ARIA

Piece by piece, our clothes fall away. I reach down and guide his hard, naked cock between both legs, running the pulsing head up and down my wet, needy slit.

Snapping his hips, Nicco pushes in, and I gasp in pleasure. As he slides into me, the wicked stretch of him feels both all too familiar even though it's been months since we've fucked each other.

He grunts, "Spread your legs for me."

Moaning softly, I do as he commands.

"Wider."

My thighs splay open completely. He starts thrusting into me with slow, steady strokes. I match his tempo with every roll of my hips. Soon, inch after inch, he feeds his cock into my cunt, easing in all the way, balls deep, and the size of him nearly splits me in half. My cunt feels way too full of his cock, and yet, somehow, my heart feels even fuller. Fingernails dig into his back, drawing blood as I writhe and scratch and moan from too much fucking pleasure. With our bodies as one, his gaze, soft and full of wonder, lands on me. It makes me feel quite vulnerable, and, yet, seen by him for the first time in a long time.

We fuck like there's no tomorrow, moving together in perfect harmony. I'm chasing after more than pleasure. I think he's craving something more as well. It's like Nicco and I are both searching for the love we lost in this beautifully wild and intimate moment. He fucks me like he loves me. I fuck him back harder. Our breaths are a fluttering, frenzied mess. Sweat drenches my skin, and I feel hot and intoxicated, utterly drunk on Nicco. I'm alive because of him.

"Harder," I beg, "faster."

Nicco picks up speed, ramming into me at full force. I feel as though I might shatter beneath him. I want to shatter. I welcome it. I want to break so that we can be rebuilt into something even more beautiful. Euphoria finds me, at last, exploding in continuous bursts of blinding relief. My eyes squeeze shut as I cry out in pleasure.

He doesn't stop driving into me as I ride out my climax. "Look at you."

I pant softly, "What about me?"

"You beautiful fucking devil you." Not once taking his eyes off me, he adds, "I am sorry for doubting you. For everything. Juan Pablo. Manning. Sossaman-Hewitt."

Emotion seizes me. My voice feels faint and tight when I whisper, "You don't need to apologize."

"Alright, you will hear no more apologies from me," Nicco agrees with a low, guttural groan as he gives one final, shuddering thrust, pouring himself into me, "but I want you to know. Never have I been so fucking happy to be proven wrong. From this moment on, we are going to become an unstoppable force, you and I, in the years to come. Just you wait and see."

***

Nicco and I ditched Newman's party shortly after he fucked my brains out. I'm now sitting next to him in the backseat of a black Benz, giving an about the dirt I've dug up on Oliver's movements. The greedy bastard's definitely planning to swallow Jackson & James whole if we don't beat him to the punch.

"We need to neuter Danmore," Nicco asserts, "before they can fuck us over."

"Would you consider establishing Differential Voting Rights? If some shares carry more voting power than others, you can, at the very least, stall Oliver before he can strike."

"I am not interested in DVRs. I would rather set up a shareholder's rights plan."

"The poison pill defense tactic seems way too soft of an approach." I scoff. "Wouldn't you rather be on the offense than defense?"

Oddly enough, there's very little tension as we continue to banter over the best way to deal with Danmore. A sense of camaraderie supersedes the pettiness from our past. It feels like we're actually a cohesive team. As the minutes fly by, our voices grow increasingly animated and heated, but, again, there's no animosity, only a mutual, deep-seated need to solve this problem before it gets out of hand. After weaving through an hour of frenetic traffic in the city, a fucking miracle occurs. Nicco and I settle on a plan that we can both agree on.

A moment later, Nils Junior eventually pulls up to my apartment complex.

The Meridian.

I see the familiar sight of a big red van from a home security system company parked on the curb. The installation crew have been hard at work, upgrading the building's safety measures over the past two weeks with state-of-the-art technology.

There's also a moving truck parked in front of us. I see a family of three—they lived in the unit directly above mine—moving out. That's the third move this week. I can't help but frown. Lately, it feels like my entire complex has been emptying out. I heard from some neighbors that a rich asshole purchased the building, and he's been pricing out the tenants one by one. Everyone except for me. For some reason, my rent hasn't been affected at all by this change in management.

I tilt my head at Nicco. "Did you know that someone bought out all of these apartments?"

"I bet they paid an arm and a leg for it," he mutters.

"Most of my neighbors are leaving because they can't afford the rent hike."

"What a shame."

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about the new buyer of my building, would you?"

Nicco blinks guilelessly with a blank expression. "Not at all."

I shoot him a suspicious look. By now, I can sense when he's hiding something from me. "Hmm."

"You do not trust me?"

"That's not the point. You know I trust you with my life. I'm simply wondering if there's something you want to tell me about your recent purchases?"

He grins. "Bene. You caught me."

"Nicco!"

"Why are you upset?"

I glare incredulously. "You can't go around buying multimillionaire dollar real estate on a fucking whim!"

"You speak as though I do not possess the resources to do whatever the hell I want in life. Besides, I did not buy it not a fucking whim," he argues, "I bought it with your safety in mind."

My heart swells even while I try to protest, "I don't want to become your burden. Don't waste your millions on me."

"You are not a burden," he says quietly, "and you are not a waste. You are fucking priceless. Irreplaceable. I would not be the man I am today without you pushing me, challenging me, breaking me, so that I stopped wasting my life on shit that does not matter."

"I could say the same about you. Even when you hated me, my life was infinitely better with you in it. You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Nicco. I mean it."

"For the record, I never hated you."

And I never stopped loving you.

This game-changing confession almost falls from my lips, but I manage to hold myself in check. The Benz comes to a full stop. We share a lingering look. My eyes break away first, unable to handle the intensity of his stare.

Right as I'm about to exit the vehicle, however, Nicco catches my hand and presses his lips to my palm. "This coming year will not be easy for us, you know."

"I know."

Our plans have been made. It'll take a year minimum to execute each step, and I imagine dealing with all uncontrollable variables will be some kind of hell. We have to acquire Danmore before Danmore acquires Jackson & James. I also have to stay on good terms with Juan Pablo while plotting his downfall. But it no longer feels as daunting because everything has changed with Nicco.

He believes in me.

"We can't let anyone find out about our plans to acquire Danmore. Juan Pablo won't hesitate to declare war on you and your family to stop you from gaining too much power."

"How much longer can you keep him in the dark?"

"For a few more months. At least. I haven't done anything to alarm him. His investments are doing well under my watch. But Juan Pablo has been taking more precautions around me just because he's always been a paranoid fucker."

"What kind of precautions?"

"But he's been digging into the backgrounds of my bodyguards."

"The ones I hired for you?"

"Yes."

"I thought he believed it when you told him that you hired them to protect yourself against me."

"He wants me to fire them and use his men instead."

"Cazzo."

"Just last week, he sent over one of his cousins to review the J.M. Weiss accounts."

"The same ones that he put you in charge of overseeing?"

I nod. "They didn't find anything, but I'm pretty sure he'll only get more paranoid after what happened with Manning and Sossaman-Hewitt. We need to act fast, Nicco. Our time is running out."

"Does Juan Pablo still trust you?" Nicco presses. "Or do you think he's trying to catch you red-handed?"

"I think he's always trying to catch me red-handed, so I've set up some fake records and dummy accounts to cover my ass. I've hidden the evidence that I'm saving for the SEC."

"What if he finds out that you are planning to double-cross him?"

"Then I'm as good as dead."

His jaw clenches. "You do not seem worried about it."

"That's because I realized something when you pulled me out of that river."

"What?"

"You'll always protect me. No matter what."

"With my life," he vows.

"Which is why I don't have to be scared of Juan Pablo anymore," I murmur. "The world is my playground when I'm with you. I'll do everything in my power to help you take him down, and I know you'll do everything in yours to shield me from harm."

Smiling, I lean over to plant a kiss on his lips. Nicco groans helplessly as he pulls me closer to deepen our kiss.

"Kiss me again like that," he warns when we finally pull away, "and I will miss my flight."

"I wouldn't mind keep you here with me," I reply with a weak chuckle. "But you should get going. Or else you'll be late to your meetings and piss off some very important clients."

He grumbles, "Must you always be the voice of reason?"

"Annoying, isn't it?"

"Deeply so." Nicco kisses my palm again. "I will call you once I land in Los Angeles."

A blush warms my face. "Please have a safe flight."

"Try not to miss me too much."

"Too late," I murmur.

His eyebrows rise in surprise. Then, Nicco flashes me a lopsided grin, and I almost melt into a warm, gooey puddle.

In a strained voice, he mutters, "I wish you never moved to New York City."

"I wish you did not have to stay in London."

"Soon, I swear, we will not have to say goodbye like this ever again."

"I'll be waiting for that day to come."

With a reluctant sigh, he lets go of my hand, I step out, the car door closes, and Nils Junior merges back into the unrelenting New York traffic. This time, however, the distance between doesn't feel like someone is carving out my heart when Nicco and I part ways.

My heart misses him dearly, but it feels less battered, less bruised, less broken. The hurt we inflicted upon each other's finally beginning to heal, and I'm ready to get to work so Nicco and I can take over the world.

Together.