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CHAPTER 40

Alana

My mind is still buzzing, spinning.

It’s been a night.

After that kiss—the kind that short-circuited my brain and scrambled everything I thought I knew about boundaries—I did what any emotionally avoidant, champagne-fuelled woman in a glitter suit would do.

I danced like my body wasn’t on fire.

Laughed too loud. Took another shot just to dull the ache still humming under my skin.

And all the while, Hunter stood in the shadows.

My personal ghost in black, watching every move like he could still feel my lips on his.

At midnight, my friends were tipsy and spinning.

I could’ve gone with them to the after-party.

Let the night blur into something forgettable.

Instead, I looked them in the eyes and told them to find their own way home.

Tessa didn’t ask questions.

Kyra raised an eyebrow.

Riley winked.

And then I walked back toward whatever the hell happens now.

Hunter and I are in the elevator, on our way up to my apartment.

He hasn’t said a word yet and neither have I.

We ride in silence, the tension thick enough to cut with a blade.

The door opens.

“After you, Little Diamond,” he purrs.

His voice is like a hand between my thighs.

I step out and I can hear him breathing behind me.

We walk through the front door and I put my bag down on the dining table.

I don’t know what to do.

My mind is frantic. I need him to pretend for one more night that this thing between us actually means something and it’s not just in my head.

I’m going to kiss him.

I decide. I’m going to turn around right now and kiss him.

Control be damned. I give myself a mental pep talk.

“Fuck,” he mutters. That’s it.

His low voice is all it takes for me to make up my mind.

I turn around. I take one step.

I don’t know what I’m walking toward, only that I can’t stay still anymore.

That if I don’t touch him, I might implode.

But he’s not looking at me.

He’s staring down at his phone.

And something changes in the set of his jaw.

His shoulders tense.

A muscle ticks in his cheek.

The room gets colder.

His tattooed hand covers his mouth and suddenly, I wonder what it would look like as a necklace.

Suddenly, I want to go back to the day in the staircase when he had me pressed up against the wall.

I want to feel his body behind me.

I want to be at his mercy.

I want to gift-wrap my control and hand it to him, tied with a little bow.

He can have it. Have me, I decide.

“What?” I force the word out, but it’s croaked.

The atmosphere around him shifts.

He’s no longer the cool, charismatic Hunter.

There’s darkness coiling around him in waves.

“Something has happened, my…” he pauses.

“Boss needs me,” he says through gritted teeth.

“Can’t someone else handle it?” I ask, desperation creeping into my voice.

My fingers dig into the wooden dining table.

I swear it leaves dents.

“I’m afraid not. They need me tonight. I have to go.”

He walks toward me and my heart stutters.

He scans my face, holds my eyes and says, “I know you like testing my limits, but tonight? Do not leave this apartment. Keep the door locked. Do not open for anyone else. Please, Alana, it’s not safe.”

He looks desperate, pained.

I give him a weak nod.

He goes into his room, grabs his motorcycle helmet and opens the front door.

But before he leaves, he says, “I wasn’t pretending, Little Diamond.”

I want to stop him.

Say something. Anything.

But the words lodge in my throat, sticky with hope and fear.

Instead, I give him a weak nod and with that, he leaves the apartment.

I lock the door behind him, my hands trembling ever so slightly.

The door clicks shut before I can even inhale.

But his words hang in the room like smoke.

For the first time in a long while, I’m truly alone.

His absence presses on me, a weight I can’t shake.

But I swallow my pride, my feelings, my hopes and force myself to go to bed.

I lie down in the dark, still pulsing from his kiss.

But he’s gone. And the silence he left behind is deafening.