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I didn’t need to let him think he’d completely gotten one over me, though. “Nice to see Axel has you as his personal bitch, Lucas.”
I didn’t even bother to stay around to see the change in his face, although I heard him scrambling for his phone again. I found Matt waiting just inside the foyer and followed him and Phil and Danny into the main area, which had clearly been put together by an events team as part of the ‘generic celebration’ package. Aside from our school colours—light blue and white, not burgundy in the slightest—there was nothing to really set it apart from any other boring social function.
Elizabeth had talked to me a little about how she had gotten herself ahead in her career so far, and one continuous theme had been a lot of social functions. Getting to know everyone else in the business, shaking their sweaty hands, everyone pretending to like one another. I usually did like most people, so I wouldn’t have been bothered, but if I was reading her right, she was talking about a world full of Axel/Lucas/Mic clones, only older and more seasoned. So, the exact type of person I least wanted my future to involve at the moment.
Well, maybe this whole awful run-in with Axel could serve as an introduction to that world. As I thought about it, actually, my resolve solidified. I should take myself into the legal world, if only to even up the ratios. Why should it be just men like Axel and women like Ashleigh who were destined to be professionals? No wonder our world was such a mess. Perhaps it would have to fall to people like me, who were willing to find a way to get along with the worst of other humans, to do the necessary work.
“There’s no point in coming if you’re going to be a million miles away the whole time, Aileen.”
I thought I would always know when Axel was behind me from now on, no matter how long I lived. The hairs on the back of my neck would prickle in anticipation of his hand coming down to bend me over, and then the shiver would make its way downward.
I looked around for Matt’s little gang, but they had clearly spotted him coming from a distance and scattered. The little cowards—well, I had told Matt I intended to engage with Axel, and he’d respected my desire to do that instead of getting into some stupid fight with Axel. I had to appreciate that.
For me, right now, the only choice was to turn and face Axel.
I would bet Axel’s suit wasn’t one he’d worn to a funeral or rented just for the occasion.
After tonight it was going to make its way into his closet for the first time and sit there: probably unused for all of eternity, because how many events was a pale blue suit with white trim going to be appropriate for?
I couldn’t resist making my thoughts known to him. “I see you had to flex with the pale blue and white ensemble, Axel.”
He shot a show cough at me. “Excuse me Aileen, the correct colour designation is powder blue, as you would have known if you ever bothered to consult the fronting materials provided in our yearbooks and our school diaries. I’m making my final show of solidarity with an institution that provided me with an excellent foundation for the start of my professional life, and attention to the details is important.”
I didn’t appreciate this thing where I was being chastised by someone who was the reason almost everyone else at this event was giving me and my cleavage the ten-times-over without bothering to speak to me. Axel, too, was offering some special attention to the region south of my chin, although he at least did me the honour of coming back to my face and smiling as he spoke.
“How many of these cute little sundresses do you have in reserve, anyway?”
I’d decided against wearing the wrap Elizabeth had given me because it was a warm night and the thing made me feel like I was as old as Elizabeth must have been when she bought it, but at that moment I would have been happy for any protection from his attention.
I held my confidence around me for the moment. “You’ve seen them all now.”
“Oh, Aileen… with your bank balance looking as it does right now, it’s a little shameful of you to be so tight with your money.”
His word choice was blatant, crafty, wicked. I wanted to match him at his own game, but with the memories he’d managed to bring up in my head, I was having trouble coming up with one little bit of innuendo.
Plain old sass was cheap, though. “I wore something that was already in my wardrobe, that looked good on me, that I felt good in.” Something I was pretty sure would rile him up in the way he was currently riling me up, but that wasn’t something we needed to go into. “I don’t spend money just because I’m expected to spend money, as you know because you’ve probably been able to count my frivolous purchases on one hand since you started financially stalking me.”
“I know it,” Axel agreed. At least he didn’t deny that he’d been spying. “I kind of like it.”
“On that note, you would have known I wasn’t wearing anything new tonight. I’m surprised you didn’t try to buy something for me and bully me into wearing it.”
Axel dropped his head. It was a strange pose I wasn’t used to seeing from him: if he’d been an animal, I would have said he was taking on a slightly submissive posture. “I picked something out.”
“But you didn’t buy it. Was it too late in the season?” He was an animal, right? A crafty, skulking one, but his graces and attempts at maintaining a sheen of humanity wouldn’t fool me any more.
“Aileen, if it were up to me, I would dress you like a princess.”
My heart throbbed in a way I was terrified he would be able to see under the insufficient fabric of my dress. Why did he have to say something that provocative? “I thought you considered yourself to have the right to interfere in my life as you pleased. Sort of wondered if you would have made the purchases seem to come from my own account.”
We seemed to be butting heads far too close to a gangway. After the third person had dodged around us (looking far less polite about skirting me), Axel took hold of me by the hand and drew me sideways so we both had one shoulder up against a wall. He was meltingly gentle, and I wanted to remind him we were supposed to be fighting, but he was already talking.
“I would do exactly what you say, yes, if I planned to beat you down and walk away without further thoughts. But that’s not the game any more.” He was standing much closer to me now, staring me down… which I had to concede was not his fault given the height difference between us. “That wasn’t ever the game, Aileen, I want you to know that. I didn’t want to hurt you, I just wanted to get what I was there for and get out without any collateral damage really. But you had to prove… difficult.”
“Sorry for standing up for myself.”
“You know you’re not. Be quiet and listen to what I’m trying to tell you.”
I realised he still had hold of my hand when he squeezed it hard. The feeling that warning pressure sent through me was not the sort of feeling you were supposed to have about a guy who had done the sorts of things Axel had done to me. But we’d just gotten through how I didn’t do what I was expected to do… so maybe I just needed to own that.
