23
Govnó!
We didn”t get home until nightfall.
I was exhausted and my neck hurt.
This time, I really needed to hire a masseur, but a real one.
We spent the entire day satisfying Sánchez”s thirst for information. Romeo”s attitude had me on edge. He didn”t seem nervous; on the contrary, he was full of ideas on how to find the culprit, as if he didn”t know it was him.
What was his game? Did he really think he was smart enough to divert my attention?
We sat in my office and the first thing we did was to devise a search plan.
Request a report on all workers who had access to the laboratory area. Look into any recent hires. Workers who had shown discontent with the company. The possibility of having someone on the team with a mental disorder.
We considered many hypotheses. For some, we had to call the HR manager, who immediately got to work with the lists.
On another front, we also alerted the laboratory chief, after Sánchez suggested, in addition to reviewing the reports, that we check the security videos to see if we could catch anything unusual in the last six months.
It was hard to pinpoint that ”something” without knowing what might look out of place in a laboratory. We had many days of work ahead.
Romeo kept giving me hungry looks, and my damn need grew exponentially. Either I would have sex or my sanity was in jeopardy.
I could have masturbated to alleviate the itch growing between my legs, I would have done it if I hadn”t known that a simple hand job wouldn”t be enough relief. I wanted much more than that.
Despite how exhausted I was when I arrived, my intention to go to La Marca was still on.
As soon as I set foot in the house, I went up for a quick shower and change. It was past eleven-thirty; I didn’t want and couldn’t afford to waste more time. I put on one of my ”it’s happening tonight” dresses and headed for the stairs. I would have reached the garage if I hadn”t encountered Romeo on the last step, shaking bags with what appeared to be the logo of a Chinese restaurant.
”Dinner,” he announced, with a mischievous smile. ”You need to fuel up if you plan to go out and perform. You’ve barely eaten today.”
”Who are you, my mother?”
”Almost, your husband, and this smells nourishing.”
The comment made my stomach clench. I grimaced, admitting he was right.
”You haven’t eaten much either.”
”When I get something stuck between my eyebrows, I often forget to eat. Ana María always scolds me, saying I’ll shrink and become tiny. As if that could happen.” I smiled.
”Those are very motherly phrases.”
”Yes, you might have noticed she’s not a typical cook. She”s been working at my father”s house since she was young. When I bought this place, I took her with me. She knows me too well not to take liberties. So... do we eat, or would you rather go?” I evaluated him. His not imposing himself was curious, but also smart. Surely, my husband understood that if he tried to command me, he would achieve the opposite effect. He too had freshened up, wearing loose cream-colored sweatpants and a black shirt that clung to his torso. The kid was already asleep. The first thing Romeo did when we got home was to continue up the stairs while I stayed on the second floor to check on his son. ”I don’t want to pressure you, if you prefer I eat alone, I will. The noodles with oyster sauce and Tai Pan’s Peking duck are the best, I”m starving, so if you don”t stay, no hard feelings, more for me.” I rolled my eyes.
Was he joking? Those were my favorite dishes. My intestines twisted, catching the delicious smell.
”Tell me you also ordered Chinese buns.” My voice sounded like a plea.
Asian food was one of my weaknesses. Romeo nodded, looking like a mischievous child with an ace up his sleeve.
”And spring rolls.” That couldn”t be a coincidence. I narrowed my eyes.
”You”ve been investigating me...”
”Not exactly. Let”s just say I got a tip. Your mother and my father spend a lot of time together, and my dad is one of those who believes that the way to a woman”s heart is through her stomach, not just men”s.”
”And you want to win me over?”
”I won”t deny that I”d like to bridge our positions and discuss certain matters with you. There”s something you need to know, although I don”t want to pressure you or disrupt your plans.” *No, better to lay you down on top of me. ”If you prefer, I can tell you tomorrow.”
That piqued my curiosity, no denying it.
”Let”s have dinner,” I declared. His gaze was as intense as mine. I wasn”t sure which I craved more, the Chinese food or him.
It was his fault, and the images that had haunted me since the night at the warehouse also. In addition, the outfit I had put on didn”t help, because it made me feel exceedingly sexy and powerful.
It resembled lingerie more than a dress.
The mesh fabric allowed the imagination not to work too hard to capture the hardness of a nipple or my lack of underwear. Everything about me was exposed, wrapped in a pretentious spider”s web.
Did Romeo want to fall into it? What did he want to tell me?
I followed him to the kitchen. He turned on just one light, giving the room a dim illumination. He asked me to take the food out of the bags while he poured us a couple of glasses of wine.
We occupied two high stools, and he rested his elbow on the polished surface, letting his head fall onto his hand.
”I”m still not sure what you want or if I can trust you, but you deserve to hear the truth.” I was bringing the glass to my lips and stopped abruptly.
It couldn”t be that easy, he couldn”t just blurt out that he was behind all my misfortunes.
”Go ahead,” I murmured, taking a long sip of the potent wine.
”It”s about Adri and my paternity. I don”t know if he”s my son or your brother”s.” My glass lunged forward, soaking his pants.
”What the hell are you talking about?!” My tone exploded like a grenade. He seemed calm, not as if he had pulled the pin on an explosive.
He grabbed a napkin and pressed it against the stain covering his crotch.
”If you wanted me to take my pants off, I would have done it without you needing to ruin them by throwing a glass of wine worth over five hundred euros at me.”
”Romeo, cut the crap. What did you just say?” He sighed.
”You heard me. I don”t know who Adriano”s father is. If I didn”t tell you before, it”s because I don”t fully trust you yet.” *You”re right not to. ”I know you”re hiding things from me.” *You have no idea ”And I don”t know what they are.” *Indeed, if you knew, I”d already be dead. ”But I couldn”t keep something like that to myself any longer.”
”I don”t understand. How is that possible? Were you in a threesome, or did she cheat on one with the other? And why didn”t Yuri ever say anything?” Romeo shook his head.
”I”ll summarize it for you. Your brother and I went to a college party; drugs, alcohol, sex, poor judgment, and zero condoms. She was in Yuri”s class, wanted a threesome, and you can imagine what our hormones were like. It was at the end of the term and she never returned to university. She didn”t contact us nor did she tell us she was pregnant. When she jumped out of the window, in the letter she left in my name, she confessed that she didn”t know if your brother or I was the father, that she found out about Yuri”s death through the media, and that she wanted me to take care of Adri. She apologized for never telling me anything. When her parents found out about the pregnancy, they wanted her to abort. She was terrified to confess that it had been a night of reckless sex with the sons of mafiosos. She preferred to be a single mother and not reveal to anyone who the possible fathers of the child were. The timing matched. The family was devastated, your brother dead, I felt responsible, so...”
”You decided to take charge.”
”Yes. Deep down it didn”t matter to me whether Adriano was his or mine. You and I were going to get married, so I assumed that if he was Yuri”s, you would want him in your life, and if he was mine, you would have no choice but to accept him, although I didn”t expect you to have less maternal instinct than a shoe.”
”Why? Because I”m a woman and supposedly we”re all born with the need to breastfeed, get covered in stretch marks, and change dirty diapers?”
”No, because Yuri always told me you were very protective of your own, and I thought that when you saw Adri, you”d recognize someone in need of protection,” I paused.
”Haven”t you done a DNA test?”
”I don”t need one. We”re going to raise him together; I just wanted you to know the truth. I want you to try to get close to him and make it work.”
”I want that test,” I admitted. ”Maybe it doesn”t matter to you who he belongs to, but it does to me. I want to know if that child is the last thing I have left of my brother. You should have told me as soon as you found out. And what if she lied in that letter and was just looking for a family to dump the kid on?” I stood up defensively, really pissed off.
”Don”t talk about my son like that.” I turned my neck to answer and felt a sharp pull that made me let out a cry of pain.
”What”s happening?!” Romeo also stood up.
”Damn! My trapezius! I think it’s knotted up..., and with my luck, this is the only thing that”s going to mount me tonight.” I heard him grunt.
”Is that all you”re worried about?”
”Maybe you don”t need to unload, but I am so pissed off it”s not even funny. I need sex and now I”ve just screwed myself over.”
”If you knew how to choose your lovers better...” he muttered under his breath.
”Got any recommendations, wise guy?”
”Well, I know someone who”d set the bar higher than the masseuse this morning...” I looked at him furiously. I tried to move my neck to ease the sharp pain and stiffness.
Nothing, it was a damn rock.
”Govnó!” I spat out in Russian.
”Oh, yeah, by the size of his dick he was a gnome.”
”I said shit in Russian.”
”Yeah, he was a piece of shit too, because I guarantee you if I had been in his place, I wouldn”t have stopped, no matter how many husbands looking like ”I’m going to crunch all your bones” walked through that door.” I clenched the sore muscle. My loins contracted at the suggestion. He had no right to make me so turned on when he wasn”t going to lay a damn finger on me.
”What are you playing at?”
”I”m not playing, I”m stating facts. Do you want me to help with your back?”
”By stabbing it?” Another deep laugh.
”I”m more into driving stakes.” I wasn”t going to play his game, not when the word stake made me feel like a vampire craving a bite. Romeo stroked his beard. ”I”m not bad at massages, I have strong fingers and know how to untie knots, plus, we have an infrared lamp in the spa, if you let me, I can relieve you.” I would have told him the relief I needed was of a different kind if my neck hadn’t given me another jolt that made me curl my toes. ”I promise I”m not bragging for no reason; I can help you relax the area. I”ll give you a small massage, we eat, and keep talking. Okay?”
I didn’t know if agreeing would be worse than not. The stabs of pain didn”t let me think clearly.