Roman got up, needing to walk off some of the anger coursing throughout him. “It doesn’t matter if we terminated her yet; I told you she is not allowed in.” Roman gritted out.
“Quinn was at the door and said to let her in and put her in your room.”
“Quinn?” Roman asked, listening to Marco mumble yes. “Tell my brother I will talk to him in a minute, as soon as I kick out the stray.” He slammed the phone down, pissed off and ready to kill someone. This was supposed to be a simple evening, but at this point he had to amend it: kill Quinn kick Alexandra out. He called for Quinn, who came strolling in without a care in the world. Roman pressed his fingers together, trying to calm down, but he was too pissed to care.
“What the fuck are you doing?” It took everything he had to not punch his brother. Quinn had no right messing with his business.
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “What you wouldn’t. You’re the one who started this. You want her gone, you kick her out. Don’t hide in your office and make Marco do it.”
Roman jumped up so fast his chair slammed back. “You’ve got no right.” He was done with her, there was no reason for her to come back. His heart sped up, irritation mixed with a healthy dose of trepidation and excitement at the thought of seeing Alexandra.
“And you’ve got no balls—.” Roman moved before he could stop himself, the picture falling from the wall when he slammed Quinn against it. He seemed unaffected, pissing Roman off more.
“You wanna go? We’ve done it before, but why don’t you figure out why the hell you’re so pissed about a woman you claim to be through with.” Roman growled, pushing Quinn into the wall one more time before releasing him.
“Thank me later!” Quinn shouted as Roman stormed off, not wanting to deal with his brother. They could pound each other, but they were well matched and it’d only lead to some bruises. Besides, his true anger lie with Alexandra, which Quinn annoyingly pointed out. And she terrifies you because you’re ready to give her your heart.
He stopped at the door to his room, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm himself.
Count to ten, he tried to counsel himself. 10…9… Fuck counting, this pisses me off. He slammed the door open as he came in, taken aback by the woman sitting on the bed. It was still his Alexandra, but different. Her long, brown hair was brushed to the side, and she sat with her hands clasped together in her lap, staring straight ahead.
“Why are you here?” he demanded, crowding her personal space, fear driving his anger, and staring down at her. She shook her head and he couldn’t stand it anymore, grabbing her chin and tilting her face toward him. “WHY. ARE. YOU. HERE?” he asked again, his grip tightening until she winced. He released her, stepping back and crossing his arms.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I told myself I wasn’t going to do this. I can’t be this girl.” She blew out a ragged breath, slicing away a piece of his heart. “But I can’t do it. You hate me, I get it. I messed it up the other night but I was so pissed. And after everything you told me about my father, I still felt unsteady so when my grandfather asked, I flipped.”
“And there’s the problem,” he growled. “You’re too ashamed to admit you still know me, let alone I’ve seen you naked. I’m not your bitch.” He held his arms out in frustration. “You think I want to be in this position? You,” he jabbed his finger in her face, ignoring his own pain when she flinched back and started crying harder, “did this. You. Not me. Was I an ass that night? Yeah, I’ll own it. You gave me no reason to doubt you, and I treated you like shit. And I should have been honest from the beginning about your father. But what you did?” He ran his hands down his face in frustration, coming to sit next to her. He turned her toward him, wanting her to see the pain in his eyes, but all he found was the same fear, anger, hurt, lust, helplessness, and sprinkling of love.
She tried to move her face to his shoulder, hiding her face, before he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back so she looked at him. Her face was flushed, her lips turned down, as though she tried to smile but couldn’t keep up the pretense.
“You gutted me,” he said, his voice clear, making sure she understood.
She put her hand over her chest, biting her lip before forcing out her next words. “If I gutted you, I killed myself. I regretted the words as soon as they were out, but I couldn’t call you back.”
“Because of your grandfather?” he taunted.
16
He watched the shock overcome Alexandra’s face at his accusation. “No!” Alexandra bit out not rising to the bait. “It’s because I was so mad at you. I’d been at this stupid dinner all night when all I wanted to do was be with you. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but I didn’t want to be there after everything I'd heard about my father. I wanted to be here,” she ran her finger down the bed the way she did his car all those weeks before, “but I couldn’t be. I’d just won a case, and all I wanted to do was celebrate with you.”
Roman watched her, fascinated in the way she seemed to pull herself together while she got this out. He’d remembered, it was the one of the cases she said would help seal the deal for her partnership, and she’d texted him the afternoon of the banquet that she’d won.
“I remember,” he told her, needing to give her something.
“I didn’t think you did.” She shrugged. “You were the first person I told. I have a wonderful family and amazing friends, but the first person I chose to share that information with was you. And you didn’t even acknowledge my text.” He’d been with his cousin, the girl he’d always considered his sister, who was going through her own crisis, and then dealing with the banquet, figuring he could congratulate Alexandra later. Plus, he’d tried to keep his distance since they’d been on shaky ground since the revelation about her father. He’d figured texting her about her personal business was too much.
“I’m sorry if I neglected you. Where I was isn’t important. You deserved a response, but we were on the outs, and I figured you didn’t need it.”
She nodded, wiping her face. “Nice to know that now. I’m so jumbled up about you, I couldn’t think straight. My feelings for you are irrational, because we’ve had several weeks of stolen time, but I felt like I knew you. And I wanted us. But when you failed to return the text, I just figured I was making too much of our situation. Especially since we haven’t been connecting like we used to these past couple weeks.” He grabbed her arm when she paced in front of him, pulling her into his lap because he couldn’t stand the distance anymore. If she was going to continue her story, she was going to do it right there.
“You weren’t.” He kissed her cheek, letting his lips linger. “I thought the same thing but didn’t know how to tell you.” She laid her head on his shoulder, tracing small circles on his chest.
“So, I’m at this banquet, missing you, confused, and here comes my grandmother with her potential match for the evening. I wasn’t going to be rude, plus he was a nice guy, and I allowed myself to spend the evening with him. It was easier with everyone else matched up. I was so proud when they listed the sponsors and I saw your name on there, I wanted to stand up and clap.”
His lips found her forehead. He was still upset, she was still upset, but after being without her for the last few days, he needed to get his hands on her again. She sighed, and he rubbed her back gently in comfort.
“Do you know how much I missed this?” she whispered, her breath tickling his chin. His cock stirred, it’s been too long since he’d been inside her.
“If it’s half as much as me, I understand.”
“Yeah, well, let’s not do this again.”
“I’ll agree as soon as you finish your story.”
“So there I sat, proud of you, missing you, thinking I was crazy. All you saw was me saying goodnight to a guy I figured could be a good friend to me.”