Angelo waited to see what Nikolai would do when they got back to the room but the Mafia King just placed him on his feet, an expectant expression on his face.
He knew that Nikolai was waiting for an explanation but Angelo really didn’t know what to say. Would Nikolai really just let him freeload in his penthouse and tag along with him wherever he went while refusing to work for him?
He doubted it but he was willing to negotiate. Angelo never had the chance to want things, but he wanted this so he would try, the worst that would happen would be that he would be turned down.
"Can I stay?" He managed to say after several seconds of going through various ways he could convey what he wanted to Nikolai and convince the Mafia King to agree.
Nikolai was standing with his back to the door, his expression controlled. "You want to stay."
"I wouldn’t have convinced Silvia if I didn’t," Angelo winced, remembering that although Silvia had easily given in, he was still on probation. "I’ll earn my keep."
Angelo had more money than he knew what to do with and Nikolai even more but he couldn’t just stick around like a liability, and bluntly offering the Mafia King money didn’t seem right either.
Nikolai wanted to ask the assassin how long he intended to stay, he wanted to ask why he wanted to stay. "Sure," He said instead, his un-belted night robe slightly slipping off a shoulder.
Angelo felt like tonight was going a little too well for him, he had to question it this time. "Really? You’re not going to make any demands?"
Nikolai slightly lifted a brow at that and it made Angelo panic. "Thank you." He quickly said before Nikolai could say a word, looking around the room.
"I can return to my previous room," He bravely went on, ignoring the fact that he had almost screwed himself over by being distrustful.
Nikolai’s brows knitted together, "You’re welcome to stay in any room in the apartment." He offered, the words feeling solid in his mouth.
"Thank you," Angelo said, meaning it. With everything more or less sorted out, the strain of the past two days weighed heavily on his shoulders, he wanted to go right to bed.
Mafia King Nikolai had done all of this because he was in heat, but now his heat was more or less over, he had no reason to keep him around for longer. "I’ll go to bed now," He said awkwardly, "You don’t need to bother coming with me, a glass of wine will work just as well.
Nikolai felt like the assassin had plunged a knife into his heart and twisted it. So he was just as important as a drugged glass of wine to Angelo?
"Taking drugs while in heat isn’t safe," He bullshitted, maybe if he had the entirety of the next day to get over it, he would be able to bear sleeping apart from the assassin but tonight was out of the question. "I’ll sleep here tonight." He said decisively without room for questioning.
And Angelo didn’t question it, pushing a hand through his hair as he walked towards the bed. He sat at the edge of the bed and braided his hair, he usually left it in a braid but ever since he came to Nikolai’s penthouse, it had been down more often than not.
Nikolai slowed down at the sight, terse. He could feel a physical distance growing between them and was helpless to stop it or close it.
"Leave your hair down?" He asked lightly, approaching the bed.
Angelo turned to look at him, long deft fingers finishing up the tip of his braid. "No." He refused cruelly, "It gets everywhere."
Nikolai was equally disappointed and pleased by his response, the assassin couldn’t care less about who he was and what he was capable of. Even Silvia, who ran a hitman agency and was a pretty dangerous person in her own right, was careful with her words around him.
Although, recently, he had been giving Angelo less and less reasons to be wary of him. That might change in a few weeks, his position was gory, even more than an assassin could handle. Angelo might spend a short time with him and realize he was a monster wearing human skin.
He knew that, but it didn’t stop him from pulling Angelo into a tight hold when the assassin got on the bed, boldly undoing the braid that he had painstakingly done.
Angelo let out a long suffering sigh but he didn’t protest, docilely letting himself be held. It wasn’t as comfortable as usual and after an hour of trying and failing to fall asleep, he pulled free from Nikolai’s hold, his hair down.
"Maybe we should get the wine," Angelo said bluntly, uninterested in cuddling with the Mafia King for another hour.
Nikolai stared up at him, his eyes like pools of water in the night, dark, secretive. He had a suggestion for why neither of them could fall asleep, but he doubted Angelo would be pleased to hear it.
He was disappointed at how quickly Angelo’s heat had come to an end, the assassin’s sass was back, but he in turn lost all of his interest in being intimate.
Nikolai came to a quick decision and rose to his feet, feeling Angelo’s gaze on his back as he walked out.
Angelo felt a trace of nervousness then, wondering if Nikolai had gotten tired of catering to him and had left. The thought of having to go off in search of the Alpha if his heat flared up again at night was worrying, but he had been the one to demand for wine, so he sat and stewed in the consequences of his actions.
He didn’t wait long because Nikolai returned with a bottle and two wine glasses, even as a glass of wine was offered to him, he couldn’t help but feel like Nikolai was in a sour mood.
Angelo couldn’t wait for the next morning so that things would go back to the way it used to be. He drank down the entire glass, holding his hair out of the way.
He didn’t remember seeing Nikolai drinking from the wine as well, but the Mafia King didn’t leave the room, instead he got back on the bed with him, a hand in his hair and another around his waist.
Angelo allowed it again, Nikolai’s hold was warm and the Mafia King’s scent was soothing. Even if this was only happening because he was an Omega in heat, Angelo didn’t mind, letting his eyes close.