He’d taken advantage of a student without knowing anything about me except that he wanted to hurt my father.
Even if my father had done exactly what Alek accused him of doing.
Even if the dark and rageful part of me understood.
Almost three weeks after the incident and those two disastrous games, and practice almost felt like normal again. Almost.
“Miss Jackson,” Coach murmured. “Something more important than practice?”
I flushed, returning my attention to the ice, where it belonged. “No, sir,” I muttered, then flushed even brighter red when I realized what I’d said.
Coach hummed, not quite ignoring it but not pressing the point. He handed me an orange, just like he did every practice now. Electricity crackled through the air when our fingers brushed.
The orange rolled out of my trembling hands.
“Sit,” he growled at me.
“I’m fine,” I snapped.
“I don’t fucking care if you think you’re fine. I told you to sit.”
I wait a beat. My hand drifts to my still-healing scar, and Alek makes a noise of discontent.
Fine.Silently, I sat on the bench. He handed me another orange to peel. A man hell-bent on revenge didn’t keep oranges in his bag for a woman he hated. Or make her sit because she was still healing from surgery.
He watched me cautiously as I devoured the sweet segments, and I made my decision.
I couldn’t win this fight against Jed Carter on my own. I needed allies. Cole and Tristan were trying—god, they were really trying, but I couldn’t trust them. Not yet. Maybe never.
But Alek? Alek was a man who’d already used me, who couldn’t pretend that this was anything else, who wouldn’t make me hope for something I couldn’t have.
If seducing him was the price of his help, I’d pay it—I’d become the manipulative bitch they all accused me of being.
“I’d like to speak with you privately,” I said quietly, and my gut clenched at what he must be thinking, wondering if he too was remembering the moments I spent on my knees, serving him coffee.
One eyebrow arched. “Oh?”
I blushed. “Not like that.” Apparently, I hadn’t regained control over my emotions when it came to Alek.
He looked me up and down, and fire spread over my skin everywhere his gaze touched.
Maybe itwouldbe exactly like that. Maybe this was the only way forward.
“Let’s have dinner tonight,” he offered finally, an edge of command in his voice.
“Yes, sir,” I answered before I could stop myself.
He exhaled sharply then shuddered, and power rushed through me, the same power I’d felt in his office months ago, when he unraveled after putting me on my knees. Then, I’d had nothing but my body to bargain with.
I was right back where I’d started, except this time, I was choosing it.
“I’ll pick you up at seven.”
24
ALEKSANDR
I satin Eva’s driveway, debating whether to call her and tell her to come out or walk up to her door like a fucking gentleman, when she solved the problem for me, popping out in an emerald wrap dress that emphasized every luscious curve of her body. She wore mascara, and her lips were a bright ruby red in the flickering light of her porch.