Page 15 of Midnight Confessions

Aleck turns toward me just before he passes through the doorway. “Oh, yeah, one more thing…” He leans his hip against the frame and pushes his hands into his pockets. “Who were you expecting that you felt comfortable enough opening the door naked?”

His goading smirk makes my jaw tic with anger.

“I wasn’t naked,” I say with an unaffected smile. “I was in a towel because my shower was rudely interrupted. I thought maybe you had locked yourself out.”

“This morning you pranced your pretty ass around the kitchen in those hot little panties of yours…” He pushes off the door frame and ambles toward me slowly.

Swallowing hard, I plant my feet, refusing to react. Sex appeal is Aleck’s bread and butter… but I need to swear off carbs. I willnotreact.

“You could have just as easily thrown on that robe hanging beside the shower. Instead, you chose the towel…”

I will not react.

Aleck steps into my space, immediately sucking all my oxygen into his atmosphere. “Are you trying to tell me something, Winter?”

Mere inches from my face, he stares down at me, and for the sixty seconds I take to gain composure and be an actual human being with the ability to form full educated sentences, I stare back, blinking at him like I don’t understand the English language.

I willNOTreact.

Shaking off the lightheadedness he induced, I snap myself out of it. With Aleck, I always have to remember who I am. He’s good at what he does, but my self-respect is a fortress.

Thank you, ex-boyfriend Brian.

“Aleck, I say this with every fiber in my being, everything about you turns me off. Your attitude, your personality, the way you carry yourself. I don’t think the wholerich-boy, enabled by his parents, wouldn’t recognize hardship if it reached down and stuck its thumb up his ass because he’s never come close to experiencing itvibe you’ve got going on is attractive. This thing you do…” I wave my hand over his body from head to toe. “This wholeeverything I do is dripping with sexvibe grosses me out.”

Aleck’s eyes narrow, locking with mine, his jaw muscles clenching with anger. He leans down, and his hot breath tickles the shell of my ear, forcing a violent shudder to roll through me.

“You don’t know dick about me, Grimm. And you certainly don’t know dick about my parents.”

I turn my head, my lips almost touching his, taken aback by the affliction in his tone. I open my mouth, pushing myself to speak. To say what? I don’t know. But I obviously hit a nerve.

Is he mad or sad at what I’ve said?

No, Aleck Fox doesn’t get sad, I’m sure of that. I thought he’d laugh it off like he usually does and use what I’ve said as fuel to come back and hit harder.

But not this time.

Aleck pulls away from me, taking my breath with him, and turns his back. “I’ll be ready in twenty minutes,” he rasps over his shoulder.

Then he’s gone.

I stand rattled in my spot for a minute, maybe two, going over what just happened.

Aleck Fox has been trying to get under my skin since we met.Hewent to war withme. He started this game. He deserves everything I just said to him. Because although I probably shouldn’t have insulted his parents, I’m most likely right about them and everything else I said.That’swhy he got pissed.

It’s decided. I don’t care. Aleck had it coming, and his bruised male ego is not my business, nor my concern.

Don’t like the heat, Fox? Don’t light the fire.

I walk over to my nightstand and grab my phone to dial Sondra. It’s time to check in on my best friend.

“Hey girlfriend,” she answers.

“Hi. How are you?”

“Peachy. I can’t talk for long. Preston and I are headed to the mortuary to pick out Edith’s casket in a few minutes.”

“Yikes. Sondra, I am so sorry this has happened right before your wedding.”

---