Alone Read Free Page B

wished to surprise you.” I gave him a tight smile and walked over to the Keurig. He pinned me against the counter and kissed my cheek. “You are so radiant in the morning.” He sank his fangs in my neck, right there, and in front of everyone —at least seven people—I had an orgasm. I bit my lip so hard to keep quiet I tasted blood.
    The second it was over and I could, I shoved him off me, his teeth tearing my skin a bit since I caught him off guard. He blinked at me as he reached for me. I slapped his hands away with one hand as I moved the other to my neck to apply pressure.
    “Don’t you ever do that again,” I choked out, mortified in a whole new way as I stared at the floor. “I am not your blood whore. Show some respect for me in my own home where you are a fucking guest.” I hurried out of there, tears in my eyes I didn’t want anyone to see and shut myself up in my room. I locked the door and found the first-aid kit and put some gauze on my neck before I laid back on my bed, staring out the window and seeing nothing.
    This was never going to work out. If he could act like that ever , we were too different.
    I stayed in there all day, ignoring the work I heard going on, hoping they would all leave and I didn’t have to face them. The only time I got up was to change my bandage, worried when it wasn’t healing. Finally around dinner, I caved, dehydrated and starving. The second I opened the door, Conall was there with a look on his face so enraged I found myself taking a shaky step back into the room.
    “I apologize for my detestable behavior, it is inexcusable, but I would ask that you never berate me in front of my people like that again no matter what I do. That was a discussion to have in private.”
    You did it publicly, it should have been handled publicly . But given the way he was staring at me and his tone, that wasn’t what I said. “I was upset, but I will try. I agree that arguments are not for public displays. I do not consider my home public though. You brought the strangers in and that caught me off guard.”
    “That’s understandable,” he conceded. He slowly moved forward and removed my hand from my neck, sighing when he saw I was still bleeding. “I assumed you had healed if you stayed in here this long. Oh, my Nina, you can be so stubborn.”
    “As can you.”
    “We are a pair,” he agreed. He leaned down and licked my neck, and I felt it heal, the pain stopping. He took the gauze from me and stepped aside, allowing me to pass. “We accomplished much while you hid.”
    I let that go, still hearing an edge to his tone. I took about five steps and froze, slowly turning towards my office as if seeing a monster like in a horror movie—but it was so much worse.
    Someone had fucked with my office. It was so bad I actually fainted—dropped right there and fell with a thud to the floor.
    “Get me water for her,” Conall yelled as I came back around from his lap. “She lost too much blood.”
    “My office,” I whimpered, pushing away from him and trying to see it.
    “Lie still, my Nina,” he shushed me, and seconds later, a bottle of water was in my hands as he sat me up against him and helped me drink it.
    Tears filled my eyes as I stared at my destroyed office. “What did you do ?”
    “I redecorated your office to the finest of everything like you deserve. A brilliant mind like yours deserves the best, a true writer’s office full of inspiration and limitless possibilities.”
    I looked around and my heart broke. Instead of my hanging promo banners, the same ones that were on my sites that my graphic designer—my best friend—and I had spent weeks designing together, some of the best hours of my life, capturing who I really was, my style, the feel of me … There was now cheesy matted and framed inspirational posters like in corporate or doctor offices. It brought one word to mind.
    Generic.
    Gone were my back-to-back glass top desks that took me forever to find because