The top button popped open in the heavy silence of the room, and Alex’s eyes were trained on me. I reached for the second button, half in a trance.
One button.
Two—the loop stretched and opened, revealing more of me to him.
Three.
Four…
…there were no more left, but I didn’t open the shirt.
Instead, I ran my fingertips down the edge of the fine fabric, showing just enough skin to tease the hell out of him. It was working—Alex lookedstarved…but he stayed back, only allowing himself to watch.
And that’s the moment it hit me like a fucking freight train. This is what he was talking about.
This. Was. Power.
I could pull back and button up my shirt at any moment, and he would keep his hands away. He waited...for me. To be comfortable. To trust him. To show him. He needed that, but most importantly…I needed that.
He wanted it to start right. He wanted to know that I was sure about who made the decision.
Me.
And so I opened the shirt, intently watching the way his pupils were blown wide, but his hands stayed put.
“Touch me,” I said softly. Not a question or a request. My decision.
I’d never felt more powerful than half-naked, sitting on the bed in a house I was forcefully locked in. Sitting in front of the man who kidnapped me.
Alex didn’t move, just looked me over, his eyes half-lidded, his naked chest taking quick breaths in. I reached for his hand thistime, feeling the wild rhythm of his pulse, and placed it on my waist.
And it was like magic. His fingers touched my skin, effortlessly sliding up and around to my back, arching me into him. It all disappeared. The only feeling in the universe was his hot lips on my neck. His tongue licking down, down…
“Just like that…” My voice shook and my jaw fell open as I watched his tattooed hand close over my breast, his tongue swirling over my nipple.
I gasped, the simple action somehow the hottest thing that had ever happened to me. My mind was altered. In his kiss, in his embrace, I finally felt safe, easy, weightless, and…free.
"Jesus fuck,Jade."
Hisvoice.The way he said my name—the way healwayssaid my name.
Just as I reached for his cheeks, desperate to taste him again, a loud and angry knock reverberated through the entire house, ruthlessly shattering the fragile moment we’d just built.
Alex paused and pressed his forehead into my chest with a loud sigh. “Should I just murder him?” he asked, both of us shaking with a small laugh.
Reluctantly, we climbed off the bed.
Looking a little disheveled, Andrei burst into the house before Alex could even fully open the front door.
"Can I ask you a question?” He spun around toward Alex after giving me a quick nod. I plopped down on the couch, all the buttons on my pajama top now closed. It felt too early for this.
"If you're actually going to ask me a question, then just ask.” Alex’s sarcasm was riling Andrei up to the nth degree. “Unless your question is rhetorical, in which case, the answer is of course, ye—"
"Have you been setting Knox’s dealerships on fire?"
The question got stuck somewhere between us all and my blood froze. I whipped my head to Alex, who stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed, the smallest hint of a smile on his face.
"What are you talking about?" He shrugged, the confusion on his face not in the least believable.
