Neighbors (Twin Estates #1) (31 page)

“Don't say that.”

“It's the truth! How could you do that to someone you care about? How could you look me in the face, and say the things you said, and then come back here and give those moments to someone else? Private moments, sacred moments, and you just blew them all away. You had so many chances last night! I shared
everything
with you. I was falling in love with you, how could you do that?” she sobbed, dropping her head into her hands. She could hear him groan.

“Please, don't.
Don't do this,
” he whispered, his hand running down the side of her arm. Again, she yanked away.

“Don't touch me,” she growled, wrapping her arms around herself. “You're sick. Both of you. You objectified me. You turned me into a pawn, into a game. I stopped being a human being the moment you guys started trading stories, started keeping secrets – and you didn't even care. You robbed me of my right to know what was happening to me, my right to
choose
what was happening to me. Like I was … was a sex toy. Some inanimate object. You let it go on and on and on. I must have looked so stupid to you both. A strip-aerobics class with Liam, a strip show for Wulf. Did you set it up that way? Wulf suggests something he'd like, Liam sees if he can make me do it?”

She was trying to be flippant, but as soon as it fell from her lips, as soon as she saw their expressions, she knew it was the truth again.

Strip-aerobics. Blow jobs. Uninhibited sex. A pool on the roof. A trip to the old neighborhood. So many things, completely orchestrated.

“I swear, it was before either of us really knew you,” Liam insisted. “It was just for fun.”

“Do I look like I'm laughing?”

“Please, Katya.
Please
. Remember how we were the other night,” Wulf begged.
Actually
begged
. “Remember me. That was the
real
me.”

“I wouldn't know, would I? I've never met the real you.”

“You're the
only one
who's met the real me.”

“I have to go,” she blurted out, turning in a circle, trying to figure out the best path of escape. “I'm going to be sick, or pass out. I have to go.”

“No, you can't leave like this,” Liam said, stepping up to her side.

“Let me take you home,” Wulf said, stepping up to her other side. She was boxed in.

“I don't need you!” she started screaming. “You ruined me! You broke me. I don't ever want to see either of you ever again, how's that for a fucking joke? A fucking game? Maybe this time I'll get a chance to play! Never again, never ever again.”

She was sobbing and she was screaming and she was pushing at both of them, just trying to gain some space. They'd completely violated her trust and stripped her of her basic rights – couldn't they at least let her breathe!?

A hero finally swooped in to save her. She was glad – after the hour she'd just had, she'd almost thought there weren't any left. Jan the Bouncer came lumbering down the alley and grabbed both men by their collars, yanking them away from her.

“Alright, enough!” he roared, shoving them aside. Katya shivered in the rain and continued crying, one hand pressed over her mouth. “Both of you, get the fuck out of here, right now! Before I call the cops!”

“Who the fuck are you?” Wulf demanded.

“Are you kidding?
I'm your boss,
” Liam reminded Jan.

“I don't give a fuck if you're the Second Coming – no one treats a woman like that, not on my watch. And especially one who's done nothing but be kind and sweet and generous. I should beat the shit outta both of you. You pay me to keep out the trash, right? Well, that's exactly what I'm doing,
boss,
” Jan snarled, wrapping a protective arm around Katya. She leaned into his side and just sobbed, clutching at his leather vest. Wulf stood up straight, to his full height, and grabbed the edges of his jacket. Jerked it into place.

“Tocci,” he said in a serious voice as he stared right at her. “
This isn't over.
”

He shoved past the bouncer and walked out of the alley.

“You bet your ass it's over, buddy!” Jan yelled. “I hear about you harassing this little lady in any way, I'm making a house call!”

“Please, Katya,” Liam whispered, crouching down so he could look her in the face. “Believe me – it wasn't all a lie. It just got out of hand. I never lied about how I felt. You are the best friend I've ever had. You're more than that. I care about you. I didn't mean to hurt you.
Please.
”

She couldn't respond, she was crying too hard. Jan hugged her close and shot daggers at his boss.

“I hope you didn't think I was joking. Best get the fuck outta here, Eden.”

Jan always called everyone by their last names. Despite being a beast and a former member of a motorcycle gang, he lived by a strict code of ethics. He was polite and he showed respect, and using peoples' proper names was part of that – so when “
Eden
” fell out of his mouth, it was like dropping a bomb.

Liam gave one last painful look at Katya, then stood upright. Glanced down the alley, back towards his club. Then he looked back at them.

“Make sure she gets home okay. Take care of her,” he instructed his employee.

“I'll do a damn sight better job than you did, that's for sure.”

Jan turned away then, gently forcing Katya with him. They were both already soaked, but she found it touching when he opened his umbrella over them. She wrapped her arms around his big belly as much as she could and hung on.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“No. No, don't you thank me. Anyone would've done that,” he assured her.

“Don't be so sure. People are capable of lots of bad things.”

“Don't you go thinking that just cause some spoiled pricks got their heads up their asses,” he said. “People are good for the most part, Ms. Tocci. Look at you, and Ms. Bellows. You're great people. They're just pricks.”

“Pricks,” she echoed his sentiment. They stopped at a curb and he looked around for a taxi.

“I want you to know, I had no idea this was going on. Ricky Blue Eyes back there, I knew he was part owner. He would stop by once in a while, never paid attention to me, of course. I noticed he was hanging around more, but I figured it was shop talk with boss man. I had no clue,” he said. She managed a chuckle.

“Ricky Blue Eyes.”

“Yeah, the creep with Edenhoff. Ricky.”

“His real name is Wulf,” she whispered.

“Shit, his name is wolf? Shoulda been your first clue, right there.”

She laughed with him and he patted her reassuringly on the arm. A taxi finally stopped, and Jan held the umbrella over the door till she was safely seated. She grabbed his hand before he could shut her in, though.

“Thank you. I mean it. I can't thank you enough,” she breathed.

“You stop it, or we'll all be bawling.”

“I don't want you to get in trouble with Liam.”

“You kidding? Boss man loves me, I'm fine. You worry about you, little girl, alright? Take care of yourself. Tell Ms. Bellows she's staying home tonight, and to not worry about it – it's leave with pay. Tell her Jan says so.”

Jan was not the type of person to be argued with, so Katya nodded her head. Thanked him again and let him shut the door. Waved goodbye as she started rolling through traffic.

About halfway home, she started crying again, and didn't stop till she was in her apartment. Tori was nowhere to be seen, the place was empty, so Katya went back into her room. Collapsed on her bed and cried and cried and cried.

One fake profile. Two men. Liam had found her profile, Wulf had seen it. Liam had asked her out, Wulf had encouraged him to do so. Liam had told all her sexy secrets, Wulf had taken advantage of them. Liam had stripped away her inhibitions one by one, and Wulf had basked in her new found freedom. They'd shared moments and compared notes and come up with new ideas. She'd been their play thing. A pretty doll on a shelf – pull the strings just right, and little Katya Tocci will do a dance for you! Jump up and down for you! Bend over and do anything you want for you!

It was ridiculous. If in the very beginning, they'd both said the truth – that they both knew her, both wanted to pursue relationships with her, she probably would've been okay with it. Hell, she'd obviously been dating Wulf while she'd been sleeping with Liam, so they had proof she would've been okay with it. She'd always been open and honest, with both of them.

But they'd kept it a secret, on purpose. To have fun with her. Manipulate her. Liam, sitting with his feet in the kiddie pool and drinking beers with her. Wulfric, sitting at the bar and burning her up with his eyes. Each one of them knowing so much more about her than she knew about them.

Wulf never would've asked me out if I hadn't had sex with Liam. If Liam hadn't told him all about the sex. Jesus, this is my fault. Mother was right – save it for someone you care about.

She was hugging a pillow and sobbing so hard it hurt when Tori finally came home. The other girl dropped her groceries in the hallway and came sprinting into Katya's room.

“
What's wrong? Honey, talk to me! Are you hurt? Did Wulf do something? Did Wulf do this to you? What did he do!? I'm calling an ambulance!
”

Katya clung to her friend's arm and wouldn't let her go. It was a couple minutes before she could calm down enough to talk, but eventually she was able to tell the whole story to Tori. And she meant
the whole story
. From beginning to end, every gory, kinky, sexy, awful detail. Every single thing between her and the two worst men she'd ever met in her life.

“So he would fuck you,” Tori spoke in her blunt way as they laid in Katya's bed. “And then he'd sit down with Wulf and tell him everything you guys did together. And then basically Wulf would be like that's hot, see what else you can get her to do, see if she'll deep throat or use a sex swing or whatever. And then Liam would, and he'd tell Wulf, and then you and Wulf would do those things?”

“This is all my fault,” Katya whispered.

“
Don't you ever say that again.
”

“No, it's true. If I hadn't slept with Liam, none of this would've happened. Maybe it's karma – I was kind of using Liam to become more sexually open. This is my punishment.”

“Katya, there's a big fucking difference between you having a casual, acknowledged, open relationship with a man, and a man lying to your fucking face while he shares all your most intimate details with another man, in the hopes that other man will have just as good a time with you.
Holy shit, that is so fucked up.
”

“That's what I said. I told them they need help.”

“They need to get their balls stepped on.”

“Liam might like that.”

“I'm quitting,” Tori suddenly jerked upright.

“What? No! You can't do that, you need that job. Jan said you don't have to come in tomorrow, to take the day off with pay,” Katya assured her, clinging tight to her arm.

“Are you kidding? I don't care if I have to suck dick to pay rent – at least then I'd know the money was coming from a better man than Liam Edenhoff,” Tori swore. Katya actually started laughing.

“Please,” she panted. “Please, don't quit. Just wait. Let's settle down.”

Tori stopped struggling with her and laid back down.

“You're right. I won't quit.”

“Good.”

“Because we need a mole on the inside.”

“That's good, I – wait, what?”

“I don't want either of them trying to run this scam on anyone else. I'm gonna stay there, as a spy,” Tori assured her.

“Oh. Uh … okay.”

Katya didn't really need a “
mole on the inside
”, but she did need Tori to pay her rent on time.

“I'm really, really sorry,” Tori whispered a couple hours later, smoothing Katya's hair out of her face. “I know you liked him.”

“I think I might have loved him,” Katya cried.

“I know you don't want to hear this, but I think … I believe Wulf cared about you, too. Maybe like how a sociopath would care about a cat, but comparatively speaking, that's a lot. You touched him, Katya. Through all the bullshit and game playing and crazy sex, I really believe you touched his heart,” Tori insisted.

“Pity it didn't help him.”

“No, it didn't.”

“No. All it did was break me.”

Katya woke up some time later in the middle of the night. It was disgustingly humid in the room, made hotter by Tori sharing the bed with her. Katya slid to the end of the mattress and stood up, stretching onto her toes.

She grabbed her phone and headed into the bathroom. There were multiple missed calls and messages. All but one were from Liam.

Only one text from Wulf. Sent about an hour before she'd woken up, at two-thirty in the morning.

You promised me.

Boiling hot rage bubbled through her veins. He was reminding her of her promises? Promises to what, love him and stand up for him? Be there when he needed someone? Yeah right, more like he needed a toy to play with, an object to hold. Needed to control her and consume her.
Own her
. How could he possibly say that to her? She had needed him, and he'd let her down. Ripped the bottom out of her world. Lied, manipulated, made a mockery of – that's all he'd
ever
done to her. She felt so stupid.

I thought I could play in their world. That I could be a sex kitten. But I'll never be that girl from the profile. I'm just boring old beige Katya Tocci. I was out of my league.

No.
NO
. She would not fall into that trap. Liam may have helped, but Katya had made the decision to go out with him. Katya had walked into that club, and Katya had agreed to sleep with him. She had taken the leap, all on her own, without help from either of them. She was strong, and she was brave. She could be anything she goddamn wanted to be.

I'll show them that we're not even playing in the same league.

She started yanking open drawers in the bathroom and pulling out all their beauty products. She always wore her fresh-face makeup.
Cute and innocent
. Screw that – those men had fucked away cute and innocent a long time ago. She dragged some thick black eyeliner across her lids, then smudged up the line, giving herself a trashy, sexy, smokey eye. Next she found a deep red lipstick that looked great against her skin, so she put it on extra heavy, making her lips looker fuller. Pouty-er.
Perfect
. She raked her hair up into messy bun on top of her head, called it good, then left the bedroom.

She ran on tip toes into Tori's room and started rifling through the other girl's dresser. They were different sizes, but similar heights, and could occasionally swap clothes. Tori was a much sexier dresser, though, and that's what Katya was looking for right then.

She found a black fitted crop top. Or was it a bustier? It showed a lot of tit and all her stomach, that's all that mattered. A couple pins in the back and she had it fitting snug on her body. She wiggled into some tiny, almost microscopic, black shorts, then looked in a full length mirror.

It was probably more skin than she'd ever shown in an outfit. Awkward pins and all, the top still looked amazing on her, and even barefoot, her legs looked about a mile long. That brought back a memory from a lifetime ago. Wulf calling, asking her on their second date. She'd been so surprised – why on earth would Wulfric Stone want to see her again?

“
Because you have amazing legs.
”

She'd thought it was just flirting. Now she knew it was only because Liam had asked to see her again.

She stormed back into the bathroom and only turned on the lights over the mirror. She leaned backwards and forwards, trying to find the best angle for her cleavage that would still show some of her body. She held her hand awkwardly above her head, made a duck face, then took a picture. Popped out her hip, took another picture. Winked, another pic. Licked her lips, another pic.

After about ten photos, she went into the living room and powered up her laptop. She transferred all the pictures to her computer, then looked through them. She didn't even recognize herself. All the makeup and the close up lighting had washed out her face a little, making her skin look flawless. Her chest was caught in the bright light, the rest of her body carved out of shadows, making her look curvy in all the right places. The red lips and smokey eyes completed the look. She looked like a walking, talking advert for sex. Raw, nasty, raunchy, filthy, sex.

The first picture she'd taken, that was the one. Her pursing her lips, blowing a kiss. Her lids at half mast, giving her bedroom eyes. Her breasts thrust high and center stage, demanding a second glance.

Fucking perfect.

She found her way to a website she hadn't visited in over a month. Dusted off a profile and reactivated it. Since she'd never changed anything and had only deactivated, all the original info was still there. Still the same party girl with some sexy personal hobbies – but now, that girl had the picture to match. She uploaded the duck face pic to the profile, then picked up her phone.

She had to redownload the Eros dating app, but once she did, she went straight to her own profile. There was the sexy party girl, blowing her a kiss from the top of the screen. Talking about being kinky at the bottom of the screen. Absolutely perfect.

She put down the phone. Shut off the laptop. Leaned back into the sofa and stared at the ceiling. It was so quiet in the apartment, she could hear her own heartbeat.

I don't need them. I don't need them. I don't need them.

“Kat?” Tori sounded sleepy from the hallway. “Why are you sitting in the dark?”

Katya took a deep breath.

“It's the only place I feel comfortable,” she whispered.

“What?”

“Nothing, let's go back to bed.”

She scrubbed off the make up and changed into pajamas. Crawled onto her bed and pressed her back against Tori's. As she closed her eyes, she took a couple more deep breaths, trying to keep the tears at bay.

Looks like little Katya Tocci finally grew up.