AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My gaze flitted from him to the crowbar he’d set on the table. He was distracted. I should move now. Take the cold crowbar in my hand and swing until there was nothing of me left.
“Yes, it was damaged, but Ms. Carnes promises to repair it.” My focus snapped to him and I let my expression go cold. He only smirked. “It may take her a few days, but she’ll get it done.”
Days. He was an over-the-top asshole. He moved between me and the sculpture, blocking it from my view.
“It’s no problem, I understand these things happen. Thank you for sending her.”
He’d barely pocketed the phone before I lashed out. “I’m not going to lift a finger until you assure me my artwork is safe.”
“Safe? From what?”
“Your hands.”
Alec’s jaw tightened, televising his displeasure. “You don’t seem to understand how this works. That sculpture is mine. It’s property I own, and can do whatever the fuck I want with.”
I reared back at the profanity, stumbling until I had my back against a wall. He approached steadily until he filled my vision. He was all angry eyes and wild hair.
“If anyone’s a danger to my sculpture, it’s you,” he said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Once again, he put his hand on my shoulder, but it wasn’t to guide me out of the way. This time he pressed down. I hadn’t realized how tender I was from toppling the crate over earlier. I gnashed my teeth through the pain, and couldn’t keep it from my face.
“She told me what you did.” His touch was gone, but it still smarted. “You intentionally damaged what’s mine. My very expensive property, which we’ve already established is your best work. Why?”
The air swirled around us with tension, and choked the truth from me. “I don’t want it twisted into something it’s not.”
His nostrils flared and the color of flame heated on his neck. His gaze drilled down into me as he seethed. “It’ll ruin you all over again, and you were lucky you got a second chance. No one will touch you after this. Are you really that stupid?”
Yes, I was.
I couldn’t render a response and my mouth went dry when he set his hands against the wall on either side of my head. Alarms rang in my mind, flooding panic down my legs. I didn’t know this large man, who I’d certainly upset, and his thick arms caged me in. Were we here alone in his house? Would someone hear me if I screamed? There’d only been one car in the garage and he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.
Somehow I found my voice. “I’m . . . passionate about my work.”
Did he find that amusing? He chuckled, but there was no warmth in his eyes. “And you feel so strongly, you’re willing to go back to prison.” He was only a breath away, so close I could see the sapphire strands in his irises. “You willfully vandalized my sculpture. Given how much I paid for it, I’m sure you committed a felony. Tell me, Jessica. Are you still on parole?”
Oh, God. My knees buckled and I slapped my hands against the wall to stay upright.
I couldn’t go back to prison. I’d rather die right now, than every night for God-knew how long. In trying to save my work, I’d damned myself.
“Alec,” I whispered, hoping to appeal to him as a broken woman. It wasn’t a hard role to play.
His voice was low, matching mine. “You can make this all go away.”
He lingered so close, hovering as if he was waiting for something. The sliver of his tongue dragged slowly across his lips, moistening them. It was provocative and sexual. I pressed my hands harder into the wall, needing further support. What was he insinuating he wanted?
A kiss?
Sex?
I pressed my lips together as I considered it. I’d put my body through worse things to get what I wanted, hadn’t I? A quick evaluation of Alec reminded me this wasn’t a big hardship. He was attractive, and seemed reasonably smart, even if he was the enemy. There was the small issue where I hadn’t been intimate with anyone in years. Though, I doubted sex had changed much since my last time with Erik.
The larger issue was my disgust. Could I become a whore for my art? Perhaps the best years of my life were behind me, but I was still a beautiful woman. Sex and lust remained weapons in my arsenal.
I stared up at Alec through half-lidded eyes, tacitly agreeing to whatever he wanted. His gaze washed over me, traveling across my forehead, sliding down the line of my nose, and coming to rest on my lips. When he drew in a tight breath, I moved in, closing the gap between us.
There was no contact between our mouths. The heat from his body was gone as he dropped his hands and straightened. He feigned a shocked look. “Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?”
