Page 80 of Major Penalty

“You think he’d still trust me with you,” I murmur, “if he knew I’m the reason you’re not wearing underwear?”

She gasps, quietly and sharply, her body going stiff beside me

That’s when I turn and head for the elevators.

I glance back over my shoulder. She’s still frozen.

She may have fooled her father, but not me. And when we land in LA, I’ll make sure she never hides from me again.

Chapter nineteen

~IRENE~

I sit at my desk, staring blankly at my laptop screen. The patient log in front of me is still untouched. I’ve been looking at the same names for what feels like forever, but my brain’s not processing anything.

The ice in my coffee is almost gone, but it doesn’t really matter because no matter how many times I try to focus, my mind just keeps circling back to him.

I haven’t seen Ares in over a week. We landed back in LA ten days ago, and I haven’t spoken to him since. When we returned, I had two days off to decompress before jumping back into work. Apparently, Ares had gone to see Dr. Mathews in my absence, who’d taken one look at his hip and ordered him off the ice for two weeks.

I spent those two days volunteering at the youth center. And even though I knew Ares wasn’t coming, I couldn’t stop glancing at the door every time it opened. The fantasy of him walking through the doors wouldn’t leave my mind. When I returned to work, Ares was already gone, sent off to rest and heal.

I immediately checked in with Mathews, who told me that Ares has a hip pointer. Nothing major or broken, so he should be as good as new with two weeks of rest and icing the area.

I thought I’d feel relieved that he was resting, that he was finally giving himself time to heal, but all I felt was the emptiness of his absence. It feels like he’s slipping through my fingers, distancing himself again. And I’ve missed him more than I want to admit.

I look down at the time in the bottom right corner of my screen, wiping my damp palms on my skirt.

Mathews is off today, and Ares is coming in for a checkup. I’ll finally see him again after days of overthinking every single thing that’s happened between us. I can’t stop the flutter in my stomach. I haven’t told anyone about what happened between us, not even Sydney, my best friend who’s been texting me non-stop. It’s not that I don’t want to tell her, I just wanted to process this on my own without an external opinion clouding my judgment.

I take a deep breath and check the time again. He will be here any minute now, and my entire body feels like I’ve had too much caffeine. Realizing I’ve been biting my nails—a habit I rid myself of years ago—I quickly bring my hands down to my lap.

Get it together, Irene.

No matter what I’ve been keeping myself busy with these past ten days, my thoughts always maneuver back to him.

What we did.

And the worst part? I loved it. I loved how he made me feel. Like I was someone else, someone bold and reckless and free.

I lean back in my chair, exhaling slowly, but the rush of memories crashes through me again.

That house. His house.

He let me believe we were breaking in, let me panic and think we were committing an actual felony. He made me imagine getting arrested with him inside me. And I couldn’t get enough of it. The more he pushed, the more I wanted him to push harder. The more he made me feel like I could get arrested because of him, the more I felt alive. And I loved it.

God. What is wrong with me?

I glance around my office like someone might answer me. I’ve always been the good girl. The one who does everything by the book—the daughter my parents can be proud of. The kind of girl who didn’t break the rules, not even a little.

But Ares has shattered that image of me in my own mind. I mean, he literally had me performing for cameras. How did he manage to make me feel like this? How has he altered everything I thought I knew about myself?

I press my hands to my face, groaning into my palms. I’ve never been like this. Now, I’ve got a tree of a man who growls when he touches me, who whispers the most filthy, unhinged things and makes me want them. It’s not just the sex. It’s how he looks at me and knows what I’m thinking before I even think it.

And then the car ride. My heart still skips a beat remembering it.

“I wanted to be close to you.” That’s what he’d said to me. Honest and blunt. I can’t even describe the giddiness that hit me when he said that.

I bite down on my lower lip, trying to hide the stupid smile creeping up. He wanted to be near me. Ares Black, all violent chaos and muscle, the man who knocks people on the ice like it’s foreplay, wanted to be close to me.

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