Chapter 16 ALEX
“HI, YOU’VE REACHED NANCY COOPER. Please leave a message, and I’ll get back to you,” Nancy’s voicemail declared in her sunny tone. I cancelled the call, having already left five messages, and paced another circuit around the kitchen, continuing to forget the now cold coffee on the island.
Why is her phone turned off?
I’d heard nothing since dropping her after our date, and no matter how hard I tried to rationalise it, I couldn’t stop a rising feeling of panic.
Surely, she would’ve replied by now…unless something was wrong.
I knew I shouldn’t have called her so many times that she’d think I was some unhinged stalker, but what if she’d decided to end us before we had a chance to start?
Since our heated liaison in the car, I’d done nothing but fret.
I couldn’t concentrate through my afternoon meetings or at dinner with William, who’d had the cheek to call me ‘clingy’ and ‘creepy’ when I told him about the flowers.
After that, there was no way I could settle.
Hours passed without a reply, so I sent Nancy a text…
then another…and possibly a third. Then followed a night of fevered and, quite frankly, explicit dreams. Thankfully, rowing took up my morning, but since then, I’d been calling her.
Was my reaction unreasonable? Certainly. Out of character? Definitely! But as soon as our lips brushed, I knew I wanted more. I wanted everything. Yet my desire, intensified by a sex-free couple of months, had me tumbling back into old behaviours.
I was accustomed to women doing the chasing, so needy, I simply took whatever they were offering without much consideration.
It was a toxic cycle I’d been caught up in for years, which had come to a head with Mimi, literally.
The last thing I wanted was to start on the same foot with Nancy, but in the car, I’d allowed lust to take over.
Everything about the moment resembled what I knew, but it felt completely different.
Her body had trembled with nerves and excitement as we kissed, and when I’d pulled her onto me, she’d gripped my hair so tightly I’d hardened like an iron rod. I simply couldn’t get enough when our desire felt so right. But in a moment, all that passion had become fear.
She’d tried to hide it after pushing away from me so violently she’d landed in a crumpled heap in the footwell, but I saw it clear as day. I understood that look well, and being the cause felt like a punch in the gut. Since then, an unfamiliar wrenching sensation had clung to me. It was torturous.
What if she never wants to speak to the menace who’d felt her up after telling her he’d go slow?
There was no way I could wait until Monday, not knowing if she was okay. I had to do something. I needed to take action.
The next moment, my car keys were in my hand, and I was in the garage, climbing into the Bentley.
Alex, this is madness! a reasonable voice tried to interject, but I’d already started the engine.
Ten minutes later, I pulled up at her block.
How the hell will you explain turning up uninvited at her home? I pushed the rational question aside and ran for the door, holding it open for a mother exiting with a pram.
“The lifts are still out. Can you believe that? Ten floors with a buggy. It’s a bloody joke!” she stormed past, and I nodded in confusion, pushing inside.
The flat numbers showed that Nancy lived on the fourteenth floor. Looking over at the out-of-order signs, I drew a deep breath and turned for the stairs.