Chapter 7 #2
“Can we not do this right now?” Luka’s head throbbed.
“There are videos of you doing stuff with those two dancers.”
“What?” he asked in alarm. “What do you mean? Videos where?”
“They came to my phone and Marley’s and Besian’s. No idea who you pissed off for that kind of treatment, but you’re lucky Marley was able to calm our uncle down. He was ready to kill you when he saw them.”
He grimaced. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“You’re sorry? You’re getting married in, like, six weeks! You just broke up with your girlfriend! The girlfriend you stole from Kristo, by the way. You couldn’t even keep your dick in your pants for a couple of days? You couldn’t wait until your honeymoon?”
“I’m not talking about this with you!” It was one thing to be scolded and shamed by Besian, but he wasn’t going to listen to it from his sanctimonious little sister.
“You can talk to me about it, or you can talk to Dafina. You’ll be lucky if she even shows up to marry you once she finds out how disgusting you are!”
“Like she has a choice?” He scoffed at the very idea of her refusing to marry him.
“Her family needs this marriage as much as we do. She’ll show up because it’s her duty.
Something you need to remember,” he snapped, tired of judgement.
“I’m doing this to protect you and everyone else in our family. ”
“Oh, poor little Luka,” she mocked with a fake pout. “Having to marry a gorgeous woman to keep the peace and get his hands on millions of dollars. How are you going to survive such a horrific hardship?”
“Her beauty is not the issue—and you know it.” Letting his irritation override his sense, he said, “Maybe I should cancel the wedding and substitute you in my place. How would you like to marry Skender Dushku? Rina Dushku. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Fucking try me, Rina!”
“I hate you!” She flung a fucking apple at him, striking him right in the chest before she stormed off in a fury.
“Like I’ve never heard that before!” He shouted after her, no longer caring that he sounded like a petulant child.
Besian, who had witnessed the entire screaming match, threw up his hands in disgust and strode out of the kitchen, probably to find his wife and complain about what a prick he had for a nephew.
After picking up the bruised apple, Luka made his way upstairs to the guest room he had been assigned and plugged his broken phone in to charge.
He took a hot shower, scrubbing away the shame and regret of his wild night.
Too tired to get dressed, he left a towel wrapped around his waist. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he chewed through a handful of antacids and then checked his phone to see if it had enough battery to operate.
There were dozens of missed calls and messages from Rina, Besian, Dafina, Kristo and even Marley.
Hers were the only nice ones. She gently asked if he was okay or if he needed help and even offered to come get him if he was stranded somewhere.
Everyone else was angry or accusatory, even Kristo who apparently felt like he had been set up to fail.
Luka triaged the missed calls and messages and then attacked the ones with the highest priority. Reluctantly, he called Dafina to apologize properly.
“Hello?” she answered, her voice thick and rough.
“Dafina? It’s Luka.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about missing our brunch date.”
“It’s okay,” she said, surprising him by how not upset she was. “I didn’t want to get otu of bed anyway.”
“Are you still sick?”
“Yes. It must be a stomach virus.”
“I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
“No, my sister is taking care of me.”
Luka really didn’t want to think about Elona right now. “I’d like to see you again before I leave. Can I come by the house? I’ll be very brief.”
“Actually, I think it’s best if you go home. I don’t want to expose you to anything.” She coughed, and he couldn’t tell if it was genuine or faked.
“Well, if you’re sure?” He didn’t want to see her either. He dreaded having to tell her the truth about about he’d done. The longer he could put it off the better.
“I’m sure. Have a safe trip home, okay? And call me? We should talk more before the wedding.”
“I will.”
Relieved that she hadn’t said a word about the strippers, he ended the call. Maybe she hadn’t received the videos or photos. Maybe it was just someone trying to stir up trouble between him and his uncle.
Who? It would have to be someone who had access to Besian, Marley and Rina’s contact information. Someone on the inside? Someone close to me?
Unsettled by that thought, he fell back onto the bed and tossed his phone aside. Eyes closed, he breathed in deeply and tried to quell the nausea boiling in his gut. Images from his decadent night raced through his mind. The more he sobered up, the more he remembered.
The ramshackle club out in the middle of nowhere.
The rows of motorcycles and trucks. The rough looking clientele.
Drinking beer at first and then at some point tequila.
Smoking cigarettes and marijuana. Neat lines of white powder.
The beautiful, lush women dancing on the poorly lit stage in the dingy club.
The sex.
What he remembered of that was enough to make him half-hard again. It had been a while since he’d taken two women to bed at the same time. It was a fantasy for most men that would never be realized, but he’d been lucky more than once.
Of course, a threesome was easier in theory than in practice. He only had two hands, one mouth and one dick. It was hard to keep everyone satisfied and happy.
But from what he remembered, the two girls seemed more than happy to satisfy each other. He had a brief flash of another man in the mix. Devil. Bending the blonde over the foot of the bed and making her scream with pleasure while Luka enjoyed the redhead bouncing on his lap.
Shame twisted his gut.
I can’t even remember their names.
Fuck. I’m a piece of shit.
And Dafina, the woman he was bound to marry, had been sick and suffering all night.
I have to tell her.
He had to come clean. He owed her that much. A clean slate before they walked down the aisle. A fresh start before they said their vows.
But as he sighed and stared at the ceiling, it wasn’t Dafina who occupied his thoughts. It was her.
It was Elona. Her strange eyes and her rude mouth and that look of utter disdain she had on her face when he was in view.
That incredible ass. Those gorgeous tits.
Shit.
“No,” he said aloud, desperate to shake the vision of her curvy bottom as she bent over in the kitchen.
What the hell is wrong with me?
She’s going to be my sister-in-law!
Why did that make him feel so uneasy? Why was he suddenly having doubts about Dafina being the acceptable choice?
What if I’m marrying the wrong sister?