Chapter 16 #2
“Don’t start on my home, Alfie.” He gave me another wry smile. I scowled, realising I’d just given him another one of my pressure points. Before I could let him analyse me any further, I grabbed a cloth from the sink and knelt to clean up the wine and glass littering the floor.
“Stop that, Lola. You shouldn’t be cleaning up.” He crouched and tried to take the rag from me but I snatched it away.
“Do you want to do it instead? Or should I wait for Ryan to get home so he can play in the broken glass? Who else is going to clean it up?” He stopped short and I almost burst out laughing at him. He thought I had a maid.
I shook my head and finished soaking up the wine.
“You could help, you know. This mess is your fault.” He gave me an incredulous look.
Mr Billionaire didn’t clean up. But as I moved to pick up one of the large pieces of glass he gripped my wrist, silently moving me out of the way and picking up the shards himself.
He placed them in the towel I held and watched as I put the bundle in the sink to deal with later.
His brows knitted, as if confused by his own actions.
“Thank you,” I said, flinching when he reached for my hands.
He turned them over, inspecting them. Whatever he saw satisfied him because he gave me a short nod and released me.
I watched him, confused, as he backed away and cast his gaze around the room again.
His eyes travelled over the fridge littered with my family life, at the dishes drying on the draining board.
I wondered if he’d ever been in a home that didn’t have a dishwasher.
“Stop it, Alfie.”
His gaze flicked back to me, surprised. “Stop what?”
“Gathering information about me. You’re like AI or something. It’s creepy.”
“I’m just curious about you.” He stepped to the dining table and traced the haphazard lines of crayon and pen that littered its surface. “You let your nephew ruin your table?
“I ruined it first.” I followed his steps to the table and traced the older lines, the ones that had faded and sunken into the wood, a memory frozen in time.
How many times had I sat at this table with my mum as she taught me to draw plants and my grandma bustled about in the kitchen?
I blew the pain of those memories away and looked up at the man beside me.
“Why not replace it?”
“I’d rather have the memories.” I looked into those eyes. You don’t understand this at all, do you? I found myself feeling inexplicably sorry for Alfie Tell.
“You’re really happy in a place like this?” Just like that, my sympathy soured, but he was looking at me with curiosity, apparently oblivious to the depth of his insult. “You’re an anomaly, O’Connell.”
“I’m not an anomaly, Alfie. You’re just an alien on my planet.”
We gazed at one another for a moment longer, that ever-present tension thrumming between us. My skin seemed to vibrate with it.
“Get changed, I want to take you somewhere.”
I blinked at his sudden subject change. “I have plans with Keira tonight,” I reminded him, but he seemed unfazed, dismissing my plans.
“Cancel them.”
I laughed at him, not even bothering to respond. He was getting this all wrong. As if he’d read my mind, he cocked his head and I could practically see him recalculating his strategy.
“Lola, please spend the evening with me. I have to go to London this weekend, so I won’t be able to see you again until next week.” That was his new plan? Blunt orders hadn’t worked, so now he was trying sweetness? Perhaps seduction would be his next strategy.
“No, Alfie.”
His mouth thinned with frustration. “I can make you say yes.” Yep, there we go. Seduction.
I snorted and crossed my arms. “You can try.” His grin widened at the obvious opening I’d just given him. Shit. Before he could get his hands on me, I slid by him and made for the doorway to put some space between us but he gripped my elbow and tugged me back in front of him.
“No running, O’Connell.” I felt small as he towered over me.
“I hate it when you run from me. It feels like you’re taking my breath with you.
” His words stole my own breath away. He sounded so tired, so tortured.
He rested his forehead against my own and the mood shifted once again between us.
From frustration to something else. His hands encircled my waist, holding me to him as he pressed his erection into me.
Why did this part of us have to work so perfectly?
It would make rational thinking so much easier if I didn’t want him so badly.
“Keira will be here soon,” I whispered, hoping that it would put a stop to whatever indecent plans he had for me.
“Then she can watch,” he husked as he leaned in closer. I turned my head, my hands pressing against his chest with all the strength I had.
“Alfie, I don’t want to.”
“I don’t like liars, O’Connell.” He traced his fingers down my neck in a line from my ear before stopping and pressing two fingers against the sensitive skin just below my jawline.
“What’re you doing?”
“Your pulse is elevated and your pupils are dilated. You see, Lola, it doesn’t matter what lies you tell me, your body will always tell me the truth.”
I remained calm, forcing myself to remember why giving in to Alfie Tell was a terrible idea. He had the power to hurt me and that knowledge alone was all that forced the words to pass my teeth. “Just because my body responds to you doesn’t mean that my heart does.”
“Liar.”
“I’m not lying.”
His eyes narrowed, as if taking me seriously for the first time. “Then tell me you don’t want me. You say the word and I’ll go.”
The thought was agonising and yet seemed like the safer option. Looking into his eyes, I felt myself being sucked in, pulled into Alfie Tell’s whirlpool, a place where I had no control, where he could release me at any time and leave me to drown. I looked him squarely in the eye.
“I don’t want you.”
Something flickered in his face, a glint in his eye, a tick in his jaw. There was a moment, a sliver of a second where I didn’t know whether he was going to tear my clothes off or tear my home apart. He stared down at me, the fierce intensity suspending us in time.
“Hello?” A voice called from the hallway and I jerked in shock. Keira. I heard her footsteps getting closer. I tried to shove Alfie away but he grabbed my jaw, his fingertips digging in and forcing me to look at him.
“ Liar. ” He shoved himself away from me and stalked out of the kitchen, leaving me breathless and gasping. I heard Keira’s surprised squeal, the slam of my front door, and a moment later she appeared in the doorway.
“You okay?” she asked, her warm brown eyes rich with concern. I felt like I’d just had the air kicked out of me but I breathed and tried to smile like I was just fine. She didn’t believe me but she let me pretend anyway.
I loved her for that.