Chapter 5
Claire
“Are you serious? You want me to stay in the apartment indefinitely? I need to go to work. I have things I have to do.”
Alec’s brow cocks up, this thing he does when he gets irritated, and I can see it melting all over his entire face. As much as I believe now that he really does want to help me, we are still oil and water, rubbing each other all the wrong ways.
Though we could rub the right way.
I shake the thought away. There is no time or space for any of that nonsense. Alec is here to help me with the senator, and I’m not about to let myself fall into bed with some random guy.
Even if he’s a random guy who is exceptionally nice to look at, with rippling muscles and towering height.
He definitely isn’t just some spy or PI. There’s way too much going on with him that reads trained professional. Deadly.
“Yes, I’m serious, Claire. You need to stay in the apartment.
I know for a fact that Teddy is going to send somebody else to come looking for you.
He’s got the funds to pull all of this off.
He clearly has the ability to go outside the law, and I won’t have you getting hurt while I do some digging on the guy. ”
“Hurt?” I reel back and immediately feel both worried and stupid for not considering what kind of intimidation someone might employ.
I mean, hell, I bit the guy and kicked him with my massive dancing heel. And something tells me that Theodore is very much the type of guy who’d want some revenge.
“I… I need to call my boss.”
Alec nods, stepping away to give me some privacy. It doesn’t take long to get the manager of the club on the line. I don’t give him the details, just say that I’m not feeling well and need to call in sick.
He’s grumpy about it, but eventually, I get Gary to relent, and I hang up.
“There aren’t enough supplies in here to last the few days I want you inside. We need to go to the store to get stuff.”
Rolling my eyes, I cross my arms as I hold my cellphone, still in my pajamas. “You always this bossy?”
Alec’s jaw works as he fights back a grin. “Yes.”
With a scoff, I turn around and head to my bedroom. “I’ll get changed. But I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to get, seeing as you just kept me from making money.”
The grocery store is busier than I expected for a weekday morning. Alec walks beside me, close enough that his arm brushes mine every few steps. He’s scanning the aisles like he’s looking for threats instead of produce.
“Relax,” I mutter, reaching for a box of pasta. “No one’s going to attack us in the cereal aisle.”
“You’d be surprised.”
We round the corner into the frozen section, and I feel Alec stiffen beside me. I glance up, confused, and then I see what he’s looking at.
A guy restocking the freezer case. Young, maybe mid-twenties, with floppy hair and an easy smile. He’s looking at me. Not in a creepy way, just… looking. The way guys sometimes do.
Before I can even process it, Alec’s hand lands on my lower back. Warm. Possessive. His fingers spread wide, covering as much of me as possible through the thin fabric of my shirt.
The stocker’s eyes flick to Alec, then away. Fast. Like he’s seen something dangerous.
When I look up at Alec, his expression hasn’t changed. Still that same stony mask. But there’s something darker in his eyes now. Something that sends a shiver down my spine.
“What was that?” I whisper as we move past.
“What was what?”
“That… look. You looked like you wanted to kill him.”
Alec’s hand stays on my back, guiding me toward the checkout. “He was staring at you.”
“So? People look at other people. It’s normal.”
“Not at you.” His voice is low, rough. “Not while I’m standing right here.”
I should be annoyed. I should tell him he doesn’t have any right to act like this. We barely know each other. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s not my anything.
But there’s a thrill racing through my veins that I don’t understand. A heat blooming low in my belly at the thought of Alec getting territorial over me.
What is wrong with you, Claire?
When we get back from the store, I’m still a little shellshocked. Alec went to town, getting food, household supplies, and even clothes.
And I wasn’t allowed to pay for any of it.
“You really should have let me help. This feels wrong.” I push open the door to my townhouse with my foot, going into the kitchen to set down the two bags I’m carrying.
“Get over it.” Alec is right behind me, the door slamming closed, and deposits the several remaining bags on the sparse countertop space available. “We needed what we needed. It’s not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal. You paid for new clothes for me. What’s that about?”
Shrugging, Alec takes said bag of clothes and walks through the living room toward my bedroom. When he comes back, he’s empty-handed, so I have to assume he put it on my bed.
There’s something tingly and weird about knowing the guy was in my bedroom. But it’s not my fault. Alec is this imposing, impossibly gorgeous guy who’s just sauntering around my apartment, and I can’t stop staring at him every chance I get.
All of this is wildly confusing, and I hate how attracted to Alec I am. I don’t trust people. I know I have issues, and that distrust is merited because of them.
Alec? He’s tactless and pushy, and one of the most sincere people I’ve ever met. I don’t think he’d lie even if he could. It’s kind of… refreshing.
I start to unload groceries from the bags. Boxes of mac’n’cheese and bowtie pasta. Always a good go-to meal when you need something cheap and fast and filling.
Unfortunately, I store pasta on the top shelf of the cupboard, and I have to reach up on my tiptoes to put it away. Usually, it’s not a concern, but I feel weird doing all this in front of Alec, my shirt riding up and everything.
The box wobbles in my grip. I’m about to drop it on my head when I feel him.
Heat at my back. The solid wall of his chest, not quite touching me, but close. So close.
Alec’s hand comes up, steadying the box in my grip. His fingers brush mine as he helps me slide it into place on the shelf.
Neither of us moves.
I can feel his breath on my neck. Slow. Warm. Each exhale ghosts across my skin, raising goosebumps in its wake.
The kitchen is so quiet. Just the hum of the refrigerator. The distant sound of traffic outside. And my heartbeat, thundering so loud I’m sure he can hear it.
“If you can barely reach up here…” His voice is a gruff rumble, right against my ear. I feel it more than hear it. “…why do you put things on this shelf?”
I should step away. I should turn around. I should do something other than stand here, frozen, my body screaming for him to close that last inch of distance between us.
“I…” Jesus, I sound ridiculous. Breathy. Desperate. “…there’s a footstool in the closet… I, um, usually…”
I trail off because Alec’s hand is moving. Slowly. So slowly. Down from the shelf. Along the cabinet. Until his fingertips graze my arm.
The touch is barely there. A whisper. A promise.
I shiver.
Claire. You’re getting mighty close to him. Claire!
“Do you go to school to paint?”
The question throws me. But Alec isn’t letting me turn around. His body cages me against the counter, and I can feel the hard length of him pressed against my lower back now.
If I’m not mistaken, that thing is huge.
All I can do is nod.
Alec hums in my ear. The sound vibrates through me, settling low in my belly. His nose brushes over my skin as he lowers his face into the crook of my neck. Breathing me in.
“Did you paint the ones in here?”
Again, I just nod. I’m trembling now, every nerve ending on fire.
His fingers find the hem of my scoop-neck tee where it’s ridden up. They pause there. Waiting.
Holy shit. Are you doing this? For real?
Then he’s pushing the fabric higher. Slowly. Inch by inch. Cool air hits my stomach, my ribs, the small of my back—
Alec goes completely still.
The change is instant. One second, he’s all heat and barely-restrained hunger. The next, he’s turned to stone behind me.
His fingers move again, but differently now. Gentle. So impossibly gentle it makes my throat tight. They trace over my skin in featherlight strokes, mapping something I’d forgotten was there.
The bruises from that night.
“Who did this to you?”
His voice is quiet. Controlled. And somehow, that’s more terrifying than if he’d shouted. There’s something in those words that promises violence. Retribution. Blood.
My eyes sting. Stupid self-consciousness hits me, even though I know it has no reason to. It’s Theodore’s fault, not mine.
“You know who,” I whisper.
Alec’s fingers continue their gentle path across the fading marks. Each touch feels like a vow. Like he’s memorizing them. Cataloging them. Adding them to a list of sins that Theodore will pay for.
“That night,” I add, my voice barely audible. “When I ran.”
The silence stretches. I can feel his rage like a physical thing, radiating off him in waves. But his hands stay gentle. Reverent, almost.
“I will never…” He slides his hand up my back until it lands at the base of my head. His fingers curl into my hair, squeezing gently. His lips brush my ear. “…let him touch you again.”
He’s said as much a few times now. But the way he says it now has me really believing him. There’s something in Alec’s tone that brooks no room for argument or insecurity.
He will protect me.
And for the first time since I met him, I allow myself to want and accept that. I allow myself to crave everything he’s promising with his words and his body.
Pulling my head back so that it drapes over his shoulder, Alec leans down and kisses me. My entire body rings like it’s been struck by lightning, and my hands come up to his face, pulling him closer.
This is fucking wild. But goddamn, do I want it.
Whatever tension was there, waiting to break, it snaps, and in a flurry of activity, Alec spins me around and kisses the hell out of me before tracing his lips down my throat to my chest.
“Tell me to stop,” he mumbles against my skin, his fingers digging into my hips. “Tell me to get lost.”
The claim in his touch is at war with his words, and then he’s sinking lower, dropping to his knees on the floor as he works his kisses down my stomach to my hip bone.
“I…” A whine escapes me as Alec teases me with his touch, one hand lifting my leg to the side as the other pushes me back against the counter. “I… don’t want to.”
“Dammit, Claire. I…” He sounds so strained, like he’s fighting a losing battle with himself. His hands come to the button of my jeans, popping it free. “I need to taste you. Need to know what’s mine.”
Mine.
The word shoots through me like electricity.
My eyes are squeezed closed as I nod, my breathing rocketing in and out of me. The zipper of my pants is yanked down, and then the jeans are sliding down my legs.
Alec pulls one foot out and then the next. I’m standing in my kitchen in my panties with a six-foot stud poised between my thighs.
Is this real?
“You know I’ll protect you, right, Claire?” I can barely think straight, still nodding. “Say it. I need to hear you say it.”
“Yes. I know you’ll protect me.” Alec throws my leg over his shoulder, and I pitch back against the counter. “Oh, god, Alec. I’ve… I’ve never done this before.”
“Do you want me to stop?”
I shake my head, pulling him closer by the hair. “No. Please.”
Without another word, Alec yanks aside my panties, which are soaked with how wet I am, and he spears his tongue through my seam. I cry out into my townhouse, the call echoing off the walls as he devours me.
The sensations are incredible. A million times better than anything I’ve been able to do myself. Alec’s tongue swirls around my clit, warming me up before his thick fingers begin to sink into me.
“Ugh!”
“That’s right, darling. Cry out for me.” Alec licks and flicks and sucks as his fingers pump in and out, sinking deep with each thrust. “Let me hear how much you fucking love this. Let me hear what belongs to me now.”
It’s been seconds, and I’m already so close to coming, my pussy pulsing around his digits.
“Do you have any idea how fucking gorgeous you are? How goddamn hard it’s been to keep myself away from you?
” I’m clamping down around him, rocketing toward an orgasm and dripping all over.
“This pretty pussy is mine now, Claire. No one else gets to see you like this. No one else gets to touch you. Gets to taste you.”
My head is spinning. No one has ever talked to me like this. No one has ever wanted me like this—so fiercely, so completely, like I’m something precious he’s claiming for himself.
And I like it.
God help me, I love it.
“You’re all fucking mine now, Claire.” His voice is rough, almost feral. “I’m not letting anyone touch you. This pussy is mine. Your body is mine. You. Are. Mine.”
My head falls back as I thrust against Alec’s touch, chasing the release that’s building like a wave about to crash.
“God, you’re so fucking tight.”
My cheeks flare with heat. He doesn’t know. How could he? And right now, I don’t care. But then it seems to dawn on him, and Alec pauses.
“You haven’t done this before.” His voice is strained. “Have you done… anything before?”
I lock eyes with him as he’s on his knees in front of me and shake my head.
Something flickers across his face. Surprise. Hunger. And something else—something fierce and possessive that makes my toes curl.
“Claire… fuck.” He rests his forehead against my hip, breathing hard. “I’ll stop. I’ll—”
“No!” I grab him, keeping him in place. “Please, I’m so damn close. Please, Alec. I want this. I want you.”
He stills for a moment, but I can see it on his face the moment Alec gives in. “Okay, darling.” His eyes glow with lust as he smirks. “I’ll give you everything you need. And no one—no one—will ever touch what’s mine.”
And he does.
I come around his fingers, my pussy clenching him as he sucks my clit into his mouth roughly. The release is mind-blowing, and I gush with wet warmth as he drags out the waves of pleasure until I’m a limp noodle who can barely stand.
Alec rises slowly, his hands steadying me against the counter. He presses a kiss to my forehead, my cheek, the corner of my mouth.
“You okay?” he murmurs.
I nod, but I’m not sure that’s true.
As I catch my breath, the bright daylight in the kitchen screams at me. The reality of what just happened crashes down like cold water.
I just let a man I’ve known for two days make me come in my kitchen.
I begged him to.
And the worst part? I want more. I want so much more. I want his hands everywhere, his mouth everywhere, I want to know what it feels like to have him inside me—
What did I just do?