His head dropped and Elena cupped the back of his neck. His muscles were strung like piano wire. She caressed them gently and he shuddered.
‘They can lock me up again, I don’t care, but I will not tolerate them hurting you.’
‘Alex.’ She couldn’t bear to hear that. Not that.
He took a deep breath that rocked his whole body. She kissed his temple and wrapped her arms around him. ‘She’s nothing. Don’t do this to yourself. She’s not worth it.’
Elena’s heart ached. They were caught in an impossible situation. They never should have come back to New York, but they couldn’t stay at the manor for ever.
Where was their place in the world?
There had to be one. She remembered the omega wolf she’d seen at the zoo tonight. It was at the bottom of the pack structure. It took nippings and beat-downs from the rest of the pack, but it was still loved. It was still included and valued. The world outside their door was trying to take her alpha male and reduce him to less than even that.
She couldn’t bear the thought of him beaten and broken.
Especially because of her.
She ran kisses over his cheek. Cupping his face, she brought his mouth up to hers. The kiss was soft and poignant. Gentle and heartfelt.
Words were barely reaching him. She tried to show him how she felt through touch.
He kissed her back. Their mouths moulded and their breaths meshed. His hands came up to cup her head. His fingers tangled in her hair as he kept the kisses slow and drugging.
There was no flashpoint, no rampaging drive to tear off each other’s clothes.
What they needed was to connect.
He stroked her hair away from her face. ‘I need to hold you.’
She scooted forward on the counter.
He didn’t even allow her feet to touch the ground. Sliding his arm underneath her knees, he picked her up and cradled her against his chest. Elena held him tightly, snuggling into his neck. Those jagged emotions were smoothing out, but his heart was still pounding. She could see his pulse. She brushed her lips over the fluttering vein.
He was twice her size and muscularly honed, yet she still felt the overwhelming need to protect him.
He carried her down the hall, his footsteps muffled by the plush carpeting. The only sounds in the whole apartment were the refrigerator humming and their breaths. That silence was punctuated when he carried her inside the bedroom and firmly shut the door behind them.
He used his foot, but he didn’t kick. That gave it all the more meaning.
He was shutting the world outside and locking them in together. Willingly. Intentionally.
She shivered.
‘Are you cold?’
‘No.’ She was moved.
He set her on her feet, and they shared another lingering kiss. Neither hurried as they undressed. As difficult as the evening had been, there should be scars and open wounds, yet all the hurting was on the inside.
He pulled back the covers and she slid in. She held out her arms and he came to her naturally. His athletic movement was so graceful. He turned out the lights and they lay facing each other.
His hand swept up her side and came to a rest on her breast. She ran her hand down his ribcage. So strong, yet so vulnerable. He only let her see that. As much as he’d fought against letting her in, he’d become crystal clear to her. Her palm found a resting place on his hipbone, and her fingers lay softly against his thigh.
He kissed her forehead and the tip of her nose before finally meeting her lips.
‘I’m sorry I’m not as strong as you,’ she whispered. ‘If I’d just ignored her or walked on by …’
His hold on her breast tightened.
‘I’m not strong,’ he replied. ‘I’ve been hardened. I don’t want that to ever happen to you.’
She sighed and kissed his collarbone. She felt such a connection with him like this. It was the calm in the eye of the storm. Rubbing her cheek against his chest, she thought back to when they’d first met. They’d somehow found a way to each other, even with all the obstacles in their path. They’d found the heart of each other. Why wouldn’t others do the same?
At the very least, why couldn’t they just let them be?
She stroked his shadowy beard and kissed him with more heat. They were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. They might as well take solace in one another.
‘Do you need me, Siren?’
‘You know I do.’
He caressed her breast and stroked her down to her flank. Catching her knee, he pulled her top leg over his hip. The position was easy and free. Elena stretched and rolled her hips towards him. That same wicked hand glided over her bottom, and her toes pointed in pleasure when he explored the heart of her.
He rubbed her intimately, preparing her.
She bit her lip to hold back a moan, but it came out when he tweaked her sensitive nub.
‘Don’t hold back with me.’ His mouth covered hers and his tongue pressed deep. ‘Ever.’
She worked her hand between their bodies. She explored him fearlessly with palm and fingers. When her nails scraped ever so gently along the underside of his erection, he jerked.
It was enough for him.
They shifted on the covers until they were positioned just right. Elena hitched herself up and then he was there, at her entrance. Their mouths locked together and their fingers laced at her hip. With one long, continuous thrust, he took her.
Her moan was soft and airy.
He inhaled the scent of her hair.
And then they began to rock.
Slowly. Passionately. Their coming together wasn’t frenzied and feral, but that didn’t make it any less momentous. The need was just as strong, but it was accompanied by emotion and meaning.
Maybe it always had been.
Their bodies undulated together, finding a rhythm. They weren’t racing towards an end. It was all about the connection.
Alex groaned. ‘You are so tight, so hot. It’s like you don’t want to give me up.’
Elena tucked her face into the pillow. ‘I don’t.’
He felt so good moving inside her. Hard and thick.
Words fell into touches. Their bodies warmed and their skin clung. The air in the room became steamy as they rode one another. Sighs blended with grunts. Caresses stoked the fire.
When they came, it was as one. Their bodies arched. Their muscles tensed. Elena let out a soft cry and Alex whispered her name.
When they finally floated down from the high, neither was ready for it to end. They stayed connected, physically and emotionally, as the night darkened the room. They fell asleep in each other’s arms with the world held at bay. The night was theirs.
But they both knew that daylight would come much too soon.
* * *
Things changed after that. They worked from the penthouse the next day, and Elena made dinner for them the next night. The following day was the same. And the next.
Nothing had been discussed, but their adventures in New York stopped.
They didn’t attend any more events. They didn’t even consider the invitations.
Alex had food delivered on nights when neither of them felt like cooking. They watched movies on the big screen and worked out in the gym. They even saw people. He invited programmers over from Wolfe Pack for a code jam one day and, when she needed to consult with someone on her dissertation, he sent James to pick up Dr Walters.
It was insular and protective, but it was driving Elena out of her mind.
At least at the manor they could go outside. She’d gone on long walks and had felt the air on her face. She’d smelled the flowers and had swept her fingers through the lake’s cold water. Even switching between the lake house and the manor had offered a change of scenery.
Here, she felt like Rapunzel in her ivory tower. Her knight in shining armour might be with her, but it wasn’t the fairytale that it seemed.
She tried begging, and she tried r
ationalising. Alex just wouldn’t hear of it.
‘The bankruptcy decision for Wolfe Financial is still too volatile,’ he told her. ‘The press is still looking into you.’
And they were. They just weren’t finding anything – much like when they’d tried to find anything a year and a half before.
Only Caroline Woodward wasn’t giving up. She’d taken some heat for her romantic relationships, but that had just made her more dogged in her determination. Alex had promised she wouldn’t be a problem any more, but not even his lawyers could fight the freedom of the press. The reporter was coming after them like a hyena after fresh meat.
Last night, she’d interviewed Candace. The talk had been full of supposition, lies and venom. It hadn’t been pretty, and Alex had been pacing around the room by the end. His lawyers probably didn’t get much sleep.
Elena’s patience was waning. The two of them couldn’t bury their heads in the sand. It wasn’t helping. It was only making the media wonder why they wouldn’t face them. Were they plotting something new? What were they trying to hide?
After nine days of it, she couldn’t take it any more.
She sat cross-legged in an easy chair in the office Alex had set up for her. A three-drawer desk with a reading lamp sat unused across the way. Her laptop was open on the table at her side, but she hadn’t touched it for nearly half an hour. Its screensaver was spinning random shapes.
She watched the blue oval turn into a yellow square. ‘I don’t what to do any more,’ she confessed into her phone. ‘I’m going stir-crazy, Mom.’
‘Can’t you just run down to the corner shop? Maybe grab a cappuccino?’
‘Caroline Woodward would be there within minutes asking her nasty questions.’
‘Don’t you have security people?’
‘We have lots of people. If I wanted a cappuccino, any of them would go get one for me. It defeats the purpose.’
‘Oh, honey.’ Her mother sighed. ‘I hate to say it, but –’
‘Please don’t say I told you so.’
‘I wasn’t going to.’ In the background, a beater whirred. ‘Hard as it may be to believe, I was about to say, “Maybe he’s right.”’
Elena cocked her head, certain she’d heard incorrectly. ‘What?’
‘I know. Listen, I wasn’t happy about you getting involved with him, but you had to go back to the city eventually to finish your degree. I can’t say I’m unhappy that he’s there, protecting you. Especially after what happened at the zoo. Honey, that was scary for everyone.’
‘But I feel smothered.’ Trapped. She was beginning to understand what he felt like when his claustrophobia kicked in. They had an entire floor to stroll around in, yet she craved her freedom. She wanted to buy a hotdog from a vendor on a street corner. She wanted to feel the chilly air whip down the streets as if they were wind tunnels.
Even the crummy drizzle outside today would be refreshing.
‘He cares about you, Elena. I can see it in the photographs in People and the stories on Entertainment Tonight.’
‘I know he does, but he’s afraid of what might be lurking around every corner. I just can’t say that to him.’ The big bad wolf wasn’t supposed to be afraid of anything. ‘I’m worried about him,’ she confessed. ‘He’s not meant to be held back like this.’ She watched the shapes spin and morph as they bounced off the corners of the laptop’s screen. They weren’t able to escape either; they just kept spinning round and round. ‘Neither am I.’
‘I understand,’ Yvonne said. ‘His intentions are good, but the results are not.’
‘He’s not doing well, either.’ Elena was quick to defend him. ‘I can see how it’s wearing on him, but he feels a responsibility to his company now that he’s returned. He’s as stuck as I am.’
‘Have you told him how you feel?’
She sighed. She’d tried, and he did understand. He just wasn’t willing to compromise. ‘He’s stubborn.’
‘Have you tried getting him out?’
Elena toyed with the cuff of her slipper. ‘He won’t even go into the office. I know he’s comfortable there, and the whole company is wrapped up in some big project. He says he can do everything he needs to by teleconference.’
‘How about something fun?’ her mother suggested. ‘Is there any way you can lure him out for something like that?’
Elena grimaced. ‘I made the mistake of suggesting we go visit Siren and the pups the other day. It was a bad call.’
One she hadn’t thought the whole way through.
‘Oh, baby.’
‘I thought we could replace a bad memory with a good one.’ At the very least, they could apologise to Dr Hoff. The reception had been so delightful until they’d created such a commotion.
Well, they hadn’t created it. The reporter had. Clips from that ambush were still trending on YouTube.
‘He’s richer than God, Mom. He can get anything that he wants delivered.’ Anything. They’d even had dinner from restaurants that supposedly didn’t cater.
There was a long pause at the other end of the line. ‘OK, I’m with you now,’ Yvonne said. Her voice was calm but clipped. ‘But you’re not going to like what I have to say.’
Elena bit her lip. They both knew that was why she’d called.
She just needed to hear it aloud.
‘The behaviour you’re describing isn’t healthy. It’s controlling and it’s disturbing.’
‘He’s not –’
‘You have to look out for yourself, Elena. I know you care about him, and you’ve convinced me he wasn’t that involved with the Ponzi scheme, but you have to take care of number one.’
‘I’m trying to think about myself.’ It was why she’d called. ‘But I don’t want to hurt him.’
She’d tried adjusting, and she’d tried working with him. If they’d never met … If she hadn’t gone to the lake house, she’d probably be in exactly the same situation, only she’d be a hermit in a tiny studio apartment. Yet he was involved, and she’d become stronger than that.
She couldn’t stand to see him do this to himself.
He’d already been imprisoned once. The penthouse might be cushier and better equipped, but it had become a prison of his own making.
‘Sometimes you have to make tough decisions,’ Yvonne said quietly. ‘Even if they sting.’
Elena bit her lip. The screen saver had timed out and her laptop had gone black.
‘I was with a man with money once.’ Her mother’s voice became raspy. ‘I know how it can creep into the corners of your life and burst out the seams.’
‘Oh, Mom.’ They’d rarely talked about the divorce. She’d been so little, and then it had merely been a fact of life.
‘I loved your father, Lainie, but I had to do what was right for you and me.’
Elena swallowed hard. She had to do what was right for Alex and her, too. ‘I understand. Thanks, Mom.’
It was painful, but it was what she’d needed to hear. Sometimes a kick in the butt was necessary.
It was time. He’d protected her. It was time for her to do the right thing for him.
Terrible as it might be.
They said their goodbyes, and Elena picked up her laptop. She traced her fingers along the outer edge. It had been a gift from him, one of the many ways he’d rescued her. She tapped a key to bring it back to life and stuck a flash drive in the USB port.
She had it clenched in her hand as she walked into his office down the hallway.
She’d told her mother he could do anything here he needed, and his office was proof of that. It looked like a war room with two monitors on his desk, a work flow diagram spread out over two tables, and a big screen TV on the wall. Any technology he needed was at his beck and call.
Any but one.
‘Hi,’ she said softly.
He glanced up from his desk. He was scanning through another economics textbook. ‘Hey.’
That observant grey gaze ran over her, first to check i
f anything was wrong and then with more leisure.
She held up the flash drive. ‘I need to go to the printer.’
His pen clipped down on the desk, and he straightened. ‘Are you finished?’
‘With the paper.’ She inhaled deeply, but the sense of relief and accomplishment was muted inside her. She couldn’t summon up the excitement that was warranted.
He came around his desk and hugged her. ‘That’s fantastic, baby. I’m so happy for you.’
She was happy, too. It was an accomplishment, but this was just one milestone. She could take a day or two to refresh, but she needed to start preparing her presentation next. A committee of tenured professors was going to pepper her with questions, and she had to be ready to defend her findings.
She turned the flash drive over in her fingers. ‘I need to print out copies and have them bound.’
‘Send it over to Wolfe Pack. They can handle that for you.’
She scowled. Not that she didn’t trust his people, but she was going to do this herself. After all the blood, sweat and tears she’d put into it, she was going to make sure it was done right. There weren’t going to be any missing pages, smudges or crooked printouts.
‘I’d like to get everything over to the committee by the end of the day.’
‘Not a problem.’ He picked up the phone. ‘We’ll get a courier.’
She shook her head and covered the keypad before he could dial. ‘No. Alex, this is something I want to do myself.’
‘I know it’s important to you, baby.’ He rested his hips against the desk. ‘How about this? We’ll have James run them by here so you can check everything before he delivers them. Does that work for you?’
She sent him a sad look. No, it didn’t.
He saw the less than excited expression on her face. Catching her chin, he brushed his thumb along her jawline. ‘Let’s order Grimaldi’s tonight to celebrate.’
Her eyes started to sting, and she clenched the flash drive in her fist. She didn’t feel much like celebrating. ‘I’m not very hungry.’
She was frustrated and discouraged, but determination gelled inside her chest.
Solace in Scandal Page 22