I wasn’t a guest. I wasn’t a lover or mistress or friend. I was an employee, but I hadn’t gotten here with room and board by any recruitment or interview process.
They all had keys. The lock on that door was a joke.
Still, I went toward it and opened it. I wasn’t brave enough to ignore this summons so late in the night.
To my surprise, Adrik stood on the other side. Exhaustion shone from his dark gaze. He locked it on me, concern lining his rugged face. Shadows cast him in a more mysterious and foreboding mix of lightness and darkness.
With one hand raised and bracing against the doorframe, he made his arm rigid with all the muscles showing. His jacket was gone, and with his shirt sleeves rolled up and showcasing thick lines of tattoos inked on his skin, he looked like the bad man he was.
For a tense moment, he only stood there, watching me with that smoldering, probing gaze. He sized me up, breathing harshly.
I hadn’t been expecting him to show up. Not now or anytime soon.
I certainly wasn’t expecting to see him like this, barely controlling his impatience. Not like he was here to seek me out with desire burning in his eyes.
He stayed tense, slightly leaning forward as he braced himself against the doorframe. He was stiff, like he was trying to hold himself back from lunging.
I could only begin to guess what prompted him to show up now, so long after he must have returned. Of course, he was a busy man with many things to oversee and do. But it was late.
However, I wasn’t about to trick myself into thinking that he was here to comfort me. He wasn’t here with any motivation to soothe, pacify, or cuddle me.
Like a hungry beast, a predator closing in, he pierced me with that intense stare.
All my confusion grew into a storm within me. One that I didn’t want to try to withstand on my own.
“What?”
My voice was shaky, but after I uttered that one single word, even I recognized the nervousness in it.
I was nervous that he’d walk away from me after this confusing arrival.
I was just as worried that he was here to confirm I was a delusional fool to fantasize about him caring about me.
“What do you want?” I asked, feeling stronger to vocalize the unknowns that I wanted answers to.
I was in his world, sucked in too deep. But what was the purpose?
“What do you want from me, Adrik?”
21
ADRIK
Elena didn’t back down. She stood there just inside the guest house and didn’t lower her gaze. A definite weariness showed in her blue eyes, though, and it was like a direct hit to my chest.
The fact that I’d left her wondering.
Doubting herself and what we shared.
Assuming she didn’t matter.
It should’ve been ridiculous—her ever thinking she didn’tmatter.
Like I hadn’t tried to put distance between us because I was threatened by how I couldn’t get her out of my mind? Like I wasn’t obsessed with the possibility of seeing where things could go between us?
Under her intense gaze, I caved. I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t deny myself and I felt like an idiot to deny her. Behind that weariness, behind the confusion, I saw the yearning she still feltfor me. I had never cared much whether I toyed with a woman or played games.
But this was different.
