Page 11 of Alpha-Ex Wedding Ruse
“You’ve been avoiding me, Leila,” he said. “I know because I can read you like a fucking textbook.”
I blinked, stunned. That…that was what he opened with? After five years? Five years since he had rejected me, since he had ripped me in half—this was what he had to say after all that time?
Red-hot anger surged to the surface. “I’m sorry, Luca. Were you expecting me to run into your arms like I’m the fool you took me for?”
His jaw ticced just slightly. Most people wouldn’t have noticed. But I wasn’t most people.
“Where have you been?” he demanded.
My lips curled with disbelief. “What right do you have to ask me that?”
“I’m not here to fight you, Leila. I just want to talk.”
“Talk?” I scoffed. “Now you want to talk. After you accused me of cheating and stealing from you? After throwing me out without a second glance? After letting the pack eat me alive while you stood by and watched?” My voice trembled, thick with rage. “You didn’t care enough to talk then.”
His eyes flickered with something. Regret? Maybe guilt? But the emotion disappeared just as quickly as it came. “I saw what looked like betrayal.”
I felt the anger in me threaten to detonate. I had to press my lips together to keep from screaming at him. This was neither the appropriate place nor the appropriate time. Plus, I wasn’t feeling like reliving the most horrible moment of my life in his fiancée’s guest bathroom.
“Did you come here because of me?”
His tone was casual, but his eyes weren’t. They darkened as they took me in, slow and calculated, like he was dissecting every inch of me. There was no kindness in the way his gaze lingered. It was like he was remembering everything we used to be, and daring me to pretend it meant nothing. As if some part of him still thought I was his.
My mouth dropped open in disbelief. I’d always known Luca to be an audacious man, with an ego that was larger than life. But it seemed like that ego had gotten even bigger over the years.
“You think I applied for this job because of you? Don’t flatter yourself, Luca. Until five minutes ago, I didn’t know you were the groom. Believe me, if I had, I never would’ve taken it.”
His gaze pinned me in place. Calculating. Assessing. As if searching for the lie in what I’d just said.
I swallowed. Not out of guilt, but because my body betrayed me every time he looked at me like that—like I still belonged to him.
“I have nothing to say to you, Luca. What happened between us is in the past, and that is where it should remain. I don’t give a damn about you, so please, get out of here before someone sees us.”
He inched closer to me, only a hairsbreadth separating us now. “You don’t?”
“I don’t,” I ground out.
His gaze dropped to my lips, then lower. “Then why are you breathing so heavily?”
I hated him for noticing. Hated myself more for letting him affect me.
“I’m not,” I whispered.
His response was a smirk I wanted to slap right off his face.
We stared at each other, the tension between us stretched like a tripwire ready to snap. Unlike mine, his breath was steady. He wascool, calm, and collected, while I felt like I was on the verge of combustion.
The tension was broken by the sound of my phone buzzing. And without even looking at the caller ID, desperate for something else to turn my attention to, I hit the answer button.
“Miss Carter? It’s Mr. Monroe.”
My blood froze a little at the sound of Ollie’s teacher’s voice. I froze.
Luca seemed to notice the shift in my expression as his gaze sharpened on me.
“It’s twenty minutes past school’s pick-up time,” Mr. Monroe continued gently. “I just wanted to remind you in case you were swamped and lost track of time.”
“I’ll be there in a moment,” I said quickly and hung up.
