Chapter 188

I pad across the living room in bare feet and a plush bathrobe that smells a little like Alexi, although I am trying to ignore that fact, with my hair wrapped up in a towel on top of my head. I am rosy from my hot soak for an hour and feel amazingly soft and refreshed, if not crazily sleepy. My brain on food as I head for the refrigerator to check out what he has in here, starving because the last meal I had today was the croissants from his henchman outside my door at first light.

Alexi tends to keep his apartments stocked with food when he is coming and going and this one looks like it was stocked today, everything has long use by dates and nothing has been opened at all, not even the creamer for his coffee. It suggests he intended staying here this week for whatever reason and I hope to God he isn’t still planning on it. I need some space to acclimatise to this dumb decision I have made, and I can settle a lot better if he stays out of my way for a while.

He’s a bit of a health freak and never eats anything sweet, so it’s all salads, pasta and food you can microwave from a gourmet delivery service. He is anal about that body of his remaining a fat-free temple and it is one area I could never get on board.

I’m a chocolate and cake craver and I have to put in daily yoga workouts to make sure I exercise it off. It’s almost like my wake-up ritual when life is going better for me.

I stick my head inside as I rummage and jump when I become aware of someone behind me, moving up close enough to make my hackles rise with a sixth sense. I almost drop my plate of acquired goods on my feet as I spin around in alarm. Heart somersaulting with the fright it gives me and I curse loudly in a mini yelp.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, I thought you heard me come in.’ Alexi is standing there looking at me like this is the most normal thing in the world and all I can do is blink back at him, feeling underdressed and heart hammering like a war drum as I try to calm my sudden breathless demeanour. He made me almost shit myself and I’m not used to people creeping up on me like that.

‘I thought you said you would be gone all night?’ I snap at him accusingly, frowning, more in reaction to the fact my body is in trembling meltdown of aftershock, hand on my chest to calm my erratic breathing and slow down the manic panic of my heart. He just gazes at me, still dressed in his earlier outfit minus the jacket, so it’s all rolled up sleeves with tattoos on show and fitted waistcoat moulded to the muscles under that expensive shirt. His tie is loosened and the top button of his shirt undone so overall, it’s a more winding down ensemble than the rigid groomed and foreboding of earlier.

He looks like he has had a tough afternoon and the slightly ruffled hair adds to it. I hate that he looks fuckable like this and curse myself for that tight warm sensation low in the pelvis which reminds me that sex and I haven’t had a rendezvous since I graced his bed months ago. I need to get my ‘Battery operated boyfriend—BOB’ some new batteries and have a reunion. That will cure my horny cravings brought on by this arsehole.

‘I forgot to lift something from the safe. So here I am.’ His eyes wander over me slowly and I’m not too impressed with the way he lingers obviously on the gaping V of the robe at my cleavage, a small appreciative softening of his expression and I yank it closed and just frown harder.

Pervert!

‘So you ARE leaving again?’ I lift that defiant chin, not about to get all cosy and buddy with a roommate when he made it clear I wouldn’t have one tonight. I don’t want the company and he would be the last person I’d choose to spend my night with any day of the week.

What a harsh contrast to the first night we both spent together in this apartment months ago. When I deliberately dressed to seduce him and he knocked me back.

‘I said I wasn’t staying, didn’t I? I have something to collect. You look like you are settling in, do you need anything?’ Alexi doesn’t seem as ‘Mr Charm’ as he was earlier, definitely a hint of something in that tone, a gruffness and tension, harbouring a mood maybe and I just shrug it off and at him.

‘Peace … lack of Italian men in the room. That would suit me.’ I throw him a charming smile with a sarcastic tone and ignore that flicker of annoyance in that pretty face of his as the softness flutters away to that cold steel that is more his normal look. Turning back to the source of food and enjoyment and blank his presence as best I can. I am trying to ignore the way every one of my nerve endings and senses have hitched to high sensitivity with his presence. I put it down to being scared half witless by an unannounced appearance.

‘I can take a hint.’ It’s uttered rather sulkily, that husky tone of a bad-tempered Carrero, and I am aware of him walking off towards his bedroom as I continue my food search, bent over and looking for something sweeter than fruit. I find nothing to satisfy my craving and go for a full plate of pasta and salad instead, with a disappointed sigh. Chocolate would have been good. At least I won’t have to do much of a workout to take this off my hips at any point. I pull the door shut and head for the couch to get comfortable.

Alexi is only a few minutes before he comes walking back out and I notice his tie is gone, and he’s sporting a leather jacket over his shirt with the neck open. Waistcoat is gone too. It’s weirdly semi-casual for a meeting, but he can pull off any look, I guess. A perk of being a smoking hot half Italian with demon eyes and a jawline that makes most women weep with desire. It’s okay to admit that he will always do it for me when it comes to attraction, but it doesn’t mean anything. Thinking he’s screwable isn’t the same as letting him do it.

He throws me a heavy look as he walks past, waving the file at me as if he needs to prove the reason for his arrival and I just watch him go by, taking a mouthful of food in disinterest; Willing him to just go away.

He pauses by the door before he opens it and looks back at me like he has something to say, and I watch him expectantly. Halting mid-chew and raise my eyes towards him as he stands there.

Alexi’s eyes go from mine to the floor in a second and he instantly seems to hesitate; looking back at me before nodding an awkward goodbye and then just leaves without actually saying a word. I just sit gawping as the door swings back and clicks closed before me.

It’s the weirdest moment ever, and the fact it’s come from Mr self-assured and confident is even stranger. It’s almost like he wanted to say something and completely bottled it then legged it before I noticed. Maybe I am just reading into that too much as I’m tired and a bit wonky headed from being poorly.

I don’t know what to think about it or if I even imagined it, but he’s gone in a blink and I push it out of my head as not important.

Whatever that was, be it intentional because with him nothing is ever straightforward, or be it something else, I am not going to care. When it comes to him, I don’t want to know why he does anything or whatever little act or mind games he has going on. I’m not the same girl and I know him better than he likes to think.