Grant swiped the phone from her hand. “Focus, Alexa,” he said, slipping her cell into his pocket. “Focus on us. This is important.” For the first time, anger slipped into his voice.
“Okay, okay,” she said, her voice high and strained. She jumped back from his touch. Shit. Shitshitshit. Had her text gone through? If not, she was going to have to run for it. But where would she even go that he couldn’t get to her? The office. She could lock herself in and use the business line. But that meant she had to get him farther into the room to create an open path to the door. “Um, I’m just . . . this is a lot.”
“I know, babe. But I thought maybe a grand gesture would show you how serious I am, how much I want you back and in my life.” He came closer. Her legs hit the mattress and she stumbled, coming to sit on the edge of the bed.
Her ears strained for the sound of a car or motorcycle, but the bedroom was at the back of the house. She didn’t hear a thing. Oh, God, what if no one was coming to help?
“It’s a thoughtful gesture, Grant,” she said, her stomach queasy at sitting among the scattering of red petals. She tried to keep her words kind, her tone placating, unsure exactly what kind of man she was talking to and feeling like maybe she’d never known Grant Slater at all. “But too much has happened. You’ve scared me on multiple occasions. I can’t live like that and I don’t feel the same way anymore. You’re handsome, successful, and talented. You deserve someone who can love you with her whole heart. Who can be everything you want in a woman. That’s not me. And you don’t need it to be—women will be lining up to date you—”
“I don’t want another woman, Alexa. I want you.” He stood right in front of her, his knees almost touching hers.
Everything inside her screamed to flee. “Why? I’m nothing, just like you said. I’m a poor girl who was a lowly administrative assistant when we met.”
“You’re my fiancée. That’s all there is to it,” he said.
She was a possession to him, and that’s all she was. One he didn’t want to lose. Shaking her head, her thoughts swam. She had to get some space between them. “I, um . . .” She cleared her throat. “I could really use some water.”
His expression transformed from angered to pleased, like he was glad that she was asking him for something, anything, and not just rejecting his overtures. “Of course,” he said, making for the bathroom. “I knew you’d come around. I knew I had to try. Because I believe in making my own luck, securing my own destiny, not waiting for others to do it for me.”
So would she.
She shot off the bed and bolted for the door, time suddenly going all slow-mo even as she raced. Down the hall. Down the stairs. Footsteps pounded after her.
“So help me, Alexa!” Grant bellowed.
OhGodohGodohGod.
Her flat sandal slipped on the tiles in the foyer, but she regained her footing and kept moving. Grant was closing in. She’d never make the office.
She grabbed the front door handle and pulled. It swung open.
Something yanked her hair and she wrenched back. She crashed into Grant, and then they both went down. Pain exploded through her as she crashed in a free fall against the hard floor.
“Ungrateful bitch,” he groaned, flipping her over and crawling on top of her. “You’ll learn to do what I say.” He ground his erection against her thigh.
Nausea rolled through her as she pushed and twisted with her whole body. “No, Grant. Get off of me. This is crazy. You’re being crazy.”
He pinned her wrists to the floor, squeezing tight. Pain shot through her fingers. “Don’t call me that,” he growled. “And don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
He kissed her. Hard. Their teeth knocked, making her mouth throb. He pressed in, trying to force her jaw open. She worked to draw up her knees, to brace the flats of her feet on the floor, to turn her head away. But he held her so tight.
Click.
Grant froze and Alexa’s eyelids flipped open. The barrel of a gun dug into Grant’s temple.
Alexa nearly cried in relief.
“Get. Off of her. Right now. Before I blow your fucking brains out.” Maverick. Maverick was here. Oh, God, Maverick.
When Grant didn’t move fast enough, he suddenly flew off of her.
On a groan, Alexa pushed up onto an elbow to see Mike and Blake holding Grant by the shoulders and arms in the doorway. She hurt everywhere.
Maverick crouched at her side and gently helped her stand, his gun still aimed at Grant. “You okay?” he asked her, maybe never looking more fierce in his entire life.