Chapter 3 #2
Nico’s gaze flashes to me before shooting back over to my mother. “We’re heading out in the morning. I have to be back for a business meeting.”
I don’t miss how he said we instead of I.
“Did you come with someone else?” I speak for the first time since I spotted him.
The glare he shoots me could cause a weaker man to cower. I won’t pretend that it didn’t scare the shit out of me.
“No.”
For the next ten minutes, I remain silent as Nico bonds with his son and answers questions from my mother. Her questions are mundane things. They speak of places they’ve visited and events she might have seen him at. She likes to think she has close proximity to the wealthiest people in the world.
The entire time, I nervously pick at the hem of my shirt.
I’ve picked at it so much I’m surprised the damn thing hasn’t unraveled.
Had you asked me seven days ago if I feared my husband, I would have laughed in your face.
Now, now I’m not so sure. Part of me says Nico would never physically hurt me.
Yet the image of that bullet penetrating Marcus’s head flashes before my eyes.
“Mrs. Peters, if you don’t mind, my wife and I are in need of a private discussion.” His deep voice has my head popping up to lock gazes with him. The nervous energy in my body buzzes like a wasps’ nest underneath my skin.
I look at my mother, pleading with my eyes for her to stay, to tell him no, he couldn’t be alone with her one and only daughter. Not that I expected he would hurt me, but I wasn’t sure what he would do. And honestly, I didn’t want to be left in a room alone with him.
Evelyn blushes. “Of course, you two can speak in the guest room. I’ll watch the baby. Tiffany show him to the room.”
I swear this woman has no fucking motherly instinct.
Letting out a deep breath, I stand to my feet.
Nico hesitates for a moment. It’s not like he knows Evelyn.
However, I’m not concerned about her hurting Noah.
She may not care for kids, but she’d never hurt them.
Besides, she isn’t Noah’s favorite person in this house, but he does know her.
Nico stands and hands Noah over to Evelyn.
My baby whines for his daddy but quickly simmers down when Evelyn offers him snacks.
I don’t wait for Nico to follow. Quickly, I headed out of the room and into my borrowed bedroom.
I walk into the room and turn around to wait for him to enter.
The moment he steps inside, he closes the door behind him. We again just stare at each other.
I break the silence first. “I’m not going back with you. I need more time.”
Before the words are out of my mouth, he’s laughing. It isn’t a carefree laugh as if I’ve said something funny. It’s more of a low chuckle that tells me the man I’m dealing with doesn’t have all his screws.
“You think it’s an option?”
My nostrils flare as I take in his condescending tone.
“You can’t make me leave.”
He slides his hands into his front pockets, tilting his head to the side. “What are you trying to prove with this?”
“Trying to prove?” I scoff. “I’m not trying to prove anything.”
“Then what the fuck is all this for?”
“You lied to me, Nico,” I shout. “Everything I thought I knew about us is a lie. You can say whatever you want, but you manipulated me. Our love is tainted because of you. I don’t know what’s real anymore.”
He takes a step toward me. “I’m real. The way I feel about you is real, and our son is real. What more truths do you need? Yes, I set things up for us to be together, but what we have is real.”
I shake my head vigorously. “I don’t know that.”
He bites into his bottom lip as he walks closer to me.
“Yes, you do. You know it in the way I touch you.” He stands before me, his body heat radiating off him like a furnace.
That familiar scent I’ve grown accustomed to swallows me up.
I want to pull away and demand he not touch me, but my body yearns for him.
Nico and I have been fucking damn near every day since the day we started. The only time we took a break was for the six weeks after I had Noah. My body is going through withdrawals without him.
He wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into him.
“You know it in the way I kiss you.” He proves that by placing a kiss on my neck that has my eyes closing. “By the way that I make love to you. How I bury my cock deep inside you until you beg me to take some out.” Just the mention of it makes me squeeze my thighs together.
This man should get an award for the way he fucks. I wasn’t that experienced when it came to sex, but Nico had a talent for turning my body on. If he walked into a room where I was, my coochie would purr for him, he didn’t even have to touch me.
His hand digs into my side with a bite of need. His lips move from my neck to my cheek to my mouth. He devours my lips, taking the bottom one into his mouth and sucking it. His tongue shoves against mine, possessing it as if it belongs to him. His free hand grips my ass in my shorts.
I whimper when I feel his hard cock press into my belly. When his hand on my ass pushes up the loose leg of my shorts and his long digit moves my panties to the side so he can reach my center, I remember where I am and why I’m here.
Placing my hands on his chest, I shove him back. He groans but allows space between us. I fight to clear my sex-riddled mind. The moment my heart stops beating as if it’s trying to break free, I feel strong enough to open my eyes and look at him. He looks just as flustered as I feel.
“This is the problem,” I say, swallowing. “This is why I can’t go home.”
Nico rolls his eyes and shakes his head.
I continue. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. Honestly, I don’t trust you.”
He flinches at my words as if they physically struck him.
“I need time.”
He nods, placing his hands back in his front pockets. “I understand,” he finally relents, making me feel better. I let out a deep sigh.
“We leave in the morning.” He turns to leave the room.
“Wait,” I call out to his back. He looks over his shoulder at me. “I told you I needed time.”
“And you will get it back home with me.”
“I’m not going back.” Lifting my chin defiantly, I place my hands on my hips.
Nico turns back to face me. His dark brown eyes seem to darken even more. “There is no option of me leaving you here. You’re coming home. You can be angry in the house with me.”
Folding my arms over my chest, I stand my ground. “And if I don’t?”
His head tilts to the side as he watches me. “There are two things I will not live without, that’s you and my son. And there is nothing I won’t do to have what I want. Have I not proven that to you?”
I swallow as I remember exactly what he did to get me.
“The question is,” he goes on to say, his brown eyes narrowing. “Who are you willing to lose to prove a point to me? I have eyes everywhere, Tiffany, and on everyone you love.”
My throat dries and the nervousness comes crashing back over me.
For the first time, I think I’m meeting Saint.
Nico is no longer in this room with me. Even knowing that and knowing what Saint is capable of, I know he won’t hurt me.
However, I truly believe him when he says he will take someone from me.
I guess he could tell the moment I gave up. He dips his chin and turns his back to me.
“We leave at ten tomorrow.” With those last words, he walks out of the room.
I stand in the middle of the bedroom trying to figure out who the fuck did I marry.