Read In the Teeth of the Wind for Free Online Page B

was too busy getting drunk."
    Nolan was sitting at one of the tables with his head in his hands when Rhianna joined him. The aspirin
    were lying on the table before him. She took one look at the picture of misery he painted and her lips
    twitched with disgust. His slacks were wrinkled and she was almost sure they were the same ones he'd
    worn the day before. Dotted with pills of lint, the turtleneck sweater looked as though it hadn't been worn
    in several years; a rip ran along the right shoulder seam. His black loafers were scuffed and in need of
    polishing.
    "Must have been one hell of a night, Nolan."
    At the sink, she got a paper cup, filled it with tap water and then dropped in the two Alka-Seltzer
    tablets. The mist of the dissolving disks sprayed her hand as she carried it to the table and set it in front of
    Conor. "Here you go, but don't take the aspirin."
    "Thank you."
    She noted the trembling in his hand as he took up the cup and tilted his head back to drain the
    bubbling liquid. His pallor alarmed her, as did the tremor in his hands, and the way he kept his eyes
    closed behind the barrier of the dark glasses told her the over head fluorescent light must be barely
    tolerable.
    "Are you all right?" Compassion was absent in her soft Southern voice.
    The effort to nod was nearly his undoing and Conor sucked in his breath at the pain the movement
    brought to his throbbing head. "I would be if the damned room would stop spinning," he muttered.
    Pushing the cup aside, he laid his head down on his arms, turned his face away from the light streaming in
    through the windows, and took deep breaths to ease the nausea threatening to erupt.
    Rhianna was more angry than concerned now. The asshole had all the symptoms of a classic
    hangover. "I understand about last night, Nolan."
    He lifted his head and looked up at her through the curtain of dark glasses. "Last night?" Confusion
    strained his voice. "What about last night?"
    "Hey, it's no big deal, see? If you didn't want to come over, that's okay. I can accept that. I just wish
    you'd called to tell me you weren't coming." She lifted one slim shoulder in nonchalance. "That's all right,
    too. I'm not your keeper."
    He straightened up in the chair, his pallid face flushing with color. "Oh, damn, Rhianna. I'm sorry!"
    "I understand! It didn't mean anything to you. We got caught up in something in here yesterday. I don't
    know what, but it got out of hand, you know? Neither one of us ever expected anything like that and
    now we regret it."
    "Baby, I don't know what to say."
    "It's kosher, okay?" She made herself put her hands on his shoulders. "You thought about it and
    realized that it wasn't right. You probably went to a bar, had a few too many." She laughed. "A lot too
    many from the looks of you. Time got away from you and you went home snockered." As she spoke,
    she massaged his shoulders. "Let's just forget it happened, okay?"
    Nolan turned in the chair, caught one of her hands and held it. "Baby, listen, I don't know what
    happened to me last night. I've never done that kind of thing before and I'm not ever going to let it
    happen again. She didn't mean a thing to me. Honest."
    "It's okay!" she told him, her eyes wide. So he had been with another woman. That shouldn't surprise
    her, but it hurt her deeply this time.
    Even as he moved to get up, she backed away from him. "Rhianna, I can explain."
    "There's no need." She held up a hand to keep him at bay. "Jeez, Nolan, we're both adults here, aren't
    we?" She swung her attention to the door where Trip was standing, crooking a finger for her. "Look, I've
    got to go."
    "Not before we get this straight," Nolan said. He looked pointedly at Triplett. "Can we have some
    privacy?"
    "We've got an interview," Trip told him. "Come on, Marek."
    "Not yet!" snapped Nolan.
    "Gotta go," said Rhianna.
    "Baby, please," Nolan pleaded with her, then turned an angry face to her partner. "Damn it, Trip, will
    you go wait in the car?"
    Trip