Chapter 44
Kinsley
An Alarm System
AWeek Later
Returning home was almost surreal. I was stronger, refreshed, and ready to jump back into my routine. I wasn’t anywhere closer to answering my life questions, but I’d had a reset.
I had reminded myself that I was still young, and there was plenty of time for me to try to work it out. Unfortunately, I was still trying to deal with my emotions on the Aleksandr front. I must have finally gotten through to him, though.
It had been almost two weeks since game night, and he hadn’t been by my house, had stopped texting me, and quit showing up at work or dance. It was an odd mix of relief and disappointment.
I tried to keep busy and not focus on how lonely it was without his attention. The first few days were difficult. I was ashamed to say I checked my phone way more than I should have.
I even felt miserable when I noticed Marcus wasn’t around as much. There were other cars that often followed me, but not him. Marcus was kind enough to let me know about them but reluctant to say if Alek had been the one to order it. Something in his demeanor told me he hadn’t been the King to ask. Which left the other two—my bet was on Nosey Nik.
Thankfully, Brian was coming over today to cheer me up. We almost never had the same days off, but they’d hired a few new people while I was gone. He had to work quite a bit of overtime with me being away for so long, so I’d promised him one of my famous cakes to make up for it.
The doorbell rang, chiming through my house, and I steeled my spine before answering it. Brian stood there with flowers, tall and confident, with a warm smile on his face and deep brown eyes that sparkled with enthusiasm. He was dressed casually, as usual, and his blond hair was neatly combed.
He thrust the bouquet of flowers, carefully arranged and expertly wrapped, at me. They were beautiful, but Alek’s words came back to haunt me: Flowers just die.
And now I was thinking about the necklace. I should have kept it. It would have been a sweet reminder of him. I wasn’t entitled to it, though, so I’d left it in the suite, along with whatever else he’d purchased for me. Nik’s T-shirt had become one of my favorites to sleep in.
Comparing Alek and Brian only made me feel like a horrible human being. Brian was only trying to be nice. He’d commented on more than one occasion about my moping. I must have looked desperate for attention.
Putting the flowers in a vase, I thanked him. I was happy when we settled into our normal banter. I was in the middle of cracking eggs when my doorbell rang again, so I asked Brian to answer the door.
“Ah, it’s the coworker, Brian.”
I groaned immediately, recognizing the voice. Continuing to stir the batter, I walked over to the door. His eyes flicked to me, and he ignored Brian.
What is it with these men and their fitted T-shirts seeming like a walking advertisement of their muscular strength? Would he swap the one on my bed with the one he was wearing if I asked nicely?
His effortless style with designer jeans and sneakers only added to his confidence and swagger. Bold as could be, he strode inside like he owned the place. A glint shimmered in his beautiful eyes as he allowed his gaze to leisurely traverse every curve of my body. His tongue darted out, moistening his lips before he smirked in my direction.
“Nikolai King, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
I greeted him sarcastically, even though my heart leaped.
He stood next to a man I’d never seen before. Turning to him, he said, “Jason, you can get started.”
“Excuse me. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The man had a big box that he unpacked. It had equipment, a camera, and something that looked like a control panel.
“Installing an alarm system,”
Nik answered. “Go back to what you were doing. We’ll be in and out in no time.”
Irritation flared through me as he dismissed me like a child.
“I don’t need that. What’s going on? Why are you here and not Alek—”
I immediately cut myself off, my face burning.
Was I really going to ask him where Alek was? He smirked, letting me know he heard.
Perfect. I’d bet with their no-secret rule, Alek would know by the end of the day. Damn him. Nik stepped toward me, put his finger in my mixing bowl, and stole some of the batter. He licked his finger and moaned, his eyes dancing the entire time.
“You need a system in place. You’re a beautiful girl who lives alone. While you might think your baby blade, as Ivan called it, will keep you safe, it may not be enough. Even if you happen to have another arsenal somewhere around here. A little extra protection never hurt anyone.”
“Get out, and you stop what you are doing,”
I exclaimed in anger, turning to Jason. He was kind enough to stop, but he looked at Nik, waiting for his command.
“Continue on, Jason. Ms. Taylor and I are going to go put this batter in a pan, or better yet, a cupcake pan. Those don’t take long to bake. Right?”
He grabbed my elbow to lead me back toward the kitchen.
I heard Jason chuckle and murmur under his breath. If I thought Alek was absurd, Nikolai was as bad, except he had more finesse.
“A little piece of advice. It’s never a good idea to date coworkers. It can get messy if it doesn’t work out. And I can tell you now, it won’t work out for the two of you,”
Nik remarked knowingly.
“What? We’re not dating, and even if we were, I didn’t ask you for advice. I didn’t ask for an alarm system, either. What is going on? I thought I was done with Kings.”
I flushed.
He stepped up to me, taking the bowl and setting it down. He gently put my hands behind my back, holding them lightly in one hand. Just the smell of him—confidence, coffee, and leather—made me want to draw closer. My body willingly went slack, and my head bowed.
“Look at you, sweet baby girl. Alek was right. So beautiful with your head bowed.”
He rubbed my cheek, lifting my chin, but I looked away.
“No, look at me. That’s a good girl. How I’d love to see you in a modest kneel or wall position,”
he said, making my knees weak.
My breath caught in my throat as I envisioned myself in those poses for him. The subsequent flood of my panties only irritated me and made me angry. He had no right to be here or say those things to me.
“You said you thought you were done with us. Unfortunately, you’ll be done with us when our investigation is completed. Since I’m in charge of that, I can make it nice and slow if you’d like me to.”
I trembled, wanting to look away, but felt like I was frozen in place. If he didn’t stop looking at me like that, I was going to step across a line. So I relied on my only defense mechanism. My mouth.
“What I like doesn’t seem to factor into anything anymore. I just want it over with,” I hissed.
“Hard and fast, you surprise me. A girl after my own heart. Now, how about we bake those cupcakes?”
He put one finger under my chin to bring my face back up. Then he stepped away from me.
“I’m making a cake,”
I huffed, wanting to kick him but barely refraining from doing so. “For Brian. You get nothing.”
I came to my senses, the hold on me broken.
He chuckled. I moved away and poured the batter into the pan, then tapped it against the countertop to get the air bubbles out. He watched me work, which only made me nervous.
“Boss, you want one in the bedroom too?”
Jason asked.
“Like hell you will put a camera in my room,”
I yelled, dropping the glass bowl in the sink where it shattered. Flustered, I reached out and cut my finger on a piece of glass. “Damn it!”
I grabbed a towel to stop the bleeding. Shit, that was my favorite bowl, too.
Nikolai gathered me in his arms, but I fought against him.
Reinforcing my stance, I stated firmly, “You will not put a camera in my room—”
“Understood. It’s not a camera. It’s a sensor for the window. Nothing more. We can even go in there while he is setting it up. The only camera will be on the outside by the doorbell so you can see who is there.”
I sagged against him, the fight gone. I wasn’t fearful of cameras anymore as long as I knew they existed and who was filming and watching. It had taken me time to process those emotions.
“Why are you here?”
I sobbed, and all the mixed feelings I had about Aleksandr hit me in the chest.
Why had he sent Nik? And why did it hurt so much? Sure, I’d asked him to stay away, but when did he ever listen before? What changed for him? Why wasn’t I good enough? That was the deeper question. I was afraid I already knew the answer.
I snuggled into Nikolai’s chest and allowed him to rub my back. Then he began murmuring that everything was going to be okay, and I had the sweetest flashback.
Once when I was a child, I’d done something that embarrassed Pasha, and he refused to dance with me for two weeks. I’d sobbed in my papa’s arms, and the rumbling of his words as he consoled me felt similar to this.
It was going to be a long night. This was so much harder than I thought it would be.