The music comes out of his speaker in the kitchen, filling the apartment. I stand, pumping my hips to the beat in my version of a twerk as I give him a strip tease. I shuck my bustier and unbutton my jeans. I time pulling them down with the lyrics, dropping to my lowest squat, bouncing on the floor to take them off before I snake back up.
Nikolai strokes his thumb across his lower lip, his heavy-lidded gaze pinned on me.
Feeling powerful, I dance around in my panties the way I had that day in my kitchen, giving him the best show I know how. When I start to get self-conscious again, I drop to the floor and crawl up to him to finish the job I started.
When I take him into my mouth again, he cradles my head with both hands. “This is what I’ve been missing my whole life,” he rumbles appreciatively. “You. Dancing in my living room. Filling up the empty spaces in my life.”
I pop off and give him a cheshire cat smile. “Sucking your dick?”
His smile is warm as he takes over, feeding his length back into my mouth. “Definitely sucking my dick.”
Epilogue
Nikolai
Oleg, Adrian and I wait outside Zane’s dorm for him.
“Oh shit. What is this?” He walks up with his hand in a brace with three of his fingers splinted from the surgery he had two weeks ago.
“How’s your hand?” I ask, eyeing the brace.
He flips it over to look at it like it’s a foreign object. “It’s okay, I guess. It hurts, but I’m staying off the pain pills. I’m done with all that.”
“That’s good. I’ll kick your ass if you go back to it.”
“Thanks for the support,” he says drily, but I see him flick a nervous glance Oleg’s way.
I dangle the keys to his Mustang in front of him. “I came to offer you a deal,” I say.
“You still have it!” He reaches for the keys, but I jerk them away.
“You haven’t heard my terms yet.”
“Okay.” He splits a wary glance between me and the guys.
“I need your support.”
A smirk shows around his lips. “Are you buying my affection?”
“Yeah. I want to lock down your sister.”
His smile grows, which relaxes me. He doesn’t still think I’m the worst thing to happen to Chelle.
“What do you need from me?”
“Come to the Red Room tomorrow night. Chelle’s organized an event, and I’m going to pop the question there.”
“I’ll need a car to get there.” Zane holds his hand out for his keys.
“That’s my boy.” I drop the keys into his palm. “Eight o’clock. Don’t be late.” We start to walk away.
“I’ll be there.”
“Oh—” I turn around and point at Zane. “if you tell her? I’ll kill you.”
He chuckles. “I believe you.”
Chelle
I bounce on my heels with excitement. Tonight’s event was all my doing. I set up the gig for the Storytellers at The Red Room. I launched a social media campaign using both their Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Tiktok accounts. I listed it in the local papers and online magazines. I arranged for a couple food trucks to park out front to make it even more of an event, and I even invited Janette to show her what I’m capable of.
She stands beside me now, sipping a whiskey sour and surveying the crowd. “Looks like you threw together a great event in just a few weeks,” she says. “I can’t wait to see how the launch with Skate 32 goes.”
“I promise I did this all on my own time,” I tell her.
“I wasn’t worried about it,” she tells me. “You’re on salary, anyway, so it’s not like I’m clocking your time.”
Nikolai comes up and stands behind me, his hand lightly resting on my back in that gentle, yet possessive way he has. He’s my rock. The one who makes all this seem easy and possible. But this event feels like my gift to him. A way to honor his friends and try to earn their respect, especially since I might not be their favorite person after the way I hurt him.
“Janette, this is my boyfriend, Nikolai. The band members are friends of his. And mine,” I add, hoping it’s true.
Nikolai shakes Janette’s hand and drops a kiss on my head. “Chelle is a star for putting this together.”
“She absolutely is. I’m going to go check on my food order at the food truck.” Janette leaves, and Nikolai leads me to the bar to get a drink.
I look over as Nikolai’s friends from the penthouse suite pour in. Oleg came in with the band, of course, but Sasha, a highly-entertaining redhead and her husband, Maxim, arrive. Adrian follows, with his sister, Nadia, who looks more than a little frightened to be here. When Flynn waves to her from where he’s setting up on stage, she freezes in place, and looks behind her, as if to see if he’s waving to someone else.
Flynn gets on the mic. “Nadia’s in the house,” he says, waving again.
A shy smile breaks out on her face. I haven’t known her for long, but it’s the first time I’ve seen her look anything but haunted. She lifts her fingers in a tiny wave.
Ravil and Lucy, Nikolai’s boss and his wife, didn’t come tonight because of their baby Benjamin, but Nikolai suspects they also stayed home because they’re happy to have the penthouse to themselves for a change.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve gotten to know them all more. We’ve hung out in the penthouse to watch movies or share meals, and I had them down to Nikolai’s for Sunday brunch a couple times. Dima and his girlfriend Natasha are often here on weekends, but they won’t be here tonight, since it’s mid-week.
The band starts up, keeping it more mellow than usual to go with the earlier happy hour vibe. Their regular fans, who we lured over from Rue’s, love the change-up and cheer accordingly after each song.
I see Derek standing beside Shanna enjoying the music, and they both shoot me a thumbs-up.
When the song ends, Story gets on the mic. “Thank you all so much for coming out to see us and to the Red Room for hosting. This is our first gig here, and we’re having an awesome time.”
The crowd cheers.
“We also wanted to thank our friend Chelle for setting this up. Chelle, where are you?”
I wave my hand in the air.
“There she is, everyone. Somebody buy her a drink!”
Nikolai raises his hand and nods, and I laugh. He catches Shanna’s attention, and she comes over with my usual dirty martini.
“This is fun!” she says as she hands it to me. “You did a great job. Derek loves the new crowd.”
“Awesome.” I pick up the toothpick of olives absently and realize it has a bow tied on the end. “What is this?”
Shanna gives me a wink and disappears to wait on someone else.
“What is this?” I repeat to Nikolai, stroking my fingers down the delicate ribbon ends.
His lips twitch.
“Did you do this?” I tug one of the ends and the bow unravels, dropping a delicate gold ring onto the bar. I gasp. “Oh! Is this from you?”
A thin slip of paper is wrapped around the ring. I unwrap it and flatten it on the bar. Something is written in cyrillic letters.