Chapter Twenty-Six
The steady slam of Lily’s sneakers usually calmed her. The peaceful, dark silence of her favorite Central Park jogging path around the ice skating rink the ideal escape, even with the new security guard Robert she’d hired to run by her side.
But tonight she couldn’t find her rhythm.
It had been a full day since Alexi had said he would see her in thirty minutes and never shown up. Or returned any of her texts since.
She knew he wasn’t in a ditch somewhere. His staff had confirmed that much. But they’d given her little else.
Sure, there was likely a reasonable explanation for his sudden radio silence. One she’d hear sooner or later.
But the small, dark part of her that hadn’t wanted to let Alexi stay the weekend in the first place was busy saying I told you so. Lecturing her all over again on the dangers of letting someone in.
All day she’d waited. Wondered. Cared—in a way she never had before.
It terrified her.
She’d told him things she’d told no one else. Trusted him with the ugly details of her past that could ruin her shot at the CEO position if they got out. Let him matter. Knowing all the while he was her rival. Knowing all the while his first priority was to someone else.
Which was why, reasonable explanation or not, next time she saw him she really had to find the strength to end it. Before she let herself become any more vulnerable. Before she ended up even worse off than the pitiful girl she’d been with both Francoise and Russell. Fragile. Dependent. At someone else’s mercy all over again.
It just wasn’t worth the risk.
“You run as fiercely as you do everything else.” The rasp of a familiar voice swelled from the darkness.
She skittered to a stop.
Her security guard’s hand moved to his gun. Since the fire, they’d all gotten twitchy, especially with Paul and Don Pierson still missing.
“It’s okay. I know him.” She laid a firm hand on her guard’s forearm. “Thank you for your help, but I’d like a little time alone.”
“No, ma’am.” Rob’s hand remained on his holstered gun, his narrowed gaze locked in the direction the voice had come. “I can’t leave you.”
“I’ll be fine.” The words formed before she’d fully thought them through. She hoped to God she was right. “I insist.”
“You’re the boss.” Exasperation evident, her less-than-happy bodyguard pressed a pager into her palm. “Keep that handy in case you change your mind.”
“Will do.” She watched the darkness swallow him before she turned back around, her heart beating fast.
A wide-shouldered figure emerged under the nearby streetlamp.
The light cast Alexi’s face in a soft glow that also showcased low-slung shorts and a damp, white exercise shirt clinging to every sweaty, muscular, glorious inch of him.
The spark of need inside her flared to a firestorm.
Which made her chest wind even tighter. “How’d you know where to find me?”
“I do my research, Armageddon. You know that better than anyone.”
“Is everything okay?”
“It is now.” He let out a low, rough sound as his head snapped up, his eyes colliding with hers.
Her lungs squeezed.
So much agony. It gutted her. Chased away every sound intention. “What happened?”
“Lena.” His answer was a raw whisper.
“Is she okay?”
“She flat-lined twice.” He rubbed at his chest again. “But she’s stable now.”
She’d experienced Alexi Kazankov the business shark as well as the raw, unleashed sex god and the protective Neanderthal. But she’d never glimpsed the vulnerable man beneath—until now.
It cracked her stupid heart wide open. “I’m glad she’s okay.”
“For now.”
“Do…do you want to talk about it?”
“No.”
She ignored the brief stab of hurt. “I understand.”
“Do you?”
“I think I do.” She took a cautious step in his direction, the way she’d approach any wounded creature. “You feel guilty even being here right now.”
Pain flared in his gaze. “Yes.”
But he was here anyway. Unable to help himself. Drawn to her. Just like she was to him.
She advanced another small step. “I’m not sorry you’re here. I’m glad.”
He shook his head. Looked away. A muscle ticked in his jaw.
He’d been strong for her once. Known exactly what she needed. She was determined to be the same for him now. “It’s okay, Alexi. I really do understand.”
Shifting restlessly, he plowed a hand through his hair. Even with the distance still between them, she could sense the violence of his emotions.
It was several long heartbeats before he spoke. “The first thing I thought after I found out Lena was okay was how badly I wanted to be with you.”
His confession floored her.
“I missed you today, too,” she admitted.
His gaze tangled with hers, as intense and raw and unapologetic as ever. “I shouldn’t have, but all I could think of was feeling your skin against mine. Drawing your scent into my lungs. Wrapping your thighs around me and driving deep.” He took a step closer. “Forgetting everything else and coming alive. The way I only do when I’m with you.”
Her heart stuttered and then floated out of her chest.
For a man like Alexi, to admit his need was probably as comfortable as swallowing a sharp knife. But here he was. Scared shitless, grieving, desperate for solace—and he’d come to her.
Her. The woman who been told a million times she was only good for one thing. Who’d been useful to the first man in her life as a pretty face and a punching bag. Who’d been useful to her second as a trophy and a nurse.
But not to this man. He was here because of her strength. Because she’d lived his pain and survived it. Experienced the same anguish and fear of watching someone you loved dying, helpless to do anything. She knew how badly it ate at you. She understood words couldn’t do a damn thing to ease the agony.
Sometimes you just had to escape for a little while. Lean on someone else. Lose yourself in someone else.
“I’m here,” she told him, letting the last of her defenses crumble. “We can forget together. Come alive together.”
His gaze darkened to near black, his stare tracing from her running shoes past her jogging shorts and T-shirt up to her lips. “If you’re going to run, you better do it now.”
Excitement shivered along her skin. “And if I’m in the mood to be caught?”
“Even better.” He opened his arms.
She didn’t even hesitate.
Sprinting forward, she leaped. Her mouth claiming his as he wrapped his arms around her and carried her backward into the trees.
Pure and total insanity with no outcome but disaster in sight, and yet she couldn’t stop if she wanted.