Page 29 of The Sins That Bleed

Pancakes and Pain

RAI

M y eyes flicker open, sleep still at the edges of my vision as it tries to lull me back under.

I had the craziest dream, and I don’t know how my bed came to feel like a cloud when I know it’s a lumpy mess I barely fit on, but I’ll take it. I’ve not slept this well in a long time, and part of me wants to stay in bed all day.

The room is wrapped in darkness, the only light filtering in from under a door opposite the bed. Although now that I’m more awake, I realise this layout is off. I take stock of what I can, and the silk sheets I’m surrounded by come to my attention. I definitely don’t own any silk sheets.

Where the fuck am I?

I’m about to freak out when everything comes back to me—getting a major break in the case, celebrating with Nico eating pizza and drinking beer, then the break in. I scrub my hands over my face remembering how our apartments looked. Nico’s, as predicted, was in a worse state than mine.

I remember Valeska and Sunny showing up, coming to save us from hunting for a hotel for the night and coming to bed. Fuck . Having Valeska take care of me, putting herself on display for me before giving me the best blow job of my life…she’s ruined me.

I’m instantly hard again thinking about it. She’d done exactly what she said she would, taking care of me and helping me to have a peaceful sleep. The only dream I had was of us in this bed like she’d said I would.

My cock throbs against the silk sheets, but I should ignore it and not give in to the desire. Me and her can never work, two people on opposite sides of life. I’ll always be hunting the criminals, and she will always be socialising with them, running in the same circles as the elite.

I fist my cock anyway, picturing her crawling up my body in that underwear that can only be described as jewellery and her sultry eyes that told me exactly how good she could make me feel. If I hadn’t been bone tired, I’d have ravaged her.

I replay my dream as I pump my cock faster, where she crawled further up my body until she was poised over my face, her hands gripping the headboard as she seats that perfect pussy down and I eat her out, not caring that I can’t breathe, just desperate to make her come while she rides my face.

I barely throw the expensive bedding off me in time as I spill my seed onto my stomach. I’m breathing hard, but it’s not taken the edge off like I wanted it to. Only she can do that for me it seems.

I blow out a breath in frustration before swinging my legs out of bed to clean up and get ready for the morning. When I check my phone, I see it’s already nearly lunch. Luckily it’s the weekend which means Nico and I don’t need to be in the office.

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 firing off 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.”

I stand and pull him in a tight embrace and he wraps his arms around me. I rub his back in comfort.

“Don’t beat yourself up about this, I promise you she doesn’t think that of you. Maybe she’s had a bad experience or something that set her off? I’m sure if you talk to her about it and clear the air, you’ll understand the situation a little better?”

He sniffs and nods against my chest. I step back to take a look at him to make sure he’s okay.

“Thanks, Rai. I think it’s all just hitting me is all. After last night I’ve been on edge about someone being in my home and going through all my things. And then that happened with Sunny…and it made me feel awful.”

“I think we’re all on edge after that, but it’ll be okay. Talk to her and I promise you’ll feel better, okay?”

He agrees to speak with her and we polish off our pancakes. We chat a little about our plans for the day and consider going over the case, but our heads aren’t in it. I need to speak to Valeska about how this is linked to her getting stabbed the other night, since my gut tells me that it is.

I let Nico know I’m going to find her to discuss what we know and that I’ll catch up with him later. I open the door to step out of his suite to find Sunny on the other side with her fist raised and ready to knock.

She looks adorable in her pastel rainbow dungarees, paired with a cream long-sleeve top and chucks. It reminds me so much of something my sister used to wear when we were younger, and the nostalgic feeling punches me in the gut.

“Sorry, agent. I thought he was alone and, well, I wanted to speak to him, but I’ll come back later.

I didn’t mean to disturb you; hope you slept well and have everything you need.

Do you need anything? I should go, okay, bye.

” She doesn’t even pause to take a breath and then she turns on her heel to leave.

I let out a little chuckle at how flustered she is before stopping her from getting too far—looks like Nico isn’t the only one ruffled after last night.

“Good afternoon to you too, Sunny. You’re not disturbing us, I was just leaving. I slept well and we have everything we need so thank you. Don’t go, speak to him, I think it’ll do you both some good.”

I give her a genuine smile. I have a feeling they’ll work things out and get back to how they were before.

I open the door wide and gesture for her to come in.

She hesitates for a moment and looks to me for reassurance, so I nod my head to encourage her.

She lets out a breath, squares her shoulders, and marches in.

It reminds me of the woman I’m about to go on the hunt for.

“Hey, Nico.” I hear her say before I pull the door shut and leave them to it.

The smile doesn’t fall from my face until I’m standing outside the partially open door of Valeska’s office and I see none other than my boss, on his fucking knees before her as she leans back on her desk, his tongue licking her exposed pale and silky-smooth leg from ankle to knee.

Her eyes meet mine through the gap in the door. I turn around and bolt from the scene before I do something I regret. Like cut that slimy prick’s tongue out and make him eat it.

A violence I have never knows cleaves through my body, leaving hot trails of envy in its wake.