Morana watched, shocked, as he typed in the code and looked at her, tilting his head towards the open door.
"Go up."
Morana stood rooted to the spot, stunned.
"Morana, I don't have all night and I cannot leave you like this," Dante told her quietly, his eyes beseeching. "Please go up to the penthouse and rest."
She was the enemy. She was the woman his blood brother hated for a reason he knew of.
And yet...
Swallowing, she locked her car and moved towards the elevator on aching legs, her heart beating hard.
She looked up at Dante, her lips trembling. "Thank you," she whispered, meaning every single syllable from her heart.
Dante nodded.
She entered the familiar elevator and pressed the button. The doors closed on Dante's face. The mirrors stared back at her.
&n
bsp; And Morana gasped.
Her dress hung off her shoulders, her hair a mess around her face, her cheeks cut and knees abraded, the skin of her hands and legs and shoulders turning bluer by the second, her lips swollen from her own bites and eyes puffed red from the tears.
She looked like a wreck. No wonder Dante had let her in.
And Tristan Caine was up there.
And she was going up.
What the hell was she doing?
Nerves attacked her, her chest constricting as panic hit.
No. No. No.
She couldn't let him see her like this. She couldn't enter his territory, not like this.
Heart hammering in her chest, her phone clutched tightly in her hand, keys digging into her palm, Morana raised her hand and let her finger hover over the button for the parking, ready to hit the moment the elevator stopped. She was going to turn her tail and go back to her car and go to some seedy motel if she had to. But she was going back. She was not letting him see her like –
The elevator stopped, the doors sliding open.
He stood right at the entrance, waiting.
Morana hit the button for down quickly, before he could see her.
The doors started to close.
Her heart thundered.
She hit the button again.
The doors kept sliding shut.
Almost there.
And just when they almost closed, his hand inserted itself in between.