Chapter 22
Nikolai
W e wake up in the same position we’re always in since we’ve come back to the penthouse. Her in my arms, my shadows coiled between us, me cuffing her face, etching every curve, every lash, and every mole to memory. Her molten brown eyes search mine while I get lost in hers.
It’s been two weeks since her shopping rendezvous and my credit card is having the most action it’s seen in the last fifteen years. I don’t mind it, I want her to spend more. I want her to continue to turn this place into ours, into a home.
It didn’t pass my notice that out of all the new clothing and shoes she bought, she didn’t buy any new pajamas. She still prefers to wear mine to bed. I love that my clothes smell like her, that I smell like her.
I lean my forehead towards hers. “Tell me a secret.”
“Like what?”
She curls further into me and I breathe her in. She’s all vanilla and jasmine, my new favorite scent these past three months.
I rest my lips on her temple. “Anything.”
“Mm, anything,” she ponders.
“Something only you and Roman would know.”
I’m not going to lie to myself, I’m jealous that Roman knows my wife better than I do. I could give two fucks that he’s her brother. I need to know more than him.
She props herself up on her pillow. “Whenever Roman would get into some horrific things or if danger was near,” she says carefully, playing with the ends of her braids. “He would use a code phrase only he and I would know.”
I bob my head to tell her to keep going.
“In any form of communication, calls, texts, email or letter, he would find a way to say, ‘it’s a great day for a walk’. It meant drop whatever you’re doing and go, leave immediately.”
I sit up a little to be eye level with her. “Where would you go?”
“Anywhere,” she lets out a sigh. “Just anywhere from where I currently was.”
“How would you two meet up afterwards?”
“Roman always finds me.” A small smile plays on her lips. “Roman can be difficult, sometimes annoyingly predictable but he will always come to my rescue.”
“And what about now?”
She furrows her brows. “What about now?”
“Is he coming?”
Her forehead creases.
“Are you needing rescuing, Malyshka?”
She swallows slowly and I can see the war behind her eyes. She’s conflicted. She can deny it until her warm walnut-toned face turns blue, but she craves me as hard as I crave her.
“Just fall, Malyshka.” I say, willing her heart to match mine. Willing for her to drop her walls for me and let me in. “I’ll catch you.”
I seal this promise like I’ve done with all the others.
With a kiss.
***
It’s April Fools’ and the club’s grand opening is today. We’re expecting A-listers from across the world tonight. Anyone that’s anyone will be there. Though, I would rather be home with Aspen than wearing a plastic smile all night.
“I find you the most handsome when your hair is down.” She wraps her arms around my middle from behind. “And lethal when you wear an all-black suit.”
I’ve taken Aspen to Spain with me a few times to discuss the wolfsbane weapons shipment discrepancies. Her cheeks would heat whenever I was dressed in said all-black suit for my meetings. She was a pleasant and competent companion for those short business trips.
She knows when to call bullshit. Aspen noticed when their leader tried to inflate the cost per unit weight.
He listed the numbers under dollar signs and didn’t have the items listed in pounds.
I never would have guessed she was business savvy with a keen eye.
Nor did she bat an eye when she watched me skin him in front of his men.
I should know by next week who my new Spain contact will be.
“Are you sure you’ll be fine home alone?” I ask over my shoulder, readjusting my tie.
We haven’t heard or seen much of the Yakuzas since the car explosion.
Current intel told us they have gone underground.
I don’t trust putting her in crowded places where my attention will be divided and not solely on her.
She could go back to the compound for the night, but our relationship is solidifying here in the penthouse .
I won’t compromise our growth.
“Yea, I’m going to finish taking my braids down. I’ve kept them up longer than I’ve intended to.” She moves from behind me and I miss her body on mine already.
I grab her wrist before she can create even more distance between us. “Call me for anything. I’ll drop everything and come home.”
She places her hand on mine. “I won’t. I’m just going to do my hair, drink wine and watch trash TV. It’s going to be a perfect Friday night.”
I raise an eyebrow. “It’s perfect because I’m not here?”
She playfully slaps my hand. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
I do know it. We’ve been adjusting to each other well and our trust is growing.
She’s made more contact with her entertainment friends.
Can’t say I like when she has long conversations with some man named Mikhail.
She talks with him just as much as she does with Roman.
I can’t be too pissed since he always greets me when he calls.
But still, I don’t like not being the only man in her life.
Of course, I pulled his file and he came back clean. It showed her and Mikhail have been close friends since middle school. I won’t lie that I felt a pinch of jealousy seeing photos of them in the media. One when he opened his first restaurant and another of them on a beach.
She says he is like a brother to her and I reluctantly believe her.
Now I have two assholes to manage when it comes to her.
My phone pings, notifying me that my driver is here. “Call me for anything. I mean it.” Pulling her into me, I pour my heart into our kiss.
She breaks away first. “I know, I know, so get out of here. ”
I take my private elevator to an awaiting SUV, the driver already standing at the backseat door.
“Where’s Sergei?”
“He told me to escort you tonight, Boss. He’s running late.”
I look at my phone, scrolling through my text messages and call list. Nothing from him. Once I get inside the car, I dial his number.
“Niko.” Sergei clears his throat.
“Where the fuck are you?”
We pull out of my garage onto the main street. The club is fifteen minutes from the penthouse.
“Something came up,” he says plainly.
“And that is what exactly?”
“Some of the guys and I decided to go to a new bar last night,” he grunts out. “Let’s just say my stomach is not agreeing with what I ate.”
“It’s opening night.”
“I know.”
“Get there, Sergei.”
I disconnect the call.
When we pull up to the club, people are waiting in line for blocks on end.
My driver lets me out of the car and I walk down our red carpet, cameras flashing.
I’ll have any image of me scrubbed from the internet before tomorrow.
I move in the shadows and that’s where I need to stay. No one can know my identity.
My business partners are already in our office suite that overlooks the club, waiting for me. We’ve done countless successful business ventures for the past thirty, forty years. Despite our nature—Sergei and I vampires and the three of them werewolves— we’ve worked well with one another.
“The man of the hour!” Dmitriy claps a hand on my back.
“When you said placing a club here in the pocket of downtown would be perfect, I didn’t believe you at first,” Andrei starts. “But hell, if you build it, they do fucking come.”
“And that’s what the ladies will be doing all night,” Anton pipes up. “Come.”
They all laugh.
I lean forward on the office’s balcony railing.
The bass vibrating the railing as I take in the club.
We went with a three-level interior with balconies looking down on all floors.
Color pulses with the sound of the music while the bars on every level have staff handling drinks with practiced ease.
Everywhere you look, there are bodies packed at every level and corner.
They dance, some provocative, some for fun.
There’s a DJ booth and a performance stage on the central platform, sitting several stories up.
“Shit.” Dmitriy’s voice interrupts my perusing.
“What is it?” I ask.
Dmitriy stares into his phone intently. “Both our performers had to cancel. Something about food poisoning.”
“Sergei said the same thing earlier.”
Anton curses. “They were our main event tonight. They were on the fucking promos.”
Andrei downs the rest of his drink.
Hard taps rap against the office door, gaining all of our attention .
“Are you boys having a tough opening night?” Quinn leans against the doorframe of the office suite.
Dread floods through my veins and it doesn’t go unnoticed that my partners are uneasy. Quinn has caused chaos with other ventures of mine, making me lose very lucrative deals.
Her antics won’t work tonight though.
“Quinn, not right now. We’re in the middle of something.” I grit out through clenched teeth.
She croons as she walks seductively towards me. “Nikolai, aren’t you happy to see me?”
I turn my focus back on the patrons below. “I’m not.”
“Don’t tell me Ashley made you into an honest man,” she taunts, sliding her fingers along my suit, provoking me.
If this was three months ago, I would react irrationally, maybe engage in a screaming match with her, but not now. I have something to live for, a reason to build a dynasty, someone to go home to now.
Aspen is waiting for me.
I smile at the thought of her.
“Aspen has a lot of talents, that’s for certain. And one of them is,” I turn to face her. “Decorum. She holds lessons on Tuesdays if you want to take a class or two. As I said before, leave Quinn. We’re in the middle of something.”
She lifts her toes, bringing her lips to my ear. “You didn’t complain about decorum when your dick was balls deep in my throat.” A smirk plays on her lips. “Tell me. Do you miss me?”