Page 21 of No Longer Safe

UNKNOWN

Shouldn’t you be thanking your God for me having it?

Absolutely not.

UNKNOWN

You didn’t deny thinking about me.

Could this man get any more intolerable? I placed my phone face down and paced across the length of my apartment. Why on earth would he text me? There was no reason for him to do so.

None. Nadda. Nothing.

Carina stayed in New York as there was no reason for her to come home and I found myself missing her all over again. How was I going to live in this tiny town without her? There weren’t many options when it came to making friends and the closest city was at least an hour away. Plus Brian would never go for me trying to make new friends in the closest city. He would veto it so fast. It would be too dangerous. He was barely hanging on with me going to New York as often as I was now.

Another text pinged through and I ignored it. There was no point in caring about whatever it was Alexei had to say. Instead, I immediately dialed Carina.

She answered sleepily after a few rings. “Are you okay?”

“No, I am not okay.” It took everything in me to not check my other text from the insufferable bastard.

Her voice grew concerned and I heard Ace in the background asking what was up. “What’s going on? Do you need me to fly back? I’ll get on a plane as soon as I can. I’m sure Ace can get the private jet. It will take me no time to get to you.”

I loved her so much it hurt. She was the best and I knew that even if she lived on the other side of the country, we would see each other often. She would hop on a flight at the drop of a pin to get to me if she needed to. “Did you give Alexei my number?”

That perked her up. “No,” Her voice muffled as she covered the speaker with her hand and asked Ace something I couldn’t hear. “But Ace did.”

I groaned and threw myself onto the couch. It slid across the floor and I closed my eyes waiting for it to crumble beneath me. “Why? Why? Why? I’m going to have to change my number!”

“Audrey?” Ace’s deep timber came over the line and I almost squeaked at the intrusion. “He promised not to bother you and to only communicate about wedding things. You are the Maid of Honor, he is the Best Man. He said it was only fitting that the both of you make plans together for parties and celebrations.”

I knew better but I wasn’t going to give Ace an earful over it. He would find out soon enough that Alexei didn’t want to communicate over wedding things.

“You’re right. I didn’t think of it that way.” That’s because it wasn’t like that at all. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

“Let me know if he harasses you too much. He told me he wasn’t familiar with wedding duties and details. I didn’t think you would mind.”

Oh, I minded alright. I couldn’t stand the man who listened in on my sexual plight. I couldn’t stand the man that showed up with stripper glitter and cheap perfume to pick us up from the airport. I really couldn’t stand that he thought he was God’s gift to women. You could see it in the way he prowled. But the thing I hated the most? I hated how much my body wanted him despite my being involved with Brian. It made me feel icky. It made me feel horrible. It wasn’t like I thought about him, but my dreams and libido didn’t know that. They had minds of their own. It wasn’t like I was acting on any of it, or going to act on any of it either. I wouldn’t even give myself the thought of pursuing Alexei. He was completely off of my radar and I couldn’t care less about him.

When I hung up the phone with Carina, I finally opened the message from Alexei.

Alexei

Did you faint from excitement?

This is strictly a wedding text. You can’t communicate about anything else. This is not a friendship.

Alexei

We’ll see.

I didn’t bother with saying anything else. There was no point. Alexei was obviously living in a fantasy world and there was no way I could talk to him seriously or even look him in the eye after I assumed he heard what I said about my lackluster love life. What the hell had I been thinking to be talking about it so cavalier? I’d managed to avoid him the rest of the trip but unfortunately, I couldn’t avoid him for the rest of the wedding. It was strictly business.

A knock on the door had me throwing my phone across the room. It bounced off of the back of the couch before landing face down on the seat cushion.

With cheeks flaming I opened the door to Brian on the other side. He had a bouquet of yellow roses. I would have been lying to say I wasn’t disappointed. I couldn’t keep my face neutral even if I tried.

“You don’t like them?”

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