Perhaps I need to find Daniels, try and find out what happened…
She turned to leave.
“Wait,” Hysterian ordered.
Alexa inhaled sharply, tearing her eyes away from the passageway of beautiful freedom, and faced him. Suddenly, he was right there, pinning her with his number-laced eyes. Loose, messy strands of his hair fell forward, making him look mad. The heat coming off him enveloped her.
She stilled, fully aware of how very close they were. She closed her fingers into her palms and stopped them from pushing those loose strands of hair out of Hysterian’s eyes.
“Captain?”
He didn’t respond, didn’t say anything at all. He just stared at her.
Alexa waited for him to speak, but with each passing second that he didn’t, her chest constricted a little more. “Captain?” she inquired again, barely breathing the word in question.
The next thing she knew, she was lifted off the ground and being carried. She yelped, straining in fear, but then she was set down in his seat. Her hands came to the armrests and gripped them as Hysterian stepped back. She tried to rise.
“Don’t,” he shot. “Stay there.” He leaned back on the control console behind him.
Alexa pressed back into the seat, closing her legs tight. He’d picked her up like she’d weighed nothing, moved her with a speed she couldn’t defend against. Her pulse raced.
“I told you I didn’t want to break protocol again,” she breathed, pressing her feet into the ground, not sure whether to be afraid or furious. “You have no right to touch me!”
“And you have no right to question me. We’re even.”
“This does not make us even! You had a choice to not answer me. I would’ve been satisfied.” She pushed up from the chair. “It’s time for me to leave.”
He snapped forward, making her drop back down. “I ordered you to stay.”
She was trapped. He blocked her in, and if she wanted to leave now, she’d have to shove against him or climb over the chair. Both actions made her uncomfortable.
“You are taking advantage of your position,” she said, unable to meet his eyes suddenly.
Something inside her heated, danced, and begged. Begged for this, more of this, more of him, and try as she might, it only grew.
“Are you going to tell on me, Dear?” Hysterian taunted her. “It’s only right to go back on my word when you so immediately went back on yours. Protocol? Hah.”
“I didn’t?”
“You did.”
Her cheeks heated. Alexa felt his gaze on them, and she turned her face away.
“You look good when you blush,” he said.
“Don’t,” she bit out.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t do this—whatever this is.” She couldn’t handle this, this thing between them that shouldn’t be there. It was wrong. So, so wrong.
Alexa faced him, and he tilted his head to the side like she was something to be studied. She hugged herself.
“Yet you’re the one who propositioned me to kiss you, touch you even.”
“It was a mistake.”
“Oh, yes. It was a mistake.”
