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And none of those encounters had left me with even a tenth of the feeling that I had now.
Something I refused to think about.
Elias took another step closer, and then another, got so close that the tips of our shoes touched.
Nothing else did, not that it needed to.
The intensity of the moment was so strong that my stomach was flipping. I felt like I was too tense to even take in a breath.
Instead, I looked at Elias, his eyes, which could be ice cold but were anything but in this moment, clashing with mine.
They swirled with emotion—anger, annoyance. Something else.
“When you made the deal you made, you knew the terms. You accepted them willingly. When I spared your father and you took his place, your time—your very existence—became mine. Do you need a more hands-on reminder?” he said.
I wanted to say something, needed to say something.
Had finally gathered to the nerve to speak when the door swung open.
“What the fuck do you want?” Elias growled through clenched teeth, his gaze never leaving mine.
“Good to see you too, Elias,” his brother Davit responded as he came in.
I glanced at Davit, hating that it would look like weakness to Elias.
Grateful for the reprieve anyway.
Elias that close to me was disorienting.
Elias that close to me while he was angry was something else completely.
I’d known I was playing with fire and had come closer than ever before to Elias calling my bluff.
That thought didn’t scare me as much as his words—what I knew he was capable of—should have.
Didn’t scare me at all.
It did just the opposite, which was the worst thing I could imagine.
“Hello, Davit,” I said, trying to sound completely unbothered, which was a fool’s errand if there ever was one.
“Hi, Kayla. You okay?” Davit asked.
I felt rather than saw Elias stiffen and could guess at the reason.
Davit had always been the kinder of the two of them, but since Davit’s wife and I had become friends, he’d gone even more out of his way to look after me.
Something I knew Elias hated.
After a deep, centering breath, one I knew Elias noticed, I looked at Davit and smiled.
“I’m fine,” I said as I stepped pass Elias, trying to ignore the zing of awareness when my arm brushed his.
The seven steps it took to get to the office door felt like miles, but I stopped in front of Davit, hoping my face didn’t betray what I was feeling inside.
“You sure?” he asked, looking at Elias and then back at me.
