Page 9 of Escape From Me

“Surprised? Yes. I didn’t know where someone like you made their money. A hotel?” I’d just leave out the little hope that I wanted him to kiss me.

My back pressed against the hard mirrored surface, and I was thankful for his jacket once more. He wasn’t backing away, but he also wasn’t doing anything wrong. Why?

“You know, you’re an odd duck. Most men would absolutely be taking advantage of being alone with a rich heiress.” I looked away. “I think anyway.”

The elevator ticked away the floors, and when the silence was killing me, I looked back up at my voluntary captor.

“You think?” he finally asked.

My shoulders slouched, and my mother would be pissed if she saw my shitty posture right now, but I didn’t care.

“My father has some major trust issues. Something about his brother being killed by local gangs. I’ve never gone anywhere without a guard.”

I couldn’t not watch this man. His words were few and his face didn’t seem to give away much, but as I looked up at him I could watch his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. I could see the rise and fall of every breath. I don’t know what came over me, but I reached up for the tie around his neck, slipping a fingerinto the knot and putting it down, loosening it away from his neck.

I reached for it with my other hand and slipped the short end free, letting it hang around his neck freely, one end on either side of the buttons.

“There. You look better when you don’t look like them.”

His eyes narrowed at me, and for once he met my gaze.

“Like who, princess? Like those fools that think they could cage a dove dying to be freed?”

His fingers brushed over the shell of my ear as he trailed them lower over my neck, across my collarbone, and then the stupid elevator glided to a smooth stop and the doors opened.

His hand wrapped into the lapels of his jacket that was draped loosely around me as he pulled me out.

“Welcome to my cage, little dove. Don’t fly too close to my flames or you might just get burned.”

We paused just outside the elevator while he watched me and I watched him. Memorizing a man that screamed he wasn’t meant to fit. My heart screaming that I didn’t fit anywhere either.

He didn’t say anything else before he let me go and abruptly turned away, heading down a short hall.

“There is food in the kitchen and a tv in the living room. Touch nothing else.”

FIVE

zeiden

What was she talking about?Her father was paranoid over the death of his brother? Her father. What was her name?

I could do the easy thing and ask, but I liked to do things my way. The penthouse at our only downtown property was close to the venue we’d just been too, but it was also public. I wasn’t about to take her to our sanctuary even if I preferred my set up there. This would do.

The penthouse was a good escape lately. X hated that I left on my own a lot these days, but it was a hell of a lot easier than seeing them married and happy while I was left in an unknown limbo of where does Zeiden fit?

It was irrational, I knew that. They wouldn’t abandon me anymore than I them, but I needed space away from the happy shit.

I hated change. I hated unexpected things, and yet I wasn’t trying to crawl out of my skin with the beauty in the other room. She was unexpected and unknown, but for some fucked up reason, I’d just reached out and taken her with me like a lost puppy. I chuckled to myself. Yeah, a lost puppy was not a goodanalogy. More like a woman that was just as in need of escape as me.

I adjusted my suit pants, hating how tight they were growing with every passing thought of her. Well, this was all new to me. Not the part about not acting on the impulse to bury myself balls deep just to get some kind of relief, but the fact that I wasn’t screaming at her to leave. No. I’d just told her to help herself to food. What was wrong with me?

I turned the handle to my room a little too hard, but it didn’t matter. The door opened without protest anyway. I headed straight for my closet where I grabbed a set of joggers and a hoodie. The second the soft cotton let my skin breathe and my cock stretch, I took my first deep breath of the night.

“Uh, excuse me. Mister?”

Mister?

I walked back to the door of my room and leaned against the frame.

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