The Starkest Truth (A Breaking Insanity Novel Book 2) (5 page)

I scratched my forehead with my middle finger. “Do you need a tissue to dry your tears so you can continue? Maybe you’d like some background music by way of a violin.”

“I’d never tell you what to do, but…don’t fuck this one up. I like this you. I like her. I slowly watched the real you disappear before my eyes for reasons you never tell me about.”

He was crossing the line in telling me what to do. Further fucking with the line by inferring that I’d ever tell him about my dirty little secrets. “I’ll never tell you.”

He frowned and visibly backed off. “And I thought we were friends. Lucky for you, you don’t need to tell me.”

“Casper,” I pressed, becoming irritable, “answer my goddamn question: Why are you still fucking Preston?”

“I would watch your back,” he replied, avoiding my question again. “Preston is becoming reckless. Something happened to him after Estelle bit the big one. He has it out for you, and I think he’s going to act on it soon.”

Casper was still doing what I’d tasked him with—ensuring the untouchable thorn in my ass was under control. “He thinks he has balls made of brass when they are really made of brittle glass. He thinks it’s a good time to start fucking with me?”

“I’m not sure why he’s doing whatever he’s doing,” Casper said. “It couldn’t be because of Estelle. He never really loved her.”

No, it wasn’t because of Estelle. If Preston decided it was a good time for revenge, it was because he finally had a way to get to me…through Nikki.
 

I stared at Casper, weighing whether or not dropping a piece of information to break his heart would benefit me. “Estelle’s death isn’t the reason he’s seeking revenge.”

He almost looked disappointed. He was an idiot for falling for a dumbfuck who wasn’t fit to wipe the dog shit from his shoe. It didn’t matter; the moment the moratorium on killing Preston disappeared, I would make damn sure he wouldn’t be around to bother me for much longer. As for what happens to idiots—they do dumb shit to piss me off, practically begging me to put an end to their insignificant lives. By my word, Preston wouldn’t be untouchable forever.

“It’s due to Nikki’s appearance in your life, isn’t it?” Casper asked. “Seems like she made you hated amongst your cronies. They felt abandoned.”

“Does it look like I give a shit? Right now, there’s only one person left on this earth who wants to try me.”

He shook his head with a tinge of sadness in his eyes. “It’s bigger than Preston, Eric. You will give a shit when it’s too late.”

What the hell did he know that I didn’t? I didn’t want to ask, because it would make him think I didn't have a handle on the situation. I kept my shoulders wide and took another sip of my wine. “I can deal with it,” I stated sharply.

“Never thought you couldn’t,” he remarked, trying to calm me with his lack of defensiveness.

I looked at my watch. Nikki had been in the bathroom for thirty minutes. I exhaled deeply and rubbed my temples.

There were less than a few women in the bathroom, and most of the stalls were empty. In the occupied stall, the absence of ‘fuck me pumps’ suggested it wasn’t Nikki.
 

A few rubberneckers met me with shock and awe before leaving, but one woman continued to do it a little too long.
 

“This is a women’s bathroom, you know,” she pointed at me, making her finger come dangerously close to my face. “Get out of here before I call someone to remove you, because you’re being a pervert.” She transformed from pissed off to turned on once I granted her the pleasure of my eye contact. Boldly, her eyes searched over my body and examined the cock imprint in my pants and licked her lips. It wasn’t something I could help. No matter what the hell I wore—keeping in mind that tailoring is key with everything in my wardrobe—it was clear I was wielding a baby arm between my legs. Sometimes it’s a good thing. Other times, like now, it’s not.

“No shit, sweetheart.” I marched forward, making her shrink from me. “Do I look vision impaired? Do I speak as though something is wrong with my brain and I can’t process where I am?
Do I
?”

She tripped on her heel and stumbled against the wall. “I’ll call my husband in here.”

“Please, fucking do. I’m in the mood to disfigure someone’s face. Might as well be your husband.”

She shivered, bringing her legs together and moaned.

I’d just made her pussy wet. I was used to it being that easy. It set up a stage for the most satisfying angry sex ever. Thing about it was, I wasn’t that Eric anymore. I was
her
Eric—Nikki's Eric. And right now, I had a strong urge to fuck the shit out of her. No matter what I tried to do, she seemed stuck in neutral, unwilling and unable to take control of who she was and own it. Might’ve been more difficult to accept the way she was, given I went on a tiny bit of a rampage. I had her aunt and a few other people who fucked with her killed within less than a year. She pretended it didn’t affect her. I knew better. She never really got over some of the things I had to do to keep her at my level of perfection, and well, alive.
 

I was on the verge of reaching the limit of my patience.

“Are you turned on right now?” I asked the woman who was serving as my temporary source of entertainment.

“N-no.”

“Yes, you are.” I leaned forward, barely touching her. “You came in your panties when I threatened your husband. When you fuck him tonight for likely all of three minutes, you will fantasize about me and my huge cock—a cock you’ll never get to see. Meanwhile, when I leave this bathroom, I’ll have completely forgotten about you.” I was getting to her. It was so tangible, I could taste it. “Look, it’s happening as we speak.”

“You’re an asshole!” Her knee-jerk reaction was to slap me. She tried. She really did. But, when I gave her the full extent of my intimidating glare, she thought better of it. She skittered out of the bathroom so fast, she almost ate the tile on her way out. I took in a deep breath, attempting to get high off the aftereffects, but I couldn’t.
 

Something was blocking me.

The woman had me screwed up. I hated it. I enjoyed it. It made me feel…uncomfortable and comfortable all at the same time.

Goddamn you, Nikki.

BY THE TIME I reached the hotel suite, my body felt inundated with an incapacitating weight.
 

I immediately roamed the room in search of the stash of lithium I hid in the lining of my purse for emergencies. I crushed up the pills on the bathroom vanity and snorted it with a shortened straw.
 

It infiltrated my brain immediately, releasing me from the precipice of anger.
 

I wiped the powder from my nose and slipped into the Queen bed, decorated with inviting, plush white linens.

THE HOTEL DOOR SWUNG open and slammed closed. The alerting sound awakened me. Rolling over, I sat up in bed. I tucked my knees to my chest and hugged my legs as I looked up, expecting to be met with a livid Eric.
 

Walking next to the windowed wall, opposite the bed, he tossed a black gift box on the armchair next to the writing desk. He walked toward the bed and stood at the foot, glaring at me. “I need an explanation, Nikki,” he demanded with a quiet anger that thrust my nervous system into a turmoil.
 

My head felt slightly heavy as the effects of the drug I’d taken only thirty minutes ago still lingered. “I couldn’t….be there anymore.”

“Your reaction wasn’t fucking acceptable.”

“What did you expect?” I queried softly. “I told you I couldn’t do it and you dragged me there anyway. I don’t like your friends. They are always bitchy toward me.”

He abruptly pinched my chin, jerking my head upward. As he searched my eyes, his anger increased. “Goddamn it, woman,” he muttered, tilting his head down as he jammed his hands through his hair.

“I told you when we met I was a mess. I will always be a mess you can’t fix. Stop trying.”

His eyes shot up at me, showing the full extent of the fire. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” He leaned across the bed and pulled my feet. The force and abrupt movement slowed my reaction. I fell haphazardly back on the bed. Catching myself by my elbows, I fought to remain upright.
 

His hands burned in their tight grasp on my thighs as he leaned over me, allowing me to feel his heated breath against my face. “You aren’t going to do this shit tomorrow. I don’t care if you pass out, and I have to use ammonium carbonate to bring about consciousness. As my wife, you will be at my fucking side. And when I find whatever you took, it’s getting dumped in the toilet. Your regression stops now.”

“You’re trying to change me?” The incredulity added to the heaviness in my voice. “I thought I was perfect. Is it that I’m perfect so long as I’m behaving the way you want me to?” My eyes narrowed as I tilted my chin up in defiance. “Fuck you, Ethan.”

He scrunched up his forehead, and his eyebrows cast a sinister shadow over his eyes. “What…the fuck did you just say to me?”

Unable to handle his stare, I looked fixedly at the window.

Clasping his hands on my neck, he thrust his thumbs under my jawline and pushed, forcing me to look at him.
 

“I said, fuck me, Eric. Or…are you going to continue to tease me all night?”

As we stared at each other, I could see his perturbed mood begin to disappear and release the tension it held over his face.
 

I slid my hand down to a space I wished I could’ve fully explored earlier. His blinking slowed and his cock began to throb underneath my gentle stroke.
 

The weapon he used to divert me from receiving answers to my questions became my secret weapon for reining in his anger.

He sucked in a slow breath and let go of me. His palms moved to lay flat against the bed on either side of my body. “Stop trying to be me, Nik. You can’t fit into my shoes, they are too big for you.” His eyelids halfway opened, exposing his sudden transformation from anger to full on desire. “Sexual aggression is a turn off. I control what goes down in this bed, not you.”

My eyes drifted down. “Your cock is making a statement toward the contrary.”

He growled, coaxing a shiver from my body. “You’re…taunting me now? What the fuck, Nikki?” He was fading. I had him figuratively at my feet, but he wouldn’t let go of his need to control everything around him, including me.
 

He leaned closer, permitting his lips to touch mine. The back of his hand brushed down the length of my hair. When his palm smoothed over my mane again, he stopped at the crown. Harshly clutching a large portion of my hair, he jerked my head back, hard. “I’m going to fuck you, until your pussy comes apart around my cock.”
 

“Are you going to threaten me to death, or are you going to fuck me?”

His grasp tightened. The tension at my scalp elicited a pain that made my bottom lip quiver. “Goddamn, Nikki. Who the hell are you right now?” A slow grin swept his face. Leaning fully against me, he sank his teeth into my lip, a little harder than he had before. “You’re getting fucked all right. I’m going to bottom out your pussy.”

Reaching down to spread my legs further, he placed his head between my thighs. His tongue lapped furiously at my clit as his arms weaved around my thighs, holding me steady. I tried to cover my mouth but he reached around my thighs, locking me in place and yanked my arms down to rest at my sides. Trapped under the mercy of his expert mouth, all I could do was cry out his name.

On the verge of my climax, he removed his mouth from my sex. His eyes cast up to me as he held up his hand.
 

Undone and searching for the reason, I glanced down the landscape of my body, adorned in my rumbled up dress. He held up one finger with a smile and slid it inside me, rocking it slowly and shallowly inside my tightening canal. He bit the inside of my thigh as I lay back, relenting to the sensation.
 

Withdrawing his finger, he held up three.
 

Realizing he intended to use all five, my heart began to vibrate violently inside my chest. He rocked his three fingers inside me, thrashing into my wetness. I rocked my hips against his rhythm and closed my eyes. I felt his pressure on the bed, pushing my knees to part further. His other hand slipped up my body, moving around to clutch the back of my head. He forced my body to arc and watch his fingers disappear and reaper as they rode me, dressed in my wet arousal. He withdrew three glistening fingers and slipped them inside my mouth.