Quit Playing Games

Chapter 45

Well, obviously she hadn’t called out Kevin’s name in her sleep. Kat was certain that if she had Nick would have kicked her out of the bed. Therefore, the fact that she was still in bed and not in a crumpled heap on the floor was a good sign.

Then she tried to sit up.

NOT a good idea.

So maybe the reason she was still in the bed was because Nick, who was sleeping next to her, had been too dead to the world to hear her. Either that or he’d been afraid that the thump of her ass hitting the floor would cause his head to pound. Lord knows her head was a throbbing mess.

How much had she drunk last night? She had lost track after three… Damn, she did not need this hangover. Had any one ever truly found a cure? And if they had could they bring it to her immediately… and quietly. There was always ‘the hair of the dog that bit her’ but even the hint of the idea was enough to make her gorge rise.

She stumbled to the washroom and groaned at the sight of herself. Her hair was in wild spikes all over the place and her makeup was smooshed over her face. Either that or she had the darkest circles she had ever seen under her eyes. As well as little crystals of sleep stuck in her eyelids.

Kat turned on the shower and leaned her forehead against the cold tiles as she adjusted the water temperature to something less than scalding but warmer than ice. What was it about hotel showers that they were either or? Screw it. Deep thought was not something she was up for this morning.

She climbed into the shower and let the warm water caress her aching body. It slowly started to massage feeling and alertness back into her body, stripping the fog of alcohol and sleep from her. God, it felt good. Cleansing her of all the smoke from the club, the sweat from the overabundance of people, the sweetness of the liquor, and finally the…

Wait a minute.

She peeked outside the shower to confirm her last thought then swore under her breath as she opened a bar of soap and started to scrub her worn body. A quick hair wash was also in order, though it ended up being two because the club had been that smoky and the last thing she wanted to smell like was a damp cigarette.

Nick was still asleep, and snoring loudly, when she emerged from the bathroom. She pulled on some underwear quickly as she catalogued the mess in the room with a few glances. It painted the picture clearly so her recollection wasn’t wrong.

“You little shit,” she muttered. Well, he wasn’t going to get away with it.

She walked over to the edge of the bed and glared at him as she swept the blankets off the bed to reveal a very naked Nick Carter. She got a good view of bare ghetto booty before he rolled over to reveal even more provocative pieces of anatomy.

“What the fuck!” he protested loudly as he sat up, then groaned heavily and clutched his head.

“No, YOU’re the fuck,” she replied angrily. “You little shit head. You promised!”

“What the hell are you shouting about?” he moaned. “And could you do it more quietly?”

“What am I talking about? How about this?” She bent down and picked something off the floor, flinging it at him.

He grabbed it as it hit his chest, looked at it and gave a high-pitched shriek as he flung it away. He stared at it as it hit the floor and then at his nakedness and her angry visage.

“We didn’t…”

“Well, it sure as hell looks like we did.”

“Oh fuck,” he muttered as he grabbed her pillow and placed it over his lap. “I… we…”

“Oh stop fucking stuttering, Nick. You lied to me. It’s Orlando all over again. You swore you wouldn’t take me there and you did.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Well, you swore you wouldn’t fuck me and you did. Jesus!”

“Look, Kat, I…” He sighed. “Do you think you could pass me my shorts? Please?”

She flung them at him in disgust and he clambered out and dressed quickly. When he turned back she had pulled her suitcase out of the closet and was dropping it on the corner of the bed.

“What are you doing?”

“Leaving,” she replied bitingly.

“No!” he protested as she opened a drawer and started dropping things into her suitcase. He grabbed her hand, but she used the other one to try and slap him. Fortunately the t-shirt in her hand made it more of a soft wallop than a slap.

“Ow! Damn it, Kat, would you listen to me?”

“What for? You just gonna spin me another tale? Make some more promises you aren’t going to keep?”

The tinge of hysteria in her voice scared him and he grabbed her around the waist, pulling her down on to the bed next to him. That only seemed to cause her to get angrier and he endured a few thumps and swearing before she calmed enough to listen to him.

“God, I really don’t need this and a hangover too,” he muttered when she finally quieted.

“Me neither,” she sneered. “’Cept I could add plastic surgery and a few other things to my list.”

He sighed. “Look, Kat I wish to hell I was sober enough to remember what happened last night, but I don’t. So what did happened?”

Kat opened her mouth and then closed it. She really didn’t want to admit that she couldn’t remember wither. That she had been just as sozzled as he. “Look around you. It’s pretty obvious what happened,” she replied belligerently.

“All I can see is…” He glanced down at the thing she had thrown at him. The used condom looked so flat and worn out as it lay there on the carpet. It told the story… but sure left a lot out.

“Isn’t that enough?”, she sniped.

“Hell, no! All I remember is doing body shots with you at the club.” He shook his head and then closed his eyes and whimpered at the way it made his brain feel, so he didn’t see Kat frown as she tried to remember. “God, I need aspirin,” he groaned.

“You need a two by four across the head,” Kat bit. “Or across other things.”

He winced at the thought then rose and stumbled to the bathroom. “You want? We were both a little gone…”

Kat wanted to shake her head, but her hangover was killing her. She mumbled a “yes,” then turned away. Damn hangover: it was what was making her act even angrier than she was. She just couldn’t even recall what had happened. And if she had had sex with the great Nick Carter you’d think she’d at least remember something…

Well, at least it was clear that something had happened. I mean, waking up and finding yourself naked in bed with an equally naked man… and a spent condom on the floor… well, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

Nick handed her a few small tablets and a glass of water, which she gulped them down quickly. Then she glared at him. “That was aspirin right? Not some knockout drug?”

He looked very pissed. “I have never had to resort to drugs to get a woman to go to bed with him.”

“Sure. Drugs no, but alcohol is a-okay.”

“Look, no one was forcing you to drink last night.”

“Gee, wonder who was buying all the stuff then.”

“Kat, come on,” he groaned in frustration. “Will you just tell me what happened.” He looked closely at her, this time catching the nervous flick of her eyes. “Holy shit. You can’t remember either!”

Kat nibbled on her lip, trying to think of some response.

“Then how the hell do you know it did happen?” he roared.

She glared at him and pointed at the evidence on the floor. “And as I recall someone wasn’t wearing a hell of a lot of clothes when he woke up.”

Nick flushed. “Were you?” he asked as her looked at her standing there in her underwear. Kat blushed and picked up a shirt and pulled it on quickly. “No,” she admitted.

“See? It was mutual,” he replied. “It had to be.”

Kat snorted. “Oh yeah, every woman is just dying to sleep with you. They fling their clothes off with out you even having to say word one. Get a fucking life, Carter. I NEVER wanted you so I am damn sure that I’d remember that no matter how much I had to drink.”

A knock sounded on the door and Brian poked his head in. “You two okay? We can hear the yelling out here.”

Nick yelled, “go away” but it was Kat’s sharp “fuck off” that made Brian jumped back and pull the door shut quickly.

“Don’t talk to him that way,” Nick shouted.

“Go to hell, Carter. It’s you and him and the rest of the bunch of yahoos you hang out with that got me into this mess and I want out of it,” she replied and resumed throwing stuff into her suitcase.

“You don’t mean that,” he retorted. “Remember? ‘Oh Kevin.’”

“No, I don’t damn well remember,” Kat replied as she pulled her few dresses from the closet and folded them haphazardly. “The only person’s word I have that it happened was yours and I am sure you can understand that your word means dick all to me right now.”

Nick watched her as she pulled on jeans and then started to close her suitcase. “You’re serious. You’re actually leaving.”

“Well, duh.”

“Jesus! Come on, neither of us can remember what the hell happened last night. For all we know this,” he picked up the condom, dropped it in the wastebasket and then wiped his fingers on his bedspread, “could have been there for some other reason.”

She stood back and folded her arms across her chest. “Like what? The last person here left it here? Or you just felt like jacking off into a condom?”

“Maybe,” he replied as color flamed up his body.

“Do you believe it?”

Nick shook his head.

“Yeah well, neither do I,” she said as she grabbed her suitcase and her jacket. “See you Carter. It’s been a slice.”

She pulled the door open and was met by four pairs of curious eyes. Brian sat as far away from the door as he could, looking chastened from his earlier interruption, while Kevin sat closest, smirking slightly. “Oh look, an audience,” she snarled. “Don’t you guys have anything better to do?”

AJ cleared his throat nervously. “Umm, we sort of share this living room.”

She snorted, remembering that in this hotel it was true. Damn. Wonder what else they may have heard…

“Well, in case you didn’t catch it, I’m leaving,” she turned and collided with Nick’s chest. At least this time it was clothed…

“Come on, please don’t do this,” he pleaded.

“Why Nick? You lied to me. You promised you wouldn’t…” she glanced at the others quickly, “do what you did. And then you go right ahead and do it. Shows how damn much your promises are worth,” she sneered.

“Yeah, well what about you?” he retorted. “You made promises too. You’re going to walk out on those, Jeanne?”

Jeanne. The little turd was pulling that into it after what he did! God, she wanted to tell him, and all the others in the room, exactly what she thought of that stupid game… But she couldn’t. Despite whatever had happened last night she still wasn’t going to let Brian know the depths of the deceit present in the room. Nick, on the other hand, was going to pay for that crack.

“I’ve made my commitment to that clear for a long time, Carter,” she replied evenly as dropped her suitcase and rubbed her nose and then her stomach. She knew Nick picked up on what she was insinuating because his face paled. “I asked for one promise from you and you decide to fuck around on it.” Oh good, he caught that one too. “THAT is why I am leaving.”

“Please don’t go,” he said, his eyes pleading. “I am sorry about what happened. It won’t happen again, I promise. Please don’t just walk out me like this. I need you.”

She snorted. “Nice line. Why not try it in a song?”

AJ chuckled, reminding her that there were others in the room. She glanced at them over Nick’s shoulder, but it was the look in Howie’s eyes that held her gaze. It was a wild look: a dark and depraved appearance. As if a fiend had taken over his soul and left nothing there in its place. It terrified her, freezing the breath in her lungs and draining the color from her face.

Nick wasn’t sure what had happened but the change in her was obvious and he did the only thing he could think of: he grabbed her and pulled her back into their bedroom, slamming the door.

Chapter 46

(c) Kat Morgan