AN: Sorry, it took so long to update. This is an essential chapter and I didn't want to jump the gun and post it until I was satisfied with the end product.

Hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think and send me your thoughts. Always love hearing from you all.

Happy reading! xoxo

Chapter 29

"You sure you're all good to lock up? I can stay a bit longer if you like?" Samara offers in her melodious voice, her elbows propped up on the coffee bar. She looks so much younger and edgier with her new purple highlights.

With my back facing her, I shake my head and finishing placing the last chair upside down on the surface of a table. I check its stability and then turn to say, "No. You go ahead. You have your LSAT tomorrow. Go take a hot bath and get a good night's rest. I'm gonna check inventory then I'll be on my way out too."

"All right then," her small, chipper voice frolicks through the air. "You've got a ride, right? Kate picking you up?"

"Nope. She's got a date." My brows quirk up and my lips thin at the notion.

Kate plus date equals miracle.

"Ahh, so it's the real deal? Her and Ellis?"

"Seems like it."

"You know I would've never pictured them as a couple that worked. They are so different." The corners of my lips perk up as I had the exact same thought when I saw them together for the first time. Ellis was galaxies away from being Kate's type. Sure, he is good looking, but Kate gravitated to the guys that have never heard of the word 'commit'. Needed an ego boost every few hours and only sees her per his convenience - aka to fuck. Ellis is a man of a different caliber. He has aspirations, character, and above all, kept his dick in his pants. Girls dream of a guy like Ellis, draw up the perfect wedding, house, life with a man like him as their husband in mind. Kate had what others would kill for. I just hope she doesn't take him for granted. "Everyone thought he was into you, you know?"

My gaze shoots to hers and my brows knit together. I think I must've completely tuned her out because I don't think I heard her right. "Who?"

"Ellis," Samara states, matter-of-factly, his name slices at me, forming a laceration inside my gut. "Some even went as far as to think he was in love with you."

My fingers clutch onto the table's side for support or else my knees would have given way.

I stare at her slack-jawed, wondering if she's pulling a fast one on me. Because this is the last thing I want to hear, and just another thing to add on my list of things my brains has to come to grips with.

I start laughing out of discomfort. "I'm sure they misread things. Ellis and I are close friends but it ends there." Doing my best to appear unfrazzled, I push off the table and amble past Samara to get reach the back of the coffee bar.

Moments pass without a word before she straightens to full height, and readjusts her purse on her shoulder. Immediately, the tension in my body eases considerably at the sign of her near departure and the end of this bombshell of a conversation.

We hug and she departs. I lock the door behind her, and she disappears into the cool October night. Just as I am about to return to my closing tasks, my cell vibrates in my back pocket. When I pull it out, I look down at the lit screen to see I have one new message.

Christian: Hey, baby. Wanted to remind you to let me know when you head out. I really hate when you walk home. You sure I can't convince you to come to my place tonight, or at the very least drive you home?

My entire body electrifies in the sweetest way at his message and I type back:

I didn't forget and I'll be fine. You know I hate passing up on such an opportune offer, but we have an agreement. Besides, I've spent the last two nights at your place this week. You'll see me tomorrow.

He replies in an instant.

Christian: You know you're the only person to ever successfully tell no and gets away with it? ;)

If you change your mind, I'll be on campus for another thirty minutes max.

I read the text and then again, the fluttering of my heart turns into full on flight. Christian exhibits raw, dominate all-consuming control over me, and the fact that I hadn't realized until now that I have some over him injects me with the wickedest satisfaction.

Better get used to it. I'll text you when finish up, I respond and set my phone down on the counter.

After tidying up, setting up everything for tomorrow's opening, and turning off the bar and lounge lights, I head to the back of the café to the stockroom with a checklist in hand. Flicking on the light, I walk inside the small room and begin marking the supplies we are low on and what might be or soon to be expired.

I'm rifling and rearrange some bags of coffee when I hear a faint ding. Frowning, I stem all movements and listen. A brisk chill feathers over me, and my spine locks, my nerve endings on high alert. Seconds tick into minutes without another tumult so I continue organizing and tallying.

My hands reach out to relocate a bag of ground coffee beans to a higher shelf when scraping permeates the silence and I am officially losing my shit. My brain rallies to piece together the sound to its origin, but fails and I am left with no results. For the life of me, I can't assimilate why I am so freaking stupid for being here alone. And to think I was going to walk home.

My breaths aggress to rapid pants in the confined space. My hand flies to the back of my jeans but then still, finding the pocket empty. Another noise, louder—the shuffling of feet—booms closer to the closets doorway, to me. Waves of adrenaline pulsate through me, and my body just acts. I whirl around and launch myself across the room and out the door, but run into a shadowy figure. Startled, I jump back and my back hits the shelving with such force that they rattle. The clipboard along with an assortment of bagged dried foods fall and clamor next to my feet.

As my eyes adjust to the dark beyond the closet door, I see a familiar face emerged as they step into the light. Slapping my hand over my chest, air rushes out of me like a gust of wind. "Oh, it's just you."

"I've come to collect my date." My head snaps up at his comment. After all this time of not hearing from him or seeing him, I had hoped he would've forgotten or at the very least dropped the whole thing. But his stone expression tells me the very opposite.

"I'm sorry I can't." I try to step past him, but he blocks the only exit by extending both arms in the doorframe.

"Okay, we can just do it tomorrow." He waits and watches, taking in my response. His eyes cloud with bemusement, and a cocksure smile dawns, deepening his sinful dimples in his cheeks.

"No, I mean. I can't ever. I just don't see you that way."

The tension radiating off him is unsettling, burning even, to the point where I start to feel the walls close in on me. Kalum steps in further, his big body claiming the enclosed space, his omnipresence stealing the air from my lungs. My mind wills my body to do something, take my mind off my edginess, so I bend my knees to the ground to gather the fallen items around me.

"You promised." His biting tone sends shivers down my spine and they don't stop. On weak legs, I prop myself back up - a mistake, I quickly realize - as I take in his ticking jaw, and the wicked rage bubbling under his surface.

My throat feels like a clogged up pipe as I work down a swallow. "I did and I'm sorry, but I can't go out with you."

I place everything back on the shelves, and I sense him observing me. My empty hands fidget, and my eyes roam everywhere but his face because I can feel him simmering, his blood boiling, popping with violent heat, and on the cusps of an eruption.

"I always knew you were a cock tease." he scoffs at me.

I whirl my frame to skewer him, fury blistering the inside of my stomach. It is then, after bypassing his cocked head and his hands scrubbing over a derisive smile that I take in the dark stubble that covers his jaw, dark circles under his eyes and the glossy appearance of eyes.

"You've been drinking," I point out with a lightness he didn't deserve. He hasn't changed. Not one bit. Did I really expect him to?

"That's how it's going to be? Really?" He laughs snidely. "You're really going to stand there and lie to my face?"

Before I can take a breath, he takes a step toward me, then another, stepping into my personal space, crowding me. I cower back, amusement and something melded in obsidian lurks in the depths of his glazed over eyes. My retreat ends, foiled with my back pressed up against the metal shelving at an awkward angle.

When he leans down, I shove at his shoulder, the bitter stench of alcohol on his breath smothering me. "You're a mess." I try to creep around him but with lightning fast speed, he wraps an arm around my waist. Warning bells go off, but it's far too late.

His mouth slams against mine. His tongue plunders and slips past my lips. Malt and oak coat my tongue then, in seconds, are erased by bile. My hands fist his shirt and push. His fingers dig into my arms, his strength trumping mine. I thrash before fear cripples me.

"Kalum, stop!"

His rough embrace loosens at my plea and I don't hesitate to break out from his hold. Staggering around him, I walk cautiously backward to the doorway, my trembling hands sealed over my lips. His eyes snag my attention, the blue-gray color intensifying from raw lust. My breath hitches at the anger flickering through them.

Kalum takes two large steps, robbing away the distance I've created with my little ones. My keen intuition infers that despite severing his kiss, and his hostile cues, he is far from being done in making me a conquest. Fear ensnares my heart like an adroit spider does a fly in its web.

"Is it that big of a surprise that I would kiss you?" he chides, his hot breath laying over me like a thick fog. He raises a hand and I flinch away, but his touch meets my chin. His inextricable hold forces me up until I'm standing on my toes and my head tilted to accommodate. "I can't see why it would. You've let me do way more than that."

"Fuck you!" I jerk my chin from his grasp. My reaction catches him off guard, enough to let me slip from his entrapment and escape.

My feet burst into a full pelt, dashing down the unlit corridor to the café's front entrance.

"You've been running from something that's inescapable, Ana." Kalum's voice booms behind me, closer than I want it to be. The clicking of heavy feet leaves me with a devastating conclusion. I don't have to turn around to know he is hard on my heels. "Avoiding me isn't going to change how I know you feel about me." He's slurring his words, but the reality of them doesn't lessen. I swallow thickly.

When I finally make it to the door, my brain registers a quintessential item I whizzed past. Panicked eyes swing to my phone that I foolishly left on the bar counter. My body wars with my brain.

Go?

Don't go?

Go?

Don't go?

Decision made, I launch myself across the room and snatch my cell off the counter. Heart beating wildly, I don't bother looking at the darkened hallway I just came from and spin around to finally get the hell out of here. I make it halfway when my body rams into a solid wall of male.
"You're a liar," the terse accusation tears my eyes from my trembling hands to Kalum's bloodshot eyes.

"All this time there's been something between the two of us. You know it. I know it. God," he slams his hand on the table beside him, "stop fucking lying!"

He's too close. Trepidation tightens and seals off every air cavity in my chest. A rush of panic crashes over me, grappling my heart from its dark pit, ready to consume me whole.

Then, chiming fills my ears and wields silence.

"Ana?" A voice rolls over me like a caress. I peer around Kalum.

Christian.

My chest begs to collapse with emotion.

"Everything alright here?"

I can't speak. My tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.

Christian takes my silence as a no and approaches us with caution, his steps reminiscent of a man tiptoeing on a floor filled with landmines. His gaze searches my face as he nears.

"Ah, you again. Always ruining my moment." Kalum's words are addressed to Christian, but his eyes remain on me.

"Go home, Kalum."

Kalum's lips twist sardonically. "I'm not quite done here."

"I think you are. You're drunk and scaring Ana. Do yourself a favor leave before you do something you'll regret." Christian's tone is eerily soft as he tries to talk down Kalum of this perilous edge he's tittering on. But what Christian doesn't know is that I think Kalum has already jumped. "We can get you a cab so you can sleep this off and -"

"I don't want anything from you," – Kalum shouts and points to me – "only her." He then grabs my arm, his thumb pressing deep on the muscle. "I'm not leaving before she gives me the date she promised me."

Stunned, Christian reels his head back. If I blinked I would've missed it and the hurt that quickly gets masked, morphing his expression back to impassive.

My eyes lasso his, needing an anchor. He glances at me fleetingly and then transfixes back to Kalum.

"You need to let her go. Now." His fingers curl into his palm at his sides but never waver.

"You both think I'm a fool, don't you?" Kalum laughs with conviction. "Don't act like I don't know what's going on here."

My heart palpitates like a wounded bird.

Then stops.

It's just a second.

The most painful second of my life.

He can't know.

Please don't tell me he knows.

Christian surveys my defenses bristling and the possessiveness he exudes kick-starts my heart back into gear. The jolt nearly knocks the breath from my lungs.

"I suggest you choose your next words very carefully," Christian warns, his voice low, fierce as he takes long, commanding strides, advancing toward us. I feign amazement at how well he's concealing it, locking it up, but I know his anger is one more crass remark away from hitting a boiling point.

Measured and deliberate steps lead Christian right in front of Kalum, their faces inches from the each other. My palms begin to sweat, my knees weak.

"You know, I can't quite figure it out," Kalum laughs bitterly and faces Christian, their gazes dueling. I feel this pinch in my chest. "Why her… it's truly curious…."

A breath rushes out of my frozen lungs.

Testosterone skyrockets through the roof. Christian's jaw flexes in a vicious way. His hands sharply rise and tugs on Kalum's shirtfront hard, pulling his smug face closer to his own. "You have ten seconds to walk out of here. Unscathed. Time starts now." His guttural tone snakes around my spine with a cold chill, but Kalum appears unphased.

The corner of his lip twitches. "You may have her fooled," Kalum twists his head to me then back to Christian, "But you and I… we're the same, cut from the same cloth."

Kalum clasps his hands around Christian's wrists and shoves him hands curl, his narcissistic expression feeding the urge to gouge his eyes out. Cut his tongue and let him bleed out, and drown in his own blood.

The temperature of the blood in my veins turn to subzero when he walks to Christian's side lies on hand on his shoulder and leans in to whisper something in his ear.

Christian's body stiffens, his stature locked like a man just turned to stone. His face obsidian, light stripped from its pigments.

I stand by, watching helplessly as my world falls apart. Because I irrefutably know his words were of menace, words that will shatter everything I - everything Christian and I have built.

I careen my eyes from the trainwreck. My vision begins to blur at the edges, everything looks like it was painted with watercolors. Inadvertently, I swipe at the stray tears that slip past my defenses. Anxiety slithers between my ribcage, stirring my urges from its sleep to chip away my resistance. It licks its way to my throat, sending its poison to my lungs, eating out holes to where my breathing turns shallow. In a matter of seconds, it feels like I am asphyxiating. Slowly. The most excruciating pain.

"Ana… Ana..." It's Christian but he sounds so far away.

I'm trembling, and I feel edgy. My fingers clench and unclench. A deep-seated need prickles like thistles, grazing my skin to temptation. "Hey. I'm here. I'm here." Large hands stroke the curves of my face once, twice, then stop to cusp my head. "Ana, look at me. Focus on my voice. Breathe. You're okay. I'm right here. I'm not leaving."

My brain and body short-circuit, and I collapse into his chest.

"What do you need?"

I force myself to lean back so I can see his eyes. I barely have time to make sense of his words when my mouth captures his, and my palate tastes the bitterness of his angst and breathless urgency, which I identify now as my own full tilt. The soul-sucking fear ebbs as I arch into him, my hands snaking into his hair, drinking in the sweet sweet passion he exudes. But the dark seed of my addiction tries to spout once again. I retaliate, losing myself and sinking deeper into Christian's depths. Letting the heat swell low in my belly, heady desire unfurls, making me oh so desperately wet and hot between my thighs. My senses reconfigure to only perceive the bold caress of Christian's tongue, his tangy taste and musky scent, his sexy groans, and the feeling of his bare hands intimately molding my body against his. This is what I need. All I need. I need him.

I untuck his shirt, my quivering palms burn as they bury under the material and hit the hard muscle and smooth skin of his chest. His body was hot, so hot. I claw and rake my hands greedily. A rough rumble sounds in his throat. My movements turn erratic, my hands sliding up and down his back. Drag my teeth across his lower lip. And when I lick into his mouth and feel his erection thick against my stomach, something in me snaps like a faulty bungee cord.

Nothing is enough. The harder I tug at his flesh or kiss his lips, it's not enough. The dark seed's coat ruptures and I can't ward it off. I need more. I need . . .

"Ana."

I choke back a sob as Christian tears his lips from mine and his low and raspy filled with a warning I did not understand, nor did I want to. In one blink, I'm pinned up against a wall, nebulous of how I got there and why. I cant my body forward, beckoning for his lips, for another kiss, another taste. His fingers spear into my hair, pulling by the roots, restraining me, and forcing to look right at him. Raspy breaths power out of him, matching my own.

"What. Do. You. Need," he repeats, punctuating the last word with his piercing eyes giving me an intense inspection.

My eyes close, my face suddenly wet, and his words strike me with gut-wrenching clarity. I inhale and then let out a single breath. "To forget."