Vamoose! She didn’t need Cameron butting in. She was in total control.
Wasn’t she? Well, yes, except for the desire to drag Nick off the dance floor and have her wicked way with him in the backseat of a car parked at the far edge of the lot.
That part of it was all Wendy’s need. Despite what had happened to her in a backseat, she still wanted Nickie.
Instead of slipping her arms around his neck, Max clutched Nick’s hard biceps and the rough material of his shirt. He wasn’t dressed like the rest of the men in the bar. He wore work clothes much the same as he had at the airport. Denim shirt, worn jeans, and tan, beaten-up, steel-toed work boots. His features were lean with a masculine ruddiness, unlike colorless Hal. Nick was tall; even wearing heels, Max had to lean back to look in his face as he spoke.
Wendy had loved that sensation.
“And you think you know what happened?” he taunted.
“Only her killer knows for sure.”
Again, that mirthless smile, and a slight tightening of his muscles against her. “I take it you’ve decided I did it.”
“You were her lover.” Dying for confirmation, she stated instead of asked. Any sign of weakness on her part would give him the one-up.
“You think you know everything, don’t you?”
“I know enough, Nick. I was her friend.”
“Try again. Her husband didn’t allow Wendy to have friends.”
“You seem to know a lot about their marriage, Nickie.”
“Did you know she’d left him?”
Everything stopped inside her, the blood in her veins, the breath in her lungs, even the rush of sexual heat. “Did he know?”
A slow, knowing sneer spread across Nick’s face. “Like you, Hal Gregory thought he knew everything about Wendy.”
“But she surprised him?”
“I don’t think he quite knew how to take it. If he had, he’d never have let her out of the house that day.”
“This gives you motive, doesn’t it?”
“This gives Hal motive.”
She tipped her head to one side. “But Wendy made demands on you, didn’t she, Nickie?” It wasn’t even a guess.
“I know how to deal with a demanding woman.”
By killing her? “If you know all this, you’ve proven you saw her that last night.”
“It was you I saw that night.”
A chill spread over her skin. The crawling sensation along her neck and the flush of fear and shame on her skin were completely her own, nothing to do with Wendy. “What are you talking about?”
“I saw you.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
“No way.” She had been to the Round Up Monday night, but only briefly, then she’d left again. Alone. She had to admit she didn’t always leave alone. Once in awhile...God, she couldn’t ignore the overwhelming, unstoppable, unquenchable need to feel a real touch. She loved Cameron, she needed him, but his touch was only real when she closed her eyes and sometimes, she had to have it eyes wide open.
“I’ve seen you before. When I’ve come in for a drink with a few of the boys from Hackett’s.”
Max swallowed hard. She’d never noticed Nick at the Round Up. She’d certainly never noticed him watching her go for the conquest.
Her hands turned frigid. Her nipples shriveled inside her white cotton shirt. All her dirty little secrets seemed to be unraveling. First with Witt Long and what happened the night Cameron left her, now with this man and her...extra-curricular activities.
Max shrugged, feigning indifference. “I like to dance.”
“And you always leave with a different guy.” He tipped her left hand, looked down at the ring on her finger. “What does your husband think of that?”
Not always. He made it sound sordid. Okay, it was sordid, but even before the words were out of her mouth, she hated them. She didn’t need to explain. “He’s dead.”
God, how horribly easy it was becoming to say that word. The effortlessness scared the crap out of her.
Until death do you part. Though Cameron was dead, they’d never parted, but he could only love her in her dreams. Sometimes she ran to the Round Up to pretend it was him.
Liar. She ran to the Round Up to feel someone real.
Nick’s nostrils flared as he took in a breath, his lips twisted. “I’m sorry.”
She’d succeeded in surprising him. Damn him, she didn’t want a sympathetic glance from those pale, understanding eyes. “What did your wife think about your little affair?”
“I’m not married. Not anymore.”
“You were when it started. So was Wendy.”
“The state of my marriage doesn’t have a bearing on this.”
“Like hell it doesn’t.” She tossed her head when he glared down at her. “What about Wendy’s marriage?”
“Leaving that ass was the best thing she could have done.”
“Except that she got killed the night she did it.”