Page 48 of Empire of Savages
He wandered into the office, startling Bliss.
“Who is this strapping man, Alex?” she called through the door.
I rolled my eyes. “He’s here to fix the glass in the door.”
“I didn’t know you’d organized that.”
“Yeah, I didn’t either,” I muttered, but I had a hunch as to who it was. As the guy inspected the frame and took measurements, I turned over the words I’d say to my father for assuming I needed help with this. It was my fucking garage. I could take care of this myself.
“Was there a work order for this job?” I asked.
The guy pulled a folded piece of paper from his front pocket and handed it to me. Flattening it out, I looked over the information, zeroing in on who the request had come from.
N. Vatnik.
Who the fuck was N. Vatnik?
“Want to hang out tonight?” Bliss asked, doodling on a Post-it note behind the front desk. Leaning over the high counter, I got a better look at what she was drawing and frowned.
“Can you not draw dicks all over my office supplies, please?”
She looked up at me and grinned. “Come on, Alex. I thought you loved dick.” She peeled off the sheet and stuck it to the monitor in front of her. “So, you want to hang out?”
“I can’t,” I replied. Taking off my coveralls, I let out a deep sigh when the cool air from the office hit my overheated skin. “I’m going out tonight.”
Nick had sent me a text earlier asking to see me. I didn’t remember giving him my number, and he’d refused to tell me how he’d gotten it.
That got Bliss’s attention. “Out? Where? Without me?”
“I don’t know yet and yes.”
She narrowed her blue eyes at me. “Is it because I don’t have a dick?”
“Jesus, Bliss, what is with your obsession with dicks?”
“They’re fun,” she replied absently, adding droplets of cum shooting out the new dick she was drawing. “They’re really fun when this happens.” She tapped the end of the marker to the Post-it note, then tore off that leaf, too, and handed it to me. “I hope you get some dick action tonight. But be safe. Dicks can be fun until they put a baby in you. Then…” She made a face. “Not so fun.”
Unbidden, a shiver tracked down my spine when I remembered how Nick had told me he didn’t want to have any barriers between us—how he had demanded it—and how I’d made sure my script for the pill was filled. “I’m safe. Don’t worry.”
“Good.” Re-capping the marker, Bliss picked up her small purse, drew it over her shoulder, and blew me a kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow, boss.”
“Good night.”
After locking the door behind Bliss, I shut off the office lights and walked back through the garage, checking the roller door was all the way down and securely bolted in place.
In my apartment, the heat from the day was trapped, making sweat bead on my forehead the instant I stepped inside. I pulled open the living room windows to let the air circulate, and I left my apartment door open, too, to let the cross breeze cool things down.
Nick hadn’t told me what time he was picking me up, but there was no way I was going out tonight without having a shower first. If he arrived before I was ready, that was his fault for not giving me a time. In the bathroom, I pulled the elasticfrom my hair, letting it tumble over my shoulders and back. The long strands immediately stuck to the sweat already gathering between my shoulder blades. A shower was a necessity, but I didn’t think I could get away with washing my hair, too.
After starting the water, I pulled my hair back into its signature messy bun, then shucked the remainder of my clothes.
I was only under the spray for a few minutes when the buzzer started to ring. Hopping from the stall, I wrapped a towel around my body, leaving wet footprints on the tile.
“Yeah?” I said, speaking into the intercom in the living room.
“Little voyeur,” Nick said in a deep voice.
“My apartment door is open.” I buzzed him in, then darted into my bedroom to get dressed. By the time I came out in a flirty summer dress, Nick was already splayed out on my couch, his arms outstretched along the back. I’d stopped dead in the doorway at seeing him there. He was a beautiful man, but he was edged in darkness. He was a red flag flapping in hurricane-strength wind. He watched me watch him, then, with a smirk on his perfect lips, he crooked his finger at me like he had done the first time I’d seen him at the party.