The Alpha King Call Boy
Chapter 99

"Are you upset?" Alexander watched me nervously as we finished eating breakfast.

"I'm fine," I said again. "But it does not seem like Iris is paying you much respect, Alexander. If you told her last night to give us space, and the very next morning she blows up your phone like that."

I could feel his energy was becoming frustrated. He was trying very hard not to let it out.

"She is not going to change overnight," he said.

"Fair enough."

Maybe Alexander believed that a grown woman was going to change and improve her inappropriate behavior. It was wishful thinking. Because he thought she was important for his investigation, he didn't want to believe that Iris could have ulterior motives. But the way that I saw it, she was only just getting started on her little campaign to stir up tension and distraction between me and my fiancé. Who she clearly wanted for her own.

That woman positively reeked of trouble.

Alexander was in denial if he didn't smell it.

He suggested we take a walk after breakfast. It was a pretty day, sunny, clear and warm, so I agreed.

He took hold of my hand while we walked, pressing energy into my palm that rose up through my arm and spread through my whole body. It even seemed to reach down to my toes, which actually felt less, not more swollen and uncomfortable with every step we took together.

A breeze tousled my hair when we stepped out into the big, open courtyard that led to the rose gardens. The fresh air felt good on my skin, and the light physical activity was a welcome change, too. My work life was keeping me pretty sedentary these days. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Alexander was watching me expectantly. We reached the end of the path we were walking and entered a hedge-walled rose garden.

"I was just thinking that this kid better be really cute. Being pregnant feels like a lot of work sometimes." I let go of his hand, put both of mine on my belly, which felt, as it often did, rounder today than yesterday.

Alexander's eyes followed my hands. His face became half smile, half frown. "Well, if our child looks anything like you, the cute thing is guaranteed." I rolled my eyes. "As far as the pregnancy, is there anything I can do relieve some of that burden?" I sighed, thinking it over.

The obvious thing I needed from Alexander was just physical contact, as much of it as we could make time for. The way I'd been feeling during that week before his trip was case in point.

I would've loved to add: Kick out that crazy bitch you just moved in down the hall. That would alleviate some stress.

But of course I would say no such thing.

We reached the center of the circle-shaped garden. Alexander sat on one of the benches and I followed.

He scooted his body close to mine immediately, one of his hands floating over to stroke my neck. He did that when he was preparing to plant his face into the other side. I guess he wasn't going to wait for an answer to his question.

I let my head fall to the side as, sure enough, Alexander's face came close and soon was buried into my messy, windswept hair. His warm breath spread over my skin, making my spine tingle. He breathed in my scent greedily.

The tingly feeling started taking me over when his lips began planting slow, heavy kisses on my skin. I opened my mouth, just about to ask if we could head back to the bedroom now.

And then we both heard something.

The sound registered in my ears just as Alexander's lips suddenly stopped their work on my neck. I could tell he was listening intently for some follow-up to that errant noise. It had snapped him right out of his reverie.

To me, the noise had sounded like a couple quick footsteps. But then it stopped, and there was nothing else.

Alexander pressed just one more distracted kiss behind my ear before pulling away to look at me.

If someone was sneaking around, trying to spy on me and him... there's only one person I could think of that would be motivated to do that.

"Let's head back," Alexander said. His voice was calm and even but I got the feeling that little sound we'd heard had him on edge.

I'd been close to asking Alexander to take me right there in the garden.

In the off chance that my possibly insane suspicion that Iris was there lurking, watching us, it would have been very satisfying to give her a show like that.

But no, the idea of s*x on that garden bench sounded terribly uncomfortable. Both physically, as well as socially; it was a strange notion that had come into my head, something I would never really do.

By the time we returned to our room, the air between Alexander and me had started feeling tense.

To occupy idle hands, do something with myself other than just obsessing over thoughts of Iris, and I guess in an inane attempt to literally clear the air in the room, I walked around the perimeter shoving all the window curtains far to the sides and throwing the windows open, letting the glaring sun inside along with the crisp breeze.

It did not clear my mind or ease the mood. I was still thinking and overthinking. Alexander, I glimpsed in my periphery, was watching me anxiously.

The way I saw it, we could do one of two things with this tension. Leave it alone to thicken and worsen. Or stop talking and find release a different way. The latter sounded better.

I suppose he was contemplating the same sort of thing. What to do with the awkwardness that we hadn't been able to shake since the interrupted breakfast date. But for some reason he leaned into the first option.

"Do you want me to leave you alone, Fiona?" he asked, his tone overly patient.

I finally finished with the windows and turned to face him.

"I can give you space if that's what you want," he continued. "I can tell you're upset. And I don't want to keep talking about Iris any more than you do." He rubbed his mouth with one hand. The other was planted stiffly on his hip. "I'm here if you want me, but I can get lost if you're irritated and just want me to leave you alone."

I shook my head reprovingly as I paced over to where he stood.

On a dime, my mood shifted, took a sharp left turn. I knew how to flip all of this upside down.

"You're just saying that so you can go run off to your little girlfriend." My voice came out deep, having gone a little husky with the darkness of my intentions.

Alexander's eyes went round. "Oh, my god. Fiona, no." Both hands flew to his face, covering his eyes.

I took a last step, landing very close to him. Reached up and grabbed the knot of his tie, gripping it hard and using it to jerk his body forward, closing the tiny space between our bodies.

His hands left his face. An expression of shock flashed over it when he saw my devious smile and knew that I was messing with him.

He shook his head, a touch bewildered, while I maintained an icy stare and worked my hands slowly, carefully on untying his tie. When it was loose, I ripped it out of his collar in a fast, violent motion.

A low growl came out of his throat.

"You sure?" I asked coyly. I was not done with my game; the first round had been very satisfying. "I bet she'd love to spend the day playing doctor with you."

Alexander's face went full red at this. I could tell by his expression that he was in a whirlwind of different emotions. His desire for me was clear - that I could feel distinctly as it stiffened, pressing into my hip in quick little throbs. The rest I could only guess at. "That is something that will never happen," he said. The husk in his voice matched my own. I could see it was taking some effort now to keep his hands off me, but he was uncertain about how to proceed. "Believe me. All I want is you."

I grabbed the two sides of his shirt collar and tore the shirt open fast, a lot like I'd been doing to the window curtains minutes earlier. A few of the buttons slipped right out with the pressure. Several others snapped off their thread and went flying. It took a second pass to break the whole length of the shirt apart.

He shrugged his shoulders back, tugged the sleeves down, let the shirt slide off and down to the floor. Watching me with intensity in his eyes and waiting on my next move.

He was standing a few feet from the bed, his back to it. "Show me," I said sharply. "Show me how much you want me."

And with that I planted my hands on his bare chest and shoved him hard, sending him flying back onto the bed. He growled, smiled, propped himself up on his elbows. His eyes drank in the sight of me hungrily as I slipped out of my dress and climbed up on top of him.