Page 52 of Tops
The light turned off, and I felt Nik grab my hands. He yanked on the cuffs, unlocking them and setting me free.
“What’s going on?” I said as I sat up from the table and turned to face Nik, but he was on his knees below me, gathering up my clothes.
“Put these on quickly. A security team is on their way to take you back to Bottoms. I got called in for another fucking homicide,” Nik sighed as he handed me back my clothes.
I set them on the desk before pulling my underwear free from my pants so I could get them on first. My mind went back to the time in the parking garage. The security team was probably outside the door waiting for me to get pants on. I quickly finished getting dressed and slipped my shoes back on before looking at Nik.
He had a sad smile while he looked me up and down, but it turned softer when his gaze met mine. “I wish I could say it won’t be like this all the time, but this is how my life is. Therefore, we have the arrangement that we do. But I will have you soon.”
“Tanner hasn’t fucked me yet either,” I said with a smile, like sharing some kind of secret. He probably already knew that.
“I know.”
“Is it a competition, then?” I asked, walking away from Nik’s desk to grab my backpack. Nik stood and followed me.
“No, it’s a hierarchy,” Nik said, fitting himself up against my back when I stopped in front of my desk. Every point of contact awakened me. But we didn’t have time for this, but Nik didn’t back away. A finger brushed a lock of hair behind my ear, purposely brushing my skin the entire way.
“So, no matter what, you wouldn’t have fucked me today?” I asked, reaching out to grab my backpack off the desk.
“It’s not my turn yet, but Tanner has had plenty of time.”
“How are turns decided?” I asked, the truth of this being nothing more than a casual sexual relationship flashing in my mind again.
“We are expected to discuss the matter before we propose this arrangement. I failed to do so, and now I have a penalty. It’s just a stupid safeguard rule to make sure that it’s well understood you are with all of us.” Nik said after taking a few steps away from me.
I turned to face him before slinging my backpack over my shoulder. “How many girls have there been?”
Maybe I didn’t really need to know the answer to this one, but there was no way for me to go back in time and prevent me from asking. I couldn’t even decide which kind of answer I wanted. A high number suggested they were familiar and comfortable with short-term relationships, and they would pose no threat to my future. Or a low number, marking me as somehow special. But the cons were the same points, only reversed and switched.
A sharp knock sounded at the door, and I turned to look up the hallway toward the sound.
“Guess that’s my ride,” I said, turning back to Nik.
“None like this,” he said. I wasn’t sure how to take that answer or how it fit into my stacks of pros and cons. He didn’t wait for me to respond before striding to the door and unlocking it. There was a single silhouette of a man standing in the doorway.
“Hurry up, Nessa.” Tanner’s voice startled me, and I quickly jogged to the door, my backpack swinging as I went.
“You’re welcome,” Nik whispered as I passed him. He winked and then smiled. His eyes shifted over toward Tanner, who looked like he was killing Nik in twenty different ways inside his head.
I stopped directly between Tanner and Nik, cutting off the imaginary lasers Tanner was shooting from his eyes at Nik’s head. I forced him to look at me instead. His hair was wild, and it looked like his hands had raked over it several times. His gaze slowly roamed my body, and I was sure he was critiquing my outfit for the day. He then looked over my shoulder to Nik as his eyes narrowed again.
“Just warmed her up, that’s all,” Nik said with a light tone that bordered on laughing. Piecing things together, I was guessing Nik wasn’t allowed to have sex with me yet, and took pictures of me on his desk. He most likely uploaded them to the group chat, which clearly Tanner had seen, and then left wherever to come here. If Nik hadn’t received the message that he had to go to work, I wonder exactly what Nik would have been in the middle of when Tanner arrived.
“You need to change. We have to hurry,” Tanner said, grabbing my wrist to lead me away.
When he said I needed to change, I expected him to take me back to Bottoms. Instead, we were standing in the middle of some high-end fashion store that catered to the ultra-rich no matter the time.
“Formal. Elegant. Black.” Tanner said coldly to the middle-aged woman who looked like she had a permanent sucked on a lime face. Or at least whenever she wasn’t attempting to curl her overly creamy lips into a flirtatious smile when Tanner looked her way.
He didn’t look at her. Rather, his eyes slid over the various gowns hanging around the boutique. The woman took that as her cue to scurry off into the depths of the store to drag out horribly expensive dresses to force me to try on.
“Can you please tell me where we are going?” I asked, grabbing Tanner’s attention. His entire body was tense and had been the entire night. Either the idea of Nik having sex with me before Tanner bothered him, or there was more going on that I didn’t know about.
“There is a charity event Colten and I are attending this evening. You will be Colten’s date, as we previously discussed. We were hoping to keep you away from events for as long as possible, but it seems we have no choice.” I hadn’t noticed Tanner’s black suit jacket over the top of his black button-up.
“Did you leave to come to campus before or after Nik got the message he needed to go into work?” I asked, raising my eyebrow at him as I mentally calculated times.
“I have three options for you, Mr. Ryland,” the woman said as she came back into our pocket of the universe and interrupted our conversation. Tanner straightened as his attention went to the drapes of slippery black material held in the arms of the woman.
