kiss? As he watched Karina and Tiana walk arm in arm down the sidewalk, his mind was dissecting what else could have caused her cheeks to flush.
“Soooooo, this relationship is fake, huh?” Zion questioned skeptically.
Niko blinked over at him. “What?”
“Exactly.” Zion turned and whistled as he walked away.