That's Amore! - Janelle Denison [52]
"Finally I can steal a kiss." Nick snuck up behind her, his hands skimming over her hips, his mouth resting against her neck. Efi shouldered him away.
"Ouch." He moved to stand next to her, rubbing his chin where she'd connected in a satisfying way. "What was that for?"
While Aphrodite had disappeared upstairs the minute Nick and his parents had come inside, the damage had already been done. She might as well have been sitting at the dinner table with them, her long legs peeking through the strategic slit in her skirt, her hair sliding over her shoulder so she could push it back with sickening ease.
"Don't you think it a little convenient that Aphrodite just happened to be visiting your cousin Aspa and was on her way here just as you and your parents were leaving the house?"
Nick blinked at her as if he didn't have a clue what she was talking about.
"And just when did Aphrodite and your cousin become such good friends, anyway?"
Nick remained standing, staring at her as she mixed another batch of coffee and put the pan on the burner. When she looked at him, she found his handsome face holding a wide grin. "You're jealous."
Efi felt the tremendous urge to elbow him in the stomach. So she did.
But she got zero satisfaction out of his loud whoosh.
"I am not jealous," she lied. "I'm just watchful." She waggled her finger. "I don't trust that girl."
"Aphrodite says you've been close ever since you were young."
Sure, when she was a gangly scarecrow who was afraid of her own shadow. "Close being a relative term."
She felt Nick's arm around her waist again and resisted the urge to push him away again. "You really are jealous, aren't you?"
"Well, how would you feel if a great-looking guy jiggled his wares in front of my face and I wiped saliva from my chin as a result?"
Nick raised a brow and she made a face, silently admitting that the imagery wasn't the most effective she could have come up with.
She waved her hands. "I mean, you can't tell me you didn't notice she's got a killer body."
"I noticed. I am a man, after all."
"And, as a man, you, of course, have to appreciate the body's form because, after all, it is natural, right?"
His grin widened. "Hey, you can't ignore what's in front of you."
"And if Aphrodite stripped down in front of you, you wouldn't be able to ignore that either, right?"
Nick's grin disappeared. "Whoa. Now you're putting words into my mouth."
"No, I'm trying to help you notice the big foot you put into your own mouth." She turned from the stove and poked her finger to his chest. "Going by your reasoning, a guy is only a guy and just as he can't help looking if something's put in front of his face, neither can he resist sampling."
Nick held his hands up. "Okay, this is where I get off this ride."
"Oh, no you don't," she said, grasping his arm. "You're not going anywhere until we have this out."
"You're being irrational, Efi. There's nothing to have out until you're thinking more clearly."
"My thought processes are just fine, thank you very much. It's yours I'm having trouble understanding."
"What was I supposed to do earlier when she asked to ride back here with us? Tell her to walk?"
Efi was about to respond when the sound of raised voices from the other room interrupted her. She and Nick looked toward the closed kitchen door.
Had their parents heard them arguing?
Efi began to lead the way to the other room then remembered to take the coffee off the burner before it boiled over again. She pushed the wooden barrier slightly open as Nick watched from over her shoulder. Nick's mother practically had spittle on the sides of her mouth, while her father looked an inch away from using the butter knife he grasped in his hand.
"You go see what's going on," Efi told Nick. "I'll get the coffee."
But the moment they rejoined their parents, the room had fallen silent, everyone staring at the crumbs left over from dinner