Nico

“We checked in Istanbul sir, the lead was wrong.”

“Never mind,” I speak to the phone, “I found her. Abort the mission.”

“You mean to call off the squad in Italy too?” the PI I hired asks through the phone.

“Call it all off,” I order, before hanging up.

Looking for Brianna for a whole year proved more difficult than I care to admit. It was as if she disappeared off the face of the earth and only resurfaced when I hired one of the best private investigators to dig her up and it turned out she was making a name for herself in the business industry.

I can’t say I wasn’t surprised when I found out about her recent success because the Brianna I know was as timid as a rabbit in a predator’s gaze. I was always the predator, she the prey.

But seeing her in person explained everything. She isn’t the Brianna I knew from a year ago. This version of her . . .

Phew.

My eyes involuntarily trail to where she sits cross-legged by the window, staring as the world floats around the helicopter.

Brianna Page has changed so much in the past one year. For one thing, she let her hair grow farther than she usually lets it and now it hangs at a loose wave down her waist. Her eyes are clearer because she dumped the round glasses and it’s easy to see the blue flecks in her grey eyes. Her body is toned, curved at the right places and dipping where it should.

I’ll be the last to admit it but she looks nothing like Brianna Page and everything like her sister – Arianna.

The only woman I wanted but couldn’t get.

She turns sharply and catches my eyes trained on her.

“Got something you want to say?”

Not only her physical appearance changed apparently. Her whole demeanor. The Brianna I knew had no single bone of sass in her. She was a scaredy cat who had no idea when she was being picked on.

Nevertheless, she still reminded me of the woman I could never have.

“I wasn’t staring.”

“Yeah right,” she is in white shorts and a white tank top, coupled with a wide hat and a tanned skin, she looks a fashion model.

I force myself to look away. Six more months with this woman and I can say goodbye to her for good.

She flicks imaginary dirt from her nails, “I remind you of her don’t I?” she says, “Arianna.”

Red flashes before my eyes. “You don’t get to say that name,” I warn.

What happened to Arianna was my fault. My fault and mine alone. Yes I detest Brianna for being here instead of her but she is the greatest reminder of what I lost and how I brought it all upon my own self.

She gets up from her spot on the chair and strolls to mine, her eyes teasing. “It must be hell for you, seeing me and knowing you can't ever be with –”

I yank her arm so that she is pressed flushed on the seat beside me, “I said you don’t get to mention that name.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore, Nico,” she deadpans, “you lost that right when you decided to – huh.”

She cuts herself off, her eyes roaming my face, “It’s not going to be the same anymore, dear husband.”

I feel her hand trail down the buttons of my shirt slowly, teasing as she whispers. “Not going to be the same.”

“What are you doing, Brianna,” I snarl.

“Just curious,” her eyes meet mine, their shape taking on a doe-like fashion. “I never actually touched you before.”

I never actually knew her to be flirty. But then, I don’t know anything about this woman before me.

However, I can see where she is going.

She is intentionally pulling at my patience, pulling the threads, hoping to ignite an emotion from me as she carries on with her hand, tugging at my simmering anger.

I’m not going to give her the satisfaction.

“What do you say I make do of our time here?” she purrs, her fingers inching lower.

I smirk.

She might be a rebranded version of herself but those eyes staring back at me still carry the innocence of the Brianna I knew a year ago. That same innocence and inexperience that is all too familiar with Brianna Page.

Her fingers pop the button at the base of my neck, ruffling my shirt, “What do you say dear husband? What do you say we —”

My hand tugs at her waist, pulling and lifting her whole so that she is no longer pressed against the seat but instead she is forced on top my laps, squashed between my chest and my hand on her waist while her slender fingers grip my shirt.

Her eyes go wide confirming my suspicions of her innocence. “Nic-o.”

“What were you saying about making do of our time here?”

Her cheeks flush a crimson red. “I was obviously –”

“Bluffing?”

My hand tightens on her waist and she squirms under my touch. I’ve never cared enough to touch Brianna Page in the past and I’ll be the last to admit that her body fits perfectly against my palm.

“Let me go, Nico.”

“Where’s all that bravery now, huh?” my hand wrap around her silky hair and I tug at it so that her face is tilted upwards, “You know better than to mess with me Bri.”

“Yeah,” here comes the sass, she can't help it even when she is totally at my mercy, “what are you gonna do abou—”

I grunt under my breath, “Oh, I’ll show you,” before coursing her forward and crashing my lips against hers.

I’ve never kissed Brianna before. I don’t know why it is happening now.

But once that ship starts sailing, there’s no way of stopping it.

On its own accord my hands tightens on her body, pulling her closer to me in the process. Her body squirms on mine while her mouth responds to the kiss as though in conflict with each other. My lips moves expertly over hers, kissing, sucking, biting.

I feel rather than hear a moan escape from her throat and onto my mouth as she opens up her lips further, welcoming the heat of my tongue. Her fingers circle around my neck as her body leans into mine and –

I don’t know how long we stayed there, kissing but after a few seconds, she springs to her feet suddenly and we are both out of breath and panting like we just ran the marathon and won.

She glares at me although she is very visibly shaken, “Never—”

“What?” I tease.

“Never. Do. That. Again.”

With that she storms off, leaving me smirking and satisfied on my seat.

She should never have brought it on. She asked for it and I delivered.

Brianna is nothing like the timid woman I remember. But then, I hope that timidity still remains somewhere within her because Brianna Page can never find out the real reason why I went through hell to find her.

She must never know how I plan to destroy her and her family till I get exactly what I want.

And deserve.

Brianna

I’ve been to the Armani mansion not more than four times in my life and those were only because I had no choice whatsoever than to show up and pretend to be the ever so dutiful, ever so loving wife of Nico Armani.

Keeping up the appearance of a happy couple was not necessarily a requirement in mine and Nico’s marriage but sometimes he needed me to convince the public he had a heart.

My heels click as I make my way into the mansion, my hair billowing around me in the breezy summer wind even though I tamed it down with a hat.

I can't believe I let Nico kiss me back at the helicopter. And I hate myself for reacting to him the way I did.

But when those lips demanded more from me, the only thought that crossed my mind was giving into the desire that tugged at my whole body.

Never again.

It’s no use pretending that I haven’t always envisioned being kissed by Nico and I’m not gonna lie that it didn’t feel better than my imaginations conjured up but Nico Armani treated me like trash for the entirety of the year we were together. It was one year of me wanting him, hoping he’ll look at me a tiny bit of the way he looked at Arianna. Just a fraction of it.

But he never he did. He could’ve treated me right even if he didn’t love me, but he never once treated me like anything other than a whole messy baggage.

So now even if I have to remind myself every single hour of the day that the man is as cruel and cold as ice, I’ll do it to show them just exactly how much they hurt me.

The doors to the mansions swings open and Rosa Armani steps out, blocking my path.

Nico’s mother is a woman in her prime, beautiful, physically younger than her age with the same dark hair, and striking features as her son that makes her look almost as intimidating as the man.

She is of average height but she still somehow towers over me when she sends me a condescending scowl I’ve come to associate with her.

“I hate to be the voice of reason,” she starts regally, “But what the hell do you think you are doing back here?”

Rosa always gave me the vibes of some stuck up royalty always looking down at her subjects. Or at least that’s the way she was to me.

Refusing to be physically intimidated by her presence, I maintain my stance, giving the men behind me carrying my luggage a simple go-ahead command.

“Trust me,” I take off my sunglasses, “being here is the last thing I ever want.”

She sends me an all too familiar smirk, “Here to act like a fucking leech aren’t you? We’ve gotten rid of you already and I want you gone!”

“Funny,” I reply, “for the first time, Rosa, we both want the same things.”

I’ve never really understood Rosa Armani’s hatred for me. She hated me from the first day she saw me and until this day, she has never once sent a kind word to me – not even once – only always showing me the rotten part of her she kept hidden from the whole world.

Even though I had no choice but to assume her hatred for had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the fact that I was nothing like Arianna who she was supposed to have instead of me as a daughter-in-law, I’ll like to know the full and detailed reason, if any, behind Rosa’s disdain for me.

Now is not the time to wonder, however.

This is a war zone so I flick my hair and return her smirk with a smile of my own, adding an extra sweetness to my tone when I say “From one Mrs. Armani to another –”

“What?”

“You see, Rosa, the thing is –”

Before I can explain further, I feel Nico coming up behind me and saving me the stress of dealing with his mother

“Let it go, mother.”

Great, I was wondering when he would show up. He wanted this divorce as much as I want to and if his mother is going to be a problem to the judges finally separating us, then I know how far her is willing to go to solve that problem.

He is after all making plans to send his mistress away for that effect.

Yeah, he hates me that much.

Rosa’s eyes move to her son’s, “What do you mean – You divorced her! She doesn’t have to be here.”

I feel his eyes trained on me when he says, “Not quite. It’s complicated.”

I send her another sweet smile, “Yes Rosa, it is complicated. But for now, I am still an Armani.”

She blinks, confused, and I get the sudden feeling she is reconciling the old me with the new me. She takes in my looks for the first time and she looks visibly taken aback with what she sees.

No longer the chubby, timid girl with no spine whatsoever.

I’m too tensed to care but for the first time, I’ve managed to bring out another emotion from Rosa Armani that is not some kind of condescending hatred or plain cruelty.

I smirk and turn to send an infuriating wink at Nico, “See you, soon,” then I gesture around my lips, “You’ve got a little bit of lipstick, husband.”

With that I storm off, but not before I catch a stunned Carla by the doorway.

Yes, Carla, that’s my lipstick on the mouth of your lover. It wasn’t an intentional kiss but she doesn’t have to know that from me, and I don’t see Nico trying to explain himself to her either.

Nico never serves an explanation to anybody not even his mistress and for the first time, his arrogant behavior is going to work in my favor.

Let’s see how she feels about another woman in her territory.

Coming back to the Armanis is proving to be a piece of cake – easy, peasy. Or at least a whole lot easier than I envisioned it to be and that accounts for a whole lot of somethings.

In no time, Carla would be gone from the house, either off to be his mistress somewhere else or to be someone else’s mistress.

And in no time, Rosa Armani will find out that the hotel she manages in New York no longer belongs to her son.

It belongs to me now.

And I don’t see why I should keep her working there when I hate her guts.

Nico

“More beer?” Jake, my campaign manager and closest friend, asks.

“Whisky,” I tell him, “I need it.”

He smirks as he pours me a shot and slides the tumbler across the brass table in my home office.

“You look like you need a shot or five,” he mutters, trying and failing to sound sympathetic.

I sigh and grab the tumbler between two fingers and gulp it down.

“Send it coming.”

The last one week has been a rollercoaster of some sorts.

For starters the campaign strategy my manager employed surreptitiously flopped to the ground as a new opponent I hadn’t even known existed one-upped me with a better strategy.

Nobody ever one-upped me in my game. No one ever outsmarted me. It was more of shock as a result of the hit than anything that had my crew reeling and unable to immediately come up with a better campaign strategy.

Never again. I know I should have seen it coming but I guess I never thought anybody would have it in their agenda to mess with me and go down in my bad books in the process. I just have to find whoever this newbie is and squash him enough to make him back off.

On the other hand, the Armani household has been sent to chaos ever since Brianna’s arrival a week ago. It is no news that my mother hates her guts and even though I feel the same way because she reminds me of Arianna, I have other plans with her and until that is fulfilled, every other person is going to have to pause on their hating game.

It is not helping the Armani women’s case that all the domestic staff is quickly warming up to Brianna’s presence and the public is going berserk at the news that we are still together.

We had to attend a press conference two days after her arrival and like me, the public was stunned at how different Brianna Page looked in her designer clothes and perfect body.

I gulp down the shot of whisky and revel in the burning sensation that hit my throat as I swallow.

I hate thinking about Brianna.

Jake’s head shoots up from behind his laptop, “The Morning House is requesting a morning show with Brianna.”

Oh fuck! “You’ve gotta be kidding me?”

“Believe me, I kid you not,” he taps a pen on the laptop screen, “I just went through the email.”

“I don’t want her on screen anymore, Jake.”

“This might be good for us, you know, the publicity is great after you know . . .”

He means after the failed campaign.

I don’t need publicity, I just need to end someone’s miserable career and take back New Jersey.

“I don’t want her on screen, anymore,” I repeat. Brianna hates me now, I see it every day in her eyes whenever she ever decides to look my way and that is not often. She can decide to ruin me if she wanted to while on screen and I absolutely cannot risk that.

No one needs to know how much of a bad husband I am when all I need them to think of is me in an opposite light.

Jake shrugs. “Man, you can't hide the fact that you’ve got a hot wife and I know you’re on the verge of a divorce but the public can't get enough of her. I mean, I’ve seen her like what, once since she got back and even I can’t get –”

I shoot him a look and he automatically shushes up.

I can't think of Brianna that way and since I can't, no one else around me should.

“Think of something else,” I tell him.

“Like what?”

“Beats me. You’re the manager, that’s what I fucking pay you for.”

“Right, Mr. Armani,” he mocks, “but if you could consider –”

The door to my home office swings open and Brianna strides in, her face in a small frown and her hair in a messy bun that makes her looks even more attractive.

What the hell is wrong with me?

She stops in front of me, “We need to talk.”

I glare at her, “My office is off-limits to you, Brianna.”

She ignores my condescending tone, “We need to talk. Now.”

“No one tells me what the fuck to do.”

Recently, she has a knack for bringing out emotions from me and I hate the fact that I lose control of my emotions when I’m with her.

I almost never lash out unless I have to and she could never manage to bring out a single emotion from me in the past.

As an answer to my statement, Brianna turns and sends a sweet smile Jake’s way, “I’ll like to speak to my husband, could you give us some privacy, please?”

Jake has always been a hard dude, that’s one of the reasons he has been my friend and manager for as long as he has but now he has a look of utter submission on his face, like Brianna could tell him to poke a finger into a fiery flame and he’ll do so without hesitation.

“Talk to you later, man,” he says without sparing me a glance, “I’ll go come up with some strategies for the campaign and run it by you when the missus is done with you.”

He winks.

As he leaves I force myself not to admit how good Brianna looks in a plain jeans and a white shirt while still maintaining the cold glare on my face.

“You got my attention,” I snarl, “What do you want?”

“Good,” she crosses her hands across her chest and for a second, my gaze is drawn to the tiny lifting of her breasts, “Why the hell is Carla still here?”

“What?” my eyes shoot up to hers.

“Carla,” she shoots back, “your whore.”

“Watch your tone, Brianna,” I warn, “You don’t want to mess with me today.”

“You said she will be gone. It’s been one week and don’t think I don’t know she spends every night in your room.”

“What has that got to do with you?”

“I don’t give a fuck who you fuck, Nico,” she spits, “But I will not be disrespected by you during my stay here, and flaunting your mistress while we remain married is a disrespect to me.”

I don’t care much about Carla other than the fact that she is a warm body to heat up my bed and a warm mouth around my cock. I could have gotten rid of her a long time ago but if there is anything I preferred having in my life, it is stability and having one mistress shows stability for me more than the usual switches.

But like Brianna, Carla is a substitute for the woman I really wanted and it is on the plus side for me that she has a banging body she knows how to make good use of.

But I am not about to give Brianna the satisfaction of having that piece of information.

“I want her gone, Nico.”

I spring to my feet, angrily, “Nobody gets to fucking order me around, Brianna.”

“I’m not ordering you.”

“Yeah? ‘Cos it doesn’t seem like it.”

“Come on, Nico, you gave me your word,” she cocks a brow, “and it’ll be a shame to realize that your word don’t mean shit.”

Well hello Brianna Page. Not only has she now gotten a spine, Brianna has somehow gotten smarter. Or she has always been and I just never realized.

“Fine,” I walk around the table to the spot Jake sat a minute ago and pour myself another shot of whiskey, “you want her gone, fine, I’ll send her packing. Satisfied?”

She smirks, visibly satisfied, “Good. One more thing.”

“Fucking hell,” I down the shot of whisky in one gulp, “How fucking needy can you get?”

“Just one more thing, Nico.”

“Fine. Spill.”

She waits a beat before she says, “I need the documents.”

“What documents?”

“The documents handing over the hotel in New York to me. You weren’t bluffing about that were you?”

Resisting the urge to blow her off, I stride back to my desk and grab the documents from the drawer. I already prepared the documents beforehand and was ready to give it to her at her request. The hotel in New York meant next to nothing to me because I had other hotels scattered all over the country and if handing it over to her is what I had to give up to get what I want then so be it.

I hand her the documents, “All you’ve gotta do is sign and it’s all yours. Now leave,” I pour another shot of whisky, “And never come in here without my order to do so. I never want to see your face unless I have to.”

“You know,” she starts, walking up to me in measured slow steps, “I never really understand why you hated me, dear husband.”

I shoot her a cold look, “You’re a walking reminder of her.”

“Of Arianna?”

My fingers grip the whisky glass tightly.

“It’s not my fault you got me instead, Nico, if anything it is entirely your fault.”

“Don’t . . .” I warn, hoping she will take the dangerous tone creeping into my voice as a sign to leave.

She doesn’t.

“You act like I asked to be married off to you. Like I wanted to be thrown like a second luggage . . . like some sort of Plan B into a marriage where I was treated like trash.”

“But you liked it didn’t you?” I shoot back, “you liked the fame and the status it brought to your name, you liked being a Mrs. Armani.”

“I was a fool!”

“Finally something that we agree on.”

“But it was all you. This marriage, our whole predicament, it was all you!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

“It was you who decided to crash the car on that fateful day and fucking kill the woman you love!”

Out of control, I hurl the glass in my hand across the wall by my side, watching the pieces of glasses shatter across the room.

Brianna flinches, even though the mess is nowhere close to her and I lunge for her, grabbing her shoulders between my hands.

“She isn’t dead!” I yell between gritted teeth.

“Oh, she very much is,” she whispers.

I shake her, “Don’t you ever, Brianna Page. Don’t you ever, talk about Arianna that way. Ever. I’ve never hit a woman before but I sure as hell can end your fucking life you fucking hear me!”

Her eyes widen an inch but she doesn’t push me away. “Let me go, Nico.”

I release her and with my back to her I say, “That’s the only warning you get, Brianna.”