Dropping the backpack on the floor, I began to take off my work clothes. I needed to let loose. I needed sweatpants and a tank top and my bra off because it was so freaking hot in here. Splashing some cold water on my face didn’t even help, and I still walked like I was in a dream around my living room, ten minutes after I’d gotten into the safety of my apartment.
“Freaking wolf-ass,” I hissed at the walls. He showed up out of the blue, just like that, and even after Icouldn’tsee him anymore, and he was off to God knows where, he still made me feel like this.
I sat down on the couch and forced myself to squeeze my eyes shut and take control. Take back my power, just like Sandra said that time. I didn’t want to react to him the way I did. I just wanted to be angry and proud and completely indifferent to anything he did or said.
A couple of minutes of exploring the darkness of my mind and I did feel the pressure lifting from me a little bit. I lay back on the couch, a brand-new wave of thoughts coming at me now that I’d calmed down a little bit.
Whydid he even come here? What the hell did he want when he kicked me out of his house just that morning? What did he want to say?
“I don’t care,” I said to the ceiling. Whatever it was that he wanted, it wasn’t my problem. And he was gone now. He was…
I heard something tapping by the door and I sat up, all my attention on my ears.
Was that a knock?
No, it wasn’t a knock, just some noise. Probably someone in the hallway going up to the second floor or something.
Tap.
There it was again.
I stood up slowly, as if I was afraid of being heard, even though I was inside my damn apartment, and I went all the way to the door on my tiptoes.
Tap, tap.
The sound was unmistakable—and it was coming from the other side of my door. I didn’t have a peephole so I couldn’t see who it was, but the way my gut kept on twisting, I had a pretty accurate guess.
And then…
“Teddy.”
I heard his voice. Dominic’s voice came right from the other side of the door, like he was really there. It was not my imagination.
Tap, tap, tap. It sounded like he was tapping his fingers on the frame of the door.
I sat on the floor, back against the wall right next to the door. Was he really there? What the hell was he doing?
I took my phone out of my pocket, half my mind made up to text Hunter and tell him to get here right now and save me.
No.I didn’t need saving. I wasn’t being attacked. And if Dominic wasreallythere…
“Can you hear me?”
Oh, God.
Dominic wasreallythere in the hallway, right outside my door.
I didn’t speak. Couldn’t if I tried. I just closed my eyes and begged my heart to stop wanting stupid things while it insisted with every single beat that I open the door. I was not going to open the door because the truth, though ugly, was still the truth: I could not handle Dominic Dane. One look and I was second-guessing everything. One touch and I would throw my inhibitions out the door willingly. One kiss and I would give myself to him in whichever way he pleased, everything else be damned.
And I didn’t want that, not like this. Not after everything.
But God, it did feel great to see him alive and breathing. I was a lot more relieved than I should have been.
So, I stayed there—I would stay there until I heard him leaving because what else was I going to do when I knew he was right there? I wouldn’t be able to focus onanythinguntil he left, and I prayed with all my heart that he got bored soon.
Five minutes passed, then ten. He no longer made a single sound, so the idea of getting Hunter to come here sounded better and better to me.
But then…