Oh. My. God.

I wake up and my head is pounding. It’s pounding so damned hard I can hardly sit up without groaning in pain. I try, more than once, but give up and lie back down. What happened last night? The last thing I remember was dancing with Harper and having a good time, and then boom, I’m out of it. Did I drink too much? I didn’t think I was that drunk.

I blink a couple of times, and it’s only when I do that I realize I’m in a very unfamiliar apartment. It certainly isn’t mine. My heart quickens and my hands go to my clothes so fast it’s beyond frantic. I’m fully clothed still. God. Did I come back to some strange man’s house? Who lives here? Why am I here? My mind is spinning as I force myself to sit up and look down to see two Tylenol and a glass of water by the sofa.

I take it, without thought. It could be anything, really, but my head is hurting so much I don’t think I can move if I don’t take it.

“You’re awake.”

A little squeal escapes my throat and I turn very slowly to see Nicolai walking into the room. He’s bare chested, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs. His hair is slicked back from the shower, and his dark skin glistens. He’s so damned perfect, I’m finding it very very hard to look away. Hell, I don’t even want to look away. I let my eyes take him in. A man, a real man, with muscles and strength ... Gosh.

“W-w-w-what am I doing here?” I stammer.

I probably look like shit.

No, I know I look like shit. I probably have makeup everywhere, and my hair would be an absolute mess. I don’t even want to imagine how my armpits smell right about now.

God.

Not cool. Not cool at all.

“You tell me, Shania. I just saved you when you took whatever it is you took.”

I blink at him. “Took?”

“Drugs.”

I’m already opening my mouth before he has even closed his, and gasping, “What?”

“You took drugs. Don’t know what. But you did. Want to know why. You know my rules, Shania. I don’t deal with drugs amongst my girls. Alcohol, fine. Drugs, fuckin’ big no no.”

I shake my head, confused. He thinks I took drugs? I didn’t take anything. Nothing at all. I was only drinking what was served to me.

“I didn’t take anything, Nicolai, I must have been spiked.”

He exhales, running his hands through his hair. “You have to know how many times I’ve fuckin’ heard that excuse, too. Seen this before, Shania. Million times. Want to believe you, but fuck, as I said, seen it before.”

I stand up, swaying and gripping my head. It takes me a minute to get myself together.

“Sit down,” Nicolai orders. “You’re going to pass out.”

“No,” I say. “I’m going to leave. If you don’t believe me, then nothing I say will matter anyway. But I’m telling you, I did not fucking take any drugs. I didn’t. I took drinks that were offered to me, yes, but no drugs. Now, I’m leaving. If you’re going to fire me, let me know.”

I gather my things and walk towards the front door. “You got no way of gettin’ home. I’ll get dressed and take you. Chill out.”

He turns and disappears, and I’m fuming with anger. I pull out my phone and see so many missed calls, it takes me a few minutes to get through them. Finally, I decide to call Harper back, knowing she would be the one most worried.

“Girl, dammit, are you okay?”

I smile, her voice is bubbly even after a hard night. “Yeah, I’m okay. I was ... drugged.”

She goes quiet. “What? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, and Nicolai is having a hard time believing it wasn’t me that took it.”

“Oh, sugar, that makes me so damned angry. I know exactly who done it.”

I blink. “Who?”

“Well, Yana of course. She got the last round right before you lost it. She hates you. She wants you gone. She knows Nicolai won’t just get rid of you, so she made it look like you broke his major rule.”

My blood boils.

That bitch.

It is totally something she would do and totally something she knows I couldn’t prove, even if I wanted to.

Anger explodes inside of me, and I growl, “I’ve about had enough of her.”

“You and me both. So have the other girls. Maybe we all need to talk to Nicolai.”

“Yeah,” I mutter. “Maybe.”

“Are you at home? I’ll come over, we’ll talk about it.”

“I’m about to get back, I’ll call you when I get there.”

“Okay, breathe, it’ll be okay.”

I hang up and turn just as Nicolai is coming toward me, fully dressed this time. He takes one look at my face and tips his head to the side. “What is wrong?”

“What is wrong is that Yana drugged me!” I snap.

He frowns. “And you think this why?”

“Because I don’t take drugs, Nicolai. And she hates me. She wants me gone. She got the last round of drinks before everything went bad. It’s on her, it’s always on her. She is trying to get rid of me!”

“First of all, calm down. Having your drink spiked could have happened from anyone. Not just Yana. You have to understand I can’t go accusing her of something she probably hasn’t done.”

Oh, God.

“Just because you’re sleeping with her, doesn’t make her honest,” I snap.

His eyes flare, and he steps forward, leaning down, “Be very careful how you speak to me, you’re fuckin’ replaceable, Shania. Everyone fuckin’ is.”

That hurts.

I don’t know why.

Did I honestly think I wasn’t replaceable? That he couldn’t find someone better than me? What, just because I’m a virgin? I’m sure he could find one of those anywhere.

Shame floods my cheeks, and I’m hurt, stupidly hurt. I thought Nicolai liked me. He seems to ... I don’t know, favor me over the other girls. And now he’s telling me I’m nothing basically and taking Yana’s side, which fucking hurts. And I know it shouldn’t, because it’s just a silly little crush, but it does.

“Then replace me, Nicolai,” I whisper, before turning and walking out his front door.

He calls out my name, but I hit the sidewalk and turn, pushing past my pounding head and making my way to the main road where I’ll take a damned cab home. I don’t need him. And I don’t need this job.

Only I do.

Dammit.

Tears burn under my eyelids, and my head is pounding as I move closer to the road. I can’t believe he’d take Yana’s side, but that’s exactly what she was hoping. She wants me gone, and she makes no secret about it. She can’t stand me, and she’s jealous. She’s going to stop at nothing to make sure I leave.

And she’ll probably win.

I flag down a cab, climb in, and give them my address before softly sobbing the whole way home. I feel pathetic, I honestly do, but I can’t help it. Nicolai has no faith in me, and why should he? He doesn’t know me that well. But he knows Yana, and he probably trusts her. I’m just the new girl, the one who has only been there a little while. Why would he put any faith in me?

I get to my apartment and go straight inside, standing under the shower for a long time. A long, long time. I close my eyes and let the water run over me, washing the pain away, making me feel a little less under the weather than I did when I first walked in. I get out, dry off, and walk downstairs with a towel wrapped around me to get some clothes from the huge pile of laundry I have in the spare room.

I’m just passing the front door when a knock sounds out, stopping, I turn and walk over, opening it, figuring it’ll be Harper.

It isn’t.

It’s Nicolai.

His eyes drop to my towel, and suddenly, my cheeks are burning and my whole body is on fire. I’m so aware of him, and he hasn’t even said anything. He finally looks back up at me, and says, “First of all, don’t fuckin’ run away from me when I’m tryin’ to talk to you.”

He takes a step into my apartment, and I take a step back, swallowing, clutching the towel tighter.

“Secondly, I never said Yana wasn’t capable, I just said I’m not goin’ to accuse her without proof.”

Another step.

Another swallow.

“And thirdly, I’m not goin’ to fire you.”

I can’t breathe. I want to pounce on him. I want to rip his clothes off. I want him so badly I can hardly think straight. I need him. Now. So badly I don’t think about what I do next. I just hold his eyes and let the towel fall. His eyes immediately drop to my naked body, and I can see his jaw get tight as he takes in every inch of me, every soft curve, every untouched piece of skin.

I take a step forward.

His head snaps up. “Shania ...”

I don’t let him think any more about it, I go up on my tiptoes, press my naked body against his, and I kiss him.

For a moment, I don’t know if he’s going to kiss me back, but after a moment, a feral groan leaves his mouth, almost desperate, almost ashamed, and his hand goes around and cups my naked ass, pulling me harder against his body as he parts my lips with his tongue and then kisses me, deep, hard, long, so good I can hardly breathe. I’ve never been kissed by a man, well, I have, but not a man like him.

So strong.

So powerful.

I whimper.

And then I hear a car pulling up outside.

Nicolai moves quickly, shoving me backward and picking up my towel. I wrap it around myself and step back just as Lucy steps through the door. Her eyes go to me and widen. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I dropped her home,” Nicolai says, his voice casual, calm, husky, like he wasn’t just kissing me so fucking hard my knees are still wobbling. “She got into some trouble last night. She forgot her phone, so I just brought it back.”

“I was just getting out of the shower.” I shrug.

It’s hard for me to act casual, because I really really want to go and get dressed as I’m embarrassingly wet between my legs.

“Right,” Lucy says.

“Thanks for dropping my phone,” I say to Nicolai.

His eyes meet mine, and he leans in close. “Never let it happen again.”

My heart lodges into my throat, because I know he’s not just talking about last night, he’s talking about what just happened and, man, that hurts like hell. It hurts because he kissed me back, he had his hand on my ass, cupping, making me whimper. And now he’s telling me to never let it happen again.

Like a slap in the face.

It hurts.

“Okay,” I whisper.

He turns and walks out. I look over to Lucy who is staring at me. “You better explain what just happened, Shania. And what is he talking about trouble? What trouble?”

I sigh.

And then I tell her everything.

Except for the kiss.

Because that one hurts just a little too much.