Stoking the Fire (Salus Security #1) - Teodora Kostova Page 0,53
assessing.
“I’m fine. Just a bit groggy.”
Alec squints at me. He doesn’t move to stand and I feel strangely vulnerable under his scrutinizing dark eyes.
“Look, Zach—” he begins, his fingers curling into the sheets as if to stop himself from touching me. “I’m sorry about last night.”
I cock my head. “Which part?”
He puffs a breath out. “All of it. You got roofied because I didn’t do my job properly. Because I was… distracted.” He glances at me, but can’t hold my gaze. “And about what happened in the stairwell.”
I frown. Open my mouth to protest and probably say something stupid like that it was the most sexually intense experience I’ve had since… well, since the last time we’ve been together. But he speaks before I get a chance to embarrass myself.
“I’ve been thinking about it constantly since last night.”
Same here.
“And keep thinking about what I could have done differently over and over, but at the time I thought that was the best option to deter them, and to get you out of there safely.” He meets my eyes and, this time, holds them. “If they had a gun, it could have gotten very ugly, very fast.”
“I get it.”
Alec’s watching me, his face scrunched into a frown as if he’s trying really hard to read my thoughts.
I clear my throat. “Really, it’s fine. I… didn’t mind what happened.” His expression doesn’t change, but I feel my cheeks heat when I add, “in the stairwell.”
“It shouldn’t have happened,” Alec says, clenching his jaw. “You were high and I took advantage of that.”
I snort. He looks at me sharply and I slap a hand over my mouth. “Sorry.” I throw the blanket off and get up, the need to piss and get out of the clothes I was wearing last too great to ignore. “For the record,” I say, turning to look at him over my shoulder, hand on the bathroom handle. “I clearly remember everything that happened. And I’d have let you do it even if I hadn’t been high.” His eyes widen. An excited flutter starts in my stomach and spreads all over my body. “And if nobody was chasing us.”
The flush that spreads on Alec’s skin was all the confirmation I need that he likes that idea as much as I do.
My phone rings just as I’m making breakfast. I lick the cream cheese off my finger and swipe over the screen, accepting the call and activating the loudspeaker.
“Hey, Adri,” I say, taking the plate to the island and sitting down.
“Hi.” He sounds a little weird, out of breath, and as if trying to speak quietly. A door clicks shut behind him, and when he speaks again, there’s an echo to his voice. “Sorry, making my way down the stairs.”
“Where are you?”
“Sneaking out of Wes’s.”
“Why are you sneaking out?”
Adri sighs. “I didn’t feel like talking. And you know he gets all sentimental and wants to make me breakfast and shit.”
“What an asshole,” I say, taking a bite of my bagel.
Adri chuckles. “Don’t start.” Another door opens and closes, and I hear the sounds of New York traffic through the speaker. “How are you? When did you leave last night?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I have to walk ten blocks. I’ve got time.”
I take a sip of coffee. “Something happened.”
Adri perks up. “What?”
I fill him in on most of what happened last night, and to his credit he doesn’t interrupt me once. But I can practically feel him vibrating with the need to ask a million questions.
“So, now Alec is in a debrief meeting with my father, and I’ve been forbidden to leave the apartment. Evie is at her doctor’s appointment, getting booked in for surgery in a couple of days.”
Adri murmurs his thanks to someone and then I hear him groan as if he’s just taken his first sip of coffee for the day. The guy’s only fueled by coffee and curiosity most days.
“Are you okay with what happened? Between you and Alec?”
“I’m more than okay. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“And Alec?”
“He feels guilty and thinks he took advantage of me.”
“I can see why he thinks that if you were high.”
“I know. But I don’t regret it. At all. I’m more than happy to let him frisk me every day of the week. Twice a day. While I’m naked.”
Adri laughs, and so do I. But when he speaks, his voice’s somber. “Zach, where do you think this is going?”