Reckless With Their Hearts (25 page)

“Bye, Liss.” She couldn’t handle one more second of this conversation. Those names together in the same sentence just pushed to many emotional buttons.

She knew he was standing outside the door before she even opened it. It was as if she could since his presence even through the wall of steel and stone that separated them. She stood there, frozen because she wasn’t sure how she was going to handle seeing him now that she knew…

“Lexi?”

She closed her eyes as Dragon Man came up behind her and reached for the knob of the door, thinking she needed help. “Wait.” She whispered and his fingers stilled, his expression concerned as he looked down at her.

“You okay?”

She sighed. “I just need a moment.” She murmured, her eyes looking at the floor while she tried to get her heart to stop pounding, her breathing to even out. She had just had a massage that had relaxed the tense muscles of her back, but she felt like she had just run a marathon instead. Was this a panic attack? Was she going to freak out completely?

“Lexi!” Chad pushed her into the chair beside the door and pressed her head down until it was between her knees. “Deep breaths, sweetheart. Deep breaths.”

It was only then that she realized the world had narrowed and that she had been on the verge of passing out. As she sucked in deep, life giving breaths the anxiety slowly ebbed to be replaced by anger. She wasn’t sure who she was
more mad at; him or herself.

A bottle of cold water was thrust into her hands while a cool cloth was pressed to the back of her neck. “Just sit there for a minute, Lexi.” Chad’s deep voice was calm while her emotions threatened to consume her. “You’re okay. Just keep breathing.”

She swallowed half the bottle of water before she was able to speak. Her pounding heart was back to normal and her breathing was steady, but she felt tired. Exhausted. Too many things were pressing into her from the emotional side and she was finding it harder and harder to function. Blinking back tears she found Chad crouched down before her, his eyes still full of concern.

“Is there anyone you need me to call, Lexi?”

Alexis grimaced. “No. I’m fine now. Thanks. I’ve just had a rough week.”

His smile was kind and understanding. “You are going to have times like this before you are walking on your own again, sweetheart. You’re going to have to stop bottling things in, scream every now and then. That’s something that you should discuss with Dr. Reid. I think you should call him if not go over and see him.”

Yeah, she was thinking the same thing. But first she had to face what was on the other side of the door. “Okay.” She said more to herself than to the man in front of her. “I’m ready.” He helped her to her feet and then stepped over to open the door for her. This time she let him turn the knob.

Jared stood leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed over his lean chest. Her heart contracted just looking at him. When he saw her he smiled and she thought she was going to melt into a puddle at his feet. Her brain was screaming at her to walk away from this man who had already mangled
her heart and destroyed her emotionally. While her heart was begging her to step forward, let him wrap his strong arms around her and plead with him to never let her go.

“So, are you going over to see Dr. Reid?” Chad asked as he stepped out of the room behind her.

She was thankful for his presence and the reminder that Dr. Reid was a good option right now. “Yes. I’m thinking that is the best thing right now.”

“Good. It will be good for you. Want me to walk you over?” His eyes went to Jared still leaning against the wall. “Or..?”

Jared stepped forward. “What’s up?”

“Just something that I feel Lexi should take care of now rather than later.” Chad told him.
“Lexi?”

“I think I will be okay. Thanks Chad.” She gave him a reassuring smile and he squeezed her shoulder as he said goodbye and turned down the corridor.

Jared’s arms wrapped around her waist and his head dropped to brush over her lips. She didn’t know what she should do, but her body took it out of her hands and melted against him. Her lips developed a mind of their own and kissed him back. “You’re phone is off.” He murmured against her lips. “Please turn it back on. I have been going out of my mind because I couldn’t reach you.”

She closed her eyes and leaned her head against his chest. “I had some things that required my full attention. My phone was distracting me.”

“I felt like you were avoiding me…” He stepped back enough to look down at her. “I even called your stepmother and asked her if you were okay. She seemed distracted but assured me that you were alright.”

Of course she would. Alexis had told her that her new relationship with Jared was over.
Then to have the man call? Yes, Melissa was probably confused as hell.

“Let’s get you over to this Dr. Reid then I want to take you home and hold you close.” He brushed a tender kiss over her forehead. So gentle it brought tears to her eyes. That’s when she realized that the bubble she had put around them was still intact, thin as rice paper, but still there.
Still protecting them.

Maybe he did care about her. How could he treat her so tenderly and only feel lust for her? She wasn’t ready to give him up yet. Would she ever be?

“I’ll just give Dr. Reid a call later.” She murmured, pulling him closer she snuggled against his chest. “Right now I just want to be in your arms.”

Those arms tightened around her. “Come on then. Let’s feed you.”

--

When they stepped out of the building Melissa was waiting for her in the SUV. She was frowning when she saw Alexis with Jared, but then a smile broke across her face and she seemed relieved.

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly. Jared followed them to a small restaurant for lunch then waited patiently while they went to the salon and had their hair done. He talked her out of extensions, saying that he loved her short hair. So she just had it trimmed a little so that she could style it. After they left the salon Jared took her back to his house where they fell asleep on the sofa while watching the stock report.

It was getting dark out when she opened her eyes, remembering her promise to have dinner with Gabriella. She knew that her cousin was going to flip out when she told her what she had decided in regards to her relationship with Jared. But she also knew that Gabriella would never condemn her for it.

With a sigh she pulled her phone out of her purse and turned it on. There were a handful of messages from Jared, both text and voicemail. She ignored them as she pulled up Gabriella’s name and punched in a quick text. She had just hit send when strong arms pulled her down across a warm chest.

“What are you doing?” He murmured, his lips teasing her ear.

“Just texting Gabriella.”

He grew very still under her and she knew he was wondering what they had talked about. “Lexis…” His tone was shaky, as if he were actually scared of asking the question but even more terrified of the answers.

“She arrived last night.” Alexis informed him, wanting to get it all out of the way quickly so that they could move on. “We talked until after four this morning.”

His arms tightened around her until they were painful. “Please, just let me explain.”

She raised her head. Those molasses eyes were troubled, fearful. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Okay? For now I just want to pretend that we just met. Can we do that, Jared?”

“For real?
You want to start over?” Jared shook his head, unable to believe his ears. Could he possibly be that lucky? To have her know something of the truth and still allow him to be with her?

“I can’t let you go.” She whispered. “I thought I could.
Convinced myself that I needed to this morning. But then I saw you and I…I can’t. I’m not that strong.” She knew that she wasn’t facing the situation full on, and that she was repressing a lot of emotions after last night. But for now—for a little while—she was going to hold onto this man. “Just…Promise me that we can take things slow.”

Gabriella spent a good half hour lecturing. But after she got it out of her system she sat back sipping her sweet tea while they waited for their main course to arrive. Alexis had let her cousin vent, knew that it would help Gabriella burn off some aggression.

She had met up with her cousin for dinner and told her right away what she had decided in regards to Jared. For now she just needed him in her life. Later, she promised her cousin, later she would deal with all the other stuff. Once Gabriella finished with her tirade of ‘he isn’t good for you’, ‘sleaze ball, bastard’ and ‘fucking douche bag’ which seemed to be her favorite so far by the number of times she had used it, the older girl put down her glass and grasped Alexis’s hands.

“Lee-Lee, I love you. All I want is for you to be happy. Is this what you really want?” Her eyes were searching.

Alexis smiled, trying to reassure. “I’m not sure of anything, other than I love him. So for now…” She broke off with a shrug. “I’m going to take things one day at a time.”

Gabriella sighed. “Okay. I’ll try to respect that.” She grimaced and sat back. “But don’t expect me to be nice to that fucker."

Their waiter appeared with their grilled tilapia with steamed veggies. While they enjoyed their dinner Alexis asked how Gabriella’s lunch date with her manager went. Gabriella grunted. “As expected. But I made a few stipulations and I expect that Axton will be pissed when he hears them.”

“Axton?”
The name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t put a face to the unusual name.

“Axton Cage
, frontrunner of OtherWorld. Rocker, heartthrob, arrogant swine…And basically every female in the worlds idea of a wet dream come to life.” Her tone suggested that she wasn’t one of the exceptions. Alexis raised a brow, wondering if her cousin was crushing…Or more importantly, lusting. “I toured with OtherWorld and Demon’s Wings the entire time I was in Europe and Australia. Everyone expects me to do an album with OtherWorld. But it was Axton who went through my manager rather than just asking me.”

“What were your stipulations?”

“I have a few songs that I’m working on. One in particular that I have a burning need to get out. I think that it has a chance of being a top hit, but it needs some male vocal backing to it and Axton has what I’m looking for. If he will do the song with me, and we can get a video out within the next few month, I will willingly do six songs on OtherWorld’s next album…I expect my song will be good publicity for us both and if the CD does as well as expected…I’m going to end up touring directly with OtherWorld instead of just being their opening act.”

Alexis couldn’t contain her squeal. “That’s awesome, Gabs! I’m so happy for you.”

Gabriella shrugged. “It isn’t a done deal yet. Axton has to agree to my song before I do anything else.”

“He would be stupid not to agree.”

“Well, I will know Saturday evening one way or the other.” She pushed her half eaten plate away. “I’m supposed to have dinner with him. Want to come with me?”

Alexis grimaced. “I don’t know if I can. I promised Mom I would drop off a few things for her concerning work. I’ll let you know.”

“Whatever it is won’t take that long, surely? I want you to come, Lee-Lee. It’s important to me.” She reached for Alexis hand again. “And I need some moral support. Axton…I’m not exactly calm and collected around him fifty percent of the time. He makes me crazy. I hate him. I want him…I might even love him. I spend half my time screaming at him, and the other half with my tongue down his throat.”

Alexis nearly spit out the mouthful of tea she had just sipped. She took her time wiping her mouth with her linen napkin. Gabriella was normally level headed about guys. If she was having bi-polar feelings for this one…Well, it was probably good for Gabriella.

“Okay.” She finally gave in. “I’ll take care of Mom’s stuff as early as possible and have dinner with you…If you let me bring Jared.”

--

Nica Andrews—or whatever her last name happened to be now, was more than what she was expecting when they met for coffee the next afternoon. With her long legs, shoulder length cooper hair, and big blue eyes. With her exceptional height, standing at just under six feet tall, her exquisite beauty, and bubbly personality Alexis was almost in awe the first minute or two after introducing herself to the woman.

They had exchanged several texts over the last week. Even through the limited conversations they had had Alexis had started to like the woman. Now as they sat chatting after having already taken care of the business end, Alexis felt a little reluctant to end their meeting. Nica seemed just as much so, ordering a pot of tea after they had finished their coffees.

“I hate to ask, but your crutches have caught my attention.” She finally commented after the tea was placed between them and Nica had poured them each a cup. She had been glancing at the crutches every so often, but not in a way that made Alexis uncomfortable.

So she found herself telling this woman that was a complete stranger all about her accident. Alexis felt as if she were talking to Gabriella, only finding it easier to get through the ordeal because Nica wasn’t as emotionally involved as Gabriella was. Even so, Nica was obviously paler when Alexis was finished.