“I didn’t see you at first and thought there’d been a mix-up on the time,” he was saying to Nadia.
“Your timing couldn’t be more perfect.”
She scooted from behind the table and, to Noah’s dismay, walked into Blume’s embrace. They locked lips. When the kiss ended, she affectionately patted his necktie back into place.
Blume appraised her from hat to heels. “You look positively gorgeous.”
“I’m glad you think so. I bought the ensemble with you in mind.”
“Sensational.”
His compliment caused her to simper in a coquettish way that was totally unlike Nadia. Blume was stroking her waist with suggestive familiarity. Her pelvis was tilted against his, a specialty of Nadia’s that made a man think of nothing except his dick and planting it inside her.
For all the attention they were paying him, Noah might just as well have been one of the pop art paintings on the wall. His whole body throbbed with anger. And something else, something rare to him—humiliation. People had noticed that Nadia was now snuggling with Blume. He’d lost the most popular girl at the party to a bloodless, bald geek.
“Ready for a drink, darling?” she asked him.
“You read my mind. You always do.”
Nadia signaled the waiter, who scurried over and took Blume’s order. She didn’t return to sit beside Noah on the banquette, but took the chair Blume was holding for her. They now faced him across the table.
She sat as close to Blume as possible without actually sharing the same chair. Her breast was making itself cozy beneath his arm. Blume’s hand was on her thigh—high on her thigh. Proprietary.
Noah was certain that these public displays of affection were for his benefit. Nadia was being deliberately seductive. She was gloating. It made him want to reach across the table and slap the shit out of her.
She had set him up. She had planned this little scenario. He had called her on his drive back from Massachusetts—following that pathetic attempt of Maris’s to incriminate him—and had invited her to join him this evening. “We’re free to be seen together now,” he had told her.
Nadia had been her sexy self, every word suggestive, every breath an erotic promise. She had named the time and place as though she couldn’t wait to see him. Instead, he’d walked into a goddamn female trap.
Okay. If she wanted to flaunt her new boyfriend in front of him, fine. It didn’t change anything—except that her sex life would take a severe downward plunge. Judging by Blume’s pallid coloring, getting blood to his penis would be a chore.
After thanking the waiter for his drink, Blume turned to Noah. “My secretary told me that you called today requesting a meeting.”
“That’s right. In light of my recent family tragedy—”
“My condolences, by the way.”
“Thank you.” He brushed an invisible speck off the cuff of his shirt. “Daniel’s death imposed a temporary postponement of our schedule. Now we’re able to pick up where we left off. You’re going to be very pleased by the developments that have taken place since we last spoke. What’s your schedule like tomorrow?”
“I really don’t see the need for a meeting now.”
“Now” was a troubling adverb. “Now” indicated that circumstances had undergone a change. Noah avoided looking at Nadia and kept his features carefully schooled. “Why is that?”
“Noah and I were getting to this when you joined us, Morris,” Nadia said. “Apparently there’s been some confusion.” She gave Noah a pained look. “I’m terribly embarrassed.”
“Well, since I seem to be the only one in the dark here, perhaps you’ll enlighten me.”
She glanced toward Blume as though asking his advice, but he merely shrugged. Pulling her lower lip through her teeth, she turned back to Noah. “I thought someone would have told you by now. Out of respect for Daniel, I’ve been sitting on this story for a week.”
Noah was growing uncomfortably warm inside his clothes. One martini couldn’t account for the sweat trickling down his ribs. He felt like a man about to hear the result of a biopsy on testicular tissue. “What story?”
Taking center stage, Nadia readjusted herself even closer to Blume. “Out of the blue, Daniel Matherly invited me to his house for breakfast. It was the same morning you left for the country. Who could have guessed that your retreat would end so tragically? I wish I’d had the foresight then to urge him not to go.” She looked squarely at Noah and let that sink in.
“Anyhow,” she said, shaking her head slightly as though to get back on track, “he gave me a scoop, but asked me to sit on it for a few days, at least until Maris returned from Georgia.”
Blume was gazing at Nadia as though he might begin sucking on her neck at any moment. She was absently stroking the back of his hand still resting on her thigh. Noah forced himself to smile. “You still haven’t told me the nature of this exclusive story.”
“Daniel appointed Maris as chairman and CEO of Matherly Press. I thought perhaps Daniel would tell you while you were away together in the country. No? Well… he probably thought it only fair that Maris be informed first.”