“I didn't want you to be mad,” Tori sighed, slurping at her soup. “It happened a couple days before we made that dating profile for you. I was freaking out, I didn't want you to think I couldn't pay rent.”
“How could you think I'd be mad? I mean, yeah, if you can't pay rent, we'll need to figure something out, but that's it. I'm not gonna kick you out,” Katya told her.
“I know, I know. I'm awful. I just felt so … stupid. Here you are, with this amazing career that just sky rocketed. And I'm some paper jockey in a stupid marketing agency. Then you met those guys, and you were so happy. Like for the first time ever, for reals happy with yourself, and I didn't want to ruin it, or distract you. I figured for once, we could overlook my issues and concentrate on yours.”
It was a sweet sentiment. Tori had always been a wild child, they'd spent many a night cursing her ex-boyfriends, of which there were many. Katya'd had to bail her out of jail once, when she'd keyed one of the unfortunate dudes' car. She'd bounced from job to job, but she'd been at the ad agency for over six months. Katya had thought something had finally stuck.
“Hey, you know what would make me feel better?” Tori sniffled.
“What?”
“One of your coffee cakes.”
“Can't,” Katya sighed. “Oven is still broken.”
“Still!? Did you send an e-mail?”
“Several.”
“And Liam?”
“He said he'd talk to the management company, but he's busy with his club, I don't want to bug him.”
“This is stupid. No job, no boyfriend, and now no cake. My life sucks,” Tori grumbled, burying her face in her arms. Katya heaved a sigh.
“How about we make a pact now, that no matter what is going on in whose life, we always take time to help each other?” she suggested.
“Sounds good.”
“And my career isn't that amazing. I'm lucky, and I work really, really hard. Sometimes … sometimes I honestly wonder if it's worth the stress I put myself under. Sometimes, Tori, I wish I was more like you,” Katya was completely honest. Her roommate looked shocked.
“Seriously!?”
“Yeah. You never care what people think, you do whatever you want. I've never gotten to be that free.”
“Maybe I need to be less free ...”
“Maybe I need to be less closed off ...”
They were both silent for a while, deep in their own thoughts. Then Tori took a deep breath and pulled the vodka bottle closer.
“Alright then. Let's get royally fucked up – it's the only thing that can save today.”
A couple hours and most of the bottle later, Tori made good on her word. Both of them were proper drunk. They'd moved to sit on the floor in the living room, sharing a bag of popcorn. Tori had just gotten done telling a story about the time she'd tried to date a guy who was heavily into the world of BDSM. She hadn't been able to get into it, the whole sexual lifestyle thing, though she'd appreciated his very thorough approach to sex.
“Liam put me on one of those cross thingies,” Katya said, then hiccuped.
“No fucking way! You had sex on a St. Andrew's Cross!?” Tori gasped.
“No. I'm like you, I'm not really into all that, I think. But at his club,” hiccup, “there was some sort of convention. He showed me some stuff, some things. Strapped me in,” hiccup, “and I almost thought it was going to happen, but then we had Chinese food instead.” Hiccup.
“That man is a waste on you, I swear. When you're done playing with him, send him my way,” Tori groaned. Katya frowned and poured herself another shot.
“Wouldn't that be kind of weird? Hey, my roommate's dating this dude I used to fuck,” she pointed out. Fuck. A word that used to make her feel guilty. Now it spilled out of her mind and out of her mouth with ease.
Times, they are a changin'.
“Who said I wanted to date him?”
“I just assumed ...”
“You're not dating him, yet you two fuck.”
Katya waited for the blush to take over her face, but it never came. She smiled. She was finally becoming desensitized.
“Very true. Still. Kinda weird.”
“Whatever. Describe his dick to me, so I have something to look forward to.”
Okay, not that desensitized. She coughed on her shot of vodka, dribbling it everywhere.
“I'm not describing his dick to you, sorry. If he wants to show it to you, trust me, he will,” Katya assured her.
“You're so lame. Then what about the other dude? You've told me everything about sex club man, but you never talk about the lone wolf man,” Tori said. Katya frowned deeper and poured yet another shot, cleaning out the last of the vodka.
“It's … different,” was all she managed to say.
“How so?”
It's special.
She felt awful thinking it – her time with Liam was special, too. Liam was very special. But her moments with Wulf were something else. If Liam was discovering a new side to Katya, then she was getting to discover the new pieces of Wulf. The ones he normally kept hidden away from the world. It was beyond special to her. She didn't want to share it with anyone. She wanted those moments, those memories, to only belong to the two of them.
I want to be special to him, too.
“It just is, I don't really want to talk about it,” she finally answered.
“Oh my god, Katya, you loooooove him,” Tori sang at her.
“I do not. I've only been seeing him for a few weeks.”
“So? Your vagina is certainly in love with him.”
“My vagina and my heart are two very different things. One is a lot smarter than the other.”
“Hmmm, I'm still putting my money on your vagina.”
Katya took the last shot, then stood up while Tori searched for her phone. The other girl was demanding pizza, struggling to call Dominos. While she did that, Katya stumbled back to her bedroom, looking for her own phone. When she picked it up, she glared down at the screen. A wedding cake she'd done for the mayor's daughter stared back at her. Katya had been proud of the cake – was still proud of it. And yet … was that really her biggest joy in her life? Her job?
She looked around her room. It was simple enough. Big by San Francisco standards, but much smaller than the one she'd had while growing up. It was a narrow room, so she'd had a lot of space at the foot of the bed, and she'd put in a nice drafting table. She used it to sketch ideas for future desserts, things she wanted to try, stuff she wanted to show to clients. Underneath it were random cooking accessories, promotional items from the bakery, stuff she kept meaning to try and use. A dresser sat on the opposite wall, and on top of it were rows and stacks of cook books.
Is my whole life about my work? When did that happen?
Before she knew what she was doing, Katya thumbed open her phone and pressed a button. It rang and rang, then went to voicemail. She frowned and called again. Kept calling, back to back, for two minutes straight.
“Goddamn, Tocci, you better be fucking dying,” Wulf's voice growled down the line. “I was in a meeting.”
“I'm very drunk,” she slurred, kneeling on her mattress.
“What?”
“Tori lost her job, we got drunk,” she explained.
“You're drunk.”
“Sooooo drunk.”
“And you called me.”
“Sooooo called you.”
She expected him to get mad. To snap at her. Call her silly or stupid, then hang up on her. But he didn't. He was silent for a moment, then his warm chuckle filled her ear, and all was right in her world. She slowly laid down, stretching out below the pillows.
“This is very cute, and I'll admit, I'm curious to see just how wild you're willing to get while in this condition, but I'm a very busy man.”
Yet he wasn't hanging up on her, so she took that as encouragement.
“You're always busy. I'm always busy. Let's be busy together,” she suggested.
“Hmmm,
what did you have in mind?”
“Come over and I'll show you.”
“Tempting, Tocci, but I'm trying to close on a fifteen million dollar property.”
“Is fifteen million dollars worth more to you than pussy?”
She slapped a hand over her own mouth. Had she really just said that!? She'd never in her life said anything like that to a man. To anyone. She'd completely shocked herself and she glanced out her open bedroom door, wondering if Tori had heard her.
“My, my, you do get wild. You've managed to impress me once again, Katya.”
There it was, her name. Her first name. She stretched her body again, moaning into the phone. His voice was wrapping around her like a blanket, making her hot and uncomfortable. She pulled at her shirt, yanking it so it was bunched up underneath her breasts.
“Come over,” she whispered.
“I would love to, and I'm sure I will later, but I can't.”
“I'm gonna be gone soon,” she blurted out.
“What?”
“Gone. I'm going,” she tried again, her tongue thick in her mouth.
“Where the fuck do you think you're going?”
She had to laugh at the anger in his voice. Her interrupting his mutli-million dollar meeting was fine. Her leaving town without telling him first? Bad news bears, young lady. No one leaves without the wolf's express permission.
“I'm going home,” she sighed, smoothing her free hand down her leg. “For a week.”
“Like you're going to be sleeping there, spending every night there?”
“Yes, Wulf. What do you think I mean when I say I'm going home?”
“Jesus, it's only two hours away. You could come back, you know.”
“Says the man who won't drive across traffic to let me see his apartment.”
She wanted to sound angry and vengeful, but she was pretty sure the slurring and hiccuping ruined it.
“That's completely different – that doesn't get in the way of me fucking you.”
“Sorry. I want to see my mommy,” she spoke in a sing song voice. “Want to see my home. My dad is out of town, she's lonely. We're gonna bake cookies.”
“Cookies, huh,” he grunted out.
“It's just a week, Wulf.”
“A week, huh.”
She finally laughed at him.
“I leave on Sunday. That gives you tonight and tomorrow to fuck me,” she assured him.
“Hmmm. I'll be in touch, Tocci.”
Then the line went dead, and she was laughing again. Her head was spinning and her heart was pounding. She stayed that way till she fell asleep, chuckling to herself while she was stretched out on the mattress. When she woke up sometime later in the middle of the night, she immediately remembered the phone call and started smiling again. She picked up her phone and turned it on.
Several missed messages from Liam.
Only one from Wulf.
Liam's never got opened, but she stared at the one line text from the other man.
Behave yourself tonight – I'll see you soon.
*
“You're ignoring me.”
She could hear the smile in Liam's voice, so she didn't worry too much that he was really offended. She squished her phone between her ear and her shoulder while she tore around her apartment.
“I'm not, I swear,” she lied, jamming clothing into her bag.
She'd spent most of Sunday hungover on the couch with Tori, caught between being embarrassed at her sassy phone call to Wulf, all but begging him to come fuck her, and angry that he hadn't taken her up on it. Not only hadn't taken her up on it, but hadn't even bothered to call her the day after. She'd stewed about it so much, she'd thrown herself into a design for a client, trying to forget. She'd fallen asleep at her table. She woke up at seven in the morning with an awful crick in her neck, and the realization that she hadn't packed for her trip. Hadn't reserved a car, hadn't done anything.
Nope, just pined away over a stupid, arrogant, antagonistic, son of -
“You're literally ignoring me right now,” Liam brought her back to reality.
“I'm sorry, I'm just kinda running late. I was supposed to leave for my mom's at eight, but I woke up late, and just got out of the shower, so I'm running around, trying to grab everything,” she explained. Not a total lie.
“Oh, I forgot about that trip. A week, right?”
“Just five days, then you can start raiding my fridge again.”
“Who said I'm going to stop? Tori's gonna be home, right?”
“Actually, I was meaning to ask you about that,” Katya started speaking in a hushed tone. She stepped into the bathroom, then leaned out and peeked down the hall, making sure her roommate wasn't close by.
“Ooohhh, we're whispering now, must be something good. Yes, I will fuck your roomie, thank you for the invitation.”
“No. She needs a job.”
“And what do you want me to do about that?”
“Well, she has a background in food service. I figure you know people in the bar industry. You know her, too. Maybe you could put in a good word with some bars and restaurant people you know?” Katya asked, chewing at her bottom lip.
“Hmmm, I could do that ...”
She groaned. She hated when his voice trailed off. It usually didn't bode well for her.
“Oh god, you're not gonna turn this into extortion, are you? I'm not fucking you just to get her a job,” Katya stated.
She hadn't slept with Liam since that time at the gym. It didn't feel right, not after the moments she'd had with Wulf. She didn't know what was going on, really, she was just going with the flow. Her heart was pointing at one man. Quite possibly the wrong man, but that's just the way her particular cookie crumbled. She didn't want to lead Liam on, and something in his smile, in the way he looked at her, made her think maybe she was, just a little.
“Please, I could get sex either way, I don't have to extort anyone. What I meant was, I could talk to some other bars, or she could work here,” he offered.
“There? At your sex club?”
“Well, upstairs – people have to work their way up to coming downstairs. But I need a bar back and a waitress. If she can do both those things, she's hired.”
“She can. I'll tell her to stop down there?”
“Yeah, I'll be there today, after two. Tell her to ask for me.”
“You're the best, Liam Edenhasslehoff.”
“Edenhoff. Jesus, how can you not have it down yet? We've seen each other almost every day for the past three weeks.”
“Has it really been three weeks!?”
“Glad to know it's been magical and special for you, too. You're awful, you know that?”
Katya rolled her eyes and finally opened the medicine cabinet. She put her bag on the sink and began shoveling supplies into it, watching as toothpaste, lotion, birth control, Tylenol, and Q-tips fell into her luggage. She closed the cabinet and shoved her toothbrush in her mouth.
“Yes, and it's about time you caught onto it, too. I have to go, Liam. I'm already almost an hour late, she probably thinks I'm dead,” she mumbled around the brush between her teeth. She stepped into her ballet flats, wiggling her feet around while she combed her fingers through her wet hair.
“A bad friend and a bad daughter. You are racking up some seriously bad karma.”
“Tell me about it. Tacos when I get back?” she asked, scrubbing the dry toothbrush around her teeth, hoping to get off at least some of the hangover film.
“You know it. Five days, right?”
“Correct,” she said, hoisting her bag up with one hand and opening the door with the other.
“A whole five days. How are you going to survive without me for that long of a time?”
“I'm sure I'll find a way -”
Katya stopped talking when she went to step through the door and found herself blocked in. Her jaw fell open, dropping her toothbrush to the floor. Not exactly classy, but she couldn't help it. She was shock
ed.
Wulf was standing outside her door.
“What? You cut out, are you still there?” Liam's voice sounded tinny and far away. She couldn't answer, could only stare up at the man in front of her.
“Time to get off the phone, Tocci,” he said in a simple voice.
“I have to go now,” she mumbled into the phone, reaching up to grab it.
“Okay, text me when you get there, alright?”
“Sure.”
She hung up, then went back to staring at Wulf. What in the hell was he doing there?
“You look surprised.”
She finally got control of her faculties and managed to nod.
“I am. What are you doing here?” she asked.
“More importantly, what are you wearing?” he asked his own question, his eyes traveling over her body.
She'd gone on her shopping adventure with Candi-with-an-i – it had been an interesting experience. Katya had refused to buy anything leather, despite the other girl's insistence. Debates were had, but in the end, she'd come home with a wardrobe dramatically less … pastel, than her normal one. Small for a normal girl, but a big deal for Katya.
She was wearing a pair of very short jean cut offs – she'd remembered Wulf's comment about her having great legs, and Liam usually paid special attention to them, so she had decided it was time to start showing them off more. Her tank top was loose and flowy, cut low on the neckline, but if she raised her arms, she'd also be showing off a large slice of her stomach. If she turned around, Wulf would see that the shirt didn't really have a back, but was just straps of fabric criss-crossing.
Typical for probably any other twenty-three year old, but very different from anything Wulf had seen her wear. She usually dressed on par with him, professional at all times. That morning was no different for him – he wasn't wearing a suit, but he was in a dress shirt, a casual blazer, and jeans. All of it well tailored and expensive looking.
“What are we doing right now?” she suddenly blurted out, as if she was just coming to. They'd been standing in her doorway just staring at each other. “I have to go.”
“I know.”
“Then what are you doing here?” she asked, bending down to grab her toothbrush off the floor. She tossed it over her shoulder and finally moved into the hallway, pushing past him and closing her door.
Neighbors (Twin Estates #1) Page 15