Chapter 128
Elena’s Point Of View
For a split second, the words didn’t feel real. My brain scrambled, tripping over itself, as if reality had bent into some impossible dream.
My chest rose and fell, breath trapped halfway between panic and disbelief, my whole body caught in that strange limbo where nothing quite makes sense yet.
This had to be a dream. It had to. My mind grasped for logic… maybe I’d fallen asleep on Lexy’s plush couch while flipping through gowns, maybe the boutique had slipped into one of those vivid nightmares where desire and fear tangled too tightly.
I’d had those before, the kind that left me gasping and disoriented, unsure where the dream ended and the waking world began. I almost wanted to pinch myself, to force some kind of proof, some anchor back to reality.
But the sharp heat of his hand still lingered on the middle of my back, undeniable and real. His scent… dark spice, smoke, single-malt whiskey, something I’d hated myself for memorizing, was too sharp, too precise.
No dream could conjure this level of detail, this maddening specificity that only Jaxx could carry into a room. Even my subconscious, as treacherous as it had proven lately, couldn’t have invented the particular way his presence pressed against every nerve I owned.
Slowly, I twisted out of his reach, the unzipped silk gown shifting precariously against my skin. My voice caught in my throat, my lips parting, but sound was hard to find.
My heart hammered against my ribs like it wanted out, like it recognized him before the rest of me had caught up, some traitorous part of me already surrendering while the rest scrambled for composure.
Finally, in a hoarse, furious whisper, I managed, “What are you doing here, Jaxx? How I swallowed hard, eyes darting around the fitting room like the walls might betray a hidden crack. “How did you even get in here p>
His mouth curved, maddeningly slow, into that half-smile that had always been equal parts danger and sin. “I have my ways p>
“Your ways?” I echoed, my chest heaving, already fighting the urge to roll my eyes. My hands clenched into tight fists against the pale silk at my hips, nails digging crescents into my palms just to feel something other than the traitorous heat spreading through me. Anything to remind myself that I was still in control, still capable of resisting whatever gravitational pull he seemed to carry into every room he entered.
“But,” he added smoothly, straightening as if to emphasize it, leaning his broad shoulder against the mirrored wall behind him, “I definitely didn’t break in. I’m a law-abiding citizen, Elena p>
A humorless, sharp laugh nearly burst from me. “Law-abiding citizen? You?” My eyebrow arched so high it nearly touched my hairline. “Do you even hear yourself, Jaxx? You bypass security systems for breakfast. You’re a ruthless, arrogant criminal p>
He chuckled, the sound low and lazy, like gravel spilling down silk, sending an unwanted, intoxicating spark dancing straight down my spine. “I knew you’d say that p>
I exhaled sharply, fighting the violent tremor crawling up my back. “I told you three weeks ago not to show your face in front of me ever again!” I spat, taking a quick step backward until the edge of the vanity table pressed against my waist. “I was completely clear, Jaxx. I drew a line in the dirt. I told you if you ever came near me again, I’d make sure you regretted it p>
Jaxx smirked, stepping forward instantly, erasing the small distance I’d just tried so desperately to create. His pitch-black eyes glittered with a dangerous, wicked light under the warm boutique lamps, and for a moment I forgot how to breathe.
The three weeks I’d spent convincing myself I was over him evaporated in an instant, dissolving under the weight of that single look.
“I missed you too much,” he murmured, his voice dripping with smooth, shameless heat. “I had to come find you, bambina p>
“Don’t call me that!” I snapped, my throat tight, staring up at the sheer breadth of his leather-clad chest. “And don’t act like you can just waltz into my life whenever your ego craves attention! I meant every single word three weeks ago. I don’t want you around me. I don’t want your games, I don’t want your dark little eyes tracking my every move, and I certainly don’t want you slipping into my best friend’s boutique like a ghost p>
Jaxx didn’t back down. If anything, my fire only seemed to feed him. He closed the gap until the heavy leather of his jacket brushed against the delicate, exposed silk at my sternum.
The intense, radiated heat of his body was suffocating, wrapping around me like a trap I’d walked into with my eyes wide open. I hated how my body remembered him, how every inch of skin seemed to lean toward him despite everything my mind screamed.
“You can scream at me all you want, Elena,” he murmured, his voice dropping an octave, rich, dark, and utterly composed. “You can tell me you hate my guts. You can threaten to call security, or those useless bodyguards your family hires. But don’t stand there and lie to my face. Don’t tell me you didn’t think about me every single night of those three weeks p>
“I didn’t!” I lied fiercely, my pulse hammering a frantic, pathetic rhythm in my throat, betraying every word that left my mouth.
“Liar,” he whispered, leaning down until his lips were inches from the exposed shell of my ear. The dark warmth of his breath sent a violent shudder through my entire frame, one I prayed he couldn’t feel.
“I know you, Elena. I know how that sharp, brilliant mind of yours works. You sat in that big, cold house, staring at the ceiling, wishing it was my hands on your waist instead of your own thoughts driving you insane p>
“You are terrifyingly delusional,” I choked out, placing my flat palm against his chest to shove him back. But feeling the rock-hard, steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath his shirt only made my own blood run hotter, my resolve cracking at the edges. “I didn’t miss you. I was relieved, Jaxx. I was finally breathing without you suffocating me p>
Without missing a beat, he caught my wrist… not hard enough to bruise, but firm enough to lock me completely in place, and brought my hand up, pressing a slow, lingering, scorching kiss right to the center of my palm.
My breath hitched sharply, my eyes widening as the heat traveled straight up my arm and settled somewhere dangerous in my chest, a slow-burning ache I refused to name.
“Then why is your pulse racing like a trapped bird right now?” he asked softly, his dark eyes locking onto mine with lethal precision. “Why are your cheeks flushed, Elena? Why haven’t you screamed for help p>
“Because Lexy is right down the hall!” I whispered desperately, trying to pull my wrist back, though my muscles felt like liquid beneath his touch. “And if she walks through that door and sees you, she will call the cops, and there will be a damn crime scene in her fitting room p>
“Lexy is in her front office dealing with a sudden, mysterious shipping delay on her Italian silk,” Jaxx said with a wicked, razor-sharp grin. “She’s going to be occupied for at least another fifteen minutes. We’re entirely alone p>
My jaw dropped, pure outrage flaring in my chest. “You didn’t p>
“I told you,” he murmured, stepping right into my space until there wasn’t a whisper of air left between us, “I have my ways p>
I exhaled sharply, fighting the wild, electric tension coiling low in my gut. “Why are you here, Jaxx p>
My voice tightened, sharp, like a blade unsheathed, refusing to let him see how easily he unraveled me, how close I was to losing the battle against my own body. “And how did you find me p>
His eyes locked on mine, dark, unwavering, drinking in the sight of me in the pale champagne dress like he was memorizing it for later. “Your presence,” he said, every word a caress and a taunt, “always has a way of attracting me p>
The air between us tightened to a razor’s edge. I snapped my head back, breaking the intense eye contact like it burned. “Don’t tell me I muttered, lifting my chin in warning, don’t you dare tell me you’ve been stalking me p>
The laugh that escaped him wasn’t loud, it was soft, chest-deep, the kind that shook lightly, mocking and amused. His head tilted back slightly, eyes glinting under the boutique lights.
“That’s for obsessed boys, bambina,” he murmured, smirk widening as his long fingers casually traced the bare curve of my exposed shoulder, sending goosebumps rippling across my skin. “I don’t do that p>
I narrowed my eyes, folding my arms tightly across my chest… a pathetic, flimsy barrier against the heavy, addictive heat his presence carried. “Then why are you here? Because if you came all this way just to explain the difference between you and a stalker, congratulations… I don’t care. You can leave now p>
His smirk faltered, his eyes dropping for the briefest second to my mouth, then to the floor. Then he exhaled… not the careless sigh of a man playing a game, but something heavier, rawer, darker, something that made my stomach twist with unwanted concern.
He raked a large, calloused hand through his thick dark hair, pushing the strands back… a tell I’d come to recognize during our stormiest moments, a sign that he was unraveling, that the armor was slipping. I’d seen that gesture only a handful of times before, and each time, it had preceded something that changed everything between us.
“I came to see you, Elena.” His voice was quieter now, completely stripped of its mocking, cocky edges, and something in that shift unsettled me more than his usual bravado ever could.
My throat tightened, but I didn’t let my face falter. I stood my ground, my spine rigid against the mirror, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me crumble. “See me? Why p>
His gaze pinned me, the absolute weight of it almost suffocating. “About what I said to you the other day p>
A bitter, cold laugh bubbled at my lips before I could stop it. My eyebrow shot up, sharp as broken glass. “What about it?” The anger in me flared, bright and unrelenting, all the unspoken bruises of our last encounter igniting like dry timber.
“You stood in my space, Jaxx, and treated me like I was just another piece of territory for you to claim! You talked down to me! You told me I had no choice p>
He shifted, his jaw tightening so hard a muscle ticked in his cheek, like the words cost him more than his pride wanted to give.
For the first time since he’d appeared, he looked almost uncertain, almost human, and the sight of it disarmed me more than any smirk or murmured taunt ever could.
He took a slow, heavy breath. “I’m sorry p>
For a heartbeat, the room collapsed into absolute, dead silence. My ears rang, trying to process the sound of those two words from a man who never apologized, who wore arrogance like a second skin.
The boutique’s mirror-lined walls seemed to lean in, pressing closer, the air becoming too thick, too heavy to breathe. Something in my chest cracked open, some carefully guarded door I’d bolted shut three weeks ago, and I hated him a little for finding the key so easily.
I blinked once. Twice. My lips parted, but the word barely scraped out, trembling and completely stunned, betraying just how deeply those two words had shaken the ground beneath me.