Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Nikolett was floating on puffy clouds of post-orgasm happiness when Regina knocked on the still-partially open door.
“There’s a Scottish man holding flowers at the door.”
Two minutes later, Nikolett spun around, scanning the bedroom as she tried to pull her hair back into a bun, then realized she didn’t have a hair tie and let it go. “I can’t find my underwear.”
Eric was sitting on the floor, back against the bed, holding his nose. He claimed she’d broken it when she attempted to jump from the bed, after Regina’s knock, but given that Eric’s head was still between her legs at the time, it hadn’t worked out well for his nose.
She grabbed her pants, checking to see if her underwear was inside them, then whipped around to look at Eric. “You have my panties, don’t you?”
He dropped his hand from his nose—there wasn’t even any blood—and grinned.
Giving up on the underwear, she pulled on her pants.
“Get up. Wait, actually, stay there.” She stepped over Eric to grab her phone off the bed. She’d already checked it once, but now confirmed that she hadn’t missed a reply text due to the power of Eric’s mouth. Gus hadn’t texted back; he’d just shown up.
“Eric, Nikolett.” Regina was back, knocking once on their door, her voice both urgent and resigned.
“Coming,” she replied, trying to back away from the bed, but Eric had wrapped an arm around her calf.
“I’m going to need a minute,” Eric said, kissing her thigh before releasing her.
Nikolett crouched, looking at his nose. She assumed he’d been joking about her breaking it. There was no blood or…
Eric pointed at his crotch. At his very large, very obvious erection.
Nikolett shouldn’t be needy—she’d just come twice, thanks to his mouth. But she wanted to ignore everything, open his pants, slide onto his lap, and bounce on that lovely hard dick.
“You looking at me like that isn’t going to help.”
Nikolett forced herself to stand.
“Hearing you talk to another man might,” Eric grumbled.
“If he’s here…Gus isn’t the Spaniard.”
The panic of being interrupted had stopped her from thinking through the implications until now.
“Should you…hide?” Nikolett asked Eric as she headed for the bedroom door. “Maybe I should…”
She wasn’t sure what she should do. She’d convinced herself that Gus was the Spaniard, so the fact that he wasn’t, and now he was here, had her uncharacteristically off-balance.
Regina gave her a once-over when Nikolett slipped out of the bedroom and closed the door. Eric would have to hide in there, and she’d make this meeting short and sweet. This was the perfect opportunity to mention she had someone he needed to meet, and set up an introduction between Gus and Arthur.
“You have sex hair,” Regina said.
“Messy sexy or messy tangled?”
“Messy sexy.”
Nikolett shrugged, though she felt more than a little naked without her hair at least partially pulled back and no makeup.
“How long has he been waiting?”
Regina checked her watch. “Five minutes. Keanu is stalling him.”
Nikolett nodded once, reaching inside her shirt to adjust her bra—at some point, Eric’s hand had slipped up there to play with her nipples, and her boobs weren’t sitting right in the cups.
Nikolett started for the door, but Regina didn’t move.
“You invited him for a date while you were in bed with Eric?” Regina asked when Nikolett turned back to her in question.
Nikolett raised her chin. “You disapprove?” Her tone made it clear she didn’t actually care what the answer was because it wasn’t Regina’s place to approve or disapprove.
Regina sighed, then walked past Nikolett to the door. “You two deserved a chance to be happy before something like this.”
Nikolett didn’t answer, but dread wound her stomach tight. She’d been the one to start this, to invite Gus.
For a moment, she thought about telling Regina to send him away. Tell Gus she’d gotten sick or something. His presence here confirmed he wasn’t the Spaniard since the Spaniard was currently robbing an office building.
Gus was who he’d said he was.
A sweet man who tried to give her half his cookie, brought her flowers, worried about her injuries, and helped her into bed when she had too much to drink.
Regina opened the door, speaking to Keanu briefly.
Taking a final, bracing breath before forcing her shoulders down and back, Nikolett stepped into line of sight. Gus met Nikolett’s gaze over the top of Regina’s head and smiled.
That smile made her stomach somersault, but with her sex still wet from Eric’s mouth and her own arousal, she realized exactly how pale her feelings for this man were compared to Eric.
A moment later, Regina moved out of the way to let Gus in before she exited into the hall.
Nikolett smiled, but awareness shivered up her spine and she had to force herself to hold the expression.
Gus looked…different. Dangerous.
He wore black pants, a tight shirt that looked like it might be high performance workout material, and a black leather jacket. His hair was mussed, like it had been when they first met, but instead of looking rumpled in a distracted, messy way, it looked sexily tousled.
The change was stark enough that Nikolett didn’t say anything, merely stared at him.
“Hello, lass.” He held out the flowers and she automatically accepted them, stepping closer to him as she did.
“You came,” she said somewhat stupidly.
“I should have texted first.” He sent her a sheepish grin. “I got your text and came right over. Though I did stop for flowers.”
Was he going to kiss her? It looked like he was. Nikolett turned for the now-empty vase which had ended up staying in the room.
“You didn’t tell me you spoke Romanian.” Her back was to him as she carefully undid the flower bundle, placing them inside the vase.
“What’s that now?”
“You made a joke about how the flowers weren’t poisoned, but my bodyguard mentioned the poison test in Romanian.” She added water to the vase. “I didn’t realize you spoke the language. It wasn’t one you mentioned.”
Nikolett turned, braced to see…something. Some change in him that would reveal him to be a liar.
Gus’ brows were drawn together, but his eyes were wide in a confused expression.
“…do I speak Romanian?”
He sounded so bewildered that Nikolett laughed, some of her tension fading.
“I don’t think so. Though I used to speak conversational Italian, so maybe that’s it?”
Nikolett nodded slowly. “They do share a lot.” She’d have to look up the Italian word for poison to see how close it was to Romanian. She didn’t speak any Italian, though she could sometimes read written Italian due to the similarities to Romanian.
The fact that he knew about the shared lexicon of the languages, and the fact that he spoke so many languages, made it reasonable to assume he’d simply understood without consciously processing why he understood.
Gus’ gaze dropped to her leg. “You’re not wearing your green thing.”
“I don’t have to anymore.”
“But your leg…”
“The skin and muscle are just tender where it’s still healing, but the cast didn’t help with that. The cast was for the bone, which isn’t broken anymore.”
“I’m glad, lass.”
Nikolett moved away from the sideboard where she’d left the flowers, and Gus followed her. She picked up the room service menu, passing it to him. “We can order some coffee and dessert.”
“No wine?” He smiled.
Unease slid down her back again and she sat in one of the armchairs. “No. I clearly had too much the other night.”
Gus handed her back the menu, which she took on reflex, before stripping out of his coat.
Whoa.
She’d known Gus was big, strong, but this was her first time seeing it. The tight shirt was definitely some sort of workout gear, with a faint hexagonal pattern in the stretchy fabric.
His arms and chest were massive—mounded with muscle.
Again, unease slid through her. There was a significant difference between knowing intellectually how strong a man was, and seeing it.
He looked like a threat.
Nikolett’s eyes slid to the closed bedroom door and the unease faded.
She was technically safe. Regina and Keanu would be monitoring the microphones in this room, even if the majority of their attention was on the operation to catch the Spaniard.
But she felt safe because Eric was on the other side of that door.
“Like what you see?” Gus teased.
Nikolett felt herself blush, but raised her chin. “I do.” She passed him the room service menu as he sat on the couch beside her.
His gaze slid briefly down her before returning to her face. “Did I tell you last time how lovely you are?”
“Thank you.” Nikolett opened her mouth to return the compliment, when something struck her. “Why are you single?”
Gus looked up from the menu. “What?”
“Why are you single? You’re handsome. Successful.” Had there been a faint noise from the bedroom when she called him handsome? “I’m surprised that you aren’t in a relationship.”
“I could ask the same about you.” His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Unless what happened when you were young means you don’t ever want to marry?”
He’d evaded, answering by asking her the same question. She could press the point, but given how invasive her question was, she decided to answer in hopes it would result in a quid pro quo answer from him. “I have obligations and commitments that impact my romantic relationships.”
Gus’ brows rose. “That sounds almost ominous.”
“It’s…” She was about to say complicated, then realized how that would sound. Complicated was the word of choice for people who didn’t want to admit what they were doing.
The problem was she didn’t, couldn’t, tell him the truth about what her marriage would someday look like.
Time for a new topic. The question around his understanding Romanian had been answered, but that still left the more tricky conversation—what happened that night in the bedroom?
Had he left when she accidentally called him Eric? Her memory said he’d stayed for at least a while after that. How far had it gone sexually? Had he seen her naked? Had he helped her put on pajamas?