A Game Of Temptation

I really didn’t understand how it was possible that I had seen this man countless times and yet every single time I saw him, my heart slammed against my ribcage. At first, it stopped beating, then started all over again with a vengeance, racing so fast in my chest, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it just ran itself into a heart attack.

It was like I was seeing him for the first time all over again. Was that even normal?

I would ask Balery if it was, but she would only see that as an opportunity to blow things out of proportions and, God forbid, tell me that I had feelings for him.

He was lying on his bed with his back to the headboard, a laptop on his thighs, and eyes narrowed in concentration as he typed away. When I closed the door, his head lifted and his eyes landed on me. My breath caught when they lingered for all but three seconds, then I exhaled when he looked away, going back to what he was doing.

That little action hurt more than it should have and I hated it.

Squaring my shoulders and shrugging off the hurt, I took a few steps forward and stopped again, unsure.

Should I just go to him, drop the phone on his bed and leave?

I blamed him for my dilemma. I wouldn’t be going through this if he’d simply acknowledged me instead of looking at me like that then going back to his laptop like I wasn’t standing right fucking there in front of him.

He was really starting to piss me the fuck off.

And that anger right there, was exactly what I needed to find my voice.

“Drew gave me your phone.” I paused, waiting for him to look at me. My lips pursed when he still didn’t. “He said you left it in his room and asked me to help him return it.” I paused again, pissed. “He can’t return it himself because he has somewhere to be.”

“Of course he does,” Alex said cryptically, the corners of his lips lifting in something that looked a lot like a smile. “You can keep it on the dresser.”

Bristling because he still wouldn’t look at me, I stomped over to the dresser and placed the phone on it. Then I hesitated.

Was I just going to walk out of here?

Was he just going to keep ignoring me?

Frankly, with the way he was treating me, I really wanted to do nothing more than to walk out of here with my head held high and with an extra sway in my hips just so that he would think about-and regret-what he was missing.

I didn’t want to say anything. I really didn’t.

But my big mouth still opened anyway and I went and said, “That all?” Like I was his fucking maid or something and I was happily waiting on him to give me my next chore.

His eyes flicked up to my face and a confused frown settled on his. He blinked. “Oh, sorry. Thank you.”

Then he freaking went back to staring at his laptop.

I was not hurt. I refused to believe I was hurt.

I was just angry.

And even my anger wasnt justifiable.

I was angry because he was not giving me any attention and honestly, I had no right to be. I’d avoided him as much as I could when we newly came to the house, telling him that he wouldn’t take a hint, right?

I’d told him that I wanted nothing to do with him, hadn’t I?

But that was before we started…fooling around again. And what the hell was that anyway? Was I not too old to be fooling around with a guy?

Anyway, the point was that he was now giving me the space that I’d been telling him to give me, except that now, I wasn’t sure space was what I wanted anymore. I wanted him. Alex.

Just, minus sex.

And he’d been okay with it before, but in classic Laura fashion, I’d found a way to push him away still.

“It’s getting kind of old, isn’t it?”

He didn’t look up from his laptop. “What is?”

“Ignoring me.” This time, his head lifted and he pinned me with piercing green eyes. There was a catch in my voice when I said, “Pretending like you don’t see me.”Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“Am I?” He asked cooly.

What the fuck kind of question was that?

“You know what I’m talking about.”

A thick brow lifted. “I’m looking at you right now, aren’t I?”

I gritted my teeth, angry that he wanted me to spell it out for him because that was what he wanted. He knew what I was talking about and he wasn’t going to give me an answer until I explained what I meant, which would mean admitting that I’d been paying attention to him, waiting for crumbs of his attention.

God, I hated him.

“Can you just stop acting like you don’t know what I’m talking about?” I snapped. “You avoid me even when we’re in the same room like I’m the fucking plague and everyone’s starting to ask me questions about us.” By everyone, I meant Drew and Balery-even though Balery didn’t really count because she already knew about us before-but he didn’t need to know that, of course.

Alex’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits and I would have taken a step back if I was scared of him, but I wasn’t. “You’ve made it abundantly clear that you want me to leave you alone and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

“I never asked you to leave me alone.”

“Oh, I very much remember you telling me to leave you alone the day we arrived here.”

“I don-” My eyes darted. “I don’t remember.”

…except that I did.

I remembered him following me up the stairs and backing me up against my door. I remembered telling at him to leave me alone and that he was too stubborn to take a hint. I remembered everything.

Shit.

But still.

I’d said and done a lot of things that I regretted, and what he was talking about was from two weeks ago. We’d moved on from that long ago, so why was he bringing it up now?

“I didn’t mean that.” When he gave a disbelieving huff of laughter, shame burned a path down my chest and I hurried to rephrase. “I-I mean, I did at the time. But that was before.”

“Oh, Laura,” Alex smiled wistfully, shaking his head, but I knew that was far from what he was feeling.

My mouth went dry as he carried the laptop off his thighs and placed it on the bed beside him, flinging the sheets off his legs and sliding them over the side of the bed, pushing to his feet. I watched, mesmerised, as he walked towards me in that predator’s gait, his steps slow and sure, sensual and mesmerising.

He was big and tall, his shoulders ridiculously wide and thick legs covered in the lounge pants he was wearing. Fuck, I missed his sweats.

His eyes narrowed in both warning and lust when he saw that I was checking him out, and a bolt of desire shot straight to my core. I swear, my vagina lit up right fucking there and then, waving at him.

Can’t blame her. Poor thing was in heat, and was probably remembering just how good he made her feel.

By the time he was finally standing in front of me, I was a hot mess and I got even worse when he gripped my neck. No, he didn’t grip it. He just placed his hand there, his fingers brushing my neck while his palm rested on my collarbone. Since he was so very much taller than me, he could see straight down and probably didn’t miss the way my nipples budded in my tank top-I wasn’t wearing a bra.

Lust flared in his eyes asI leaned up, rising on my toes, probably to kiss him or whatever, but he pressed me back down with his hand on my collarbone.

I looked up at him, confused. Why the hell was he stopping me?

He was pissed. And horny.

Oh my fuck, I would marry him right now if he gave me one bout of angry sex.

You’re not fucking him again, remember?

Right. Right.

When Alex spoke, his voice was like a whip. “I’m not your sex toy, Laura. I’m not something you can come to when you’re horny, then discard right after.” My face collapsed and I stepped out of his hold, a chill settling on the spot where his hand had just been. “You don’t know what you want and I’m not going to indulge you while you decide. When you do, you know where to find me.”

Then he turned, dismissing me as he went back to the bed, slipped under the covers and easily went back to working on his laptop like I wasn’t melting on his floor, confused as hell.

I hurried out of there as fast as I could.