Then suddenly, she was hit by the bright, clear smack of reality. She hated Alex. Hated him. It was her wedding day. He was here. And she was afraid she was pregnant with his baby.
“What the ever-loving hell are you doing here?” she asked.
He seemed frozen. As she’d been only a moment before.
“At least close the door,” she said, realizing that anyone who walked by was going to see her standing there in her undies.
He obeyed, stepping into the room.
“I am naked,” she hissed.
“You’re not.”
“Close enough.”
“Not anywhere near close enough.” He was looking at her. Intently. As though he was trying to gauge the opaqueness of her underwear.
“Stop that! And what are you doing here?”
“I am here for your wedding, agape.”
“Weird. I don’t think Ajax penciled his mortal enemy onto our guest list,” she said, her fingers curling tightly around the pregnancy test still hidden behind her back.
She was trapped. Standing there in lacy bridal undies, unable to do anything for fear he’d see the test.
“He might have. Did you look to see if I was listed under Enemy or Mortal?”
“I was looking in the A’s for As—”
“I won’t let you marry him,” he said, his voice turning into a feral growl.
“What?”
“You don’t know what he is.”
She lifted one shoulder, the casual gesture at odds with her internal panic. With the fact that when he’d burst through that door he’d blown through her carefully cultivated, calm façade, yet again. “I’ve known the man for more than fifteen years. I think I know who he is.”
“You’ve never even slept with him.”
“I’m gonna,” she said, edging away from him toward the bathroom, “tonight.”
He strode toward her, blue eyes like chips of ice. He put his arm around her waist and hauled her up against his chest. “You will not.”
“Yes, I will,” she said, words pouring out of her now, with no thought of control or decorum or any of the other stuff she was usually so attached to. She was lying, because before Alex had come in, she’d decided she couldn’t do it. But she wanted to...hurt him if it was possible. To cause him some kind of discomfort because he sure had caused enough for her. “I’m going to have sex with him—” a shiver of displeasure coursed through her at the thought “—tonight. I’m going to let him inside of me. I’m going to do all the dirty naked things with him that I did with you!”
And then he leaned down and kissed her. As if he had every right to do it. As if she didn’t have a wedding scheduled to happen in just four hours. As if she hadn’t told him that she hated him and never wanted to see him again.
As if there was no reality. No Ajax. No vengeance gone wrong. No angry words. As if there was nothing more than passion. Fire and heat. She wrapped an arm around his neck, the other still behind her back, and parted her lips, let him slide his tongue against hers.