Page 21 of Sinful Desires
He was the exact opposite of what I would usually go for. I’d always preferred them soft around the edges, tall enough to satisfy the fantasy, but lean, unthreatening, like a strong breeze could knock them over.
Victoria used to say I picked men who looked like they’d crawled out of the grave looking for a charger. And she was right. I chose weak because weak didn’t threaten, didn’t bruise.
Weak didn’t turn your name into a warning.
So, for my body to react that way for a man who could probably snap my spine one-handed, that wasn’t attraction—that wasbetrayal.
But the worst part about him? He never flinched. Not when I threw fits. Not when I baited him with every trick that had made the others crack.
He justwatchedme quietly, methodically. Like he was studying a malfunctioning bomb and calculating how long he had before it detonated.
I swear, he had made me feel likeIwas the job. And maybe I was.
It had been a week. Seven days of silent war. And now I’d found out he was coming on tour with us. Living with him was already unbearable. But traveling, sleeping within earshot, and sharing space, air, and heat for weeks?
Hell no.
We were like gasoline and a lit match.
You’d think if you had to live and breathe next to someone, the universe might throw in a sliver of compatibility. But no, we were opposites carved from opposing hells. If I tried listing allthe ways, I’d need the world’s entire ink supply and a thousand blank pages just to start.
The faint tap of Alexsei’s finger on the control panel snapped me back into the room. My gaze locked on his.
“I swear he’s not even human. Henevermakes a sound! He’s as silent as death and twice as creepy,” I whispered, my eyes darting to the closed door like it might suddenly sprout fangs.
I hate that a part of me sleeps easier knowing he’s there though.
“LeRoy is not—” he started, but I cut him off.
“Shhh!” I snapped, like his name might summon him from the shadows. “Don’t say his name. He’s got radar instead of ears, I’m telling you. The man hears through walls, through souls. Hell, I’m pretty sure he could hear you thinking from across the room.”
He snorted. “You’re exaggerating?—”
“Exaggerating?Please. Last week, some guy brushed against me in the elevator. Barely touched my arm. I didn’t even flinch. But somehow, LeRoy heard it. I don’t know if it was the fabric shift or my soul twitching. Twenty minutes later, the guy was limping out of the building with a dislocated shoulder, a broken hand, and a mouth full of blood.”
I paused. My eyes flicked to the door like it might creak open and reveal him standing there, arms crossed.
“What do you actuallyknowabout him?” I whispered.
Alexsei scoffed and reached for my notebook, the one I treated more like a diary or confession booth than a workspace, and started flipping through it with all the care of a raccoon digging through trash. “As if I’d tell you.”
I lunged and yanked it back, snapping it shut. “The man sleeps ten steps from my bedroom. I shouldat leastknow if he’s a serial killer. Or a psychopath. Or hell, CIA plant. Something!”
“Ah, so you can run out and buy pepper spray?”
“A gun,” I said flatly.
He let out a full-body laugh and stood. “Alright, alright. Want the file? Here’s the summary. Ex-Navy officer. French, but studied in international schools, hence the perfect English. Specialized in counterterrorism and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. No wife, no kids. Doesn’t drink, doesn’t party. Pretty sure he sleeps upside down like a bat. Ah, and get this—he won a national medal after he single-handedly took down a crew of pirates trying to hijack a French humanitarian ship headed for Haiti after the earthquake. The man went full Captain America on them. Just him and his fists.”
I blinked. “Counterterrorism?”
Alexsei was already halfway to the door, that crooked grin spreading.
“So?…?he thinksI’ma national threat?”
He shrugged, the kind that saidI love you, but yes.“I mean?…?haven’t you burned through five bodyguards and two therapists in under a year?”
I stared.
