Page 5 of True North

Nico shrugged. “Not great. You know I’m awful with my delivery and well, last night wasn’t much better,” Nico admitted.

“Poor Toni,” Heather teased and stuck her tongue out at him. “So, now what?”

“I’m not sure. I’m going to follow Toni’s lead on this, but I’m hoping she’ll stay here with me,” he whispered the last part. “I can’t lose her, Heather.” Nico looked up to see that damn pity in her eyes and he hated it when she looked at him that way.

“Where else would she go?” Heather asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to give her the chance to figure it out. I’m going to help her figure out what happened to her father and then I’m going to help Toni remember just how much we love each other.” Heather smiled at him, and he had to admit, that was a hell of a lot better than seeing her pity.

“Then let’s do a little research and figure out just what happened to James Bernston,” Heather said, pulling up a chair to sit next to him. Nico didn’t know how it happened, but Heather had become more than just his assistant, she had become his friend, and right now he was pretty damn thankful for her. For the first time in over a day, he was hopeful his luck would turn around and he’d be able to convince Toni to stick around, all thanks to Heather.

Toni

Toni woke, feeling somewhat better than the day before. Her head still ached, but it was manageable. She needed to get up and find a way to contact her father or Zac. There had to be some mistake, her father couldn’t be dead. Maybe Nico had remembered incorrectly—that had to be it because the thought of not having her father around was unacceptable. Her last words to him weren’t very nice. She told him to butt out of her life and mind his own business. He liked to tell her she was his business and it hit a little too close to home, considering he wanted to marry her off to Zac for the sake of his company. Her father told her it was her responsibility to marry Zac and join their two families. Toni remembered barking about it not being the Middle Ages and what he was proposing was barbaric. She told him to go to hell and hung up. If he was truly gone, those would be the last words she ever said to her father and that realization made her heart hurt.

Toni got up and pulled on a sweatshirt she assumed was hers. She hated feeling so lost in what was supposed to be her own home. A few things felt familiar, but for the most part, everything around her felt foreign, including the man who claimed to love her. She started going through dressers and pulled open the top drawer of the nightstand, finding some rope and lube as well as a leather strap that looked like it could be used as a paddle. She gasped and dropped them back into the drawer, shutting it quickly. She wasn’t sure what to make of all those items, and she worried that Nico wasn’t exactly who he said he was. He claimed to be a scientist, but from the stuff inside of his bedside table—their bedside table, he was more of a sex freak. She wondered if he had ever used any of those things on her and she shivered. The thought didn’t exactly turn her off but had quite the opposite effect. She was turned on and her panties were damp with her arousal.

“Hey sleepy head,” Nico said from the doorway. Toni yelped and jumped, startled by his sudden appearance.

“Where did you come from?” she stuttered. She closed her eyes and silently cursed herself for asking such a stupid question. “I mean, you startled me.” Nico smiled and sauntered into the room. She liked the way he moved, and she couldn’t help but let her eyes roam his body. He didn’t look like any scientist she had ever met before. His beard was full and dark like his hair, which was slightly long and hung over his deep brown eyes. Everything about him screamed sex, and she wondered how she missed all of this yesterday. She chalked it up to being knocked out by a piece of driftwood, but she was certainly noticing now. His body was big, and he looked like he worked out at least once a day, making her wonder exactly what he looked like under his tight t-shirt, although she could guess.

“You weren’t beat up much as a kid, were you?” Nico looked at her as if he were puzzled by her question.

“Are you all right, baby?” he asked. She couldn’t help her smile.

“Yes, I’m feeling somewhat better,” she admitted. “I was just noticing you look like you can handle your own, you know, in a fight.” Nico smiled at her and looked down at his own body.

“Well, I like to work out,” he said, shrugging as if it were no big deal.

“You just don’t look much like a scientist,” she said.

“Ah well, I’m sorry I don’t fit the mold. I do have a pair of geeky safety goggles in the lab if you’d like me to run down and put them on,” he joked. Toni couldn’t help but laugh. Not only did he look like sex on a stick, but he was also charming and funny. No wonder she had spent the better part of a year living with this man. She definitely saw the appeal and she felt a sudden wave of sadness she couldn’t remember him. Toni had a feeling she wouldn’t want to forget a man like Nico Andrews.

“No, that’s quite all right with me. No safety glasses necessary. But I do have a question about this drawer.” She pointed to the nightstand and Nico’s lopsided smile was nearly her undoing.

“A question about a drawer?” he asked. Nico wasn’t going to make any of this easy on her, but she still felt curious.

“Yes, well, not about the actual drawer, but its contents,” she squeaked. Nico chuckled and she could feel her cheeks warm from embarrassment. “Did you use those things on me?” she whispered. Nico crossed the small bedroom and God help her, he pulled the drawer open, taking the items out, one by one. He held them up as if inspecting them, and from his smirk, he knew exactly what he was doing.

He handed a blindfold and a pair of fur-lined handcuffs to Toni. “Hold this for me, honey,” he barked. She hesitated and then took them from his hand. He continued to pull sexy items from the drawer, laying them on the bed and tabletop as he did. He looked over the vast array of items, from vibrators and toys to blindfolds and lube, as if it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“Yep.” He rested his hands on his hips and smiled over at her. Toni stood there, still holding the blindfold and handcuffs Nico handed her and she knew her mouth had to be hanging open.

“Yep, what exactly?” she asked.

“Um, you asked if I used all of the items in the drawer on you and the answer is yes.” Toni gasped and dropped the two items she was holding to the floor.

“All of this?” She motioned around.

“Yep,” Nico answered again. She was starting to get sick of his one-word answers. She couldn’t remember anything and the last thing she needed was for him to be concise.

“Care to elaborate?” she questioned.

“Well, I used this.” He picked up a metal egg-shaped object. She moaned at the sight of him holding the object in his hand. Toni wasn’t quite sure what it was, but her body seemed to have a response to it and to Nico holding it.

“This is a butt plug,” he whispered dramatically. “I was training your ass because you said you’d like to try anal someday.” He gave her another sexy smirk. Nico was enjoying every moment of her discomfort and she wanted to groan at her stupidity for even asking about the drawer’s contents.

“Enough,” she barked. Nico chuckled again and started putting the items back into the night table. “This isn’t a joke for me, Nico. I can’t remember anything from this past year. I was asking an honest question, trying to figure out our relationship.” Nico turned and pulled her into his body.

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