Beautifully Twisted (13 page)

When Alexa steps inside her office, she stops suddenly and stands with her mouth open. There are so many roses in there; she’s not sure where her desk is. She turns to Martina.

“Who did this?”

“Brett.”

Alexa lifts her finger to her mouth and chews a fingernail. She’d give anything to light a cig right now.

“Oh, and this. It’s from Scott.”

Alexa turns around and Martina hands her a package. She opens it to a postcard of a beautiful English castle and reads the note. ‘Come away with me. I need a chance. Just a chance, baby girl.’

“What is it?” Martina asks.

“Scott wants me to spend a weekend with him at this castle.” She shows her the card.

“Wow, two men vying for your attention. What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea, Martina.”

“I wish I could take one of them off your hands, whichever one you don’t want. But I think they’re both quite smitten with you. Must have been some weekend.”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

She looks around the room, staring at the massive amount of multicolored roses covering her office. She picks up a card and reads it. ‘Just one chance, it’s all I ask.’ It’s a nice gesture but there’s only one problem, she’s allergic to roses. Her nose starts to twitch, a sign of the impending sneeze.

“Martina, I need you to get these out of here. I’m allergic to them. Give them to everyone in the office. I’ll be back in a few minutes after the room has cleared out.”

“Allergic? I guess he didn’t know.”

Alexa’s mouth presses into a hard line. “He doesn’t know anything about me.”

At least outside she could have another smoke. She heads back to the elevators and waits impatiently. Once outside, she immediately lights up.

“That’s a nasty habit, baby girl.”

She swings around and is standing face to face with Scott.

“You’re so much prettier without that hanging from your lips. Maybe you need something in its place.” He grins.

“You’re stalking me.”

“I waited for you to call me all weekend. Were you with him?”

“No. I was alone.”
Like I always am.

“You didn’t have to be, you know. Did you get my card?”

“Yes.”

“Will you go away with me? We need time to talk, away from real life. It’s this beautiful castle I found in the English countryside.”

“Scotty—”

“Or did Mr. Collins win you over with his over-the-top rose delivery?”

“How did you know about that?”

“He told me.”

“You didn’t tell him I was allergic to them? That’s mean.”

“No, that’s how it goes. All’s fair, baby girl.”

“Mean.”

“Are you going to come with me?”

“I don’t know.”

“We’ll do it your way, I swear.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Not sure about what? It’s me, Alexa. Your Scotty. In the flesh. Why are you resisting me so much?”

Alexa knew that this was the one person on the planet she could be herself with, and the one person who knew her better than anyone. She knew she should just be honest. He had to know the damage he caused. It’s time she dropped the tough girl act.

“Because I’m afraid of how much it will hurt when you leave again.”

He walks closer to her, a grin on his face. “I won’t leave then.”

“You have to. Countries, remember?”

“I’ll move to London.”

She takes a long drag on her cigarette. “Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

He grabs her wrist and takes it out of her hand, throwing it on the ground. He pulls her close to him, so close her neck strains to look at him.

“We’ll start over, Alexa. I swear, I won’t ask you to be my sub, I won’t dominate you. I just want to… I want…”

“What, Scotty. You want what?” Alexa asks, sounding exasperated.

“I want to show you that we can have a relationship. We can be together and do normal things. We can talk and I don’t know…eat dinner and stuff.”

“You don’t even know what a normal relationship looks like.”

“Do you?”

She shakes her head. How could she? The only one she ever had was with him.

“I want to be us again, Lexi.”

“What does that even mean, Scotty?”

“What we used to be until I separated us. What else do I have to do? I flew across the goddamn Atlantic to tell you this and you won’t even fucking listen to me.”

“You flew to London to see if I would have a normal relationship with you? You could have saved yourself a lot of time and trouble and just called me. You never even fucking called and then you just show up here and expect me to drop everything to be your toy again. Not gonna happen, Scotty.”

He squeezes her arm harder. “That is not what I came all this way for. You are so damn stubborn. Can you put your massively high guard down for ten minutes? You can’t allow yourself to show any emotion other than anger.”

“You taught me everything I know.”

He narrows his eyes. “You are so lucky we are standing on a sidewalk right now.”

“Or what? You’d hit me?”

He looks wounded. “I would never hit you, Alexa. You know that. How could you say that?”

She glares at him. “Then what are you trying to say to me?”

“I’m trying to get you to listen to me.”

Alexa yanks her arm away and starts to walk back inside. She cannot think clearly when he is anywhere near her. He catches her and pulls her back to him, holding her around the waist.

“I came here to fix things,” he says, his voice pleading with her.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“I can’t.”

“I’m going back inside.

“I’ll follow you.

“Do whatever you like. You always do.”

She heads for the door, Scott following closely behind her. They walk in silence to her office, the whole room staring at her again.

Oh Lord, what must they be thinking of me.

She really hoped that to the casual viewer, her demeanor had not changed and they could not detect the roller coaster of emotion speeding through her body right now. The fact that Scotty was within five inches of her was disarming. The fact that he had been inside of her again, daunting. What was it about him that caused her to lose any semblance of control?

He enters her office, sniffing the air. “It still smells like roses. Will you be okay working in here today?”

“The whole fucking office smells like roses. I’m fine.” She glares at him, wishing he would leave, but hoping that he stayed.

She watches him select a chair and slide his elegant body into it. In his casual clothing, he always looked like such a bad boy, with his buff arms and bold tattoos. But in his work clothes, he was elegant, smooth, enchanting even. The boy cleaned up good, but she preferred him when he was dirty.

“What are you thinking about, Alexa?” he asks, interrupting her thoughts.

She crosses her office and sits behind her desk. “Why are you still here? Do you plan to watch me work all day?”

“That would be such a pleasure for me.”

“I have more important things to care about than your pleasure.”

“I’m sure of it. Lucky for me, I have nothing to do but be concerned with yours.”

She knows from the tone of his voice he’s planning to seduce her. She must keep her defenses high, as high as they can be with him around. “Don’t come anywhere near me right now.”

“I won’t. I’m just going to sit here in the chair while you call Brett and thank him for his gift then tell him you’re never going to see him again.”

“Scott Patrick,” she sits herself down behind her glossy desk. “You won’t like how I play this game you’re starting with me. You’ve been warned.”

“Alexa Drake,” he leans towards her and taps a finger on her desk. “You won’t like how I finish it if you don’t play by the rules.”

“I don’t know what the rules are.”

“Yes you do. Call him. I’ll be right here.”

“Why are you talking about me with Scott?

Whatever you and I do is between us.”

~ Alexa

She releases her breath and then inhales slowly. Scotty is going to make her speak to Brett in front of him…well then… he’s not going to like it. She lifts the handle of her receiver and dials.

“Hello, Miss Alexa. How are you this morning?”

“I’m quite well, thank you. I just wanted to thank you for the flowers. They are lovely.”

“It seems I needed to do more research. Rumor has it you’re allergic to roses.”

She narrows her eyes at Scott. “Yes, that’s true. Still, it was a very nice gesture.”

Scott returns her glare, tapping his fingers over his crossed leg. He is beyond agitated.

“Listen, Alexa, I’m not trying to be nice. I’m trying to get you in my bed. What is it going to take? I tried dinner, roses, all the romantic shit. I’ll crawl at your feet if that’s what you need me to do. In fact, it would be my pleasure to do just that.”

“I can’t talk about that right now.”

Scott leans in. “Yes, you can,” he whispers.

She can’t figure out why he wants to push this so much. It can’t possibly end well. She shakes her head, listening to Brett’s breathing on the other end.

“He’s with you, isn’t he?”

“Who?”

“Scott. He’s there?”

“I have a lot of work to do, Brett. I am undecided on your offer but I assure you I will follow up.” She stares into Scotty’s eyes as she talks, watching his expression change from stiff to downright hostile. The longer he looks at her like that, the angrier it makes her. Scott has no right to be so territorial.

“Alexa, just listen for a moment.” Brett takes a deep breath. “Scott had his chance and he blew it. You could keep playing games with him or you could give someone new a chance. Me. I will do whatever it takes to please you. Just let me try.”

“What do you want from me, Brett?” she asks, keeping her eyes locked on Scott’s.

“Everything. I want all of you. I’ll start with dinner.”

She decides to turn up the volume on this game. “Alright then, Brett,” she says in her sweetest tone. “You wore me down. I’ll have dinner with you again.”

“When?” His voice is excited.

“When would you like?”

“Tonight.”

“Okay, tonight then. See you.”

“Goodbye, Alexa.”

She carefully places the phone back in its cradle, avoiding a direct look at Scott, who hasn’t said a word. She ignores him, pulling a folder out of her drawer, and starting her workday, as though he isn’t inches away from her.

He stands and paces in front of her, his head bowed low. She does her best to remain unaffected by him, although she has no chance of being successful at it. He walks to one side of the office and looks outside.

She senses his presence behind her but continues to work. She feels his hands slide up the back of her neck, his strong fingers wrap softly around the nape, inching up, tangling with her hair. His touch with her is instantly disarming.

His grip tightens as he uses her hair to pull her head back so he can see her face. “Why are you doing this to me, Alexa? Why are you pushing me so hard? What do you want?”

She is far more taken aback by his soft tone and pleading questions, than the aggressive move in which he got her attention.

She pulls her hair away from him. “I’m not doing anything
to you
. I’m living my life, like I have been for the past year. I told you before, I am free. I can do whatever I like. Besides, you told me to call him.”

“But why Brett? You can’t be attracted to him. He’s not your type.”

“What do you know about my type?”

“Baby girl, your type is standing right beside you, willing to do whatever you need me to do to get back in your good graces.”

“You know what you need to do? Leave and stop trying to control every moment of my life. You need to go find something else to do and give me some space. I need to work and I need to focus, two things I cannot do while you’re sitting here questioning me.”