by Bella Jewel
He exhales, running his hands through his hair. “You have to know how many times I’ve fuckin’ heard that excuse, too. Seen this before, Shania. Million times. Want to believe you, but fuck, as I said, seen it before.”
I stand up, swaying and gripping my head. It takes me a minute to get myself together.
“Sit down,” Nicolai orders. “You’re going to pass out.”
“No,” I say. “I’m going to leave. If you don’t believe me, then nothing I say will matter anyway. But I’m telling you, I did not fucking take any drugs. I didn’t. I took drinks that were offered to me, yes, but no drugs. Now, I’m leaving. If you’re going to fire me, let me know.”
I gather my things and walk towards the front door. “You got no way of gettin’ home. I’ll get dressed and take you. Chill out.”
He turns and disappears, and I’m fuming with anger. I pull out my phone and see so many missed calls, it takes me a few minutes to get through them. Finally, I decide to call Harper back, knowing she would be the one most worried.
“Girl, dammit, are you okay?”
I smile, her voice is bubbly even after a hard night. “Yeah, I’m okay. I was ... drugged.”
She goes quiet. “What? Are you serious?”
“Yeah, and Nicolai is having a hard time believing it wasn’t me that took it.”
“Oh, sugar, that makes me so damned angry. I know exactly who done it.”
I blink. “Who?”
“Well, Yana of course. She got the last round right before you lost it. She hates you. She wants you gone. She knows Nicolai won’t just get rid of you, so she made it look like you broke his major rule.”
My blood boils.
That bitch.
It is totally something she would do and totally something she knows I couldn’t prove, even if I wanted to.
Anger explodes inside of me, and I growl, “I’ve about had enough of her.”
“You and me both. So have the other girls. Maybe we all need to talk to Nicolai.”
“Yeah,” I mutter. “Maybe.”
“Are you at home? I’ll come over, we’ll talk about it.”
“I’m about to get back, I’ll call you when I get there.”
“Okay, breathe, it’ll be okay.”
I hang up and turn just as Nicolai is coming toward me, fully dressed this time. He takes one look at my face and tips his head to the side. “What is wrong?”
“What is wrong is that Yana drugged me!” I snap.
He frowns. “And you think this why?”
“Because I don’t take drugs, Nicolai. And she hates me. She wants me gone. She got the last round of drinks before everything went bad. It’s on her, it’s always on her. She is trying to get rid of me!”
“First of all, calm down. Having your drink spiked could have happened from anyone. Not just Yana. You have to understand I can’t go accusing her of something she probably hasn’t done.”
Oh, God.
“Just because you’re sleeping with her, doesn’t make her honest,” I snap.
His eyes flare, and he steps forward, leaning down, “Be very careful how you speak to me, you’re fuckin’ replaceable, Shania. Everyone fuckin’ is.”
That hurts.
I don’t know why.
Did I honestly think I wasn’t replaceable? That he couldn’t find someone better than me? What, just because I’m a virgin? I’m sure he could find one of those anywhere.
Shame floods my cheeks, and I’m hurt, stupidly hurt. I thought Nicolai liked me. He seems to ... I don’t know, favor me over the other girls. And now he’s telling me I’m nothing basically and taking Yana’s side, which fucking hurts. And I know it shouldn’t, because it’s just a silly little crush, but it does.
“Then replace me, Nicolai,” I whisper, before turning and walking out his front door.
He calls out my name, but I hit the sidewalk and turn, pushing past my pounding head and making my way to the main road where I’ll take a damned cab home. I don’t need him. And I don’t need this job.
Only I do.
Dammit.
Tears burn under my eyelids, and my head is pounding as I move closer to the road. I can’t believe he’d take Yana’s side, but that’s exactly what she was hoping. She wants me gone, and she makes no secret about it. She can’t stand me, and she’s jealous. She’s going to stop at nothing to make sure I leave.
And she’ll probably win.
I flag down a cab, climb in, and give them my address before softly sobbing the whole way home. I feel pathetic, I honestly do, but I can’t help it. Nicolai has no faith in me, and why should he? He doesn’t know me that well. But he knows Yana, and he probably trusts her. I’m just the new girl, the one who has only been there a little while. Why would he put any faith in me?
I get to my apartment and go straight inside, standing under the shower for a long time. A long, long time. I close my eyes and let the water run over me, washing the pain away, making me feel a little less under the weather than I did when I first walked in. I get out, dry off, and walk downstairs with a towel wrapped around me to get some clothes from the huge pile of laundry I have in the spare room.
I’m just passing the front door when a knock sounds out, stopping, I turn and walk over, opening it, figuring it’ll be Harper.
It isn’t.
It’s Nicolai.
His eyes drop to my towel, and suddenly, my cheeks are burning and my whole body is on fire. I’m so aware of him, and he hasn’t even said anything. He finally looks back up at me, and says, “First of all, don’t fuckin’ run away from me when I’m tryin’ to talk to you.”
He takes a step into my apartment, and I take a step back, swallowing, clutching the towel tighter.
“Secondly, I never said Yana wasn’t capable, I just said I’m not goin’ to accuse her without proof.”
Another step.
Another swallow.
“And thirdly, I’m not goin’ to fire you.”
I can’t breathe. I want to pounce on him. I want to rip his clothes off. I want him so badly I can hardly think straight. I need him. Now. So badly I don’t think about what I do next. I just hold his eyes and let the towel fall. His eyes immediately drop to my naked body, and I can see his jaw get tight as he takes in every inch of me, every soft curve, every untouched piece of skin.
I take a step forward.
His head snaps up. “Shania ...”
I don’t let him think any more about it, I go up on my tiptoes, press my naked body against his, and I kiss him.
For a moment, I don’t know if he’s going to kiss me back, but after a moment, a feral groan leaves his mouth, almost desperate, almost ashamed, and his hand goes around and cups my naked ass, pulling me harder against his body as he parts my lips with his tongue and then kisses me, deep, hard, long, so good I can hardly breathe. I’ve never been kissed by a man, well, I have, but not a man like him.
So strong.
So powerful.
I whimper.
And then I hear a car pulling up outside.
Nicolai moves quickly, shoving me backward and picking up my towel. I wrap it around myself and step back just as Lucy steps through the door. Her eyes go to me and widen. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I dropped her home,” Nicolai says, his voice casual, calm, husky, like he wasn’t just kissing me so fucking hard my knees are still wobbling. “She got into some trouble last night. She forgot her phone, so I just brought it back.”
“I was just getting out of the shower.” I shrug.
It’s hard for me to act casual, because I really really want to go and get dressed as I’m embarrassingly wet between my legs.
“Right,” Lucy says.
“Thanks for dropping my phone,” I say to Nicolai.
His eyes meet mine, and he leans in close. “Never let it happen again.”
My heart lodges into my throat, because I know he’s not just talking about last night, he’s talking about what
just happened and, man, that hurts like hell. It hurts because he kissed me back, he had his hand on my ass, cupping, making me whimper. And now he’s telling me to never let it happen again.
Like a slap in the face.
It hurts.
“Okay,” I whisper.
He turns and walks out. I look over to Lucy who is staring at me. “You better explain what just happened, Shania. And what is he talking about trouble? What trouble?”
I sigh.
And then I tell her everything.
Except for the kiss.
Because that one hurts just a little too much.
~9~
NOW – LINCOLN
Fuck me. That ass.
It’s fucking lovely.
And she keeps bending over when I order her to pass me something else, and fucked if I’m not staring every single time.
Shouldn’t be in here alone with her, fuck knows it’ll cause problems, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity when her car broke down. I need more information from her, something she’s withholding, because we’re coming up with fucking nothing. This Nicolai is well hidden, and without her giving us more, something, then we’re going to keep running into walls. Maybe, in here, alone, she might consider sharing something with me.
“Stop staring at my ass, Lincoln,” she mutters, turning and looking at me. Her strawberry-blond hair flows down over her shoulders in thick curls.
Those eyes though. Fucking lovely. A cross between grey and blue. And those cute little freckles on her nose, just a tiny scatter of them, make my dick instantly hard.
Shania is cute. And she has the mouth of a fucking man. And the attitude of a queen.
I’m not complaining, she keeps me on my toes.
“Well, you wanna bend over, sweetheart, I’m going to look.”
She exhales and studies what I’m doing. She’s been fascinated with it from the second I started, her eyes trained in on everything I’m doing, watching me, taking it all in. She told me she’s always been interested in cars and how they work and would love to learn more. I told her she can come here anytime and I’ll teach her. To which she threw sass my way, of fucking course. Little shit.
“How much longer will this be?” she asks, finally sitting down and crossing her legs. Those little denim shorts she’s wearing climb way too high up her pussy, making me want to rip them out with my fucking teeth.
“Why?”
“Because I’m hungry.” She shrugs. “I like food.”
I snort. “Well, order some.”
She purses her lips. “That much longer, huh?”
“Another hour, thereabouts. Order food. I’m hungry, too.”
She nods and gets up, disappearing. I keep working on her car. She’s taken good care of it, that much is clear. It has obviously been serviced regularly. It is clean and tidy. I’ll give her that to be proud of. Most women that come in here have cars that make me cringe, they’re so filthy. One woman had a few months’ worth of old McDonald’s wrappers and empty cartons in the back.
It smelt really fucking bad.
“I ordered pizza,” Shania says, coming back in and sitting down. “Hope you like pizza.”
“Who doesn’t like pizza?” I mutter, sticking my head right under the engine as I try to tighten a bolt.
“You make a valid point.”
“Gotta ask you something without you throwing attitude around,” I say, grunting as I tighten it a final time and then lift my head out and look at Shania.
“Okay ....”
“We need more information on Nicolai. Know you’re not keen on sharin’, but we’re at a dead end. Without somethin’, fuckin’ anythin’, we’re goin’ to have a hard fuckin’ time findin’ him. You understand?”
She bites her bottom lip and looks at me through those lashes, but surprisingly, she actually nods. “Yeah, I understand.”
“So, can you tell me somethin’ else? Anythin’ else. Anythin’ at all. Family. Friends. Somethin’. Someone. A name.”
She nods. “Well, I never heard anything about his family, he kept that tightly closed, starting to see why now. He didn’t want anyone to know who he really is. So I can’t tell you much about them. I do know he had another man working with him, his name was Eddie Yates.”
“Looked into Eddie, fake name also. Whatever your boyfriend wanted to keep covered, he did a good job. Probably somethin’ to do with money, always is, but either way, he made sure anyone high up with him was covered also.”
“Oh,” she says, biting her lip. “And he’s not my damned boyfriend.”
Her cheeks grow red with frustration, and she crosses her arms.
“Anyway,” I slowly drag out. “Anythin’ else?”
“Well, I can give you some of the girls’ names, mainly the one he used to date. Maybe there is a link somewhere with her?”
“It’ll be worth a shot. What was her name?”
“Yana Mathews. Bitch.”
I grunt, and smile a little, “Don’t like her, I’m guessin’?”
“No, she was awful. She tried more than once to get me fired. She hated me because Nicolai liked me.”
“Women,” I mutter.
Shania rolls her eyes and then disappears when someone knocks on the door. She returns a moment later with two pizzas in her hand and some soda. She sits back down and I climb out from the car space I’m working in, wash my hands, and sit on the floor. Not the most comfortable position, but it could be worse.
We both eat in silence for a few minutes, and I can’t take my eyes off her. She bites into her pizza with no shame. She isn’t afraid of showing that she enjoys it, and fuck I love watching how bold she is. A drop of sauce falls down onto her chin and I move without thought, reaching over and wiping it off with my thumb. She pauses, her eyes meeting mine, and I slowly bring my finger to my mouth, sucking the sauce off.
“God dammit,” she mutters.
“What?”
“Why do you have to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Make me so fucking crazy for you. I can’t stand you, and yet you do something like that and all I can think about is sitting on your lap and fucking you right here.”
Fuck.
My dick goes instantly hard, and I grind out, “Nothin’ stoppin’ you. I don’t like you either. We don’t have to like each other.”
“Dammit,” she mutters. “No, I’m not going to do that. You can sleep with any woman you want, go find one of them.”
I can tell she doesn’t mean it. I can see the hesitation in her eyes. She wants me. And fuck, I want her. So bad my dick is aching. I’m going to push my luck and see if she’ll give in like it’s obvious she wants to.
“Come over here and sit on my lap, Shania ...”
Her cheeks get pink, and she huffs out, “No.”
“Come over here,” I order, my voice firm and hard. She’s unlikely to listen, considering she doesn’t listen to any damn thing I say, but it’s worth a shot. “And sit on my fuckin’ lap. My dick is hard, and we both know you want to fuck me. So fuck me.”
I’m straight forward.
I’m not sure if it’s a strong point or if I’m just a dick. Either way, I know what I want and I get it.
“I said,” she grinds out, but she licks her lips, “no.”
I’ll push her a little further, see if I can get away with it.
“I will not ask you again. Come here. Now.”
She moves.
I didn’t think she would, I honestly thought she’d tell me to go fuck myself and be done with it. But she’s moving, on her hands and knees, crawling toward me. I can see on her face that she’s currently fighting with herself. No doubt telling herself she shouldn’t be doing this, but she keeps moving toward me anyway, her body slowly inching closer until she reaches me. Then, slowly, she straddles my hips, her hot core pressing right against the tip of my cock.
“This is just sex,” she says, holding my eyes. “I don’t like you. I don’t want an
ything from you.”
“Except an orgasm,” I point out.
“Precisely.”
“Then that’s all you’ll get.”
I grip her ass, pulling her closer to me. I’m not going to take my time with her, fuck no, I’m going to make her scream my name as I fuck her hard and fast. Which is exactly how she wants it. I can see it in her eyes.
“Stand up,” I growl. “Walk over to that car—” I jerk a finger at an old car I’m restoring “—and bend over the hood. No panties.”
Swallowing, she does as I ask. She stands, walking over to the car, swaying her hips as she moves. She slowly shimmies out of her panties, and her pert little ass comes into full view. I’m an ass man. I prefer a good ass over a set of tits any day. And Shania’s ass makes me nearly cum in my fucking jeans. It’s so damned perfect. Full, and round, and ready for me to fucking slap.
She puts her hands on the hood and bends over.
She isn’t shy. She wasn’t the last time I took her, either. She’s confident. She knows what she wants. And she’s not sorry for it, not at all.
Her pussy comes into view now. Pink, and tight, and already wet. I can see it glistening from here. Fuck me, I can’t hang on. I reach into my pocket and pull out a condom. I always keep one in there; I never know who is going to pay me a visit. Happens a lot. I undo my jeans, tear open the condom packet, and then roll it on my aching cock as I walk toward her. When I reach her, my hand glides over her ass, squeezing so hard she squeaks.
“Fuckin’ nicest ass I’ve ever had the pleasure of layin’ my eyes on.”
She makes a startled sound when I raise my hand and slap it down hard. The slap rings throughout the workshop, but only her whimpers follow. She likes that. She’ll never admit it, but the way her pussy is getting wetter tells me she most certainly wants more. I press a finger to her folds and slide it through, coating it in her wetness. She whimpers as I slip the tip of it in and out her tight little cunt.
Fucking lovely.
“Please,” she begs.
She wants it as bad as I do.
Wish granted.
I take hold of my cock and replace it with my finger. I don’t edge in. I glide in with one, hard thrust. Her cry echoes, too, and the sound is fucking music to my ears. I take hold of her hips, and then I start fucking her. I fuck her hard and deep, my balls slapping against her sweet little pussy.
