Nicoli: A Forbidden Romance (Dark Sovereign Book 4)

I’m unsure whether my heart stopped or if it dropped to the soles of my feet. All I know is that it’s not beating anymore. I can’t feel it. I can’t hear it pulsing between my ears. Not while I’m staring at him, naked, standing by the side of the bed. And her? She’s on her back, on the bed in front of him, her thighs spread, one leg hooked around his waist while the other is pressed against his chest. Her dark hair is fanned out on his sheets, her nipples hard, the look of ecstasy clinging to her flushed cheeks. There’s a sheen of sweat on her forehead, both their bodies glistening with exertion. Judging by their position, he’s buried deep inside her.

I drop my bag to the floor. There’s a strange tug in my chest, one that burns and aches simultaneously. I’ve always known Nicoli is no saint. I watched his car pull out of the driveway after midnight numerous times, knowing he was going to Myth for only one reason. To fuck. But at least it didn’t happen here where I had to see it, bear witness to it as I’m doing now. Knowing about it is different than seeing it. Seeing it makes it real, and being unable to unsee it worsens it.

I can’t move as my mind races. It takes me no more than ten seconds to realize what’s happening.

His message about wanting to see me in his bedroom—something I knew was odd—and his bedroom door wide open, which it never is. It’s all planned. Staged. He wanted me to walk in on him fucking another woman. Paula, no less. The one woman I’ve never liked simply because her skirts are always too short, and she was the closest thing Nicoli’s ever had to a girlfriend.

Nicoli planned this. He wanted to hurt me. He wants me to hate him. That’s been his MO for the last nine years, and I haven’t figured out why. And now here I am, hardly able to feel the ground beneath my feet while I stare in front of me at the man who owns my heart fucking another woman. My head is spinning from the champagne, thoughts racing as anger grows inside me. I’m so sick of him and his endless mind games, how he so easily fucks with my head. But that ends now. I’m calling his bluff tonight. I’m not going to run away and cry or scream and curse, I’m going to beat him at his own twisted little game.

I step inside the bedroom and slam the door shut. It’s then that Paula finally notices me and sends me a wicked grin before looking at Nicoli. “I knew keeping the door open meant someone was joining us. I just figured it would be Caelian.” Her hooded eyes glance in my direction. “Who is she?”

“Shut the fuck up, Paula,” he demands, his voice low and gruff.

I pin my eyes on him, slowly unbuttoning the front of my dress. He’s not moving even though Paula is squirming on the sheets. I don’t say a word, letting my actions do all the talking. Maybe my confidence is mixed with shock and the copious amount of champagne bubbling in my veins, but I don’t really care. I’m determined to have Nicoli’s plan blow up in his beautiful fucking face.

My dress pools around my feet, and my breasts sway as I hook my fingers in the sides of my white lace panties, shimmying as I let them slide down my legs. Just like the night before, I’m standing naked in front of Nicoli, and he has the same look in his eyes. Fiery blue irises burning with something fierce, a hunger that slides onto every line in his face. Only this time, I’m not spineless or speechless. I’m not frozen or barely breathing because Nicoli Del Rossa made a big show of smelling my pussy. I’m ready to play him at his own game.

“What are you doing, Mira?” he asks, his voice thick with lust.

I don’t respond. Instead, I move to stand beside him, my sensitive nipples lightly brushing against his arm. He sucks air through his teeth, and heat spreads through my core. Paula doesn’t move, and neither does Nicoli, even though his cock is still buried inside her. I bet it’s taking all of his self-control to not move his hips and fuck her.

I reach out and run a finger up the soft skin of her thigh. I might not like this woman, but she is beautiful with enough sex appeal to light a tiny village on fire. My fingers leave a trail of goosebumps on her flesh as I drag a fingertip over her hip, her stomach, drawing lazy circles around the swell of her breasts. She’s looking at me warily, but her eyes give her away. She’s turned the fuck on by this, by me, and as I take her pert nipple between my fingers, squeezing it lightly, she starts to pant for more.

“Oh, I want to play with this little one,” Paula murmurs, reaching out and trying to touch my thigh. I swat her hand away from me, shooting her a silent warning with a single glare. “What the fuck, bitch?”

Nicoli’s hand is around her throat in an instant, and he squeezes, growling. “Call her that again and I’ll make you choke on her panties, understood?”

She nods her submission, and I can’t stop the slight smile curling at the edges of my mouth. Nicoli lets go of Paula’s throat as I get onto the bed, now facing him. “I’m joining the party,” I say, settling on my knees.

“Mira, stop,” he warns, and I notice the slight movement of his hips as he inches deeper into Paula. “You need to leave. Get out of my room right now.”

“But you invited me.” On my knees, I inch closer, Paula’s face inches from my thighs. But I refuse to look down at her. “That’s why you wanted to see me, isn’t it? Why you left the door open so I can see you fuck your little slut.” I lean my head to the side, studying him. “Or did you want me to run away crying?”

“Leave, Mira. For fuck’s sake.” He pushes forward again, and Paula moans. My gaze drops to where their bodies connect, Paula’s shaved pussy spread open, and Nicoli’s cock buried deep. I ache to run my hands over his sculpted chest, swirl my fingers around the bullet wound scar, then down his tight abs, to feel its ripples beneath my fingertips as I touch him lower. Lower. Until I feel where his body connects to hers. Jealousy strikes my chest like a beaded whip to my flesh. So many nights I’ve lain awake fantasizing about what it would feel like to have him inside me, my pussy stretched and filled while he rocks on top of me. Would he be gentle? Rough? I’ve always seemed to gravitate toward the latter, thinking about his strong hands wrapped around my throat. His hard body pinning me down, lips sucking and teeth biting. I want him to pull my hair and bend my body to his will, hurt me until it feels so fucking good. I want to see the evidence of his passion for me bloom on my skin in shades of purple and blue. To me it would be proof of his ownership over me.

Paula moves her hips, and Nicoli groans. “In the name of God, stop moving.”

She doesn’t obey and thrusts against him, sporting a sly grin. He curses, and I grab her hair, yanking her head to the side. “Did you not hear him? He said…stop. Moving.”

He looks from me to Paula before his gaze lands back on me. I can feel the intensity of it, and as much as my pride wants me to walk away, there’s something compelling about all this that makes me stay.

My heart pounds in my chest, adrenaline flooding my system, and I can feel sweat bead on my back. Nicoli doesn’t move. It’s as if he knows that if he does, something wicked will unfold. Paula is no longer writhing against him. I think she’s finally realized that there’s more to this than a mere threesome. It’s something primal, something that goes back years. Something that doesn’t include her. She’s merely a pawn in Nicoli’s game…just like me.

We remain motionless, seconds stretching into moments that have no end.

Nicoli’s eyes are pinned on mine, and the heat of his gaze seeps into my skin. It arouses a forbidden longing that sets fire to my insides with a fierce, uncontrollable desire that slicks my pussy and sizzles every nerve in my body. And I can see in the way he studies me that he knows as well as I do that this game has changed irrevocably.

“You shouldn’t be here. Get up and walk out of here, Mira.”

“I’d say make me, but that would mean you have to take your dick out of Paula’s cunt. And I’m kind of turned on by it.” I trail my fingers up my sides, circling a finger around my nipple, his eyes turning dark as he watches me. “So, why don’t we just finish this? Let’s play this little game of yours, Nicoli.”

“What game?”

“This game where you pretend like you don’t give a shit about me, but you and I both know that’s not true.”

His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, and I imagine it’s the bullshit he wanted to spit out but then thought better of it.

“There’s something between us, and you going to such lengths to make me think otherwise is proof that you know it, too.” I pinch my nipple between my fingers, and he bites his bottom lip. The flames dance in his eyes and make them glow with primal need. He’s a being of the night, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sometimes a monster. He is good at keeping his emotions hidden, an expert in painting an illusion that he doesn’t give a shit. But the tension in his shoulders and his jaw says otherwise.

Every trace of restraint leaves hard lines of lust on his expression, dark strands of hair fanning those beautiful eyes that are trained on me.

I inch closer, palming both my breasts now. Paula starts to move her hips in a slow circular motion, and Nicoli remains dead still.

“Fuck her,” I say, my voice low and sultry. He hesitates, letting her leg fall from his shoulder, so he’s trapped between her thighs. “You fuck her pussy.” I shift and rock back on Paula’s face. “While I fuck her mouth.”

“Jesus,” he moans, lowering his head and groaning as if he’s in pain—good—then gives a single hard thrust into her, causing her lips to brush against my pussy.

A shock of electricity slams up my spine. I throw my head back, craning my neck as Paula licks her velvet tongue through my slit, the tip dancing against my clit.

Nicoli thrusts into her again, harder this time, and our eyes meet. He’s leaning over her, his arms stretched out and hands by her sides. It’s as if he wants to get closer to me, as close as he can, and I can’t stop myself from wanting to close the distance as well. His low groans mirror the pleasure I feel from Paula’s mouth on my sex, French-kissing my cunt like she’s starved for it. She hooks her hands around my upper thighs, pulling me down harder, her tongue dipping into my entrance.

I moan out loud with them both. The world spins around us, creating a surge of electric pleasure until our moans fill the air like a symphony, each person’s body growing more excited with every second.

Nicoli reaches out, fisting his hand in my hair and pulling me closer, his forehead against mine as he continues to pound into her. His warm breath smells like bourbon and cigars. It’s intoxicating as it wafts against my lips. “Fuck, Mira,” he rasps, and I move my hips, riding Paula’s face faster, deeper. Her thighs are spread wide, her knees bent, heels digging into the edge of the mattress. I can smell her, her sweet arousal that pools between her body and Nicoli’s—the wetness of her cunt that allows him to go deeper into her. We’re hot breaths mixed with desperate moans intertwined with a desire that we can’t escape from. Not now. It’s already gone too far.

The sound of Nicoli slamming into her—skin on skin—resounds around us, and I know I should be repulsed and sickened by it, but I’m not. I got onto this bed trying to beat him at his own game, but now I’m coiled deep within its webs, a willing prey to his depravities.

“What are you doing to me?” he whispers, out of breath, our bodies moving in the same rhythm as if it’s me he’s fucking. It’s no longer her. She’s no longer here. It’s just us. Just the two of us lost in our wicked desires and sensual sin.

“The same thing you’re doing to me.” I place my palms on his cheeks. “I’m ruining you.”

His lips slam into mine with a brutal force that knocks the breath from my lungs. My world shatters into a million pieces of euphoria, a moment I’ve been waiting for so long. He’s kissing me, and I can taste the hunger on his lips, feel the desire with every stroke of his tongue. It mirrors my own, our pent-up passions unleashing in an explosion of chaos.

Nicoli cups my cheeks while his body moves at a grueling pace, but he doesn’t miss a beat as he continues to kiss me. It’s as painfully beautiful as I had always imagined. It doesn’t matter that Paula is here because, right now, she’s a bystander and not a participant. It’s our bodies moving, our lips craving, our desires taking control.

I moan as Nicoli tears his lips from mine, one hand sliding down to my jaw and pressing his fingers deep into my skin, gripping tight.

“Why can’t you just hate me?” he asks between labored breaths.

“I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.”

The tension in my belly fuels me to move faster, to rock harder, Paula’s tongue sliding and licking, her lips sucking on my clit, causing my legs to shake as pleasure forces prickles of delight through every muscle until my insides detonate with a rapture that tears through me like a hurricane.

“Jesus, fuck,” Nicoli curses, and I reach out, forcing him to look at me.

“Don’t come inside her. You can show me that courtesy.”

“I wish it was you. I wish it were you I’m fucking right now. God.” He bites his bottom lip, his body pistoning as his cock slams into her over and over again. Paula starts to cry out, and I press down harder on her face, muffling her sounds of ecstasy with my wet pussy.

“You look at me when you come, Nicoli Del Rossa.” My demand sends him spilling over the edge, his hooded gaze planted firmly on mine. He jerks back, reaches down and grabs his cock, pumping it hard, that first shot of cum landing hot on my stomach, the rest squirting onto Paula’s sweaty body beneath us. A deep groan echoes from his chest, and it’s the most magnificent sight I’ve ever seen. Every muscle, every tendon in his chest and shoulders is pulled taut, his jaw and neck set in tight lines as he comes, pleasure ripping through him.

Nicoli pushes himself back and away from Paula, who remains still and spent on the bed. I slide off the bed, my body nothing but waves of aftershocks, electrified with rapture. But my heart…my heart is fucking destroyed. There’s no trace of bliss on his face. His expression is pained, as if he knows it, too.

I can’t control the pain that now rushes to the surface, drowning out the adrenaline. I’m too exhausted to stop the tears from falling, so I let them as I walk up to him. My walls have already crumbled. There’s no need for me to stay strong anymore, and I no longer have to hide what I’m feeling. I’ve done it long enough, loved him from afar for too long. Staring up at him, I pray to God he can see in the depths of my eyes how my soul is bleeding out. I need him to know that this is the moment he lost me. Whether he loves me in this all-consuming way I love him or not, if fate ever had a happy ending in store for us, Nicoli just single-handedly destroyed it.

He destroyed me.

I slap him. Right across his beautiful fucking face, his neck jerking to the side. “You wanted me to hate you. Well, now I do. Congratulations, Nicoli.”

With that, I grab my dress and walk out of his room, leaving a piece of me behind. My dream. My heart. Him.

That was the moment I died…and I never want to take a goddamn breath again.