Page 50 of The Sins That Bleed
Unluckily, it means hanging out at Latrotoxin towers with a woman that’s burrowed herself into my every waking thought, and now my dreams too.
After firingoff a text to Nico to see if he is up, I join him in his suite while he cooks us some lunch. Both of us slept in later than we normally would.
This place doing more to help us catch up on sleep than a sleeping pill ever could.
I’d not spent any time in mine except to shower and dress, but we discovered his place is fully stocked with all sorts of food and drink, so I deduced that mine would look the same. It makes me wonder if Valeska had someone stock it before we got here or if they had it all to hand; neither would surprise me with her.
“Where’d you go, princess?” Nico breaks through my thoughts with a laugh.
I join in because what do I say? That I’m losing the fucking plot over a woman I barely know? Who has me twisted up inside over how much I want her, but hate that I do? No, I can’t tell him that, so I turn the conversation back to him.
“Nowhere, because I’m fucking starving, how long until you finally feed me?” I pout, which earns me another bark of laughter. “Anyway, what did you get up to last night? You and Sunny looked awfully content walking away together.”
A look close to guilt flashes over his face but it’s gone so quickly I’m convinced I made it up. The amount of stress and pressure we’re under means I’m in no state to guess.
I wiggle my eyebrows at him suggestively instead and it earns me a chocolate chip being lobbed at my head, smacking me between the brows. We watch as it bounces onto the island in front of me where I snatch it and eat it.
As soon as our eyes meet, full belly laughter descends upon us until we’re clutching our stomachs in pain.
“Fuck, that was funny!” Nico says, still chuckling.
“Really fucking funny, I needed that laugh after last night, but I still want to know what happened between you two.”
He wipes at his eyes before concentrating back on the pancakes he’s making us, a stack big enough to feed twice the number of people from the looks of it. He doesn’t say anything for a while and I don’t push; I might be deflecting but I won’t be a prick about it if he doesn’t want to talk.
He plates up the pancakes and brings them round the island, placing them in front of us before taking a seat. He shoves a forkful in and I do the same, moaning a little at the fluffiness mixed with the sweet chocolate.
“Careful, princess, you’re turning me on.” I shoot him a wink and he chuckles before sighing. “I like her, dude, really fucking like her. She’s got this energy or aura, I don’t know. There’s just something about her that pulls me to her, you know?”
I do know, not about Sunny, although there is something familiar about her, but Valeska sucked me into her orbit from the first time I laid my eyes on her, and I’ve been stuck ever since. I nod, not trusting myself to spill everything that went down between us recently.
“She’s shy and quirky, with impeccable taste in music. It’s like I’ve known her forever and we talk about everything we have in common…”
He trails off so I prompt him. “But?”
He runs a hand through his blond mohawk that he’s not bothered styling today. It should look weird, but his natural curls give it texture that makes him look cool. I’ve not seen him this flustered over anyone before, not even after his last relationship with Nate, and they were pretty serious.
“But something is off, and I can’t put my finger on it. It’s pissing me off, you know? Last night—” he pauses and clamps his mouth shut but changes his mind, “I tried to kiss her.”
“Wow, I was not expecting that. What, how?”
“Well, two people come together and press their lips?—”
“I know what a fucking kiss is, tell me what happened.” I press, exasperated.
“She rejected me.”
My eyebrows shoot into my hairline in surprise. I don’t think anyone has rejected Nico in his life; he’s a walking magnet for anyone and everyone that enters his orbit. I can’t say I blame them, because he’s a great guy to be around.
“Okay, okay. That’s okay.” I repeat.
“See, it’s bad!” He shovels pancakes in his mouth while he waits for me to speak.
“It’s not bad, what happened after she rejected you?”
“She freaked out. I’ve never seen someone back up and shut down so quickly before. I feel fucking terrible about it, I must’ve misread the signs and I should have asked her first instead of pouncing on her like a dirty predator.” I see the tears in his eyes at his self-loathing.
“Fuck, no, Nico, you’re not a predator. Hey, come here.”
