Chapter Twenty

Nikk

Hotel Windsor. A hop, skip, and a jump from the theater district, and a hotel I frequent for various activities with women I don’t care to bring home.

Fuck Elena. She slept with Matteo, and we had an agreement. If she wants to break my trust, which I rarely give in the first place, then she doesn’t get to complain about me sleeping with other women. Not that I’m going to tell her. It’s none of her business. Not anymore.

I sit on the edge of the bed, drumming my fingers on the hard mattress, listening to the hustle and bustle of Manhattan below. The world is going on without us, but in seconds I’m about to have Veronica on her knees and her mouth full of me.

The shower water stops running as I wait patiently, studying the striped wallpaper décor around me. It’s a nice boutique hotel, but most importantly, it’s convenient enough to whet my sexual appetite. Elena’s presence has only made it stronger. Some nights I have to stop myself from creeping down the hallway to her room, but then I remember the pictures Bogdan gave me, and it turns me around.

Veronica emerges with a smirk on her face, her body perfect in every imaginable way, yet she still doesn’t do it for me. Not the way Elena does. Swallowing hard, I cast her out of my mind, focusing on Veronica. She wants me and has been hounding me, so now here I am. Her silk lavender robe falls off as she drapes it over the chair on the way over, revealing what she has in store underneath. Lace and lots of it.

Her surgically enhanced breasts sit full and perky, and she’s wearing a purple G-string with suspenders that match. I reach for her as she lifts her leg up on the bed. Stroking it, I unclip her suspenders, wanting to get right to it.

“Why so fast? Don’t you have a little time for me today?” she asks, pouting, and I know why she wants to prolong things. She still thinks we have a chance together, even if I’ve told her enough times that we’ll never be more than fuck buddies.

“No. I don’t have time, and nor do you, I suspect,” I explain coldly, only here to have my needs met. This isn’t the same as it is with Elena. No, with Elena I wanted to please her body. I wanted her to experience pleasure, especially given it was her first time.

“Hmm, something’s different about you now. You don’t seem relaxed,” Veronica mentions, her voice becoming more irritating by the second. Sliding my finger on the inside of her thigh, I fold back the edge of her underwear, aiming to shut her up by fingering her, but she breaks my concentration by asking more questions.

“Don’t you have a wife? Why aren’t you with her?”

Piercing Veronica’s blue eyes with mine, I snap at her, “Veronica. You know what this is. Just do what you’re supposed to do.”

“Oh my! There’s my bad boy. This is what I like. I thought you’d gone all soft on me for a minute there.” Veronica winks as I sink my fingers into her pussy to check the temperature.

“Good. Good. You’re wet, but first, I want you on your knees,” I command. Veronica’s eyes light up as I hand her a pillow to put under them. All bets are off; I can sleep with anyone else I want.

Yes, there’s been a couple, but no one can quench my thirst like Elena can. I couldn’t climax with any of them, but they did, which infuriated me even more. It was them I called to satisfy my needs, not theirs. All I can think of is her. She must have put some sort of spell on me. What did she do to me?

Standing up, I try to focus on Veronica, wrenching my belt free from my pants and throwing it to the floor. I unzip, and Veronica yanks my pants and underwear down. Hard, and ready for her mouth, Veronica hums, ready to slide the fullness of my cock inside her mouth.

Guiding myself towards her, the shrill sound of my cell cuts through. I feel myself deflating as I pick up the phone. “Shit—wait. This call might be important,” I tell her as her cold hand wraps around the base of my shaft.

“Well, I can put you in my mouth while you’re on the phone,” she offers, but I shake my head knowing I’m going to have to start again.

“No! Wait,” I tell her as I answer the call without looking at the caller ID. “Nikk speaking.”

“Nikk, it’s Yegor. I need to talk—”

“Fucking Yegor,” I hiss under my breath, shaking my head.

“Who was it?” Veronica asks as I slide the phone back on the dresser.

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s go back to the start.” Sighing, I cup Veronica’s breasts, pulling one out, thumbing her fake nipples hoping it will make me hard again as Veronica moans. Disgruntled by Yegor’s untimely call, I keep fondling, feeling nothing, but thinking to Elena—and now, and only now am I hard.

“Oh, I like your touch, Nikkita,” Veronica says, shivering in delight. “I’ve missed it.” I ignore her, concentrating, and trying to keep Elena from borrowing inside my skull and taking over.

Elena’s breasts aren’t fake. They’re supple, round, and very real. I like the way they feel, and the way she was so responsive and so giving to my touch. It’s not like this bullshit performance Veronica is putting on. Why can’t I feel anything after Elena?

Veronica reaches for the back of her bra unclasping it, but it’s too late.

The phone rings again, the heat in my blood boiling over as I stop, my cock deflating. “Hang on. Let me fuck off this caller,” I tell her, cutting the call again, and this time I do read the caller ID. It’s Yegor again, but when I reach for Veronica again, I decide it’s time to step things up. I pat the bed as she slides up to the top of it. I’m about to draw her on top of me so we can just get this thing over with, but my phone vibrates on my bed, and I know it’s Yegor ringing again.

“Nikk! What is going on?” she whines.

“Fuck it, just get dressed and get out of here. We can do this another time. Get out. Quick. Move!” I order harshly, moving her on. Gobsmacked, she scrambles off the bed, but then stands at the end of it, staring for a second, but I don’t give two shits. I watch out of the corner of my eye as she quickly grabs her bag, tossing on her clothes, and slamming the door shut after she walks out. It wasn’t working anyway, and it was time for her to get out of my face.

I return my focus back to the call. “Yegor, this better be important.”

“It is. It’s very, very important. Hear me out. It’s from the doctor who took the paternity test. The doctor found Rohypnol in Elena’s blood. It’s a date rape drug that paralyzes its victims. She was drugged, Nikkita,” Yegor relays, and as the weight of what he’s saying kicks in, I feel my head swirling.

“What the fuck?”

“Right. But that’s exactly what happened. I’ve got the results to prove it,” Yegor adds with conviction, but I trust him on it. “There were abnormal amounts of the drug in her system. It could have harmed the baby.”

Growing more furious by the minute, slowly, I draw the phone down from my ear, my head pounding with the thick rush of blood. Fuming with the knowledge, I put Yegor on speaker, desperately searching for my pants and underwear, pulling them on as fast as I can.

I didn’t give her the benefit of the doubt, but back at the beginning I felt like I couldn’t. She’s a Mancini, it would have been more believable to me if she were sleeping with him. That’s probably why the fucker drugged her. I swear I’m going to break every single bone in his body and have him watch the process.

He thought he could get away with it. He touched my fucking wife!

“Nikk? Are you there?”

A tight knot forms in my throat as I swallow it down. “I’m here. I’m on my way.”

The shocking revelation is hitting home, and I feel like a fool. She was trying to talk to me, but I wouldn’t listen. “Fuck. Is there anything else I should know? Is the baby, okay?” I ask, panicked and feeling helpless as to how I can help Elena. The only thing I can think to do is rip Matteo limb from limb.

“Yes, the doctor explained she’s having a very normal pregnancy, and her vitals are excellent. He has her on special vitamins, and Elena’s resting.”

Does she know what happened to her? She would have been knocked out and not known about the photos. Puzzled with the rush of jagged details, some things aren’t matching up, but the one thing that matters is—Matteo’s grave is waiting for him.

“That’s why the photos looked funny to me of her walking into the hotel with Matteo. It didn’t look like she was holding his hand or anything, it looked like he was dragging her in, and she was clinging to him,” Yegor explains quickly, probably anticipating me hanging up on him again, but no. This is serious, and now my blood is really boiling.

Matteo took advantage of her. She wasn’t sleeping with him at all. She probably didn’t even think it was his hotel, given the effects of the drug.

She told me the truth.