"Goodnight Leonard," Nina said softly, and she felt sorry for the guy. He looked a bit... Embarrassed and she couldn't blame him. Who wouldn't feel that way when Julian was glaring at them like that. And as for Julian, what the hell was he doing in her apartment.
She ignored his frowning face and brushed past him into the apartment. She was about to walk to her room when Abby came out of hers.
"Oh my God, where the hell have you been?" Abby asked her, pulling her into her arms to hug her. "We have been calling and texting too. I was getting worried. Why didn't you pick your calls?"
"I'm sorry honey" Nina replied. "I went out for some drinks, and I got carried away. Kinda lost track of time and my phone was in my bag. I put it on silent at the office and forgot to turn it back on. I'm sorry I made you worry"
"It's alright...," Abby began to say, but she paused, "Wow, did you drink the entire bar"
Nina laughed.
"Are you drunk?" Abby asked her.
"Nope"
Abby glared at her and she laughed again.
"Okay, maybe a little bit" Abby replied, then she leaned closer and whispered into Abby's ear, "But don't tell anyone. That would be so embarrassing". Although it wasn't really a whisper because it was loud and Julian could hear her clearly.
It was kind of funny, and if he wasn't very angry about the man who had just brought her home, he would have laughed.
He moved forward and took her bag from her, then he nodded to Abby. "I think I will take it from here" he said, his voice a bit hoarse.
Abby nodded and walked back toward her room.
Nina turned to him. "I'm fine, Julian. I don't need your help" she said. "I might be a little tipsy, but not too tipsy to know that I definitely don't want to be anywhere around you"
He ignored her comment and placed her hand on the small of her back. Despite what she'd just said, Nina let him guide her towards her room. When they were both inside, she took her bag from him and dropped it on her table.
"I'm inside my room now, Julian," she said. "It was very nice of you to make sure I made it inside my room safely. Thank you very much for your concern. But you can leave now please"
She sat on the edge of the bed and kicked off her shoes. She buried her face in hands for a while and when she looked up, he was just standing there, watching her, both hands in his pockets.
She stood up. "Please leave Julian. I can't do this right now... Whatever this is... Because I don't know what it is"
He took a step closer to her, but stopped, as if he didn't trust himself to be too close to her and she was grateful for it. She didn't trust herself around him either because somehow she seemed to always make bad decisions when it came to him.
"Alcohol... Getting drunk... Or tipsy.. Whatever you called it... I gotta say that's a part of you I haven't seen before" he said finally.
Nina said nothing, but simply stared at him. Like Camille had said, the thing about alcohol is that it made good decisions seem like bad ones, and to her utter dismay, she found herself wondering if it would be such a bad idea to grab him and kiss him. Or if she'd let him kiss her if he made a move. She knew she'd definitely missed kissing him. But of course that was definitely a bad idea... This was the alcohol talking, and she had to stay focused, she told herself.
She had to tilt her head back to look into his gorgeously chiseled face. Much to her dismay, he looked devastating and breath-takingly handsome, with his dark hair and strong, muscular physique. And she was sure she didn't look her best right now. She hated that.
His worn jeans fit snugly against trim hips. The sleeves of his black shirt were rolled up, revealing tanned forearms laced with dark hair. His dark hair was pulled back into a tie at the base of his neck.
He held his powerful body absolutely still as his dark eyes raked slowly over her.
Nina's breath disappeared from her lungs. She felt vulnerable and exposed, like a hapless gazelle beneath a lion’s lazy gaze. She felt the restrained hunger of a well-fed predator who had absolute confidence in his power over her. Right now she wanted him to just leave so she could take a shower and then sleep all these off, but Julian didn't take the cue.
"Who was he? The guy you came home with? The one holding you so close that I had to keep myself from punching?" He asked the last question like it pained him just to get the words out.
Nina glared at him. "It's none of your business Julian" she said. "You are not my dad...or any shit like that. You have no right to ask me that"
"Well I don't care. I'm asking anyway" he said. "Who was he?"
Something snapped inside her... Something crazy. It was definitely crazy because the next words that came out of her mouth were crazy, and she didn't even know what made her say them.
"He was my date," she said casually, and began to slip her jacket off her shoulders.
Julian stared at her for a few seconds like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard, and she knew it was kind of evil, but she enjoyed those few seconds more than she cared to admit. The man had to understand that he couldn't just come into her room and ask her questions like that.
"You were on a date with this man?" he asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
She stood her ground. "Yes," she replied. She dropped the jacket on her reading chair and then proceeded to remove her earrings.
"A date huh?" Julian said slowly, his voice still quiet. "Well, I didn't know that we were seeing other people, Nina"
She turned to him. "Well, we are not seeing each other... So I figured it's okay for me to see other people... Not that it's any of your business though"
He closed his eyes and opened them again, like he was trying real hard to control himself. "I know that we are not together, Red, but it's not even been up to three weeks, and you're already going on dates, letting him bring you home.... Letting him.... Touch you"