Chapter 55 What The Dark Hides
Alexander
The room was quiet.
Too damn quiet.
Her breathing was soft… steady and calm, like she could finally rest after what we had done. The sheets were tangled around her bare pale skin, and the faint light from the moon outside painted her body in a way that made me furious at myself for freaking wanting to look at her.
I angrily dragged a hand down my face. I could still feel my damned pulse beating unevenly from the high I knew I shouldn't have enjoyed.
What the hell was wrong with me?
What had I done?
I stared at the ceiling like it could give me answers. But the only voice in my head was my own, and it was mocking and cruel.
You’re pathetic.
My inner voice said to me. The damned truth.
I had sworn I would never touch her, especially after I had found out that she was Richard's daughter.
I had sworn never to cross that line. She was, after all, supposed to be temporary, for the contract. But I had been drunk. That's right, that was my excuse, even though it was a flimsy one.
And I knew things had gotten so fucking messed up with her turning out to be the daughter of the man I had betrayed years ago.
But yet… I wanted her so badly.
I had wanted her since the day she walked into my life, acting all tough and shit and withstanding my rudeness and arrogance in that bar, matching the energy in a way that no woman ever had. She had held herself together even when others would have naturally become scared and scamper away for safety.
And how it had turned out to be that she was the damn surrogate was something I couldn't exactly put my finger on. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that it was her plan.
I just know that it had all been a buildup that led to this moment, and tonight, I had given in like a weak, desperate man who couldn’t even control his own damn body.
I swung my legs off the bed, cursing under my breath as I got off the bed.
I should’ve stopped. I should’ve pulled away. I should’ve fucking remembered who she was.
Instead, I let myself forget and allowed myself to only feel.
Her soft gasp and the way her nails had dragged across my skin. She whispered my name like I meant something, even when I knew this was never supposed to be.
I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached.
“I should never have touched you,” I muttered to the quiet room.
She shifted slightly, and a small, soft sound escaped her lips. My eyes snapped back to her face. Her hair was spilled across the pillow, and her lips were parted, with cheeks that were still flushed from what we had done.
I tore my gaze away from her, as if doing that would save my cause.
I couldn’t let that softness affect me. Not again.
I stood slowly and reached down to grab my dress pants from where they had fallen on the floor. Probably while I was too busy devouring her body to care where they fell to.
I was fucking pathetic.
I was angry, and it was being reflected in my movements.
I found my belt lying closer to her side of the bed, and I leaned down to pick it up, and that’s when I noticed the screen of her phone lighting up on the nightstand. My eyes read what it carried. It was a message.
I knew damn well that I was supposed to ignore it. It wasn't my business.
But something inside me twisted; it was a prickling instinct that I had learned never to doubt.
I immediately grabbed the phone, and the screen brightened fully in my grasp.
It was an address from an unknown number.
I read the details.
Unknown Number:
Glasshouse Café. 9 p.m. Come alone.
Come alone?
I furrowed my brows.
What was this?
I immediately unlocked the phone to see that this wasn't the only message she had received from the same strange number.
I read the earlier text.
Unknown Number:
If you want to know the truth about your father, call me.
My blood went cold.
The truth about her father?
I stared at those words until they blurred. A buzzing rage strangled my control and instinctively pulled every buried memory back to the surface again.
Her father. Richard Knight.
Of course. I pinched the bridge of my nose, hoping it would send the mild migraine away.
How could I have forgotten that she was still trying to find out the reason why her father was now six feet under? Still trying to play hero.
My grip tightened around the phone, almost cracking the screen.
So she did know something? About her father, and there she was the other day, acting like I was accusing her falsely. The sly snake that she was. She was talking to someone, and she was hiding it. From me.
She was still playing hero and trying to find out about her father's secret and the connection to the people who destroyed everything.
And I… I had just let myself into her bed. Into my guard. Into the one place I freaking had no right to be.
“That’s why you’re here,” I said under my breath. “To break me,” I muttered as I ground my teeth.
My reflection in the darkened mirror looked back at me like a stranger; my eyes were burning, and my jaw was tight. My fists were clenched as well. Showing every inch how disgusted I felt inside.
I had promised myself I wouldn’t let her close.
But she had slipped under my skin anyway… and that pissed me off more than anything. What was making me fall for her?
Shit!
Was that it?
The phone vibrated again in my hand, but it wasn't another text. I took one last look at the strange number before I let out a sigh and threw it back onto the nightstand so hard it nearly slid off.
I had made the worst mistake of my life, and I knew I had to retrace my steps.
She shifted again, and her soft lips murmured something even in her sleep. Something that almost sounded like my name and I shut my eyes.
No.
I couldn’t soften.
Not with her.
Not with the enemy's blood running through her veins. Because that was what she was. The enemy. My enemy, the contract be damned.
This was not a romance.
And it sure as hell wasn’t fate.
This was war.
And I had just compromised the battlefield.
I straightened, sliding my belt through the loops of my pants and knotting each movement with controlled fury.
I didn’t look back again.
I stormed out of her room. I could hear the slam of my heartbeat louder than the quiet click of the closing door behind me.
She may be carrying my child…
But that doesn’t change the truth.
Elena Knight is still the enemy.
And I will never forget that again. Only this time, I would be more cautious around her. Because, believe it or not, this woman was going to be the ruin of me!