Chapter Five
I’VE REHEARSED THIS speech seventeen times on the way here.
Or maybe it was eighteen?
I’ve kinda lost count somewhere between the third red light and that moment when the elevator doors slid shut and I realized I was actually going to go through with this.
You’re doing the right thing, I try convincing myself. You’re setting him free to be happy with the woman he actually loves.
And as much as I wish that woman was me—
Stop it, Sam.
I’ve made up my mind about it, and so there’s no point rehashing the past or wasting time on what-ifs.
My hand shakes as I knock, and when the door opens, I almost forget my own name.
Hexius stands there in dark jeans that cling to his long legs and a black V-neck that does absolutely forbiddingly wicked things to his broad shoulders.
His hair is still damp from the shower, water droplets catching the light as they trace the strong column of his neck, and I have to grip the doorframe to keep from swaying.
Quick and painless, Sam. Quick and painless. Just get in, say your piece, then get out, asap.
“I need to talk to you,” I blurt out before I lose my nerve entirely.
“Of course.” He steps aside as he speaks, the smoothness of his tone a complete contrast to the way his golden gaze studies me with fierce intensity as I enter his home. He closes the door and raises a brow when he sees me still standing there. “After you, Samira.”
My skin tingles at the way he says my name. And it’s the kind of way that I would rather...not even think about.
The penthouse isn’t what I expected. I’ve worked on enough action movies to recognize the setup.
Thick windows that could stop bullets, sightlines that cover every entrance, furniture positioned so no one could surprise him from behind.
It’s luxury, yes, but the kind that could turn into a fortress in seconds.
Is this how all shifter billionaires are or is he just extra...cautious about his security?
“Please make yourself at home.”
“I’d rather not,” I say quickly. “I actually just came here to say something real quick.” And I really do hope I can say it as quickly as I can, with how my body is reacting rather strangely and, well, alarmingly, to his fresh-from-the-shower good looks.
“Is that so?”
“Uh huh.” Is it just me or has the air suddenly become charged with electricity? And why is my pulse suddenly racing like mad? I just don’t understand why I’m feeling so, um, so—
“Go on then.”
Hexius’ polite invitation hauls me back to the present, and with my senses still out of sorts, I think...I think I should just go ahead and simply say it.
“I, um, can’t marry you.”
There, I’ve said it.
“I see.”
His tone is so perfectly...unreadable, and it just makes me feel so, so...hurt? Frustrated? Indignant?
I mean...why bother asking me to marry him if he can just take my refusal so easily like that?
Or maybe he was never serious in the first place—
“May I ask why?”
No, I’m childishly tempted to snap at him, and that...that’s a surprise because I’ve never been tempted to snap at anyone.
Not even at my grandfather, who used to lock me in my room without food, just to make sure I remember that he’s the one who calls the shots.
But anyway...
Remember the goal, Sam: we’re already in, so just say your piece, then leave.
“I want you to be happy.”
“You don’t think I’ll be happy with you?”
“I think you’ll be happiest with the woman you love.”
“Alphonse told you about her.”
How did he know that? Is he really sure he doesn’t read minds? How could he have known—
“It is best not to lie about this as your expression confirms as much.”
I...I think I’m this close to hating my face, grr.
“Okay, fine,” I say rather grumpily, and (yes, I know) childishly, too. “Your brother dropped by my workplace and told me just a bit.”
“So he told you just a bit—”
I can’t help wincing at the laziness in his tone.
“And that’s enough for you to make your mind up about my proposal?”
His words make me feel rather...foolish, and that’s...that’s so manipulative! It’s not foolish at all to care about happy-ever-afters.
Right?
And rather than foolish like he says, it’s...it’s actually, um, selfless—yes, that’s right, selfless!—of me to prioritize someone else’s happiness over mine—
A vision pops in my mind, coming from nowhere, and completely blindsiding me because it’s of Hexius with another woman in his arms, and even though she has her back turned to me, I’m absolutely certain it’s her.
Brandy.
The woman he rejected me for.
And the moment I think that, I’m stunned and aghast to feel my eyes actually well up with tears—
Seriously, Sam?
I didn’t even cry when he rejected me six years ago, so why am I crying now?
“Um—” Great, oh, great. My eyes aren’t just burning, but my voice has gone wobbly, too, and so all I can do is quickly turn around in hopes that he doesn’t catch sight of me falling apart. “I’ve already said what I’ve come here to say, so if you don’t mind—”
Get moving, Sam!
The sooner I’m out here, the quicker I’ll be able to forget about anything and everything that has to do with the Merciers.
Gotta get to the door, gotta get to the door, oh, finally—
Not that I’m heartbroken or anything—really!—but I just want a clean break, you know?
So...faster, Sam! Faster! One last step, and then you’re—
Strong fingers suddenly close around my wrist.
W-what—
The touch burns through me like lightning, and before I can process what’s happening, I’m spun around with shifter speed that leaves me dizzy.
Oh, stars above!
My back hits the wall beside his front door, and Hexius is suddenly looming in front of me, big, bad, and powerful, and every muscular inch of him palpably vibrating with the kind of authority that makes me want to fall on my knees.
His hands brace on either side of my head, caging me in, and I can’t breathe for reasons that have nothing to do with fear. The black V-neck stretches across his chest, and as my dazed gaze drifts down...
Oh goodness, that can’t be...
The way he’s straining against his jeans, I’ve never noticed anything like that about a man before, but I just...I just can’t look away.
What is happening to me?
“Has no one taught you—” Hexius’ ominously soft voice has my dazed gaze darting back to him. “—that it’s bad manners not to give the other person a chance to answer before leaving?”
“I...I’m s-sorry, I d-didn’t—” It’s so hard to speak with how his proximity is overwhelming me, and the way his body is also radiating heat isn’t helping at all.
“Do you want to hear my answer then?”
“I g-guess?”
“Good.”
His eyes glitters down at me, and I feel kinda stupid because I feel like his gaze is telling me something, but I just don’t get it?
“This is my answer then.”
His mouth crashes down on mine, and oh my goodness, I finally get what his gaze was telling me earlier, and oooooh.
His lips have started to move, and the world simply fades away. It’s my first kiss ever, and it’s nothing like I imagined. Not gentle. Not soft. Not tentative. Instead, it’s heat and unhunger unleashed in the most possessively alpha way ever, and I...I...I’m just so grateful it’s so!
A whimper slips past my lips as Hexius traces the seam of my lips with his tongue, and as soon as my lips part, the kiss deepens fiercely in an instant, and my knees buckle even as his body presses against mine. I feel like I’m about to drown, but I also can’t get enough.
“H-Hexius!”
I’m not sure why, but hearing me gasp his name like that has him growling, and then his hands are suddenly sliding down to my waist, and then lower, until he’s cupping the cheeks of my bottom, and oh!
My legs automatically wrap around his hips as he lifts me up, the position causing every inch of our bodies to grind against each other while his powerful hardness starts to throb.
“Can you feel how much I want you, Samira?”
Yes, oh yes.
But all I can do is cry the words out in my mind, with how every second of this...this closeness, this heat, this kiss is absolutely driving me crazy. It feels like I don’t even know my own body, with the way he has every nerve ending alive, my skin burning for his touch, and oh, my heart...
Let’s not even get started with my heart.
Because right now, I already need him, too, too desperately, with how I’m unable to stop myself from threading my fingers through his damp hair, and oooh...
He’s working his way down my neck, finding spots that make me arch and gasp and forget my own name.
“So responsive,” he growls with a mixture of desire and something that almost sounds like...
No, it can’t be tenderness.
Can it?
“And your scent, Samira...”
What about it?
I want to really ask him, but it’s hard to maintain a single thought, with Hexius now carrying me deeper into the penhouse with preternatural speed. One moment, we’re still in the hallway. Another women, we’re in his bedroom, and it’s darker here, more intimate, and oh, the size of his bed is mas—
Aaah!
I’m on my feet, his hands are under my sweater—oh, wait, it’s over my head now, and I’m suddenly standing in just my bra and jeans. Not quite naked, but why do I feel I’m as good as, with the way his golden eyes are devouring every exposed inch of my body?
“Magnifique.”
I...I...I have no words. I can only whimper yet again, with how hot, oh, how incredibly hot it sounds, every time Hexius Mercier speaks in his native language.
He lays me down on the bed with tortuous—yes, tortuous!—gentleness. It’s as if he knows the way he’s taking his time is just making me more and more nervous and restless and just plain out of my mind with breathless, excruciating need.
I’m already desperately biting back sobs before his fingers dip under my jeans, my body helplessly and shamelessly writhing under the powerful weight of his body. And when his fingers finally find the most sensitive part of me—
Oh no.
No.
Oh no.
All it takes are a few strokes.
Just his fingers brushing over my lace-covered fleshed.
His thumb extending pressure over my secret flesh.
“Hexius!”
And then I start seeing stars, my body buckling against his, and his name tumbling past my lips in a broken cry of surrender.
Oh, this feeling is...indescribable.
“Laisse-toi aller...”
I have no idea what he’s just said. All I know is that makes me sob out, and my body shake even harder as another wave of pleasure consumes me from within.
I can’t think. Can’t speak. I can only sob and tremble in the circle of his arm as this incredible storm of ecstasy sweeps me far, far away...until I’m boneless and dazed, and I feel like an eternity has passed before I slowly back down into consciousness.
When the haze of pleasure fades, it’s to find myself under his piercing, all-seeing gaze—
“This time, I won’t ask you.”
And I realize for the first time in my life—
“You will marry me, Samira.”
—what it means to have an alpha in one’s life.
“You are to be my wife and mate. No one else’s but mine.”