Page 23 of What Alex Wants…He Gets

Chapter Nine

Harper

As promised,my doorbell buzzed promptly at eight pm. I smoothed out my favorite little black dress and began the process of unlocking my umpteen locks. I didn’t live in a bad neighborhood per se, but living alone in a big city meant I didn’t take unnecessary risks when it came to home security. Plus, I’d been told this was a necessity here.

I steeled myself with a deep breath and yanked open the door—to a stranger.

Before the tendrils of fear could take root, the man in the black suit at my threshold gave me a tight smile and tilted his body to the side. “Good evening, Ms. Allison my name is Gerard. I’m here to escort you downstairs to where Mr. Woodman is waiting.”

“Alex Woodman.” I said the name, not as a question, but instead as another piece to the puzzle that was my mystery man.

“Yes, Ma’am, of course. Mr. Alexander Woodman.”

I bit my lips at the puzzled expression on the driver/man servant’s face. I mean what exactly was I supposed to call him besides Gerard? I had no idea what the protocol was for this kind of thing.

“Uhm. Okay.” I started forward and Gerard stopped me.

“Ma’am, it’s quite cold outside. Don’t you want to grab your coat?”

Oh duh. I nearly slapped my forehead over my stupidity. A purse and keys were kind of necessary too. This whole situation was apparently melting my brain.

I stepped back inside and grabbed my things from the entry table and hook, shrugged the warm but functional jacket onto my arms and wished I’d thought ahead to this part so I could have asked Zia to borrow something a little nicer than my puffy hooded coat that I wore daily, not because it was pretty, but because it functioned perfectly by keeping me warm.

I preceded Gerard down the three flights of stairs that seemed longer than ever before. We emerged together from the building with him holding my door open. At the sight of the sleek black car at the curb I got a twinge in my stomach. When the back door opened and Alex emerged from the backseat, I began to feel a little like a princess.

Maybe it was the fish out of water with a stepmother kind, but I didn’t care. He was here in his modern day chariot with a million dollar smile on his face that made my knees go a little weak. And I didn’t care even a little how cliched that sounded in my own head.

“Hey,” he said, taking my hand and pressing it to his mouth. I gasped at the contact of his warm lips against my skin. That tiny little gesture sent me reeling back to Valentine’s night and the first kiss we’d shared then.

This one was far different from that night, but it felt every bit as important.

“Hey yourself.” Two words, it was all I could string together at the moment. If nervous butterflies hadn’t erupted inside me I would have laughed. I was being ridiculous again.

Before I could pull myself together, he pulled me in his arms and stared down at me. His fingertips pressed against my lips. “I’ve been thinking about this nonstop. I’m glad I didn’t have to resort to kidnapping to get another date. Although that could have been fun in its own way too.”

“That doesn’t sound as much fun though.”

“Ahh. But you haven’t been taken by me. That could be a game changer.”

The laughter that threatened got clogged in my throat as my brain went an entirely different direction. Was he talking about kidnapping or sex? It was the experience I had missed out on during our first date wasn’t it? I’d expected it after Jeremy had left. Had wanted it more than anything.

Instead I’d been driven home in an orgasm induced haze and hadn’t fully realized until I’d gone to bed, that my mystery man, Alex, had managed to refrain. He’d given, but not taken, and he’d gone home without coming.

“About that,” I started, my breath coming a little quicker than I’d expected. “I didn’t mean to—I mean I could have—”

He pressed his fingers tighter against my lips and silenced my words.

“That night happened exactly how I wanted it to.” He leaned closer. “You were perfect.”

“But I don’t understand. Why would you go to all that trouble and then not,” I gulped, trying to force the words to come out.

“Fuck you?”

I nodded, hoping he didn’t notice that my head had just exploded. Or I guess more accurately how my body had freaked out. I suddenly felt like a live wire with excess and dangerous energy about to explode.

“And then where would we be? With nothing left to anticipate would you have agreed to come out with me tonight?”

I wanted to argue. Push him away. What kind of woman did he think I was that I wouldn’t even consider a second date after sex? So much for being a princess.

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