Alexei And Grace

13 | Shiver

I'D LIKE TO SAY ALEXEI'S offer didn't weigh heavily on me for the following weeks, but that would be a lie. Every time I went to work, I would pinpoint my least favourite parts and think about how much better they might be if I were to leave. The early starts, for one. Or late finishes. After all, how many men could Alex possibly have working for him? The truth of the matter was that I was tired—exhausted, even. But on my salary, I couldn't afford to take a break.

For the most part, I tried to push all thoughts of Alexei away. He was dangerous, and our third meeting had only confirmed that. Unfortunately, it also confirmed just how impossibly alluring I found him; how his scent, or the feel of his skin, could drive me wild. The darkness of his eyes electrified me, and much as I pushed it down, a part of me craved that feeling.

I tried to feel the same way about Jonah. We went to movies if I had a spare couple of hours, we cooked together, we did couple-stuff that should have filled me with a sickly giddiness.

None of it did.

He never questioned me about Alexei, which I was grateful for, though it was also a cause for concern. Who in their right mind wouldn't have asked a couple more questions? Out of curiosity, at least. Instead, he never brought the topic up; never even asked what we talked about.

Several times over the last week I had been pushed to crisis point, my fingers hovering over Alex's number in my phone. Half of the time I was planning on calling him, the other half I was planning on deleting his number altogether. I shouldn't, I told myself, but I want to.

It was a Tuesday night when everything changed.

Jonah and my dad usually spent Tuesdays watching football and sharing a crate of Stellar, so I was on cooking duty. Our tiny apartment was oddly divided, with half of the living room visible from the matchbox kitchen. I listened idly to the roar of the crowd on TV as I chopped an onion, watching my dad and Jonah as they bantered back and forth.

"Smells good, Gracie!" my dad called out, even though I hadn't actually started cooking anything yet. It was almost like his catch-phrase by this point; he said it whether or not the food did, in fact, smell good.

"Thanks!" I grinned, sliding the chopped onion into a frying pan that I'd been heating up. It sizzled and sent a cloud of steam into the air which made my eyes water.

"Could you pass me another beer, Grace?" Jonah asked, shooting me a too-white smile over the back of the sofa.

"Sure." I grabbed him a bottle from the fridge and popped the cap off before handing it to him. He pulled me down gently and kissed me on the cheek, then released me with another grin.

"Thanks."

"You're missing the match," I teased him and he chuckled, turning back around.

In the kitchen, I added diced pepper and chicken to the pan, allowing it to cook while I stared absently at the swirls of steam rising into the air. It was as I did this, leaned against the counter, that my phone began to ring. At first I went to switch it off but the caller ID made me hesitate: it was Alexei.

I glanced up and found dad and Jonah staring at me inquisitively. "Just my insurance company," I told them, hoping it sounded at least a little more believable to them than it did to me. They shrugged and turned back towards the telly.

Meanwhile, my attention diverted back to my ringing phone. A sense of red hot panic had swelled in my chest as I debated what to do; I knew I had only seconds before dad or Jonah would get suspicious. Acting on impulse, I closed the kitchen door and pressed my back against the wall, hitting accept before I could think too much about it.