“How drunk are you?” he abruptly asked. She stopped staring at her feet and finally looked at him.
“I'm not drunk,” she responded, glaring at him. He picked up the pace, weaving them through more and more couples as the dance floor grew crowded again.
“Alright, how tipsy are you?” he amended his question. She snorted.
“Just enough to tolerate your bullshit,” she replied.
“Good.”
He surprised her then by leading them into a tight twirl. Before they'd barely come to a stop, he was then dipping her. In time to the music even, her brain belatedly realized. Then he snapped her upright, startling a shriek of laughter out of her.
“I didn't know you could dance like that!” she exclaimed, shocking herself by smiling at him.
“There's a lot you don't know about me, Tocci.”
She blinked up at him, lost in his stare. So lost, she didn't notice that he was leaning down to her. Didn't stop him from kissing her. Didn't care that the entire room had just witnessed her making out with another man literally one minute earlier.
Kissing Wulf was an entirely different sensation from Liam. Equally wonderful and awful in its own way. He was slow and torturous, always dragging out the sensations, to the point it drove her crazy. Left her begging for more. His hands cupped the back of her head, holding her in place. Not touching her anywhere else, yet strangely feeling more intimate than when she'd had her whole body pressed against Liam's.
She sighed into him and ran her hands down the front of his chest. Remembered a time when she'd felt all those muscles without any clothing on them. That thought along with the sweet-sharp pain of his teeth cutting into her bottom lip brought her to her senses. This was a scary game she was playing. Messing with Liam was dangerous enough, but Wulf was downright bad for her health.
Bad for my soul.
She yanked back with enough force that she stumbled completely out of his grip. She was breathing hard as she stared at him. He looked … almost a little sad. Then his lips quirked up into a little smirk and he reached out between them. Smoothed his thumb underneath her bottom lip, causing her to suck in a gasp of air.
“There. Back to perfection,” he said in a soft voice.
Katya was halfway across the ballroom when Tori caught up to her side.
“Are you okay?” she asked, linking arms with her.
“Yes,” Katya said, nodding her head. “Perfectly fine. You were right, you know. Doing whatever I want feels great.”
“Uh … you sure about that?”
“Yup.”
Before she could make it out of the room, though, they were waylaid. The bride all but leapt in between them and the exit. Katya stared as Lauren clapped her hands together.
“That was amazing! Admittedly, when I found out Wulfric Stone wanted an invitation, I was kinda hoping for another food fight, but honey, that little show was above and beyond my wildest dreams. I honestly didn't know you had it in you to be such a little vixen,” she said.
“I, uh … I'm sorry, Lauren. I'm not usually so ...” Katya struggled to find the right word. Childish? Slutty? Desperate? Weird?
“Amazing? Well, you should keep it up, then. I like seeing a woman handle her business – especially when it involves leaving two men like that with their jaws on the floor. Thanks for being a good sport.”
Katya's own jaw was on the floor, but Lauren ignored it and stepped up close to give her a hug. Then she hugged Tori goodbye and thanked both women for coming before disappearing back into the crowd.
“You know,” Tori said when they finally started walking again. “I always thought I was your weird friend. But that lady, I think she takes the cake. Literally and figuratively.”
Katya laughed all the way to the taxi stand.
9
Considering the amount of alcohol she'd slurped down in the small amount of time, Katya halfway expected to get home and go straight to bed. But she had so much adrenaline rushing through her body that it actually canceled out most of the alcohol. She changed into shorts and a tank top, then paced around the apartment while Tori ordered them pizza and broke out the white zinfandel.
“I've never done something like that before,” Katya babbled. “I mean, kinda sorta dating two men at the same time had been 'wild' enough for me. But kissing two men, within like two minutes of each other, in the same room, in full view of everybody!? What girls act like that?”
“Uh, lots of girls. This girl. Any that have attended a frat party. I mean, have you seen The Jersey Shore?” Tori asked, following her into the living room. Katya kept moving, circling the coffee table.
“I thought it would be weird. I mean, I obviously didn't think about it at all when it was happening, I just did it. But if I'd thought about it, I would've thought it was weird,” she said.
“And it wasn't weird?”
“No. It was kind of awesome. I mean, the look on Liam's face when we left. The look on Wulf's when I walked away. I didn't … I guess I didn't realize how much I affected them.”
“Clearly. I told you – you got the power, honey,” Tori told her, holding two glasses of wine in her hands while Katya kept pacing.
“I didn't know. I had no idea. I thought just letting it go would be the best. But this … I mean … it was actually kinda fun,” she continued. Tori nodded, sipping at one of the glasses.
“Totally fun.”
“God, that's so wrong. Isn't that wrong, though?”
“Uh, wrong is fucking you and then having secret slumber parties and talking about it, and then pretending not to know each other.”
Katya stared at Tori for a moment, then nodded and marched across the room. She grabbed the other glass of wine on her way, then moved to stand on the couch. Once she got her balance, she held up her glass, as if toasting the room. Tori stared up at her, only wearing her tube top and underwear, her skirt somewhere in the hallway.
“You're right. I've been spending this whole time trying to take the high road, be the good person, act right, whatever. And it hasn't been working. It never works. So if they can fuck with me, then goddammit, I can fuck with them!” she proclaimed. Both women nodded firmly at each other, then chugged down their glasses of wine. While tilting her head back, Katya lost her balance and fell on her ass onto the back of the couch.
Well, maybe not just riding high on adrenaline. Did I really chug scotch!?
10
Katya had two weeks left of her “sabbatical” before she had to go back to work full time.
Two weeks to do whatever she wanted. She figured she should make plans, build mental defenses, all that jazz. Instead, though, fate delivered a plan right into her lap.
Early Sunday morning, her phone buzzed on her nightstand. She felt around for it without opening her eyes, then pressed it to the side of her face.
“Hello?” she grumbled, staying snugly under her covers.
“Hungover?”
She groaned at the sound of Wulf's voice.
“It's too early for this,” she complained.
“Well, you're answering my calls, so either you're really hungover, or you've forgiven me.”
“Neither,” she sighed, pushing herself upright. “I just realized if I spent the rest of my life avoiding your calls, I'd probably go insane and have to give up phones.”
“Took you long enough. We're going to breakfast, get dressed.”
She burst out laughing.
“No, we're not.”
“You don't kiss me yesterday and then act like nothing happened today, Tocci.”
“Um, you kissed me, and I can do anything I want, Stone. Speaking of which, I have a message, I have to go.”
“What? No, we're not done. We're going -”
Katya hung up on him. She stared at the screen for a minute, then laughed out loud. She could just picture his face. Incredulous, staring at his own phone, unable to believe that someone would have the audacity to hang up on him – let alone meek little Ka
tya Tocci.
She really did have a message, so she thumbed open the app as she climbed out of bed. It was from Gaten, he'd spoken to his electrician friend and they were both able to come over that afternoon and check out her broken oven. She was typing a response when her phone started ringing again. Her thumbs kept moving and accidentally opened the call.
“Did you actually fucking hang up on me?”
Wulf's voice sounded exactly like how she imagined his face looked.
“Yes. I'm busy, Wulf, I don't have time to play with you right now,” she told him, trapping the phone between her ear and shoulder as she rifled through her closet.
“Who the hell am I speaking to? Because you sure as shit aren't Katya Tocci,” he said.
“Oh, yes I am. The new and improved Katya Tocci, specially modified by Wulfric and Liam. Don't like this new model? You only have yourself to blame,” she sighed, yanking out a shirt and tossing it onto her bed.
“Cut the bullshit, I don't like playing games.”
“That didn't just come out of your mouth, did it?” she laughed, settling on a pair of pants. “I'm not playing any games. I'm getting dressed, I have someone coming over at noon. I told you, I'm a very busy person.”
“Busy my ass, Tocci. And who's coming over, on a Sunday of all days?”
“Just a neighbor.”
“Oh jesus.”
“Gotta go, Wulfy.”
“If you ever fucking use that name again, I will -”
She hung up again and tossed her phone over her shoulder, onto her bed. She couldn't contain her smile and all but skipped into the bathroom.
*
Katya sat back against her kitchen table, watching while Gaten Shepherd watched another man poke about her stove. They'd unplugged it and moved it out from the wall, and the new guy – Tad something or other – was examining it and using interesting gadgets to prod around.
“Yeah, it's not good,” Tad sighed as he crawled out of the oven.
“Really?” Katya groaned. She'd been hoping it was just a heating coil or something.
Tad threw a bunch of technical jargon at her that she didn't understand. What it boiled down to, he finally explained to her, was that her oven was kaput. He could fix it, but it would cost less to just buy a new stove.
“Which your landlord or super can arrange for you,” he finished. Katya snorted and Gate laughed.
“You would think,” she grumbled. “Well, thanks for looking. How much do I owe you?”
Before she could even grab her purse, Gate stepped forward.
“Oh no, this was a favor from me. My treat,” he assured her.
“No, Tad came all the way down here, I'd feel weird -” she started to argue, but both men held up their hands. She frowned.
“Seriously, it's fine. I didn't do anything except move your stove around. I do have an appointment at one o'clock, though, so I gotta get going if I want to beat traffic. Katya, great to meet you. Gate, see you at the game?” Tad checked, grabbing his jacket and tool belt as he headed into the hallway.
“Yeah, I'll be there tomorrow. Thanks for coming down!”
“Wait,” Katya tried to argue. She didn't want to be indebted to some random dude. “Really, I should at least pay for some-”
The sound of the door shutting cut her off before she could finish her sentence and she was left staring after him. Gate chuckled and turned to face her.
“Sorry, that's the way me and my friends are,” he said.
“I still feel weird, getting like an in-home check up for free,” she replied.
“Okay, well how about you buy me dinner, and we call it even?” he suggested.
Katya's gut reaction was to say no. She had enough men problems, and as much as she liked Gaten, she wasn't about to add him to the equation. But just then, there was another noise from the hall. She thought maybe Tad had forgotten something and had come back for it. As she glanced out the kitchen doorway, though, she realized she wasn't that lucky.
“Call what even?” Wulf asked, adjusting his cuff links as he strode into the kitchen as if he owned the place.
“Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were expecting someone,” Gate said quickly.
“I wasn't,” Katya sighed. “Gate, this is Wulf – his company manages the buildings. Wulf, this is Gaten, he lives in the building next door.”
Gate smiled and made a move like he was going to offer his hand, but when Wulf didn't move at all – didn't so much as twitch his lips – Gate held still.
“Charmed, I'm sure. Now Tocci, we're running behind schedule,” Wulf continued speaking to her.
“Oh geez, I didn't mean to make you late,” Gaten said, glancing between them.
“You didn't, I never confirmed. Besides, we're not done here. You said something about dinner?” she asked, turning her back on Wulf. Gate glanced at the other man for a second, then focused on her.
“Uh, yeah. I know a really relaxed place, not too far from here. I could pick you up after work?” he offered.
“I'll meet you there. Seven?” she took charge of the date.
“Sounds good. See you then. Nice meeting you, uh … wolf,” Gate said, nodding his head before walking out of the kitchen. Wulf and Katya stared at each other until the front door opened and closed.
“Have you eaten?” he asked.
“How did you get in here?” she ignored his question and asked her own.
“I have access to the keys for every building we manage. Are you really meeting that thing for dinner?” he asked again.
“Okay, first of all, 'that thing' is a seriously good looking, very successful, and ridiculously nice man – a man who has yet to lie to me and use me,” she pointed out.
“Key word being 'yet'.”
“And second of all, I know for a fact my lease states you have to give me twenty-four hour notice before you just barge in here. If you come in again without my permission, I'm gonna file a complaint,” she warned him. He laughed. Actually laughed. Something Wulfric Stone didn't do very often. She took a deep breath and looked away from his broad smile.
“Please do. I'll direct my HR department to hand deliver it to my desk so I can deal with it personally.”
“Are we done here? I have things to do today that don't involve dealing with you,” she snapped. He stepped closer to her.
“You might be even more fun now than you were before.”
“That's not funny, and if you can't realize that, then there is literally no hope for you.”
“Ah, implying there is hope.”
“Shut up.”
“Feisty. I love it.”
“I talked to Vieve,” she blurted out. That finally stopped him.
“Oh, really,” was all he said.
“Yup. Went to your place, had a cup of coffee with her,” she said. That seemed to actually surprise him.
“You were in my home?” he checked.
“Yes. Apparently, I could've been spending lots of time there. Very generous of you to give me complete access,” she said. He didn't react, though she noticed the tendon in the side of his neck was taut and straining.
“Yes, well, I've met you. I knew if you ever showed up, it would be a huge hassle with the front desk calling my office and you calling my cell phone and me having to drive across town. Was just easier that way.”
“Sure. Okay.”
“And how was the coffee? I have it imported.”
Katya stared at the tight tendon for a moment longer. He was so good at putting on a false front, she knew. Looking calm and collected. After all, this was a man who ate million dollar real estate deals before breakfast.
But it was all fake. He was nervous. Deep down, she could tell. Being forceful was just his way of barreling through a problem he didn't actually want to deal with – he could just strong arm her into doing what he wanted. No unnecessary awkwardness. That was Wulf's M.O.
Yeah, well, my M.O. is to make him feel as awkward as humanly possible.
&n
bsp; “I can't go to breakfast with you,” she stated, brushing past him and heading down the hallway. He didn't hesitate to follow behind her.
“No shit, it's afternoon – it's too late for brunch, even. But that Brazilian food cart is open for lunches now, we're going -” he started, but she waved her hand over her shoulder as she moved into her bedroom.
“I can't, I'm busy this afternoon. I have to go shopping for a new stove – don't worry, I'll have the bill sent to you,” she joked, turning around and standing in the doorway to her room. He glared down at her.
“Don't be ridiculous. I'll talk to maintenance, we can get a new stove in by the end of the week,” he assured her.
“Whatever. I have other plans.”
“Tocci, I'm not -”
“But how about dinner?” she offered.
That seemed to shock him. He stood still for moment, his eyes wandering over her face. Obviously trying to figure out if she was lying. She offered him a big smile, and that just seemed to throw him even more off guard. He finally narrowed his eyes.
“If I make reservations, you'll be downstairs on time?” he checked.
“No,” she shook her head. “But I can meet you there.”
“Bullshit. You'll stand me up, and I'm not wasting my time, sitting around like an asshole waiting for you,” he said.
“I won't, I promise. I have … a client I'm dealing with this afternoon. I don't know how long it will take,” she told him.
“What about your dinner date with your darling handyman?” he asked. She shrugged.
“I'll figure something out, don't worry about it. I'll have dinner with you.”
“You promise?” he checked, still glaring down at her. She nodded and ran her fingers across her chest in an X motion.
“Cross my heart.”
“Fine. But don't fuck with me, Tocci. You won't like it if I have to come and find you. We have a lot to discuss,” he informed her. She nodded.
The Neighborhood (Twin Estates #2) Page 8
