Chapter 54
Fifty-Four
I threw myself into my work, but my lateness hadn’t gone unnoticed by Mark, and neither had my overly formal dress.
He eyed it with suspicion but thankfully said nothing.
The events of this morning played on repeat in my head all day.
I picked through every scene, reliving and re-examining, trying to figure out what I did wrong and how I could have done it differently.
Worryingly, the rest of my day was Alfie-free. It was a relief to have some breathing space but it terrified me too, and once again I found myself in that confusing dichotomy, caught between wishing he would never leave and wishing he would never come back.
I watched them pull out of the car park, and as they disappeared my attention faded to the only car left, a dark blue one parked under the old oak tree where Alfie and I had parked earlier.
It was facing away from me and deep in the shadows so I couldn’t make out the license plate.
The door opened as if the driver was about to get out but my attention was quickly snatched away by the Rolls Royce that pulled up in front of me, effectively blocking my view.
I jumped in surprise as the tinted window rolled down.
“Elliot, what are you doing here?” I shot a furtive glance behind me to make sure that none of my colleagues had seen him.
“Mr Tell sent me.”
“Well, I figured that out. You need to leave before someone sees you.”
“Actually, that’s why I’m going to stay.
Mr Tell seemed to think that if I picked you up here then you would be more likely to get in to avoid being seen.
” My mouth dropped open. That sneaky genius.
I was livid and it must have shown on my face because Elliot raised a defensive hand at me.
“Don’t shoot the messenger,” he said and I rolled my eyes at him.
“I’m not mad at you, Elliot, but you can tell your boss that if and when I want to speak to him I will do it on my own terms, not his.” Elliot paused for a minute, doing that recalculating thing that Alfie was so good at.
“Your van isn’t here.”
“Keira is picking me up. I don’t want to see him, Elliot,” I said as firmly as I could. I was not, under any circumstances, going to give in.
“I understand, but avoiding him will do you no good.”
“I don’t care,” I snapped, all but stamping my foot. I was being stubborn, I knew it, but I didn’t care about that either.
“Please, Miss, just get in the car.”
“No, I won’t be bossed around by that arrogant, arse-faced—” My voice caught in my throat and I turned, my ears picking up the sound of Mark talking to someone.
He was getting closer and if he saw me talking to a strange man in an expensive suit in an expensive car, he’d have questions.
Oh, hell. I did the only thing I could do, I promptly threw myself into the Rolls and sank down so he wouldn’t be able to see me.
The windows were tinted but I wasn’t taking any risks.
Elliot turned and peered down at me through the glass divide.
“Had a change of heart did you?”
“Just drive,” I grumbled and from my crouched position I pulled out my phone and texted Keira, telling her there’d been a change of plan.
My foot tapped an anxious rhythm in the back of the car.
I didn’t know what Alfie was going to throw at me tonight but I knew that I had to figure out a way to stand up to it.
Not that standing up for myself had worked so far.
My defiance was hanging on by a thread and that thread grew weaker and weaker every day.
We were greeted at Harrington House by a flurry of activity. Workmen rushed about with a nervous look on their face. It was a picture that told me the boss was home and Sir was in a very bad mood.
A sudden hush fell over the place and everyone seemed to move much quicker, to prove they were working hard or trying to get out of sight of the man who had stepped out onto the front steps, his steel grey eyes boring a hole into me.
The ache in my chest was so sharp I could taste it.
My skin flushed with a fresh wave of this morning’s humiliation and I had to fight the urge to duck behind Elliot and jump back into the car.
From across the driveway, Alfie Tell inclined his head the merest inch, commanding me to come to him. I turned to Elliot.
“Pray for me,” I whispered and Elliot’s eyes shone with amusement, though the rest of his features were resolutely professional.
I turned and headed towards the house. I couldn’t fight the feeling that I was walking right into his trap, but I was powerless to do anything other than go to him.
It was a painfully magnetic feeling that I was both addicted to and despised in equal measure.
It was impossible to describe how intimidating he was.
The sheer power of the man was overwhelming, even from a distance.
I reached the stone steps and paused. I felt like a peasant at a king’s court.
He withdrew a hand from a pocket and crooked two fingers to me, motioning me towards him, and like a puppet I climbed the steps.
When I reached him he glowered at me and I tipped my chin up in defiance.
The seconds ticked by as I waited to see what he would do.
His jaw clenched and released, his eyes flashed, and he looked as if he wanted to force me up against the marble pillar and fuck me raw.
I could see a torrent of words waiting just behind his lips but when he finally opened his mouth, all he said was, “Come.” Just that one word had me threatening to buckle, my skin flushed red.
His eyes fixed on the throbbing pulse in my throat.
Alfie Tell read me like a fucking book, but instead of taking advantage, he turned and walked into the house, leaving me to follow like an obedient puppy.
He led me up the staircase and took a sharp left down a corridor before taking another series of turns until we were in what I presumed was the back of the house.
He picked a room, seemingly at random, and gestured for me to go inside.
The room was halfway through renovation.
Dust sheeting covered everything and the walls were plastered but unpainted.
I heard a small click and turned to find him locking us in. That trapped feeling returned but I tried to push it down.
I looked up at him, my arms folded and my defences well and truly up.
His treatment of me this morning still stung like a bitch, and being in his presence reminded me that I’d put myself out there last night and he’d thrown it back in my face.
Despite that, I squared my shoulders, ready to deal with whatever he threw at me.
I wondered what method he’d use to win me over this time.
Would he twist my mind or my body? Perhaps he would blackmail me somehow or throw some possessive bullshit into the mix.
I was surprised when he did none of those things and instead wandered past me to stand in front of the arch-shaped window, his hands in his pockets, staring out at a piece of his global empire and ignoring me entirely.
Is this a new kind of manipulation? Am I getting the silent treatment now?
I stood there, waiting for him to say or do something, but he didn’t, and as the seconds ticked by I got more and more frustrated.
“You know, if you wanted to stare out of a window like you’re in a damned music video you could have just left me at home.”
I expected a biting retort but he only chuckled softly.
“You know, you’re the only woman I have ever met who’s had the nerve to talk to me like that.” His words should have charmed me, but I was in no mood to be charmed.
“Yeah, I’m really special.”
“You have no idea,” he murmured, still staring out of the window, leaving me with no choice but to stare daggers into his back.
“Whatever. Why don’t you just let me out of here?
Or is this another one of your mind fucks?
You humiliate me, reject me, ignore me all day, then you send your fucking butler to blackmail me into coming here, just so you can give me the silent treatment?
” The vehemence in my voice finally seemed to catch his attention. He turned, his gaze curious.
“You’re angry with me.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Oh, well done! Ten points to Slytherin!”
“I’m not used to a person being angry with me.” He looked at me as if I were a foreign beast, as if I’d never been angry with him before.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Mr Tell. I’m sure you piss people off all the time.” For the first time, he bristled. I saw his fists bunch in his pockets and the familiar tick in his jaw that told me that he was not amused.
“Let me rephrase. I am not used to a person displaying their anger. Nor am I used to explaining myself.” His voice was so cold it sent a shiver up my spine.
“I am acutely aware that I am on thin ice with you and that if I crack it any further the damage would be irreparable. Sharing myself is not something I am used to doing. Unlike you I am not open or honest. The depth of ineptitude I feel when I am around you is staggering and I don’t care for it.
Please allow me a moment to gather my thoughts so that I don’t make a damned fool of myself.
” He finished his speech and I could see in his eyes the same self-conscious insecurity that I felt so often on my own face.
We were in the land of his weaknesses now, and it was a peculiar feeling.
Alfie was always the superior one, the one with more knowledge, more money, more everything.
Yet when it came to this simplest of things, he was completely clueless.
Hope began to bloom inside me, hope that he might finally be letting me in a little. I took a step towards him, my natural instinct being to comfort him but his icy gaze stopped me in my tracks.