She held all the power now.
“You’ve become awfully bold for a captive.” I reminded myself that she was still a captive. “You should be fucking serving me lemonade on a silver platter. I let you live.” I was sputtering pure nonsense, but Jade laughed, and I was ready to keep talking.
“You let me live, huh?” Amusement filled her pretty eyes. “If you wanted obedience, Alex…you should’ve kept me tied up. Maybe thrown me in that hypothetical basement for good measure.” She lifted one eyebrow, clinking the ice in the glass. “But I think…I think unhinged brat is more your taste.”
The ring of my phone startled us both. Jade’s shoulders jumped and so did the lemonade in her glass. It spilled onto her wrist and I looked on wistfully, knowing who the call was from.
“Get the fuck out of there right this fucking second, Alex. I’m not fucking joking!” Andrei’s angry voice sounded in my ear as soon as I picked up the phone. Jade blinked up at me, waiting for the warning she couldn’t hear.
“There’s no coming back from this, Sasha.Do notcross that line! I need you to stop thinking with your dick and get the fuck away from Jade.”
I turned away from her, growling into the phone in Russian, “Stop talking about my dick in the same sentence as her, it’s making everything worse! Don’t call me.”
I hung up on him and—
“Alex?” Jade called from behind me. Gentle fingers slid on my forearm, and she led me toward the armchair again, helping me sit down. My head was spinning. “Here. Drink some lemonade.” She passed me the glass; such worry in her eyes. I downed the whole thing in one second. It was perfect, not too tart, not too sweet, simply delicious. Like her.
“Are you okay?” She took a seat on the coffee table right in front of me. So close. Within reach. But I was fading. “You look a little pale. And tired.”
I last caught a glimpse of myself in my rearview mirror right before getting out of the car and I indeed looked like Dracula.
“I—” But I didn’t know what to say. I studied her bright eyes, wondering how it all fucking detonated like this. How did my personality deteriorate this way, and why…why couldn’t I find my balls and walk away from her?
"Alex?" My gaze immediately found hers and my whole body zinged at the sound of her voice sayingmyname.
God, it smelled so nice in this house. Jade was so effortlessly beautiful and being in her presence was peaceful. The static in my head disappeared when I looked into her eyes. The dark storm looming overhead lost its power when she was near, and for the first time in days, I could breathe out.
"Jade? Can I just stay here? For a bit?"
The heavyweight delivered a knockout.
10
The Villain
Jade
As if tranquilized, Alex suddenly went limp and his head dropped back onto the armchair with a soft thud. I stared at his Adam’s apple, waiting for him to say something—edge me again. Instead, he breathed in and out evenly. Calmly.
He was asleep.
Dead to the world in one second, leaving me all alone to process the last five minutes. This man arrived unannounced, demanded I serve him a drink, flirted shamelessly, and then passed out in the chair.
I looked him over, savoring the moment. The knuckles on his right hand were skinned and bruised. His hair was a bit disheveled, like he’d had a long day. And his legs werelong. All of him was way too small for the armchair, and the couch too.
“Alex?” I said softly, hoping he would wake immediately, but it did nothing. “Alex,” I spoke a little louder, but it produced no results.
What. The. Fuck?
I hovered nearby for a while, half expecting him to wake up and explain himself, but after thirty long minutes—during which he moved exactly once to sigh—he was still out cold.
Alex was wide and long, and his limbs spilled out of the chair, leaving me with no other option but to move him.Move this fucking giant.
"Come on,” I muttered, more to myself than him. “Come with me.” I wrapped my fingers around his wrist, noticing how hot his skin was, but also how ridiculously small my hand looked against his. Because everything about this guy was…big and thick. The same thought from the car rushed back to me—was hisdick—
I inhaled sharply, puffing my cheeks and breathing through it becausewhat the fuck was I thinking again?!
I hauled his massive arm over my shoulder and pulled and tugged, forcing him up on his feet.
