Faking Forever With My Hockey Roommate

Zaria's POV“You performed the duties of a wife when all I gave you.was just a promise ring.” His voice replayed in my head over and over again as I sat on my suitcase, duffel on my lap and the night sent chills down my spine.My phone was in my hand. I opened my contacts and scrolled to Priya. Priya lived with her parents on the other side of the city and her mother already thought I was a bad influence from an incident in 2019 that I did not have the energy to revisit tonight. I kept scrolling.I couldn't call mum. Things were finally going right and breaking this news to her would ruin everything so I scrolled past her, stopping at my cousin's.I stared at his name for a second then pressed call.He picked up on the third ring, which meant he'd been awake. "Zaria?""Hey." My voice was still wrecked. I cleared my throat. "Are you home?"A pause. "What happened?""I just need to know if you're home, David." I tried to steady my voice. “Can I come over?”"Zaria—""Please.” A lump form

Niko's POVThe next day…..I wore the grey suit because Dmitri begged me to and I was trying, in small ways, to be a person who picked his battles.Dmitri was waiting outside the building when I pulled up, standing in the cold with his hands in his pockets and he looked like someone who had been sentenced to at least fifty years in prison for being a close associate."What are they saying?”"Patterson is there. Hargrove from disciplinary. League counsel." He fell into step beside me. "And your father."I stopped walking.A woman behind me muttered something and went around us."How?” I gritted my teeth in anger. “He has no business being here so why the fuck is he here?!”He had no clue. "I don't know. I found out an hour ago. I tried to call you—""I was driving." I looked at the building. Fourteen floors of glass and clean lines and people who made decisions about other people's lives from behind desks. "He called someone on the board.""We don't know that—""Dmitri." I looked at hi

Zaria's POVI was up before seven. Not because I wanted to be, but because my brain refused to let me sleep past the crack of dawn. My head felt heavy, my eyes were still puffy from yesterday's humiliation tour around the city, and my throat was dry as sand.I padded into the dark kitchen, made a single mug of black coffee, and leaned against the counter, wrapping both hands around the ceramic to soak in the heat. The apartment was dead quiet except for the quiet hum of the fridge. I took a slow sip, staring at the cabinet door, trying to prepare myself for the speech I was going to give. I was going to be cool. Professional. I was going to make it crystal clear that this was strictly a business arrangement, that he did not own me, and that the second the thirty days were up, I was out of his hair forever.Then I heard his bedroom door click open down the hall.My back went totally rigid. Heavy footsteps dragged across the floorboards, and then Nikolai walked into the kitchen, looking

Zaria's POVTwo days had passed since I signed my life away on a piece of paper, and I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.It felt entirely too good to be true. I had completely stopped the desperate job hunt after signing the contract, but my brain wouldn't stop running the numbers. When was the money actually going to hit my account? The draft for my mother’s medical bills was due by the end of the week, and every time my phone vibrated, my stomach did a little nervous flip thinking it was the pharmacy calling to tell me her prescription was delayed.If this thirty thousand dollars was real, it meant safety. It meant paying off Mum’s care, putting away a solid savings cushion, and finally, finally, getting my own place. Somewhere small, quiet, and completely free of men with massive egos.I was sitting on the edge of the bed in the spare room, staring at my reflection in the mirror, when David knocked on the open doorframe and leaned against it."You doing okay in here?" h

Niko's POVWell,damn.She was actually making this easy. I held her face for a second longer than necessary, letting the cameras outside get their shot, before dropping my hand back to the table.Okay, okay I admit, she looked good. Fuck me, she looked really good.The dress fit her like it was made for her, which is funny because it's like some plain thing, but whatever I wasn't about to sit here and stare at her like some starstruck idiot.But then I looked at her again, she picked up the menu immediately, holding it high enough to hide her face. I could see her eyes darting frantically across the page, her fingers gripping the cardstock like a lifeline."Calm down," I said, leaning in slightly across the white tablecloth. "I know this is confusing, but I’m the one who stands to lose millions if you mess this up. Don't you want your money?"She lowered the menu just enough to glare at me over the top of it. A tight, terrifyingly fake smile stretched across her lips."Oh my goodness