Page 35 of The Red Room
I nod despite the longing to do nothing else than sit here and ask all the questions buzzing in my head like hornets. He winds around the bar and helps me off the stool, keeping my hand tightly in his.
“Tonight was not what I expected,” I say, toying with the silver chain dangling around my throat.
“Me answering your questions or what happened before?” he says, leading me to the doors of Völk.
“Both.” Blush creeps to my cheeks at the thought of his mouth tasting every part of me. The way his tongue circled my clit and forced pleasure-filled ripples throughout my body.Fuck.He attacked me with the precision of a surgeon, and a soft caress so different from the animal he keeps hidden from the world.
“I had a nice time too,” he says, his voice rough.
Dimitri, still standing guard at the doors, straightens his posture when the cool night air greets us. I’m not sure how much he heard, but if he does know what happened inside, I can’t tell in the slightest. His face is set to its regular stern and brooding expression.
“Bye, Dimitri,” I say, and wave as we pass.
He nods in our direction. “Miss Nat.”
When we reach the sidewalk, Nik stops, glancing down both ends of the unusually vacant streets.
“Are you waiting for Yuri to pull the car around?” I ask.
“No,” he says and hands me the helmet from the handlebar of his motorcycle. “I’m keeping you all to myself.”
*
After another thrilling ride through the busy LA downtown, we arrive at my apartment complex, brick exteriorrich with decay. Embarrassment rears its ugly head, and although I’d love nothing else than for him to walk me to my front door, I can’t bear the thought of him second-guessing his interest in me because of the slums I call home. His interest in whatever the hellthisis. Sure, he turns into a wolf, but he doesn’t live in a bottom-end apartment where the AC barely works and mold builds in the ceiling every rainy winter. Somehow, his monthly flaw is severely outdone by my laundry list of shortcomings.
“Thank you for the ride,” I say awkwardly, ready to put as much distance between us as I can. “On the bike …” I blurt, mortification wrapping around me “… not your face.”
Oh, god.What in the actual fuck is wrong with me?
Yes, Nik, thank you for burying your chiseled jaw between my thighs. Five out of five stars. Would ride again. I think I’m going to throw up, and the bile churning in my stomach only proves I might be right.
He peers at me curiously and cocks a brow.
“I mean, that was great too.”For fuck’s sake, Natalie. Stop talking. Shut the hell up!“I had a great time. Good night.” I turn for the door, each of my limbs rich with humiliation. I changed my mind. Him seeing where I live is the least embarrassing thing that happened tonight.
“I’ll see you to your door,” Nik says, lifting himself from the motorcycle and following close behind me.
“Okay,” I mutter begrudgingly.
We maneuver our way to the fourteenth floor, dodging forgotten trash and my neighbor’s screaming matches the entire way. When we get to my front door, he waits for me to open it. I do, hesitantly, and creak the door open enough to slip through without him seeing inside. Love what you’ve done with the place. Are each of the walls a different color because you like color or the complex ran out of paint? Shame builds in my gut. I’d soonerlet him cut open my stomach and see my insides than the small area I call home.
Before I can squeeze myself into the loft, Nik grabs me by my waist, pulling me into him. Warmth floods through my immovable body. He kisses me, his mouth openly attacking mine somehow harder than at his bar. The peeling wallpaper in the hallway blurs and disappears as my eyes close. Bliss smooths over the part of me nagging to rush inward. Bliss and the overwhelming buckle in each knee. When our lips part he only stares at me, his bright expression growing dark. Nothing can prepare me for what he asks next.
“If I leave this place. This city,” he says and tightens his grip around me.
I stay silent for a moment, fixed on his piercing golden eyes. Leave? Why would he leave? Abandon a successful club when half of the city is desperate to get in? It doesn’t make sense. None of this does.
“If I leave LA …” he says finally. “Will you come with me?”
EIGHTEEN
I stayed awakefor a long time last night replaying Nik’s question in my head. Go with him? Go where? I’m not sure what he has in mind, but judging from the seriousness in his eyes, he meant it.And he wants me to go with him.I couldn’t respond, Christ, I’m not sure I even blinked. There we stood in my apartment hallway where Nikolai Vostik once again managed to leave me speechless. I can’t go with him. What am I going to do? Pack up and run off with someone I barely know? My life is here. Yes, while it may be a less than comfortable one, it’s still my home.
My phone buzzes again on the nightstand, adding message number five to the string of texts I’ve received so far. I don’t have to look to know who it is.Courtney.Her first text:Are you alive?was quickly followed with scolding, asking how big his dick is, and more scolding for leaving. In Courtney’s long list of unwritten rules to follow while dating in Los Angeles, I committed the first, second, and third cardinal sins.
One:Never go with a potential partner without sharing your location.
Two:Always text when you get there and when you leave.