“I like penis, but not that much.”
“I think this is good for you. I really, honestly do. I've never seen you so confident, so vibrant, so … happy. These men are good for you, so that tells me that whatever you're doing, it can't be bad.”
Tori's voice was soft, but there was weight behind it. She really meant what she was saying, and she wanted her friend to hear it. Katya smiled and got up, walking around the table so she could hug her friend from behind.
“You really are the best,” she sighed.
“I know. Now go set the table. After I dish us up, you are going to finally give me all the explicit details on naughty Mr. Sex Club Owner.”
9
“... what do you think?”
Wulfric Stone cocked his head to the side, eyeing a large piece of artwork. It was by some local artist. Up and coming, supposedly. The simple frame worked well with the minimalist style of the living room, but the artwork itself looked out of place. Heavy slashes of black across stark white. Nothing soft or gentle about it.
Since when do I like soft and gentle? Hmmm …
“Get rid of it. Something with blues. Blues and yellows. We're showing this house in two days, and I want it to be perfect.”
Normally Wulf didn't bother with the staging of homes, he left that to the designers and decorators. This particular house was worth a lot of money, though, and had been on the market for a long time – the owners had only recently switched to Wulf's agency. He wanted the home sold, and he wanted it sold yesterday.
Wulf's businesses, combined with the multiple properties he owned throughout California, made more than enough money that if he never wanted to work again, he didn't have to – he'd thought of retiring early plenty of times. But Wulf was a mover by nature. He hated being still. He always had to be in motion. Doing something, going somewhere. Making a deal, swimming a mile, solving a problem.
Swimming had been his passion in school, but then his parents had gotten divorced. It had gotten nasty, and though his mother had managed to hold onto the house, it hadn't necessarily been a good thing. It meant a lot of changes. She'd had to work for the first time in her life – and so had Wulf.
That's why he'd never pursued swimming as a career. Watching his mother struggle had killed something inside him. Had placed a solid, unbreachable wall between him and his father. He'd promised himself he'd never be stupid enough to jeopardize his own well-being, or his financial stability, for another human being. If his mother had been less concerned with “being in love” and more concerned with being able to take care of her family, she wouldn't have found herself in such a mess. What if it hadn't been divorce? What if his father had just died? His mother had never worked before the divorce. Had never even thought to save money for herself, to have an education so she could work, if ever there was a need.
Stupid. So stupid.
That would never happen to him. He'd concentrated on his grades in high school, and swimming had been his escape. His stress reliever. He got a full ride to Princeton because of his abilities in the pool. Graduated with honors because of his abilities in the classroom. As a present, his father had given him his first building – an expensive, historic, apartment building in downtown San Francisco, a property his dad had inherited and cherished.
Wulf immediately sold it. Fuck his father's legacy, he didn't want any ties to the man that weren't necessary. Wulf turned around and invested that money in more buildings, then even more. Thus The Stone Agency was born.
He had a knack for business. Marketing came easy to him, and when he put his mind to it, he could be very charming. He was good at making sales and he fostered great relationships within the realty community. His agency grew, and his reputation even more so. He was a train of success that couldn't be slowed down. Couldn't be stopped. Couldn't be derailed.
Though if he was completely honest with himself, an intriguing little baker was coming the closest, of anyone or anything, to doing all those things.
He was playing with fire where she was concerned, he knew. Wulf rarely dated, and when he did, it was for one purpose only. Women were just another business deal to him. Sex was a transaction, and sometimes that took work. Katya was just another transaction. Sweet, innocent, former girl-next-door, Katya Tocci.
Only, she'd surprised him. No, not with her boldness – he'd been expecting that, he paid attention. It was the woman herself. She wasn't scared of him. Nervous, maybe, but not intimidated like some women were. She also didn't give two fucks about his money or his reputation. She was more interested in talking about their families, asking after his sisters, curious about his time in school.
It was kind of a novel experience. She was genuinely interested in him. She was nice to him. And sometimes she looked at him with so much fascination and adoration, it stole his breath away. Like he was a present for her.
He'd never felt that way before – like he was a gift to someone. Like a money train, yes. Like he owed something, like he could do something, like he was a trophy, or a prize, sure. He'd grown up with his father treating him like he was an afterthought – then when he'd become a successful adult, as a business partner. His mother loved him, but she was always so concerned with his sisters, so worried about if he was eating right, if he was going to settle down, if she needed to be doing something, saving someone, mothering everybody. His partners, the women he slept with, most of his friends, they were all more interested in what he could for for them. How he could help them.
But to Katya, he was just Wulf. Just a pleasant surprise, in her somewhat dull life.
She had no clue that she was turning out to be exactly the same for him.
Not good. Not good at all. He didn't want to look at her with fascination and adoration. He didn't want to think of her as a gift. She was a sexy mystery that he was helping to unravel. Seeing how far she was willing to bend for him, before she broke and realized what an asshole he really was – then life could return to normal.
A sexy mystery, Tocci. That's all you can be to me.
10
Katya spent her first day off with Tori, avoiding both the new men in her life. Not that she got a chance to ignore Wulf – he didn't call or text. After she remembered that he didn't have her number, she checked at the bakery to see if he'd called there, and she told them to let him have her number if he asked.
He never did.
Liam texted often. Her lack of responses didn't seem to deter him whatsoever. She got pictures of food, dogs he met on the street, and even a naughty one of a couple at his club. Tori tried to steal the phone so she could send a response, but Katya managed to wrestle it away from her. She needed some downtime. One day without men and without sex wouldn't kill her. She'd gone eight months without it, she could certainly go twenty-four hours.
The next day, she had the apartment to herself. She called her mother and checked in with the family. She was an only child, and though she was now realizing that her parents were prim-and-proper to the extreme. She and her mother were particularly close. After an hour long talk, they made loose plans for her to visit them. Her baking schedule didn't usually allow for a lot of traveling, but she'd purposefully scheduled some vacation time for herself.
She also went back to the strip-aerobics class. She went to an earlier one, it started around eleven o'clock. She had to admit it, she liked Candi-with-an-i. They got along surprisingly well. Not a lot of people showed up, so the two of them chatted for a while, before and after the class. By the time Katya left, she'd made a date with the other woman to go shopping. She felt like Candi would know a thing or two about spicing up a wardrobe.
Katya was feeling so good about herself that when she got a text from Liam during her bus ride home, she decided to get off at the next stop and she caught a bus to his work. He'd sent some rambling message about needing tacos to survive, so she stopped in at the first Mexican restaurant she came across and ordered several different kinds. She was still carrying her gym bag and she lumber
ed along with that and the tacos for the next several blocks, trying to remember exactly where his club was; her memory of that night was blurry at best. She finally found her way into the alley and the same big bouncer was in front of the same door with the same neon sign. The Garden.
“Hey! Good to see you again!” the bouncer called out jovially. She was surprised at the reaction, since they'd been face to face for maybe five whole seconds.
“Hi, uuhhh ...” she struggled to remember his name.
“Jan,” he said, and she barely stopped herself from laughing. A mountain of a man, and his name was Jan. “You don't remember, do you?”
Oh god.
“Um, no, I'm sorry. Remember what?” she asked.
“You were pretty lit, little girl. Your taxi took a while to show up that night – you helped me check IDs, showed me what I'm doing wrong with my lemon meringue pies. We danced right over there, you're good at two-stepping,” he said, gesturing down the alley. Katya couldn't help it, she had to laugh at herself.
“Well, at least I'm a fun drunk.”
“You sure are. And you made boss man smile – a real smile – which don't happen too often. You're always welcome here, as far as I'm concerned.”
“Thanks, Jan.”
“You're welcome.”
He held the door open for her, and she surprised him and herself by standing on her toes and kissing his cheek. Then she wondered how she'd find Liam's office – her hands were full and her cellphone was now buried in her gym bag. But the bartender recognized her right away, even gave her a hug, thanking her for the big tip she'd left him.
Please, please, let him be talking about money.
Tim led her downstairs, chattering the whole way down. The upstairs bar opened at noon, but downstairs was still closed. There were people moving around, cleaning and setting up for the coming evening. Tim showed her down the long hallway with all the doors, then gestured to an offshoot, telling her it was the last door.
As Katya walked down the hallway, she became aware of voices and she stopped moving. Liam's, loud and laughing, as usual. Then another voice – someone was in his office with him. A man, by the sounds of it, but speaking so low she couldn't make out the words. Hmmm, she didn't want to interrupt him if he was busy, but she did have her hands full of tacos. Liam lived and breathed for tacos. Figuring he couldn't get mad at free food, she started for the door again, deciding to just drop off the goods and offer to meet up with him later. She knocked on the slightly ajar door.
“Yeah?” Liam called out.
“Hiya, it's me – I brought you lunch, just wanted to drop it off,” she called back. There was an odd pause. No one was talking, but it sounded like Liam was trying very hard not to laugh.
“Through there, yeah. It's fine,” his voice was low, obviously talking to his guest. Then he cleared his throat. “What are you doing? If you've got food, woman, then by all means, get in here!”
Katya toed open the door and glanced around. Liam was sitting behind a big desk, smiling up at her, his hands linked together behind his head. There were some liquor boxes stacked against one wall, and a life-sized cardboard cut out of a beer wench, but no other human beings.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, looking around again. “I thought you had someone in here with you.”
“Oh yeah, my business partner.”
“I don't want to interrupt anything.”
“Trust me, you're not. He's supposed to be a silent partner, but he's been busting my balls lately,” Liam explained. There was a loud coughing noise from behind a door in the far corner, then a toilet flushed.
“I didn't know you had a partner,” she said, finally dropping the bags of food onto his desk top.
“Yeah. When I wanted to buy the club, I didn't really know what I was doing. Never owned a business before, any of that stuff. Didn't know how to get the capital for it. Needed some investors. He backed me on the whole thing, so he gets his name on the license, on the lease,” Liam said, leaning forward to grab a card out of a holder. He held it out to her and she turned it over in her hands after she took it.
“Richard Mason?” she said his name out loud.
“Yeah. Riiiicky, as he hates to be called,” Liam stretched out the name. “He's a good guy, means well. Just gets under my skin.”
“Well, I'll leave you two alone so you can commence with the skin irritation,” she said, re-shouldering her gym bag and backing up towards the door.
“Wanna meet him? I'm sure he'll be done in a second,” Liam offered.
“Like this? No, thank you,” she laughed, gesturing to her crazy hair and her gym clothes. “Tell him I said sorry, though, and that I hope he likes tacos.”
“I think you look great,” Liam said.
“You would, you have horrible taste.”
“Roof top tonight?”
“We'll see.”
“Okay, meet you there at two.”
“I am not going to the roof at two in the morning.”
“Good point, it'll probably be closer to three when I get out of here.”
“I'm not meeting you up there.”
Katya left his bar with every intention of going home and taking shower and going over her budget, then catching a movie with Tori and going to bed early.
She managed everything but the bed part. Of course she found herself on the roof at two-thirty, throwing back beers and laughing at Liam's stupid jokes. He'd made good on his word and a well-worn loveseat had been brought up for them, as well as an old corduroy couch. Katya fell asleep on the couch, and woke up in the middle of Liam attempting to carry her downstairs and almost dropping her as he got off the elevator.
Good times.
The rest of the week was a blur. She made good on her promise to herself to hold off on sex – it was one thing to get adventurous and a little loose with her morals. It was quite another to become a raging sex fiend. She wouldn't allow Liam to come to any more of the strip-aerobics classes, even though he begged.
“What did you do before you met me? Did you have a life?”
“Angel cake, I still have a life. I just worry that you might spontaneously combust if I told you about it.”
Wulf even made an appearance, on Thursday. Right after she'd gotten home from work, she'd been setting up her nail kit in her room when there'd been a knock at her front door. Assuming it was the Chinese food she'd ordered, she'd opened the door with money in her hand. Then she'd gaped as Wulf had stared down at her.
He'd gotten off work a little early, and had decided he wanted to see what she was up to – he hadn't expected her to be in pajamas at only five-thirty at night. She'd pointed out that normal human beings called before just showing up at other peoples' houses. Would he like it if she showed up at his apartment?
“If you took off the pajamas first, yes.”
He stuck around, ate Chinese food with her. Scared Tori a little, with his quiet demeanor and very direct stare. Then he'd followed Katya into her room and after watching her do her nails for a while, he'd taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, then told her it had been ages since he'd had a manicure.
It was silly, but while it was happening, Katya could feel something. It was a moment. A memory in the making. Something she would hold onto long after Wulf was gone. Them together in her room, surrounded by her feminine décor, sitting on her bed, both fully clothed. Him watching her carefully while she looked at his hands intently.
I can feel his stare. Like hands on my body. He's touching me.
While she pushed back cuticles and filed nails, they talked. He asked a lot of questions about her time in school, about learning to bake. He seemed particularly curious as to how she'd known it was her passion. How could she be so sure baking was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life? Didn't she worry the bottom might fall out of the market?
She'd just laughed at him and told him what she'd always told herself – if it's her dream, who cares what else happens? As long as she's he
althy, happy, and not hurting anyone, then she would continue to pursue her dream, regardless of whether or not it brought her fame or fortune.
“The bottom can't fall out of a dream, Wulf. There's no market for them. Sorry, but it's one thing even you can't buy and sell – my dream is all my own, purchased, paid for, no returns, exchanges, or refunds.”
He never said it, but she got the very distinct feeling that real estate wasn't exactly his dream. She wanted to ask him about his dreams. About swimming. But she didn't want to ruin the evening. He was being so soft and open – she was seeing a side of him that she was positive not many people got to see. She wanted to cherish the moment, show him thanks for it. Show him that he could trust her with moments like that; that he could always feel safe to build memories with her.
That's it – his tough as stone act. It's because he doesn't feel safe letting go, doesn't feel safe just being himself. He's just like me.
The thought made her feel closer to him. Almost uncomfortably so. He clearly enjoyed her company, and was obviously attracted to her – it hadn't been said, but she knew sex was an option any time she felt like throwing her nail stuff out of the way. But he'd never once said anything in regards to how he felt about her as a person. Far as she could tell, he was having fun. She got the impression it was almost like a game to him, the ever popular “How Uncomfortable Can I Make Katya” game. It wasn't right, she didn't want to feel close to him if his feelings were that she was only good for a laugh. Good for a lay.
Once again, she fell asleep early. Ridiculous. It was only nine o'clock, and the sexiest man alive was in her bed. But she was Katya Tocci, she specialized in ridiculous. She was vaguely aware of being moved around on her bed, of a sheet being pulled over her body. When he got off the mattress, she woke up all the way, but didn't open her eyes. He hadn't moved away. She could tell he was standing beside her, not moving. Watching her. She held her breath, wondering what he was going to do. What he was thinking.
Neighbors (Twin Estates #1) Page 12