Free Solving For Nic by Lexxi Callahan Page A

scanned the crowd. It took less than half a second for him to spot the girl clinging to his brother-in-law’s arm. Nic struggled for a second to keep his breathing easy. Her burnt red dress skimmed every curve of her small but perfect shape. The dress was covered in gold sequins that caught the light as she moved. Long loose curls spilled all around her shoulders and down her back. Her hair should have clashed with the slinky dress. Instead, she was a smoldering red coal reaching its peak temperature. His eyes narrowed on the slim fingers clinging to Rogan’s arm as Rogan swung her around.
    There was something off in the way Rogan was smiling at her while they danced much too close together. He didn’t believe Rogan would get involved with Lizzie but he didn’t like the way she leaned into him. They were too close. Rogan’s knee went between Lizzie’s legs and Nic's central nervous system went haywire. A long dormant hunting instinct stirred inside him as he watched the two dance. Nic was putting a stop to their little show. Right now.
    “Nic, are you listening to me?” Angie’s voice rose in alarm, he stepped forward.
    “No.” The word seethed from between his teeth. Every muscle in his body was poised to spring. He turned back to his sister and tried to keep his voice calm. “Will it help if I distract her from your husband?”
    Angie’s brittle smile wavered. “What are you thinking?”
    Evisceration was what Nic was thinking. He grabbed two glasses of champagne instead and handed one to his sister.
    “You let me worry about that. I’ll get her out of the way.”
    “How?” Concern laced her words. “You can’t run off with her.”
    Watch me. Nic thought, sipping his champagne. His hinges were coming loose but he didn’t care. Lizzie leaned into Rogan and his hand slipped too low on her hip. Evisceration might not be enough.
    “I don’t know what Ben is thinking.”
    Nic turned, blocking Angie's view. “You need to decide what you want. If you want him back, I'll remove her from the equation but if you do want a divorce, I’d rather not chew up and spit out such a pretty young thing for no good reason.” Well, at least not in front of everyone. One way or another, he was going to separate her from Rogan. What he did afterwards was up in the air. He knew what he wanted to do but the civilized part of his brain seemed to have rebooted and was now running on a backup generator.
    “Ask her to dance so I can talk to him?”
    “He’s your husband. You should walk down there and talk to him anyway.”
    She sighed. “It’s not that simple.”
    “It’s exactly that simple. Come on, I’ll show you.”
    He slid his arm around her waist and started across the ballroom.

    Lizzie watched Nic move through the crowd toward them. She eased into Rogan, no longer pretending to hang on him. “Nic’s here.”
    Rogan spotted his wife. Lizzie felt his body grow tight as he held on to her. She didn’t mind, she needed the support. Nic was staring straight at her and a laser beam cutting her in half would have been less painful.
    Okay, it was possible her plan had backfired.
    It was like being circled by a shark. A hot shark and a dangerous predator Lizzie had no defense against. In fact, she wouldn’t mind being lunch or dinner. She wanted to fling herself at him and let him devour her. It was the reason she existed. Who was she to fight the universe?
    Except as he approached, something cold trickled down her spine. He was all cool, elegance again. Not an emotion in sight.
    She’d expected him to be angry. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Ice rained over her, freezing all her crazy emotions in place. An unexpected calm settled over her as bored brown eyes swept over her.
    She hadn’t been a blip on his radar. He hadn’t tried to get in touch with her because he hadn’t thought twice about her. Her vertebrae froze solid and without warning, instead of bursting into tears she lit up like Christmas