Chapter 134 - 0134: What’s Going On Between You Two

Chapter 134: Chapter 0134: What’s Going On Between You Two

Elena’s Point Of View

A sharp, sudden knock echoed against the heavy wooden door of the fitting room.

"Lena?" Lexy’s voice came through, muffled but laced with growing worry. "You okay in there? You’ve been quiet for too long. Do you need help with that gown?"

I froze instantly, my whole body going rigid as ice. My heart slammed against my ribs like a trapped bird, cold panic tearing through the heavy, intoxicating haze of lust that had consumed me only seconds before.

The world outside this room, the one with witnesses and consequences and a best friend who could read me like an open book, came crashing back in all at once.

Every rational thought I’d abandoned in the last ten minutes came flooding back with vicious clarity, reminding me exactly how much I stood to lose.

Jaxx cursed under his breath, a dark, filthy string of profanities, his forehead dropping heavily against mine as he exhaled a long, ragged breath.

His hand still lingered low on my waist, his thumb brushing slow, reluctant circles against my bare skin, like he physically couldn’t bring himself to let go just yet. His eyes were wide open, pitch-black, pupils dilated so large there was barely any amber left, staring into mine with a dangerous, chaotic storm of restraint and desire.

For a moment, neither of us moved, as if stillness alone might make the knock disappear. I could feel the erratic thud of his heart beneath my palm, proof that whatever storm raged inside me raged inside him too.

"Answer her," he whispered roughly, his voice a low, gravelly rasp.

I swallowed hard, my lips feeling swollen and sensitive, my chest heaving against his jacket. "I’m..." My voice cracked embarrassingly. I cleared my throat, forcing my vocal cords to cooperate while staring up into his dark gaze. "I’m fine, Lex! Just... trying to get the zipper up! It’s sticking!"

There was a brief pause on the other side of the door, then Lexy laughed softly, oblivious. "Alright, drama queen. Just holler if you need me to yank it."

Her footsteps faded down the hardwood hallway, and I counted each one, waiting for the sound to disappear completely before I allowed myself to breathe again.

The silence that reclaimed the fitting room was deafening, thick with the heavy scent of our combined heat, leather, and ruin. I could still feel the ghost of his mouth against my throat, could still hear my own pulse roaring in my ears louder than any words either of us might have said.

Somewhere beneath the panic, a small, reckless part of me mourned the interruption, and that realization frightened me more than Jaxx himself did.

Jaxx let out a long, frustrated sigh, his jaw flexing as he pulled back just enough to look at me fully. His hands stayed planted on either side of me, pinning me to the vanity, his gaze burning into mine... dark, unreadable, and terrifyingly intense.

He reached behind my back, his long fingers surprisingly deft as he gathered the open silk and tugged the zipper all the way to the top in one smooth, practiced motion. His touch as his knuckles brushed my spine was maddeningly gentle now, almost careful, and the stark contrast to his earlier brutality made my throat tighten.

It was as though two different men occupied his body... one who wanted to devour me whole, and one who wanted, however briefly, to protect what remained of me. I found myself wondering which of the two men was the lie, and which one might eventually destroy me.

His lips brushed my temple once... a soft, lingering, searing point of contact, before he stepped back completely, breaking the heat grid between our bodies. His expression shifted before my very eyes... the raw, animalistic wildfire shoved back into an iron cage of absolute control, leaving only the dark, lethal composure he always wore like armor.

I watched the transformation happen in real time, and something in my chest ached at the loss of the man who, seconds ago, hadn’t been able to stop touching me. It was unsettling how easily he could bury himself beneath that armor, as though the wildness I’d just witnessed had never existed at all.

"I’ll leave you..." he said finally, his voice low, gravelly, and hard as steel, "...for now."

And just like that, he turned, walking toward the private back door of the boutique. He didn’t look back, didn’t give me another chance to speak, didn’t give me the satisfaction of seeing him falter again. He just turned the knob, stepped out into the alleyway, and vanished like a shadow into the evening light, leaving me alone with the wreckage of what we’d almost done.

The click of the door closing behind him sounded impossibly loud, final in a way that made my chest ache with something I refused to call longing.

I stood there pressed against the vanity, shaky, breathless, my lips swollen, my skin still tingling everywhere his hands and mouth had touched me.

My chest rose and fell in fast, shallow gasps, my thighs pressed tightly together as if that could somehow stop the agonizing ache he’d left behind in my core.

He was gone, but my body clearly hadn’t gotten the memo. My knees still felt weak where they pressed against the carved wood of the dresser. My lips still tingled, raw and thoroughly kissed.

My heartbeat was an erratic, violent thing, drumming in my throat, in my wrists, in the dark, dangerous place between my thighs where his touch had promised complete destruction.

I pressed a hand flat against my sternum, willing my heart to slow, willing my mind to catch up with what my body had already surrendered.

Every instinct screamed at me to run after him, and every shred of remaining dignity screamed louder for me to stay exactly where I stood.

I pressed both palms to the edge of the dresser, breathing heavily, trying to anchor myself to reality. I forced myself to turn and look into the vanity mirror, and the reflection that met me belonged to a total stranger... my hair mussed from his fingers, my cheeks flushed a deep, telltale crimson, my lips dark red and parted.

My lipstick was completely smudged across my jawline, my skin glowing with heat, and the neckline of my dress sat low and rumpled where Jaxx’s hands had pulled at it.

I barely recognized the woman staring back at me... she looked wanton, undone, thoroughly claimed, and some small, traitorous part of me thrilled at the sight. I hated her a little, and envied her too, for having felt something so consuming without caring about the cost.

God. Jaxx.

The knock at the door had been my salvation a moment ago, saving me from throwing away everything I had left, but now the silence in the room pressed around me like a filthy, suffocating secret.

My gown was zipped. My body was humming like a live wire. And my mind... my mind was an absolute, chaotic mess, torn between shame and a hunger I didn’t want to name.

I should hate him. I did hate him. He was manipulative, dangerous, entirely unpredictable. He had explicitly warned me that he would ruin me if I ever let him in. I believed every word of it.

And yet, when he leaned down, when his dark voice rasped my name, when his teeth grazed my throat, I had felt every wall I’d spent months building shatter like cheap glass.

Weeks of careful discipline, of convincing myself I was strong enough to resist him, undone in the span of a few reckless minutes. It terrified me how little effort it had taken him, and how much I had wanted him to succeed.

I swallowed hard, forcing my shaking hands to smooth down the silk of my dress. I picked up a tissue to wipe his taste from my lips, but as I looked at my smudged reflection, a bitter, self-deprecating thought crossed my mind: You know better. You’ve always known better. And still, you let him in.

The door to the fitting room swung open without warning.

"Elena?"

Lexy’s voice snapped me out of the suffocating fog. She rushed in, her heels clacking sharply against the wood floor, her dark curls bouncing around her face as her sharp eyes instantly swept the room, cataloguing every detail with the precision of someone who had spent years learning to read the truth beneath my lies. I braced myself, knowing there would be no lie sturdy enough to survive her scrutiny.

Her gaze moved from the slightly ajar back window, to the perfume bottles scattered on the vanity, to the mirror. And then, finally, to me.

"Elena, who was that man who just walked out of the back exit?"

I blinked, my pulse spiking instantly into my throat. "What?"

Lexy’s eyes narrowed into suspicious slits. "The tall guy. Dark hair, leather jacket. Tattoos peeking out of his collar. He walked out of this corridor like he owned the entire street."

My lips parted, but no logical explanation came out. My throat felt as dry as dust, and every excuse I tried to construct crumbled before it reached my tongue.

Lexy’s eyes widened suddenly, her expression shifting from curiosity to shock. "Wait... wait a minute. He looked... oh my God. Jaxx. That asshole from high school. The one who got kicked out. That’s him, isn’t it?"

Her tone had sharpened to a razor’s edge. That name... Jaxx, hung in the small room like a heavy thunderclap before a storm, and I felt the walls of the fitting room shrink around me. Years of memories I thought I’d buried rose up all at once, uninvited and unwelcome.

I tried to look indifferent, turning back to the mirror and blindly brushing at a fold in my skirt, but my fingers trembled so badly the fabric caught on my ring. "Lexy, don’t start..."

"What’s he doing here? With you?" she demanded, stepping fully into the fitting room and closing the door behind her. "And why..." She stopped dead in her tracks, her sharp eyes scanning me from head to toe with terrifying accuracy.

"Why is your face so flushed? And your lips..." Her voice cracked on a dry, breathless laugh. "They’re completely swollen, Elena. And your lipstick is on your neck."

Heat flared violently across my cheeks, hot and guilty. "It’s nothing. I just... the dress was tight and I got overheated."

"Nothing?" Lexy arched a dark brow, planting both hands firmly on her hips. "Girl, you look like you just walked off the set of a music video that got banned from television for being too explicit. Do not lie to my face right now."

I turned away from her completely, grabbing a comb off the vanity, pretending to fix my hair, but my hands were shaking so severely the plastic comb rattled against the polished wood. "I don’t have to explain myself to you, Lexy."

"Yes, you damn well do!" Lexy’s reflection appeared directly behind mine in the glass, her eyes bright with fear and anger. "He’s dangerous, Elena! He’s Jaxx. I remember how he used to look at you back then. Like you were a prize he wanted to steal, or something he could ruin just to see if it would break!"

My stomach twisted into a hard, painful knot. Her words hit too close to home. They weren’t wrong. He had said those exact words to me just minutes ago, and hearing them echoed back through Lexy’s mouth made them feel even more like prophecy than warning.

A chill crawled up my spine at how precisely she’d captured the danger I’d just willingly walked into.

"You’re still legally married," Lexy continued, her voice rising in panic. "You’re currently trying to escape a toxic, abusive marriage with Graham, and now Jaxx..." She gestured wildly toward the back door. "Jaxx is hiding in your fitting room? Kissing you until your lips bleed?"

I spun around to face her, my chest heaving. "It’s not what you think!"

Lexy stared at me, her mouth open in disbelief. "Then what the hell is it, Elena? Explain it to me!"

I opened my mouth to give her a rational answer, a lie, anything, but no words formed. The lingering sensation of his hands on my skin... hot, heavy, possessive, claiming every inch of me... burned through my veins like liquid fire.

The dark, intoxicating taste of his mouth still clung to mine, and no explanation I could offer would erase what my own body so plainly confessed.

Lexy’s sharp eyes flicked down to the rumpled silk at my neckline, then snapped back up to my face. The realization washed over her features, cold and terrifying. "Oh my God," she whispered, stepping back a pace. "You didn’t."

"Lexy... please..."

She stepped right back into my space until we were almost nose to nose, her voice dropping to a harsh, desperate whisper. "Tell me you didn’t let that man touch you."

I swallowed hard, my jaw clenching as I fought the shame and the lingering arousal warring inside me. "I didn’t... not all the way. Nothing happened."

Her eyes searched mine, cutting right through my defensive posture. "But you wanted it to."

I couldn’t look her in the eye. I cast my gaze down to the wooden floorboards, shame pooling low in my stomach alongside something far more complicated. "He cornered me. He kissed me first."

Lexy let out a sharp, bitter sound that was half laugh, half groan of utter exasperation. "Of course he did. Jaxx doesn’t ask for permission, Elena. He takes whatever he wants, and he leaves a trail of wreckage behind him every single time."

I wanted to yell at her. I wanted to tell her she was wrong about him, that I was still in control, that I hadn’t surrendered. But my own body betrayed me... still trembling, still feverish, still aching in the intimate places he’d barely even touched.

The truth sat heavy on my tongue, and I hated that I couldn’t force it past my teeth. Even now, standing in the wreckage of my own making, some traitorous corner of my heart wondered when I might see him again.

Lexy reached out, her fingers gently touching my arm, her anger melting into pure, unadulterated concern. "Elena... you’re playing with fire. If Graham finds out about him, or if Jaxx gets what he wants and walks away... you are going to get destroyed."

I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out her face, but I couldn’t block out his memory. Jaxx’s low, gravelly voice echoed through my mind with terrifying clarity: ’You’ll choose me. You’ll beg for me. And when that happens, I’ll take you.’

The promise, or perhaps the threat, settled deep in my bones like a splinter I couldn’t remove. I wondered, with a dread that curled low in my stomach, whether some part of me already wanted it to come true.

My pulse thundered wildly against my ribs, loud enough to drown out the quiet music playing in the front of the shop.

Lexy exhaled a long, shaky breath, her hand dropping from my arm. Her tone shifted completely, the anger entirely gone, replaced by a deep, heavy dread. "What’s going on between the both of you?"