Page 80 of Casino King

I know why he’s been avoiding me now. Why he’s only come to me at night and fucked me until I fell asleep again. Because he knew it would be his last chance. At least I was partially right to his motives.

Alec doesn’t take me back to my apartment, but instead pulls right into The Aces parking garage.

“I’m not staying here with you.”

“Yes, you are. Get out of the car.”

I know he’s not going to take me home, but there is a stairwell just around the bend about forty feet away that will eventually lead me to the casino where I can get lost in the crowd of people. Thinking over the quick moves I have to make before he has the chance to catch me, I climb out of the car and make a break for it.

I’m not thinking of anything besides getting as far away as I can right now.

But all too soon, I hear Alec cursing behind me and his footsteps getting louder as he catches up to me. The wedges on my feet aren’t helping my cause.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he growls, grabbing me by the arm and swinging me around to face him. “You can’t just run away from me.” Alec steps closer so we’re practically touching, our chests coming within a few millimeters of the other with each labored breath.

Gripping my chin with his other hand, he lifts my face to his. I defiantly meet his dark, hardened eyes that are flaring with anger.

“You don’t get to run away from me. You’re mine. I don’t give up what’s mine.”

“I’m not yours. Not anymore.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You’ll always be mine. You just need time to see that.”

“No, I–” I’m cut off from my retort when the air in my lungs is pushed out in a single breath. Alec hoists me over his shoulder and marches me over to the elevator.

Pounding at his back with my fists, he holds my legs steady to keep me from kicking him.

When the doors close, he lets me fall to me feet, but then pins me against the wall with his larger frame so I still can’t escape him. I can feel every inch of him against every inch of me, and while I want to punch him in his overly handsome face and make him pay for what he did to my brother, my body still lights up for him.

It has a life of its own whenever I’m near Alec, and for a moment, I almost let myself give in.

But then the doors slide open to his short hallway, breaking the spell.

“You have nowhere to run, Tessa,” he says, stepping back.

I know he’s right. I have nowhere to run to. At least, tonight I have nowhere to run. But come tomorrow, or the next day, I’ll find a way to leave this fortress.

Alec holds the elevator door open for me as I come to the conclusion he already knows. I walk past him, and he follows, staying close. When he opens the front door for me, I immediately head straight for the guest room. He may have the strength to keep me here, but I’m not sleeping in the same bed as him.

Slamming the door behind me, I turn the lock on the handle, and everything that just happened in the past half hour comes rushing at me full-force.

I sink to the floor. I can’t feel my legs anymore. I can’t feel anything anymore.

Tears fall down my face in rivers of shame and disdain while my heart squeezes in my chest to the point where I think it’ll burst.

I’ve never felt this…this…burning pain where it feels like my chest is on fire – spreading slowly through my body to where everything goes from numb to intense pain.

Sitting with my back against the door, I wrap my arms around my knees and let myself go. I let out everything, grieving for everything we could have been.

I fell for Alec hard and fast, and he just broke my heart in the same way.

He has so many secrets hidden beneath layers of lies and more secrets.

I’m so stupid. So fucking stupid for falling for him and thinking that we could even be something.

But Alec Carfano isn’t a man you just fall in love with. It’s more than that. He was a wildfire that took over every aspect of my being and my life until every thought, every feeling, and everything was him.

It’s a fire that’s still burning inside of me, only now that burning is restricted to my chest and my heart that seems like it may give out on me any second now.

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