Chapter 12 #2
“Yes,” Eva said, wrapping an arm around my waist and hugging me in a tight, warm embrace that I didn’t hesitate to return. “Alek, this is my friend, Mia, and some girls she knew in high school.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said, barely nodding in their direction to avoid Eva catching my lie. I wasn’t particularly enjoying our meeting when it meant our kiss getting interrupted.
“Eva, when were you going to tell me that Alek is the most fucking attractive person I’ve ever seen? Oh my God, he ate your entire face off!” Mia tried to come forward and take Eva, but I held onto her tightly.
Like hell they were going to take her away from me. I didn’t care who they were—her family, her friends, fucking God himself. She was mine. And only mine.
“I told you Alek looks like my Prince Charming,” Eva said, voice edging on a whine.
I raised a brow at this. “Your Prince Charming, huh?”
“Yup. You’re going to steal me away to your castle, and then we’re going to get married and live happily ever after.”
I was far from a charming prince, and the mansion I lived in was closer to one fit for modern vampires than for the lovely princess before me, but the knowledge that when Eva thought of her future, she thought of me settled something in my soul.
Because I wanted a future with her, too. No matter the cost.
“Sounds good, baby. I’ll be your Prince Charming.” And her villain, too.
Eva smiled up at me, drunk and glowing and devastatingly beautiful. Mia laughed, clapping a hand over her mouth as her gaze swung between the two of us. “Oh my God. I love this for you. Eva, this is… This is insane. I mean, look at him. He’s like a god.”
Eva ducked her head immediately, fingers tightening in my suit jacket. It was clear she didn’t like all the complimentary attention, but I wouldn’t stand for that.
“And look at her,” I murmured, fingers lifting her chin up to my eyes before my lips pulled upward. “She’s my goddess.”
Because she was radiant, yet she didn’t seem to know it—not really. She softened herself when she didn’t need to, curled herself into small balls like she was afraid of taking up space. But I wanted her to take up space. I wanted her to be proud of who she was, my beautiful, sunshiny princess.
Eva looked up at me, startled, like she hadn’t expected me to butt in. Her lips parted, then curved into a small, grateful smile that hit me harder than anything else tonight.
That was when Nikolai appeared at my side like a bad habit I couldn’t quit.
“Well,” he drawled, eyes flicking to Mia. “If it isn’t the blonde menace. Fancy seeing you again.”
Mia’s entire posture changed. Her smile stayed, but it sharpened—edges drawn tight. Her eyes flashed. “Nikolai. I would kindly ask you not to call me that.”
“Why not? Would you rather I call you princess?”
“Don’t you dare call me princess, you stuck-up little—”
I didn’t even notice Eva escaping my grip until she was standing between the two of them, arms up to try to get them to act like peaceful adults.
And though I knew Mia and Nikolai would never harm her—her friend for obvious reasons, and Nikolai because he enjoyed me not killing him—I didn’t like that Eva was ready to sacrifice herself so quickly to keep everyone happy.
What other lengths would she be willing to go to?
Would she run in front of a bullet if it meant someone else didn’t get hit?
Knowing my Eva, the answer was yes, which was why I quickly grabbed her, pulling her back into me while I growled into her soft hair, “You two know each other.”
“No,” Mia said at the same time Nikolai said, “Oh, yes.”
I didn’t miss the way Mia’s fingers curled into a fist at her side, or the way Nikolai’s grin softened a fraction when she looked away.
Interesting.
But I had much more important things to worry about. I looked down at Eva and noticed her eyes darting across the room, breaths quickening. I cupped her cheek and noted how heated her skin felt underneath my palm. “Want to get some air, solnyshka?”
Eva nodded immediately. She turned to Mia—who was in the midst of telling Nikolai a very colorful array of words—and said, “I’ll be right back.”
Mia whirled to face her before pinning her glare at me.
And I glared right fucking back.
“You're still coming home with me, right?” In other words: Are you going to his house?
I wished the answer was yes, but I also knew my gentlemanly morals could only last so long.
If I got Eva into my bed, there would be no tearing me away from her.
Especially if she kept looking at me with that pouty mouth, asking if I fucking missed her.
“Yeah,” Eva said, much to my disappointment, though it was for the best.
I took her drink from her as I led her through the club, grimacing when I took a sip. “What the fuck is this?”
Eva shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Who the fuck was giving her random drinks? I would fucking kill them, I would—
“Well, I ordered an amaretto sour, but I think they just gave me what the other girls were ordering. I don’t think I’ll get it again. It’s not very good, but it’s okay. I’m taking sips.”
Before she could say anything more, I grabbed her hand and pulled her with me to the bar, gesturing to the bartender, one of our newer employees, Dariy.
“Yes, Reaper?” he asked, polishing a glass.
I slammed the cup onto the bar hard enough to make the glass crack. Dariy looked at me with wide eyes, his fear growing before I made a single threat. “When our customers order a drink, serve them the correct one.”
He heard the or else plainly lining my words. “Got it,” Dariy whispered before his eyes looked at Eva.
I snapped my fingers. “Don’t look at her. Look at me. This girl receives better service than you would give even me. Now make her fucking drink.”
“An amaretto sour, please,” Eva said in her soft, sweet voice. Always an angel, my girl.
When Dariy left to make her drink in a frantic rush, she turned to me, lips pulling down in a frown. “You didn’t have to be mean to him. And you really didn’t need to do that. I was fine with the drink I had.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“No,” she began, “but I’m all right with drinking something I don’t like to make someone’s job easier.”
“His job is to make the thing you ask for. If you didn’t get what you asked for, he didn’t do his job.” I stepped into her, inhaling her sweet scent of vanilla and sugar. My favorite combination. “It’s okay to ask for what you want, Evangeline. Demand it, even.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I won’t be doing that.”
“Then I will do it for you.”
A moment later, the bartender passed her the drink, and Eva took a careful sip before nodding.
“Better?” I asked.
“Much.”
I placed my arm on her back, savoring the feeling of her skin under mine, before I realized the skin was slightly raised. Goosebumps. Eva had goosebumps.
The club was kept cool on purpose because of the number of people who danced and moved, sweating themselves into a fervor.
Plus, liquor always made them warmer. But Eva, who was standing on the edge of the dance floor and barely sipping her drink, was probably freezing.
She was built for warmth and sunlight, not dark rooms blasting air conditioning.
“You’re cold,” I said.
She blinked, surprised, then shook her head immediately. “No, I’m fine.”
But I was becoming familiar with the taste of her lies.
I reached out, my hands brushing against her arms. She shivered, skin cool beneath my touch. “Eva,” I said, voice deepening. “Are you cold?”
She sighed, caught. “I… Well, I lent my jacket to Mia. She was freezing in here, so I figured—”
“You figured that you’d give her yours?”
Of course, she had.
Something ugly twisted in my chest. Eva was always giving pieces of herself away, like they were expendable, like she came second to everyone else in the room when she should have been at the forefront of everyone else’s mind like she was for me.
Yet they took and took and took from her, uncaring of how much of her was left.
Well, I wouldn’t let her become hollow. I would make sure she was whole and cared for every day of her life.
I shrugged out of my suit jacket before she could protest and draped it over her shoulders, settling it firmly on her body. My jacket swallowed her, dark fabric against soft skin, my scent clinging to her instantly. And fuck me, my cock hardened at the sight of her in my clothes.
Eva looked up at me, lips parting. “Alek, you don’t have to—”
“I want to,” I cut in calmly. “And you’re going to let me.”
She stilled, fingers curling into the lapels. A war was going on behind her eyes, and I was afraid she’d make herself the casualty.
“There’s nothing wrong with being kind,” I said quietly, cupping her face and kissing her forehead. “But you don’t have to sacrifice yourself for everyone. Anyone who deserves you won’t ask that of you.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. Eva considered my words before turning to me, her brown eyes shining. “I’ll remember that,” she whispered.
I hoped, for the world’s sake, she would.
I took her hand again, leading her away from the bar and into a long hallway that led to my office.
The music dulled behind us, replaced by low lighting and shadowed walls.
I didn’t notice before, but the air was heavier here, charged with something.
Like my growing want for her was permeating the atmosphere.
My office door appeared at the end of the hallway, door slightly ajar, inviting us in. To be honest, I wasn’t sure why I invited her back here. Maybe I was tired of watching her spirit dim the longer our friends fought.
Or maybe I just needed her alone again before I fucked her in front of everyone, because God, she grew more beautiful with each passing moment.
Eva turned toward me. “I like your jacket, Alek.”
“I like it on you,” I said, voice low. “But I’d like it much better off.”
That was all it took.