Chapter 23 Episode 23
1587 Words
“I can have some tracking software put in if you’re worriedabout her,” he offers. “She’d never know it was there. And thatway, you’d know where she was. Here or back home.”
“Oh. Umm… hmm.” I twist my lips to the side, weighing themany pros against the single con. “It would make my life somuch simpler. But Elise would never forgive me if she foundout.”
I smile. “You’re always so certain of yourself.”
“I have a good track record.”
I snort. “Well, I have a s**t track record. So I’ll stick withbuilding trust over a long period of time of being there for her.And hopefully, that will start paying dividends sooner ratherthan later.”
Nikolai slides the phone to the center of the island and thenwalks around to my side, slowly drawing closer. “Sounds likehard work.”
He nods. “I bet you could use a break from all that hard work.Maybe a distraction. A way to… turn your brain off.”
His words are like a soft caress, a stroke sending shocks ofawareness straight between my legs. I press my thighstogether.
“Everyone needs a break,” he continues. “I could give youone. Or two, or three.”
The promise he whispered in my ear last night comes back tome. And the way he touched me this morning.
I’ll drive you mad for me, beautiful Belle.
A moan slips from between my lips.
Nikolai jerks me against him, and I feel his hard length againstmy thigh. I slide against him, and a groan rumbles through hischest.
“I would’ve f****d you in the middle of that dance floor,” hewhispers. The stubble along his cheek brushes against myskin.
I slide my hand between us and cup the front of his pants. “Iwould have let you.”
He bites his lip in the sexiest smile I’ve ever seen and thenleans forward. I let my eyes flutter closed and press into my tiptoes, ready to close the gap between us…
When an alarm slices through the air and severs the moment.
I assigned Giorgos Simatou a short, shrill, irritating ringtone.It reminds me of Xena, for obvious reasons. So I know exactlywho is c**k-blocking me when my phone starts to ring in mypocket.
Belle pulls back, her lips still puckered but her eyes open.“What is it?”
“A call,” I grit out.
I’m hard. Painfully hard. This woman has been driving me tothe edge all f*****g night, and I need this release like I needmy next breath.
“Do you have to get it?”
Beneath her breathy question, I hear what she’s actuallysaying.
Stay. Ignore it. f**k me.
And damn it, I want to do all of those things.
But maybe this is for the best. My priority is to make sureBelle completes the audit and leaves without saying a word toanyone else. Not to babysit her little sister and wipe away hertears.
The deeper I get in with her, the messier this gets.
I grab my phone and see Giorgos’s name on the screen. “Yeah,I need to take this. I’m going to go.”
“Go? Like, leave? You can stay. Take the call here. I’ll…” Hereyes dart to the other bedroom door. I’ll wait in the bedroom,is what she wants to say. But Belle can’t quite bring herself tosay what it is she wants.
Maybe her little sister was onto something: Belle likes to putup a front. She wants to be professional and respectable anddecent. With that in mind, admitting how badly she wants tosleep with me isn’t exactly a good look.
Her dress is rucked up around her thighs. She bats her hazeleyes at me, silently pleading. But I turn and head for theelevator. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I don’t turn to see if she’s disappointed—I know she is. Butmy life doesn’t allow for reflection or regrets. I made mydecision, and now, we both have to live with it.
As soon as the doors are closed, I answer the call.
“Hello,” Giorgos says, heaps of false geniality in his voice.“How are you, Nikolai?”
I sigh. “What do you want, Giorgos? It’s late.”
“It is indeed late. Which is why I was surprised to hear youwere out clubbing.” He clicks his tongue. “For a man of yourage to be out at the clubs in the middle of the week? Unusual,I’d say.”
I stiffen. “Are you tracking me?”
I had Arslan keeping an eye on Giorgos and Xena for monthsbefore we set our current deal in motion. There’s no such thingas being too cautious when forming an alliance.
But that was before. Now, we are meant to be partners. There’sno room left for distrust.
“No. Of course not,” he says. He sounds offended that I’deven suggest it. “But I have contacts everywhere. And youaren’t exactly lowkey, my friend. You beat a man senselesswithin minutes of being inside. That kind of thing attractsattention.”
Bullshit. Liar. Giorgos doesn’t have nearly as many contacts ashe’d like me to believe he does. But he did have a man tailing
me, I’m sure of that now.
“I hit the bastard because he deserved it. I always make surepeople get what they deserve.”
It’s a warning as much as an explanation. Giorgos understandsimplicitly.
“No need for threats, Nikolai. Fight as much as you want.Blow off steam. All that means nothing to me,” he says. “Myreal issue is with your companion.”
I get off the elevator in the lobby. “What companion?” I lie.
“We came to an understanding, I thought. About your…loyalty to my sister.”
“I don’t owe your sister shit.”
“You owe her your respect!” he snarls. It’s a moment ofunhinged anger, but then he transitions to soft laughter andcomposes himself once more. “Forgive me, Nikolai. I’m fondof my sister, and I don’t like seeing her emotions toyed with.”
There are rumors about Giorgos and the Greeks. Rumors aboutwhat really happened to his parents. After all, he claimed hisrole as leader at such a young age, and so abruptly. The officialstory is an assassination, but the only person I know whowould want his parents dead was Giorgos himself. He’s theonly one who stood to gain anything.
For so long, I couldn’t see it. But now, here it is. Beneath thesmiling, bumbling fool I had dinner with the other night is acrazed bastard capable of killing his own family.
Ruthless, power-hungry, violent men I can handle. I canintimidate and crush them into submission as easily as anyoneelse.
But crazy? Crazy is another ball game entirely. Crazy menaren’t rational and they aren’t predictable.
I’m not afraid of Giorgos Simatou. But I’d be foolish not to beprepared for whatever he may do next.
“And I don’t like being accused of things I did not do,” Icounter in an icy growl. “I told your sister I wouldn’t make
love to another woman, and I didn’t. Whoever you hadfollowing me in that club—”
“No one was following you,” he interrupts. “You aren’t beingtracked.”
“Whoever you had following me in that club,” I repeatpointedly, “wasn’t doing their job. And if I ever spot someonefollowing me, I’ll kill them on sight.”
He sighs. “Now, now, Nikolai, that’s certainly not necessary.”
“If you really aren’t having me tracked, then you have nothingto worry about,” I say. “And if you are, then you won’t have toworry about me violating our deal. Because I’ll end it myself.”
Arslan would be having conniptions if he could hear me rightnow. We’ve been hashing out the details of this deal formonths, and now, I’m threatening to blow the entire thing up.And for what?
For Belle, Arslan would argue. You’re obsessing. You’refixated.
But he’d be wrong. This isn’t about a woman—this is aboutrespect. Not for Xena Simatou, who should be lucky I’veagreed to marry her at all.
“Don’t be hasty,” Giorgos protests.
“You want to talk about respect?” I continue acidly. “I won’tbe disrespected by being tracked in my own goddamn city.You’ve been warned. If I find out it’s happening again, yoursister will be the lone Simatou leading the family. And you’llbe cooling off in a f*****g morgue.”
I hang up the phone just as I step outside.
The evening is humid, the alleyway devoid of any cross-breeze or relief. I slide into the driver’s seat of my car andcrank the air conditioner on high.
And I’m hit with the smell of vomit coming from the backseat.I turn and find the Big Gulp full of vile sludge sitting in thecupholder.
I grab it and chuck it out the window, letting it splatter againstthe pavement and the side of the building.
My phone rings again. It’s Giorgos. No doubt calling to tryand get the last word. But I’m done talking to him.
It’s like I told Belle: the next move is in his hands now. Heshould choose wisely.
Elise’s door is still closed when I get ready to leave in themorning, though I can hear her moving around behind it.
“I’m going to work,” I yell through the door. “I’ll be back byfive and we can get dinner, okay?”
- Writer
