Chapter 114

I don’t know if this was all part of his punishment brewing from running away and this is maybe the backlash. Romancing me in bed, only to make me feel like a meaningless whore by cutting all ties and leaving me out in the cold for weeks on end. I know he’s probably fulfilling his needs between someone else’s thighs. I try not to think about it, trying to convince myself that I didn’t imagine something else in him that night, but when facts are slapping me in the face it’s hard to hope for anything.

Only I would fall for the devil himself who makes me feel completely worthless in every way.

‘‘Lex says you need to pack up, I am moving you.’’ Mico breaks into my listless daze as I sit on the couch, staring blankly at my laptop. Some video droning on endlessly about some vague, obscure shit that I clicked on for something to watch. I have no idea what it’s about, and I am startled by his sudden appearance, but the real reaction comes from his words. Heart elevating its beat instantly.

‘’Alexi is here?’’ My stomach does a little flutter, and despite myself, I get a high happy flip of insides that I might see him. I hate that in the past two weeks I have missed him, kept checking my phone and bringing up his name like a love-sick puppy and then felt like a pathetic idiot each time.

I cannot control my internal reaction having first confirmation that he is actually in the building, where I am, close by, finally.

‘’Just do as you’re told.’’ Mico frowns, avoiding eye contact and then leaves me to it but I can’t just take that as an answer. If he’s here then I want to see him! I want him to face me and know why he has completely just iced me out after everything. I want to know first-hand if it was all a lie and I imagined the whole thing.

I’ll know by his reaction to me, I will know by his eyes, his tiny tells and how he behaves when seeing me again. I need to know, it’s clawing up inside me like a persistent ache.

As soon as I know Mico is gone I run like the wind to my room filled with stubborn determination and throwing all sense out the freaking window. I pull on a dress and discard the sweatpants I had on, pull my hair out of its ponytail and make myself presentable in minimum time. I was always good at flash prepping to get ready in a hurry and do so with amazing skill.

I’m not going to sit up here in the hope that he comes up. I’m going downstairs to see him and finally dull down this gnawing ache of longing I have for him, pining away like some sad idiot.

***

I walk out of the lift on the ground floor cautiously, looking around warily for signs of security doing their walkabout. Getting in and down here was almost like mission impossible when it stopped on the office floor and I had to hide against the wall so Mico didn’t see me. Damn lift and its need to open on every floor. I just thank my stars they never switch on the cameras in there.

I could see that Alexi wasn’t in the office, the door wide open, and just black shadows milling around as Mico barked orders about taking my cases and boxes to Chicago.

Why the fuck is he sending me to Chicago? He’s not got a chance in hell of sending me so far away from him. I would rather die. I primp and preen myself as I walk down the corridor, my eyes everywhere as I go. Still, a hint of nerves at coming down here, as it’s my first time on this floor since that night and there’s a sense of unease around the lifts. My stomach churning in knots as I move fast down the lobby to the main bar of the club, but my mind is on one goal, and I can almost feel him calling to me from somewhere in this building.

I yearn to see him again. And then there he is, across the room instantly, with his side to me and every fibre of my being stops still and inhales fully. I wasn’t expecting him to just be there, so effortlessly easy to find, and it hurts my heart to look at him.

Nothing prepared me for the sucker punch to the stomach that seeing him again could give me.

Alexi is standing with Joanne and a few of his men in the middle of the floor and my heart literally stops beating as soon as I see him. Tall and gorgeous with that perfect bad boy face focused on a clipboard in his hand. Perfectly sculpted male, oozing testosterone and confidence, and he just looks like my idea of heaven.

How Satan himself can make you feel this way about him is beyond me. I guess the devil is a charmer and uses his wiles to seduce more than his power to terrorise you. When he made me afraid, he couldn’t control me, so he made love to me instead, and now I’m powerless against him.

He’s not in a suit for once. A leather jacket and jeans which look strange on him and his stubble is more prominent than normal. It’s like Alexi is having a casual day, weirdly, yet he looks sexier than ever and I halt when I get to about ten feet away.

It’s almost like he senses me there and looks up and towards me with a slight head turn, eyes locking on me as soon as he realises what pulled his attention.

Much to my heartbreak he just blanks me and goes back to what he’s doing as though it was nothing more interesting to him than a passing bird. Disinterested, unemotional and doesn’t even scald me for being on the club floor. Nothing, not even an ounce of anger for my disobedience.