“My apartment is secure? This isn’t some military operation. I’m trying to go to bed. You burst in here. I think you and the guy across the street can both just go.”
He glares at me, his eyebrow cocking upward, and he folds his arms across his chest as he stands in the hallway between all the rooms.
We’re trapped there in the small space together, and I’m intimately aware of how close he is. How large he is. How much space he takes up in this apartment with just his presence.
He is one of the most intimidating people I’ve ever met, but I still can’t help feeling something warm stirring inside of me whenever I look at him.
My gaze catches on his hands—large, rough-looking, with veins that trail up his forearms and disappear beneath the rolled sleeves of his dark shirt. Hands that could hurt. Hands that could hold.
Stop it. Just stop.
Alec said something about not letting Teddy get away with this, about helping me. But this is so weird, and I don’t know how to handle this situation.
“I’m not leaving you alone in a shitty apartment where the windows are single pane and you’re on the ground floor when there’s someone outside keeping an eye on you.”
“Isn’t that what you werejustdoing? What if he’s just trying to intimidate me? Just go over there and tell him that you got the job done.”
“IfIwere hired to intimidate you, thatguyoutside is hired for more, and I don’t like it. I’m not letting some asshole get into your apartment when I’m here.”
Mirroring his arm cross, I face off with this random man I’ve just met. “So what, you’re just going to spend the night with me in my apartment until that guy leaves? ‘Cause that won’t be suspicious.”
“I don’t give a fuck if whoever’s outside realizes that I’m not intimidating you anymore. I’m not scared of Teddy. If anything, he should be scared of me.”
Rolling my eyes, I sigh. “Everybody is afraid of you. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”
Chuckling lightly, Alec eyes me. It’s a few moments of silence before I drop my head and sigh again.
“Are youseriouslytrying to stay in my apartment all night?”
Alec doesn’t say another word. He just stands there with his arms folded across his chest, meeting my eye contact hard. He doesn’t move a single inch.
After a moment of a standoff, I sigh, throwing my hands up in the air before I head back toward the kitchen.
“Fine.”
I go to my fridge and pull open the flimsy door. It rattles, the condiments moving this way and that as I reach inside and snag one of the two remaining beers that I have.
I twist the lid off and take a long swig. The cold liquid running down the back of my throat helps me feel a hair better.
When I walk back to the hallway, Alec is still there, but he’s moved things around. Now there’s a chair pushed up against the wall in my living room, and the doors to the bathroom and bedroom are sitting open.
“What did you do?”
“I need a place where I can sit and keep an eye on the entire apartment.”
“You know what? I’m not going to argue. I’m too fucking tired. It’s been a long day, and I’m going to bed.”
I stomp past him and straight into my bedroom, trying to close the door, but as soon as he hears it squeak, Alec calls out from the other room.
“Keep it open. I need to be able to see everywhere.”
I gawk at him, my eyebrows at my hairline. “Are you serious? I need to change. I’m not going to bed in this.”
He runs his eyes up and down, looking me over. “Thosearen’tpajamas? Could’ve fooled me.”
That has a scoff bursting out of me, and I hurry off toward my closet, closing the door. Thank god it has one.
Still, I know he’s in that other room as I strip off my clothes and toss them into the hamper. I know he’s just around the corner, listening to everything I’m doing.
