Wild Nights With My Brother's Ex-Best Friend novel Chapter 74

NICOLE

"Nikki, talk to me."

I shake my arm angrily to free myself from his grip. I'm trying to get away from him while attempting to process all this shit I've just heard.

Roman couldn't have faked the video of her entering his building.

"I've got the video of her in my apartment saying this shit," he continues. "I wanted to be on the safe side. I planned all this. If you want to see it, I can show it to you, too."

"Let go of me, Roman."

He pushes me against the railings and grabs both my wrists this time around. "Dammit, Nikki. Why are you doing this to me? I've gone through hell to try to prove to you that I wasn't lying about Haley."

Mason. He doesn't even know...he can't even begin to imagine that the woman he's with is a lying bitch. She's been using him this whole time. This whole time.

"And you knew it, yet you didn't do a thing to stop it!" I exclaim. "Is this supposed to make you a hero or something? You could've told Mason the truth!"

"Oh, I tried to. Once. But he didn't listen, and you know what? Fuck him anyway. He was my best friend, and he chose a fucking woman over me. I was by his side through thick and thin. We were like brothers! I don't think you understand that Mason's the one who betrayed me. He stabbed me in the back, not the other way around! My mistake was involving you. That I take full responsibility for!"

I try to push him off me, but he traps me with his body and makes sure I have no space to even think about running. A desperate cry escapes me. "Let me go, Roman! You've proved your point!"

"You believe me, then?" he asks tenderly. The look in his eyes is one of yearning. "I would do anything for you, Nikki. Anything. You're my first thought in the morning and my last one at night. For the past three months, you've been my sole obsession. I don't think about work. Money. Fucking. None of that. Because nothing matters if I don't have you."

A sound that's half a scoff and half a breathless laugh escapes me. It sounds like I'm choking, and maybe I am. "Says the married man."

"I'll get rid of her," he replies with a viciousness that scares me a little. "Carmen and I are fucking done. I should've never married her, but at least now I'll have the time to bring her and her father down. Once and for all. I don't care what it takes. I'll do it even if I have to do jail time."

I search his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"I've messed up, but that's not what matters."

I scoff. "You're...I'm so sick of you, Roman! Are you really trying to make me believe that you'll leave her now that you've married her?"

"I didn't marry her for love. I only love you."

"Yeah?" I ask as hot tears snake down my face. "Then why didn't you realize it before? I was right there the whole time. I would've never left you if you didn't break up the engagement, you lying fuck. I was crazy about you and I would've held onto anything—even if it wasn't the full truth! Why didn't you end things with her before if you love me so much!?"

Roman inches closer to me, and the world around me stills when he brushes his nose along mine. "Because I didn't know what after you would be like. I didn't know what it would cost me to lose you. But now I do."

I suck in a breath when his tongue darts out of his mouth and he licks a path along my face, from my jawline to the spot right beneath my eye.

"How do you know any of this?"

A slow smile spreads across his face. He looks like a deranged man—his eyes have this crazy look in them. But he's never looked more gorgeous.

And this is exactly when I realize that I'm not out of trouble. Not in the way I thought I was.

"Your body is an instrument only I know how to play, Nikki," he whispers. A shiver races down my spine and I get so cold that my nipples harden and press against the material of my dress. Thankfully, the bra I'm wearing is padded enough to hide that fact. "He doesn't know you, not like I do. He doesn't know what you like."

"You don't know that," I argue breathlessly. "I come plenty."

Anger fleshes across his eyes and he grabs my arm. "Don't make me commit murder on this damned ship in the middle of the fucking ocean, Nicole. His blood will be on your hands."

"Criminal!" I hiss, fighting off his grip. "You're out of your mind!"

"Yeah? And whose fault is that?"

I manage to free myself, or maybe he releases me. I don't know. I stumble away from him and put as much distance between us as I can. I practically fly down the steps.

"You'll come back to me!" he yells after me. "One way or another, Nikki. We both know how this ends!"