Mr. Mafia Man

Chapter XVI: The Kiss

We walked around for a little bit longer, before I stuffed myself to the point of explosion with macaroons and complained about my heels. Nicolas finally gave into my requests to leave and sprung a hotel stay on me. Apparently his dad payed for the hotel stays of all the attendees of the ball, as many bosses and dons came in from out of the state, and even out of the nation. At this point I was so tired, I would have literally even accepted death in order to get a good night's sleep. And, if the hotel happened to be closer that our apartments and thus quicker to get to, then that was just an added bonus.

Nicolas and I drove to the hotel as quickly as possible without breaking any laws or disobeying any traffic signs and checked into our hotel as soon as possible. After that banquet we were both exhausted and were eager to get to bed as soon as the universe would allow us to.

Unfortunately our bed going mission was delayed just a little bit when we were checking in at the hotel, as a misunderstanding had occurred.

"I'm sorry sir but the booking is for one king bed, not for two queens. It was my manager's assumption that you were a couple and would be sleeping in the same bed. When your assistant called he did not specify a suite type so that's where the missbooking occurred. We are dreadfully sorry but we are fully booked tonight and have no other rooms we could possibly place you in. If you would like we could give you a voucher for a stay in another hotel. Would that be something you are interested in?"

"Let me talk to my partner before we make a decision." Nicolas pulls me aside and bends down to whisper in my ear. "Would this be okay with you? I don't want to do anything that you wouldn't be comfortable with."

At this point I am so tired that I am pretty much willing to do anything to lay down and grab a little bit of sleep up to and including murder, so I was more than willing to sleep in the same bed as Nicolas to catch a few Z's.

"Yeah, just as long as I can sleep."

Nicolas turns back to the attendant and informs them that we will take the room. Once he obtains the room key, Nicolas leads me back to the car and pops the trunk.

"I keep spare clothes in here for emergencies," he explains. "Unfortunately, I don't have anything for you, so you'll just have to wear one of my shirts or something." Handing me a flannel button up shirt, he says "This should be warm enough." He pulls out a bundle of clothes for himself and then we head inside the hotel room.

I take a shower first, just mindlessly scrubbing at my face and scalp, trying to rid myself of all the chemicals that Tiffany piled onto it. When I popped out of the shower, I put on the flannel shirt that Nicolas gave me, brushed my teeth, and quickly vacated the bathroom so Nicolas could shower as well.

While I was waiting for Nicolas to finish with his shower, I put on some good old National Geographic and sat criss-cross-applesauce style on the bed. Absentmindedly I held the long sleeve of Nicolas' flannel shirt up to rub my face, but stopped as soon as I noticed that it smelled like him. I don't know why I didn't expect this, but I was pleasantly surprised. National Geographic forgotten about and abandoned, I continue to sniff the shirt like an absolute madwoman, trying to figure out the individual smells that make up the scent, but try as I might, I was unable to do it.

Suddenly, I am interrupted from my sniffing marathon by a nearly naked Nicolas walking out of the bathroom. He was just wearing basketball shorts that I suppose he grabbed out of the trunk, but he was still sexy as hell.

This time I was able to hold myself together, unlike that time that I saw him undressing for a shower at my mother's house.

He quickly turned off the lights and hopped into bed, not even bothering to comment on the fact that I was sniffing his shirt like a wild animal, just moments before.

I too lean back and rest my head on a pillow, suddenly not tired anymore after the sight of Nicolas' chest.

"Hey Evelyn?" I hear Nicolas whisper. I rotate my body so I'm facing him, but my breath hitches when I do. The moon is filtering in through the window blinds, and it lands right across Nicolas' face, painting a swath of light diagonally across his face, from his lips up to one of his eyes and across his eyelashes. Our faces are less than two feet apart, and I finally get a chance to really and truly examine him. With each and every square inch my eyes scour, Nicolas grows more beautiful. Save for a few scars here and there - near his eyebrow, below his hairline, underneath his ear, in the corner of his lips - he is flawless. Exquisite really.

When I finally get up the courage to look at his eyes, I find that he is examining me as well, and in short order his eyes meet mine. The next words out of his mouth surprise me.

"You're the most beautiful person I've ever seen."

I'm shocked. I've never been considered beautiful. Pretty, maybe, attractive is a stretch, but beautiful? Never.

While I remain silent, Nicolas reaches out his hand and looks at me as if asking for permission to touch me, and, when I nod almost imperceptibly, he cups my cheek and scoots his body closer to mine. Despite being so close, we are barely even touching, and for some reason I don't like it. Yearning for more than just closeness, my arms stretch out without a destination in mind, eventually wrapping around his naked torso, and I drag myself closer to him while entertaining our legs.

When I turn my gaze back to Nicolas' face, he's looking at me with amusement. I'm frozen. I feel every part of my body at once, and my heart feels like it's being held in the hand of a giant and squeezed. Forget just having butterflies in your stomach, I have butterflies everywhere: my arms, my legs, my lady parts.

Slowly Nicolas moves his hand from where it is cupping my face to tucking a stray lock of hair behind my hair. Slowly he leans in and plants a sweet kiss on my mouth. I'm still frozen. When I don't respond, he quickly unentangles himself from me and retreats back to his side of the bed.

"Shit, Evelyn, I am so sorry. I promise-"

I cut him off with landing a kiss squarely on his mouth. Sitting back on my heels I gaze at him, proud of myself for making him speechless and without movement, giving him a taste of his own medicine for once. Unfortunately, Nicolas is not still for long. Sitting up, he smirks and tackles me, caging me with his arms as he kisses me, but this time I respond.

Before long Nicolas retreats again, this time with a sigh, appraising me with a sleepy gaze, before scooping me up and laying me down next to him without so much as a grunt. 

As he brushes a soft kiss on the side of my neck, and whispers goodnight in my ear, I can feel myself drifting off to sleep.

Word Count: 1279 Words

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Okay, okay, okay, I know. Terrible place to leave y'all at, but I'm not sorry I did it. I'm so sick and tired of all the other Wattpad books being like "they saw each other across the room and in less than three seconds they were in love and fucking". I just really wanted a relationship where they grew together like normal people, instead of like... I don't know, Wattpad characters! 

If its any consolation though, I've been dying to publish this book since a little less than two weeks ago, so I'm so happy that it is finally happening. 

I'm gonna open up the floor to all of the readers out there: what do y'all think? 😏

-3AMmayhem