“Elena,” I called out gruffly. She turned, wide-eyed and in shock. Yep, I could tell she wasn’t expecting to see me. With the angry look on my face, I bet she thought I was mad about our past. When actually I was mad that she was chatting happily with some other guy. Then I noticed who she was talking to—Michael Cole. He lived in the building they were standing in front of. He was a socialite who was a player with the ladies. I hated him; well, I did now. Before, I didn’t even care to say anything to anyone let alone fight over a woman. But there was no way I was going to let him get his hands on what belonged to me, and as far as I was concerned she did.
She needed to give me a chance. After what her father did to my family, I’d expect her to grovel and do anything to make it right. Not that it was cool because the accident wasn’t her fault, but I wasn’t above using the past to get her in my bed.
“Mr. Price.” She said it evenly, as though she didn’t really want to speak to me but was attempting to be polite.
“Hello, Dexter. I see you met my beautiful neighbor,” Cole said looking at her like she was someone he planned to have grace his bed. That was out of the question.
“You live here?” I hadn’t looked at the file. Hell, I only focused on the face on the DMV picture, not her address. In fact, I enlarged the image and cropped out the information. I had that in the report anyway.
“Yes, I do.” She looked between the two of us giving us a nod, then tried to make an exit. “Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I need to go check on my dog.”
“Actually, I was wondering if you’d have dinner with me tonight,” Cole asked, giving her that crooked smile that had bitches dropping their panties. I wanted to rip his heart out like he was doing to me. I looked at her and knew that not even her being who she was would change my mind. I wanted her, and I wanted to keep her.
"No," I answered for her because fuck if I was going to let another dick get close to her again. Little Miss Flawless was mine.
"Excuse me? I can answer for myself, thank you very much,” she scoffed.
I took a deep breath before I got angry. "I know you can, but I'm saving you the trouble of pissing me off.”
“You’re not the boss of me just because I…” I placed my finger on her lips. Something happened when I did that. Her lips made my finger tingle, but I had to ignore that. She was about to bring up the past in front of someone. That wasn’t something I wanted to chat about in front of others, especially this asshole.
“Don’t speak about that in public, Elena,” I whispered with a warning look.
“So, is he in charge of your choices?” Cole asked her for confirmation, even though I gave the motherfucker a deadly look to leave her the fuck alone.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No, but he and I do need to have a discussion. So I’ll see you around, Michael.”
“No, you won’t. Trust me, Cole. You don’t want to cross me on this.” That was the only warning I was going to give him. I could dismantle his whole life if he fucked with me.
“Okay. If that’s the lay of the land, I understand.” He chuckled with the nod. Cole walked away and climbed into the waiting car the valet brought for him.
“Come on,” I demanded, grabbing her hand. She yanked back, stopping my movement but not breaking free. Despite her resistance, I could still feel the electricity pass through us.
“I told you I have to check on my dog.” Oh, that was it; I thought she was going to give me shit about bossing her around. I was the boss. She’d get that through her pretty little head soon. I was ready to give her the world. The only thing I was keeping was the control.
“Okay, let’s go check on it.” I didn’t care for pets after losing my parents. It wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted a pet growing up because I did. I loved dogs when I was little, but my mom refused to have a smelly, hairy animal in the house. A dog would give me those puppy eyes and win my heart. Then, what happened when it died? I didn’t want to lose my heart again. I couldn’t have one.
“Don’t you worry about losing it?” I knew she lost out too, so I wondered how she could want an animal that would die before she did.
“Losing what?” she asked as we got into the lobby. I still hadn’t let go of her hand, but it was like she didn’t even notice or care. I used it to my advantage and ran my thumb against her wrist which made her shiver and brought a smile to my face.