Life of Sin Book 1

Chapter Sixteen

The morning hours came and went, not nearly enough hours of sleep for me. I finally woke up around 1:30. Falen wasn’t laying next to me, I don’t even think she slept at all. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Good thing Falen keeps “guest” toiletries. There was a note on the mirror.

“Went to grab breakfast, be back shortly.” I wonder how long ago she wrote that? After washing up, I got dressed and went downstairs. This was the perfect opportunity to text Nikki back. Just as I began typing, I heard a car door close. Or not. Tucking my phone into my pocket, I opened the garage door expecting to greet Falen. Instead, the front doorbell rang and I was greeted by Nikki.

“You seem real comfortable showing up here out of the blue.”

“You’d be surprised, my love.” She kissed me and walked inside. As I closed the door, the wheels in my head started churning.

“'You'd be surprised’? What’s that supposed to mean?” Nikki stopped in her step, glancing back at me with that weakening smirk of hers.

“You have no room to ask questions, Dev. You’re not so innocent yourself, remember?” My mind flashed back to last night’s bathroom festivities. The way her tongue had me arching into her and reaching for something, anything to grab onto.

“That look on your face tells me you do remember.” I caught myself biting my lip. Rolling my eyes, I brushed past her and sat on the couch. She stalked towards me, her demeanor on some predator vs prey type shit.

“Why are you here, Nik?”

“I was looking for you. I went by your apartment last night and you weren’t there, so I figured you were laying up with Falen.”

“Why were you looking for me?” She stood over me and for some reason my thoughts wandered to the most inappropriate of places. I mean, she’s standing over me wearing these tight leather pants and a tight black halter top to match. No bra, her nipple piercings were protruding through her shirt. No panties, but maybe a thong? These pants were skin tight.

“You never answered my question and I got impatient.”

“So you thought showing up here would produce a quicker response?” She tilted her head, a slight lift of her eyebrow and a smirk reappearing on her face. That was clearly her thing, smirking. That, and her dark, seductive eyes usually earned her whatever she wanted. She straddled me, her nails dragging along my face as she leaned in close enough to taste my lips.

“Answer my question, Devyn,” she teased, never taking her eyes off mine. Of course this was working. I could deny her all I wanted through texts and phone calls but her presence just did something to me. Her scent, her dominance, her… everything. And she knew that.

“Tell me you love me, baby.” She grabbed my face, pressing soft kisses to my lips. Unsurely, I placed my hands on her thighs, easing around to her behind as the heat from her skin warmed mine.

“I…”

“Tell me,” she whispered, slipping her tongue into my mouth. I would’ve done whatever she’d asked of me but I faintly heard Falen pull into the driveway and the garage open. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or pissed about her timing.

“Or don’t,” Nikki said, smiling as her voice teased me. With her gaze still controlling mine, she got up and moved to sit on the other couch. My eyes lingered on her for a while before I finally realized what was happening. You have less than twelve seconds before Falen walks through that door. Get it together. Nikki glued herself to her phone but I noticed her continue to glance at me, her eyes full of mischief as she licked her lips. If I kept sitting there, Falen would ask questions. Seven. Six. I stood up and walked to the kitchen to busy myself. Still, what would I tell her? Why the hell is Nikki here? Three. Two. Fuck. One. Falen walked through the door carrying to-go boxes.

“Hey you, yessss food!” I took the boxes from her hands and planted a kiss on her cheek, hoping I didn’t smell too much like Nikki's favorite scent. Falen was happy to see me, and she didn’t even notice my ex sitting behind her.

“I didn’t know what to get so I bought a little of everything.”

“Cool, um, Nikki's here,” I said, biting off a piece of bacon. They both turned to acknowledge each other.

“She just… wanted to check on me.” Nikki smiled innocently, an angel in disguise. Falen looked at me and I could tell she was trying to make sense of this and the incident from last night that she knew very little about.

“I was actually headed to the hospital. I tried calling Devyn but she wouldn’t answer so I just popped up.”

“And how did you know she was here?” Falen asked, her eyes like daggers on mine.

“I went by her apartment first, rang the doorbell for about five minutes and left. It made sense for her to be here.” Nikki gave a simple chuckle. She was good at manipulation, pretending she was the good girl everyone wanted her to be. She stood up, adjusting her shirt in an effort to flaunt her breasts behind Falen’s back. My eyes rode every curve of her body and Falen hardly noticed.

“I should go though. Don’t wanna keep Ivy waiting for too long.”

“Yeah… we’ll be right behind you in a bit.” I chewed my food casually as if nothing was amiss. When she walked out, Falen opened her mouth to speak.

“I know, Falen. I know you’re trying to piece things together but there’s nothing going on.” Her shoulders dropped and she stopped applying syrup to her waffle. Didn’t she trust me?

“Yesterday she was your enemy. You didn’t even wanna see her, but today she’s making surprise visits to ‘check on you'?” She asked. Was this happening?

“Well I’m sorry, but I don’t exactly have the energy nor the desire to fight with her right now.” This was definitely happening. The infamous “I know I’m in the wrong but I’m mad because you have common sense” argument.

“Right now? So it’s cool to be best friends with your ex while you’re going through shit? But when shit goes back to normal, what? It’s back to hating her?”

“Falen, you’re reading way too deep into this.”

“Am I?”

“You are. You obviously know how Nikki is and how she gets but is there any trust between us? This jealousy shit’s not cool.” I finished up my food and walked off. She latched onto my arm, holding me in place.

“I trust you. And I’m sorry. We never even put a label on ourselves so it’s not fair for me to do this to you.” She was right, there was no label so technically I shouldn’t feel this guilty right now. No Devyn… just no.

“It’s fine, don’t even worry about it,” I said, pulling away from her. Not so much because I was angry but because I couldn’t stand looking at her, knowing I wasn’t being honest. She dejectedly went back to eating her food. I dismissed myself to the bathroom as tears threatened to fall.

“What the fuck am I doing?” I whispered.

“I’m a liar. I’m lying to everyone I know. Falen loves me. Nikki loves me and I can only love one of them back. My mom doesn’t have a clue what’s going on with her daughters right now. Janay… I keep telling myself I don’t give a fuck about that situation but I do!” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I was a mess. I’d prayed for everything to work itself out but it seemed the more time I allowed to pass, the worse things have gotten. Falen startled me out of my thoughts as she knocked on the door. In a way, it was like being knocked back to my senses.

“Dev, you good?”

“I’m fine, just give me a minute.” It took a while for me to stop crying but once I did, I splashed some cold water on my face and blew my nose, allowing myself to breathe. I didn’t offer an explanation when I walked out, I just let her think what she wanted to think. It was most likely better than anything I could’ve said.

“Are you ready to go?” I asked, folding my arms around myself. I didn’t even wait for an answer, I just brushed past her, walked upstairs to grab my things and met her at the car.