Page 13 of House of Ruin
Immediately, against her better judgment, Alecto stole a glance at Blaze on her left. She had noticed the typewriter on his desk, the empty paper sticking out of it with three words typed out, never finished.
But Blaze wasn’t looking her way. In fact, his head was lolling forwards, hands crossed over his chest as if he were dozing off to sleep.
It was silly of Alecto to think, to hope that a note would come from Blaze. Ignoring the disappointment pushing at her chest, Alecto folded the note, ready to throw it in the bin by the bookshelf behind her, when Norse’s silver head caught her attention.
A few rows down, on Alecto’s right, Norse sat with Rebecca Moon, and right now his attention was on Alecto. Slowly, his gaze travelled to her palm and the note lying there before meeting her eyes again.
Fuck me.
Quickly, Alecto stuffed the note in her pocket, turning to the open book on her desk, and willed her mind to focus on the text instead of the meaning of Norse sending her notes like that.
6
Alecto had waited long enough. It was time to start acting.
Gently, she rapped her knuckles on the door, and not even a heartbeat passed before it flew open. In front of Alecto stood Blaze in only black jeans hanging so low on his hips, she had a view of the light dusting of dark hairverysouth of his navel.
There was a puzzled expression on his face for a moment, and then he arched a brow. But he didn’t let Alecto in, leaning one of his forearms on the jamb instead. The action just made his muscles strain harder under his moon-pale skin, and Alecto had to swallow very hard to stop her heart from escaping her chest.
“Yes, baby?”
Alecto cleared her throat, raising her eyes to his. “You’re not even going to invite me in?”
A dark smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth, and after a moment, Blaze moved away from the door, walking over to the windowsill.
Hesitantly, Alecto entered his room, which was visibly messier than she remembered—there were clothes on the floor near the wardrobe, his jewelry scattered on every surface. Alecto didn’t miss the half-empty bottles of whiskey lined against the fireplace either.
Weird.
Before Alecto could linger longer on the scenery, she shoved away the turmoil of emotions pushing at her chest and walked over to the windowsill.
This time, Blaze didn’t offer her a cigarette when he lit one of his own.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked after a moment of silence, his dark eyes boring into Alecto and sending chills down her back.
Somehow, she wasn’t sure her plan was going to work. Blaze was cold and distant, which wasn’t what Alecto had expected. Not after what had happened between them mere weeks ago. Not after the way he had been looking at her since they’d spent the night together after the Tigers’ attack.
When she’d left him to wake up alone in her bed the next morning.
But Alecto had a plan, and she wasn’t going to back down.
“I came here with a…proposition,” she said.
Blaze’s brows shot all the way to his hairline. “Do tell, baby.”
“Well,” Alecto started, crossing her legs, which caused her leather skirt to go higher up her thighs and drew Blaze’s gaze to her exposed skin. Alecto fought the smirk. “We had fun last trimester, didn’t we? And I’m not talking about the Game.”
There was no mistaking the heavy desire that settled over his stark features. And when Blaze dragged his gaze back to Alecto’s face, those dark eyes were hot as coal. “Indeed we did.”
They sat in silence for a moment, staring at each other.
He is waiting for me to ask him, Alecto realized. Blaze was waiting for her to come to him, that motherfucking bastard.
“I don’t see why we need to stop,” Alecto offered. “We’re both adults who clearly haveneeds. Why don’t we help each other fulfill them?”
Another dark smirk curved his mouth, his eyes hooded. “I’m not sure I follow your train of thought.”
Despite herself, Alecto couldn’t hold back the roll of her eyes at Blaze. He really wanted Alecto to spell it out for him.
