Nico's Cruse (6 page)

The questions plagued her all morning, running through her
mind, taunting her with possibilities.

Talking to Nico seemed the only plausible course of action.
She’d picked up the phone a million times to text him but she had no clue how
to start a conversation like she needed to have. “Hi, I know I only met you two
days ago—well kind of met you—and I’m dreaming about you. Every night. Not,
hey-how-are-you kind of dreams. And I think somehow you’re really there with
me.”

She flopped down on the couch, clutching her phone to her
chest, trying to get her head around what she wanted to talk to him about.

Miss Pris jumped up on the couch, settling between her legs
to stay a while.

“I need to meet him, face to face. He’s here in town; it
shouldn’t be too tough, right?”

The cat rolled over, stretching her paws, showing Rose her
belly.

Rose rolled her eyes, reaching over to pet her for a second.
“Lotta help you are.”

She grabbed her phone, opening his text screen and she typed
the first thing that popped into her head.
“Need to meet in person. Need to
talk to you about something. It’s important. I’ll be at the coffee shop at the
corner of Main and Eighth in a half hour. Meet me?”

After she pushed the Send button her stomach dropped. She
wanted to delete it, call it back and have a do-over. He was gonna think her
completely nuts and clingy. Too bad she felt like both of those things.

A ding brought her attention to her phone. The urge to put
the phone aside and not look at it crept up to the base of her skull, knocking
on her noggin. Not wanting to add “chicken shit” to her list of accomplishments
for the day she scrolled to his message and opened it.

“I’ll try.”

She relaxed, finally able to take a deep breath for the
first time all day.

It didn’t take her long to put some makeup on, along with a T-shirt
and jeans. She slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops, grabbed her purse,
and headed out.

The coffee shop was definitely busy for a Saturday
afternoon. She ordered a latte and a bagel with strawberry cream cheese and
grabbed a table for two.

She nibbled her bagel, sipping on her hot drink in between
incessant glances at her phone and the front door.

Every person who walked through the door could have been him
but none of them were.

Her coffee grew cold and her butt fell asleep because she
sat there for so long.

After two hours she finally gave up. She threw out the rest
of her bagel, tossing the to-go cup and napkin. She drove home on auto-pilot,
entering her door as if she’d aged twenty years in just a few hours.

“Too good to be true, kitty. Just like I thought when I
first saw his profile. If he was who he said he was he would have shown up.”

A message dinged on her phone and she didn’t care. Too
little too late…but she couldn’t help herself. She opened his conversation and
read it.

“Sorry, I couldn’t get there. I tried to leave, tried to
meet you but I just couldn’t.”

The screen dimmed on her phone and then went black. She
decided not to answer. “What was the point?” she asked to no one in particular.

She powered off her phone, tossing it on the kitchen table,
cursing herself for being so naïve, thinking she was anything to him. Tears
filled her eyes. She told herself to get a grip, willing them to stay in place
and just disappear but they didn’t listen.

She climbed in bed and cried for the first time since her
parents died.

Hope was a dangerous thing. Once it’s dashed, the rest of
the world loses a bit of its color.

Her eyelids closed sometime later and she slept, thankfully
dream-free.

She woke up just as the sun started to set and took a
shower, washing away the sadness, or at least trying to. Getting disappointed
in people always sucked but she decided while brushing her hair that she wasn’t
going to let it get her down. Making a clean break from him was definitely the
best thing she could do. She vowed to remove him from her friends list on the
dating site and she could delete his contact info from her phone.

Her phone sat on the table, right where she’d left it. She
approached it like it might bite her. It lay so silently there on the wood and
she wondered about just tossing it and getting another one. All the rest of her
contacts were stored in a cloud account. She’d made a backup of them a few days
before uploading her profile to
Crossroads
. Adding all of them into a
new phone, all except Nico’s, wouldn’t be difficult.

She settled on the couch in her towel, tucking her feet
beneath her and powered on her phone. Messages blew up the notification screens
as soon as the screen lit up. There were more than a dozen apology text
messages and several voicemails. She accessed her messages and they were all
from Nico.

“I wanted to come more than anything, Rose. I wish there
was something I could give you to make up for it. Please forgive me. I’m just
so sorry.”

One question had plagued her since she’d started thinking
about it after she woke up and curiosity finally got the best of her.
“Are
you married?”

Didn’t take long for a
no
to pop into her screen.
“Can
we talk? Video chat?”

She typed
no
, then hovered her thumb over the Send
button. No matter how hard she tried to convince herself it was for the best,
she just couldn’t send it. The worst part? All the irrational reasons he couldn’t
meet kept popping into her mind. He’d been sick. His dog died. He had a prior
engagement—work related of course—that got in the way.

She berated herself, knowing he didn’t deserve a chance to
apologize to her face because she knew buying whatever line of bullshit he
tried to sell was inevitable since she really liked him and she wanted to
believe him.

“I guess,”
kind of typed itself and she sent it
along.

“Great. Give me a few minutes to hop in the shower and
I’ll text when I’m ready.”

She didn’t respond, just wandered into the kitchen and
grabbed a bowl of cereal to eat for dinner. She settled on the couch and ate
while staring at the TV, even though it was off. She rinsed her dishes then
turned on her laptop, wrapping a fleece blanket around her shoulders while she
waited.

He messaged her and she gave him the new password. The
password scheme seemed familiar all of a sudden but she couldn’t place why.
Then his worried face filled the screen and she forgot all about it.

“I’m sorry, Rose Petal. I would have been there if I could.”
He ran his fingers through his wet hair, clearly exasperated by whatever reason
had barred him from meeting her at the coffee shop.

“I can’t say that I understand because I clearly don’t. But
just the fact you’re pretty upset by it does make me feel a bit better.” She
tried to smile but it felt fake, even to her.

“You’ve got every right to be totally pissed off at me and I
get that. Thanks for not blowing me off. Honestly, if it happened to me just a
few years ago, I’d have lost your number immediately and moved on. I’ve been
such a dickhead when it came to females most of my life. I don’t want to move
on, not now, not at the end of my week.”

“What do you mean the end of your week?” Rose asked. “You
made a comment about it before which make no sense to me. And what happened
this afternoon? I know you feel bad about not getting there but what kept you
away from meeting me in the first place?”

“I…had a…problem with my truck. I had a couple flat tires.”

The rest of it stuttered out, as if it were in the form of a
question, which truly baffled her. “With your truck? Okay, vehicle trouble
totally sucks. So I could just come to you tomorrow. I’ll—”

“No. You can’t come here.”

His voice vibrated through her with its intensity. “Why not?
You seem like you want to see me and I most definitely want to see you. Am I a
two-bagger and you’re just too sweet to tell me?”

Utterly serious. “If you come here, you can’t leave. Do you
understand what I’m saying? You’ll be trapped just like me.”

Talk about strange. She shrugged her shoulders. ”So give me
the address and I’ll bring an overnight bag.”

“Don’t joke about this. Not for a minute. It’s so unfair.
Why you? Why now?”

“But you just said it was because you had a couple tire
issues. That’s fixable or at least you can just wait it out until a tow truck
gets there to take it to the shop, right? Seriously not a big issue and then I
can take you to the shop—”

“You make it sound so easy to fix but it’s not. You
can’t…fix this for me, even though your offer is exactly what I’ve been waiting
for, for years.”

“You’ve had flat tires for years? Well, okay, yeah that’s
odd but not something we can’t get around. Let me come over and I’ll—”

“I’m cursed.” His head hung low, shaking back and forth.

She opened her mouth a few times but seriously the synapses
in her head had all ground to a resounding standstill.

“Cursed as in, you’ve had a streak of bad luck or…what
exactly?”

He lifted his head and stared right at her, through her,
inside her.

“Cursed as in, I’ll never be free of this house. It is my
prison. I know how a goldfish feels swimming in a round fishbowl, seeing the
same things every day. At first it’s fine and the place is perfect, and not
having to share my space was awesome. But then weeks changed into months and
months to years. I haven’t left my house in nearly six years.”

He paused, watching her intently, searching her for some
kind of answers or at least intelligent questions to impart some kind of wisdom
to him.

“Huh?” was all that came out.

“How long do you have? I’ll tell you everything but I’ve
never told anyone and I don’t want to get derailed in the middle.”

She shook her head slowly, not knowing what she needed to
say. “I’m all yours until you’re finished.”

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes, trying to figure
out what to say or which lie to start with, she guessed.

“A witch cursed me almost six years ago. She cursed me to my
house and I haven’t left since. Well, not really.”

Unable to think of anything else to say, she said the first
thing that popped into her head. “You’re shitting me, right? Get your kicks by
telling girls this and they fall for it—”

“No,” he shouted. “You’re literally the first person I’ve
ever told the truth to.”

“Uh, huh. The truth? Right. Why did she curse you? What
could you have possibly done to warrant being cursed in the first place?”

“I seduced her while on vacation in the Keys. I was a
complete dick, made promises of love and devotion and a future together when I
didn’t have any intention of being with her at all after my week there. On my
last day, I packed and told her everything she wanted to hear. I’d call her and
we’d find a place together it was nothing but bullshit. I thought I was home
free.”

He glanced at her and she raised a skeptical eyebrow in his
direction.

“It’s the truth, Rose. I swear it. When I got home and
walked through the front door, this wave of awful swamped me, like a literal
ball and chain snapped around my ankle. I knew something was wrong, tried to
leave and couldn’t open the door. The windows won’t open either. Wait, I can
show you.”

He picked up the laptop and flipped it around so it faced
away from him while he walked toward a bank of windows in the living room.

Rose squinted. They just don’t look right. Almost as if they
were a still picture plastered on the glass.

He tried to open them, each of them, one by one and none of
them even so much as budged.

Then he moved onto the front door, the back door, the
garage. Nothing would open. It was almost as if everything was glued shut from
the outside.

“But what about food or house maintenance or even a haircut?
You’d have to leave for any of those things.”

“Nothing ever breaks down in the house. Not ever. I tried
cutting the pipes several times under the sinks but they seem impenetrable. I wanted
to leave the gas running when I was at my lowest point about a year in. Thought
I’d blow the house to smithereens with me in it and really show her. But it’s
like the house is smart. I got the gas going but nothing I tried would spark.
No match or clicker or cigarette lighter in the entire house would light for
me. Everything worked perfectly well before and after, but during? Everything
here seems to obey her wishes. Everything.”

He walked over to the refrigerator, opened the door, showing
her inside. Everything was beautiful and the best of lots of different foods.
He grabbed a big handful of grapes and then closed the door.

She had no idea how long he waited but it wasn’t very long.
Less than a minute. He opened the door again and the grapes had completely
regenerated. No tiny stalks remained bare.

He continued his tour through the house, with her in tow,
staring out from the laptop screen. All amenities were there for him. A workout
room with at least a dozen machines, an indoor pool complete with hot tub, a
floral atrium that looked like it belonged in some kind of magazine or forest
preserve. He even had a baby grand piano in the living room but he truly saved
the best for last.

Across from his bedroom, stood a dungeon.

And not just a space with a couple spanking benches or a
cross in the closet he brought out at parties.

“All sorts of dungeon equipment but no one to play with.”

“It’s just there to what? Taunt you?”

“Exactly. I have the best of the best of everything and no
one to share it with.”

She glanced around the room, wondering where in the world
all of it came from, not to mention how half of it was even used. “What’s
that?” she asked when light glinted off what looked like a collar in a lighted
cage. He got closer to it.

She could barely make out the lock on the cage before he
turned away, heading toward the living room. He didn’t waste any time getting
out of there.

“But how do you date? How did you find the
Crossroads
site?
How did you even know anything about it other than searching on the internet?”

He set the screen on the table and he sat down hard in the
chair facing it.

“A few days shy of the anniversary of my trip I woke up one
morning and this laptop sat here on the table.”

He glared at the edges of it. Silence filled the empty space
between them until she asked, “How did you know what to do with it?”

He blinked a few times, coming back to their reality. “When
I powered it on a note filled the screen. She created the dating site and once
a year, I’d be able to pick one of the women who put up a profile.” He held her
stare and never looked away. “I’ve been trapped for six years, haven’t aged in
those years, except for the hair.” He ran his fingers through it. “Her little
private joke.”

“Why is the hair supposed to be funny?” Not that she
believed any of it.

“Her hair was pure white, half way down her back. It was a
beautiful contrast to her black skin.” He shrugged. “So every time I look in
the mirror, I think of her. Every time.”

“What does she want from you? She must have told you she
wanted something.”

“She wants some kind of Cinderella bullshit. Says I’m
supposed to be searching for my soul mate but she only gives me one week each
year to do it and the next year I can’t contact the woman I met the previous
year. Not like they’d talk to me anyways since I’m just…gone after our week
together.” He rolled his eyes and she snapped back at him.

“So you what…have to find a woman stupid enough to fill out
the profile and submit it? Then you pick her,” she gestured with her hands,
finally getting pissed off. “Woo her and get her to fall asleep so you can
sneak over and—”

“Fuck her. Yes that’s always what I’ve used it for. I can
move from my house to theirs through the laptop but they have to be asleep and
the video connection has to be up with the right password for me to get
through.”

She made a face and shook her head. “You’re bullshitting
me.”

“I’m not. Why in the hell would I lie about this?”

She didn’t have an answer for him because it sure made him
seem like a lunatic.

“Fate. She said it was my fate that this happened. And
karma, biting me in the ass.”

“Fate? You make it sound so final. Isn’t there something the
woman told you she wanted? Something finite?”

“Yes. But it’s not something I can give her.” He watched her
then shook his head. “I couldn’t do it. Thought I could but after I met you I
know I can’t.”

“What is it? Maybe I can get it for you?” Had she lost her
mind too? What the fuck was she thinking?

“Nothing, Rose. I’d give almost anything to be free but I
can’t give her what she wants. The trade she wants isn’t fair. I’ve never told
anyone any of this. Don’t know why I’m telling you now. You can’t fix it, can’t
change it.”

“Tell me what she wants. Maybe it is something I can get. I
don’t know if I believe you. The story is completely farfetched but if it’s
something I could—” Miss Priss jumped into Rose’s lap and he jumped when he
caught sight of her white tail. He stiffened.

“What? Don’t like cats?”

“Not particularly. Especially white ones. I’m sure you can
understand why.” He ran his palm over his hair.

The cat hissed, running out of the room in a flash. “Sheesh.
She’s never acted like that before.”

“Time’s almost up. Tomorrow’s the last day of my week for
another year.”

Tears threatened out of nowhere but she swallowed the
emotion. “But we’ve only been together for a few days, not a week.”

“Your profile didn’t come through at the beginning.”

“Didn’t you have others to choose from?”

“Yes.”

“But you waited.”

“They just weren’t right. Something told me to wait, so I
waited. The nights with you? They made me feel free. I’ll never be able to say
thank you enough for that. Not like you’d even want to see me again, which I
get, but, umm…thank you.”

His story didn’t make sense. It was completely ridiculous
and she didn’t believe it. Not really. But the dreams felt real and she wanted
to see him again. What harm would it cause, falling asleep talking to him one
more time?

She snuggled down in bed. “I can’t wait to see you.”

His eyebrows made a vee. “You still want to see me?”

He sounded so young there for a minute she wanted to kiss
him, to stroke his face. “Yes is quite an understatement. You make me feel more
alive than I have in years. In the dreams, or the reality, whatever it is, the
way you look at me, touch me, there’s something there I’m not ready to let go
of. So just hurry and get here before I change my mind.”

“I’ll be there soon, baby. Close your eyes. Think of me.”

“I haven’t been able to think of anything else since I met
you.” He smiled his same half-smile that Rose had fallen for their very first
day.

“Ditto.”

She scooted the laptop over to the opposite corner of the
bed to give him plenty of room to get through. “I’ve lost my mind,” she mumbled
to herself as she tried to relax.

A beautiful melody tickled the ivories along with Rose’s
ears. “Nico, who is that? Who’s playing?” When the song continued and he didn’t
answer she glanced at the screen.

He sat behind the baby grand playing a song with no sheet
music on the stand. Her heart filled near to bursting, watching him play with
such emotion. Time alone could be a blessing or a curse.

She truly relaxed, breathing deep, thinking of him.

The music slowly grew softer and softer and she thought she
heard him say something right before she fell asleep.

“I’ve lost my heart. Now what the fuck am I going to do when
I have to say goodbye?”

She wanted to talk to him, answer him but her mind wouldn’t
cooperate. She slipped into unconsciousness picturing his rugged face moving
toward the screen.

His lips on her shoulder as he stripped off her shirt woke
her up. “You came,” she whispered with a smile.

“Well not yet but I’m hoping to before the night is over.”

His low rumble of a laugh warmed her insides and she decided
to let all of her doubt go. She didn’t want to waste a minute of their time
together if it truly was their last night.

He pulled her out of bed, stripping the rest of her clothes
off until she stood before him completely naked and vulnerable. He brushed the
hair away from her face, staring at every inch of her.

“I want to memorize each piece of you.” He rotated her
around and tucked her body close to his, hugging her close, kissing her neck,
sucking the lobe of her ear into his mouth.

Her hands found their way up to his forearms and she held
them to her. “I don’t want this to be the last time we’re together. Just
thinking about it makes my chest feel like it’s breaking in half.”

He moved her feet apart, spearing his hand between her
thighs, rubbing along the smooth lips of her sex, stealing her worry and
replacing it with need. “Nothing but us tonight, my pretty girl. We aren’t
going to worry about tomorrow. We’re not going to worry about anything except
taking care of your sexy wet pussy.”

He stroked her, making her whimper and moisture rushed out
to coat his fingers.

“I love how wet you get for me, how your body tries to suck
me in again.”

“It’s never been like this for me. So intense.”

He paused, teasing her, then filled her sex with two thick
digits. “Me either. I want to own your body tonight. I want to take every inch
of you and brand it so you’ll never forget me. God knows I’ll never get the
feel of you out of my head.”

Her head fell against his shoulder as he pumped inside her.

“Or the smell of you, or the taste.” He ran his nose up the
side of her neck, licking the sensitive strip of flesh beneath her ear.

“I want you inside me, Nico. I need to feel you all around
me.” She looked up at him over her shoulder, reveling in his nearness for one
more night. “Please…”

He glanced down at her, watching her face change as he
fingered her. “I may want more tonight than you’re willing to give me.”

“Then take what you want.”
Holy shit.
Where that came
from, she had no idea. But as soon as his eyes dilated and his nostrils flared
she knew she meant every word of the consent she’d just given.

“I want to get drunk on your taste.” He withdrew, sliding
across her clit, making her shiver, then sucked the slick digits into his
mouth. “Don’t move.”

He climbed on the bed and reached through the laptop screen.

Rose’s mouth fell open and her heart pounded against her
ribs.

Metal clanged together as he brought cuffs of some kind back
into her bedroom. “You really… But I—”

“Didn’t believe me?”

“Umm…” she started to answer but didn’t want to finish the
thought. “I’m sorry.”

“If it hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t believe it either.
Actually I’d think anyone was bat shit crazy if they thought they’d gotten
cursed by some witch.” As he spoke he moved the laptop over onto her dresser
and attached the cuffs on each of the corner posts on her bed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

He smirked at her, giving her a once-over that made her
blood heat beneath her skin. “I know just the thing to make it up to me.”

Nerves skittered up her neck, making the top of her head
tingle and the tips of her nipples grow hard. “You’re here. Like, really here.
Oh my God and you’ve been here every night. The things I let you do to me…”