Chapter 2-3
788 Words
Nico
Sondra Simonson. It’s her real name. I asked security to pull everything they can find on her and bring me the file. Along with the video feed of our interaction.
Turns out Samuel, the head of housekeeping, already fired Marissa, Sondra’s boss, for leaving her up in my suite, but I call him myself to say it’s all right.
And to request Sondra replace the regular penthouse suite housekeeper.
Because if she doesn’t quit, I definitely want her up in my room again.
Naked.
Preferably n***d and willing this time, but I’d be a goddamn liar if I said I didn’t like her a little scared. There was something so appealing about the way she both trembled and got turned on when I stripped her.
Or had I imagined it?
I’ll find out soon enough. Where is that damn video feed? I’m like a junkie waiting for his next hit. I can’t wait to watch the video of her. I’m going to be f*****g my hand all night to the sight of her pouty lips and wide blue eyes decorating my screen.
A knock sounds on the door. “It’s Tony.” The deep voice of my right-hand man echoes through the door.
“Yeah?”
“I dropped her off.” He steps in and gives me a careful look. I know he didn’t come in here just to tell me that. He came in to find out what the hell happened. Why I sent the maid home wet and scared.
He’s worried about me. My mental state is starting to crumble with the inability to sleep. He’s too smart to come out and ask me what happened. He knows I’d tell him to mind his own f*****g business. But he’s made a career out of standing around me silently, serving as my bodyguard, making himself available when I do feel like confiding.
He’s not family. He’s not even Italian. He’s just a big, loyal guy from Cicero who decided I was the guy he was going to follow into the bowels of hell. I guess you could say he’s the closest thing I have to a friend.
If a Tacone ever really has a friend.
“She’s new. I thought she looked off, so I strip searched her.”
A muscle in Tony’s jaw tightens but he doesn’t say anything. Tony is absolutely a defender of women. His ma was abused by his dad pretty bad and he’s still eager to even that score with any guy who manhandles a woman. Probably even, if it came down to it, me.
But I don’t usually make a habit out of mistreating women.
This one was a special case.
I purse my lips and shrug. “I also may have pointed a g*n at her head while I was questioning her.” I tell him in case there’s some mess we need to clean up from the fallout. Hopefully Sondra won’t kick up a fuss. I don’t think she will.
And for some reason that bugs the hell out of me.
I have terrible taste in men.
Smart, well-educated, smoking hot little number like her shouldn’t be walking around with that fatal flaw that puts her in danger. Especially not in Vegas.
Except it’s probably that terrible taste that turned her supple and pliant in my arms, too. Those incredible n*****s pebbled up, that p***y turned wet for me. And I hadn’t even been coming on to her. I was rough-handling her like a deranged lunatic.
Fuck.
Tony shoves his hands in his pockets. “Jesus, Nico. The lack of sleep has you paranoid.”
“I know.” I run my hand through my hair.
“You need to take something. Have you tried the drugs?”
I have a whole shelfful of pharmaceuticals that are supposed to help me sleep, but either they don’t work or I don’t like the way they make me feel afterward. Not that I like the delirium I’m under now. “Nah. I think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
“That’s what you said last night.”
I look out the wall of windows that make up my penthouse suite. “So you got her home? Was she okay?”
“She was skittish. You pay her off?”
The words pay her off set my teeth on edge, even though that’s exactly what I did. Still, it sounds so sordid when associated with her. It’s the same reason I don’t want to see her dealing on my floor. She shouldn’t be sullied by all the s**t that goes down at this hotel casino.
She shouldn’t be sullied by me.
Too bad I want to dirty her in every possible way.
If I were a better man, I would make certain our paths never cross again. But I’m not. I’m not a good man. I put her right back in the lion’s den.
I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if she’s as smart she looks and she vows to never set foot in this place again.
- Writer
