Chosen by the Beast Alpha

Chapter 83: Chapter 83

Lena’s POV

What happened last night was real. He’d almost lost control.

"It’s normal if you want me, or want my body. Seriously, there’s nothing wrong with admitting that. It’s not even the first time."

The light turned green. Dominic’s voice stayed flat, almost too calm. "Would you really sleep with someone that casually if you felt nothing for them?"

"What are you even talking about?" she scoffed. "I like you. That’s not casual at all. I want to sleep with you because I like you—"

She cut herself off mid-sentence, her brain finally catching up with her mouth and slamming the brakes.

She turned to look out the window. There was something she’d wanted to ask him for a long time, but the timing had never felt right. Then again, maybe there was no such thing as a right time for a question like this.

"Dominic, if Eliza wanted to sleep with you... would you?"

They used to be together. Everybody knew that. And exes? They were the easiest people to fall back into bed with. That was just facts.

He frowned and shot her a sideways glare. "If you don’t have anything useful to say, then be quiet."

Lena turned back to him, curiosity instantly kicking into overdrive. "Come on, tell me. I swear I won’t get jealous."

He ignored her.

She puffed out her lips. "Wow. You’re no fun."

Silence settled over the car. At the next intersection, the red light flipped green. His lips moved slightly.

"No."

"What?" She whipped her head toward him.

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. "I said no. I wouldn’t."

She stared at him for a few seconds.

Then a smile slowly spread across her face, brighter and brighter, until her eyes curved into little crescents.

When they stopped in front of the apartment building, she stood beside the car and opened her arms wide. "Dominic, hug me."

He glanced at her, expression unreadable. "Walk upstairs."

"My ankle hurts." She crooked a finger at him, shameless and a little smug. "You carried me in front of Eliza earlier, so why not now?"

"That? I was just playing along with your little act."

A warm, fizzy shiver spread through Lena’s chest. So he knew. He knew exactly what she had done in front of Eliza, and he had gone along with it on purpose.

She bit her lip to hold back a smile. "Still. Carry me."

Dominic started forward, took two steps, then stopped.

A second later, he turned back. Before he could change his mind, Lena looped both arms around his neck. He scooped her up in one motion, jaw locked tight, looking like a man suffering the ultimate humiliation.

She hit the elevator button, and he carried her inside. The doors slid shut. Lena rested her head against his shoulder like she belonged there, like it was her own private throne.

"Dominic—"

"Be quiet."

She shut her mouth. Then she slowly pressed her palm flat against his chest.

His heart was pounding fast—way too fast for a man who kept insisting he felt absolutely nothing.

"Dominic." She widened her eyes in fake surprise. "Your heart is beating really fast."

His Adam’s apple bobbed.

"You do react to me," she whispered.

Her fingers slid up from his collar and lightly brushed over his throat.

His whole body went rigid. She felt the muscles in the arm around her tighten, hard as steel. And lower down, something shifted—obvious, unmistakable—pressing against her hip.

The elevator doors opened.

He moved like lightning. He set her down, unlocked the door, and went straight for the fridge. Grabbing a bottle of water, he tipped his head back and chugged the whole thing in one go. His throat worked hard, knuckles whitening around the plastic.

Lena stayed by the doorway, one hand braced against the frame, laughing so hard her stomach almost hurt.

She stepped inside, about to give him a shove, but he had already snatched a change of clothes from the guest room and disappeared into the bathroom.

Left alone in the hall, she burst out laughing at the sight of that firmly shut door.

Then she shuffled over to it, leaned in, and pressed her ear against the wood.

Water was running inside.

I knocked on the door, and it opened almost right away. Dominic was standing there with a towel slung low around his waist, his hair still wet and slicked back, his cheeks faintly flushed from the shower. The second he saw Lena, something in his expression shifted. Dangerous. Tense. Like a guy hanging on by a thread.

"Want to go take a cold shower?" she asked softly, her tone sweet on purpose.

He tried to move past her, but she reached out fast and caught the hem of his shirt.

He froze.

Then, slowly, he turned back. "Lena."

"What?" She let go at once and lifted her hand, palm up, putting on the most innocent face she could manage. "I’m not going to hurt you. Why are you so nervous?"

His fists tightened at his sides. She could tell he was holding himself back with everything he had. His gaze dropped to her lips for one brief second, then snapped away like he didn’t trust himself to look any longer.

Her nerve started slipping.

What if he lost control?

Not out of anger. That wasn’t what scared her.

It was the other thing. Desire. Raw and sudden and impossible to ignore. And what if she wasn’t ready for that kind of impact when it actually hit?

She shifted sideways and took a small step back, giving him space. He brushed past her without a word, went straight into the guest room, and shut the door.

A second later, she heard the lock click.

"Hey, are you serious right now?" she said, staring at the closed door. "Do you seriously think I was going to barge in and jump you?"

Last night he’d been the one who could barely stop himself, and now he was locking doors like she was the dangerous one.

And just like that, she was alone again.

She grabbed her things and went to shower, careful with her swollen ankle, one hand braced against the wall so she wouldn’t lose her balance. Halfway through, she glanced toward the bathroom door through the fogged glass.

There was a shadow there.

Tall. Broad-shouldered. So familiar she knew who it was instantly.

Dominic.

While she was showering, he was standing outside the bathroom door.

Was he guarding her?

Was he worried her twisted ankle would give out and she’d fall?

Whatever the reason was, it got to her a little. In a good way. Softened something inside her.

After finishing up, she dried her hair. When she looked toward the bathroom door again, the shadow was gone.

"Is this what it looks like when a man actually catches real feelings?" Lena texted Anna from bed.

Anna replied with one huge "YES" emoji.

["But he’s still tangled up with his ex. I hate that."]

["It’s fine. You’re his partner. Anyone trying to wedge themselves between you two is basically a homewrecker. And honestly? You can deal with homewreckers however you want."]

Anna wasn’t wrong. Whatever had happened between Dominic and Eliza before, right now, at this very moment, she was the one by his side. If anyone had crossed the line, it was Eliza, not her.

["That woman set you up at the club and nearly got you hurt, and you still never brought it up. You’re way too nice. If she keeps hanging around Dominic, you seriously don’t need to be polite to her."]

Anna’s words hit Lena like a light switching on. Eliza had shown up at her office today, and not once had she mentioned what happened at the nightclub. She had been so busy treating everything like some competition that she’d completely missed the point.

["Tonight, I’m going to make sure she can’t sleep."]

["?"]

Anna sent back a question mark, but Lena didn’t answer.

She opened Instagram. Eliza had posted something new.

["Humility is a woman’s greatest virtue."]

No photo. Just that sentence.

Lena instantly connected it to what had happened that afternoon. Right in front of Eliza, she had kissed Dominic on the cheek, and he had wrapped his arms around her.

The timestamp matched.

So yeah, Eliza was obviously calling her shameless.

Lena let out a cold little laugh.

She slipped out of bed, padded quietly to Dominic’s door, and tested the handle.

Unlocked.

She eased the door open and slid inside without a sound. The curtains were left open, and the clean moonlight poured across the room, washing everything in a pale silver glow. Dominic lay flat on his back, eyes closed, breathing slow and even, his chest rising and falling in the hush of sleep.

Lena held her breath and turned on her camera.

Then, with ridiculous care, she reached out and slipped her hand into his.

His fingers were warm, loose, unguarded.

She threaded her fingers through his one by one until their hands were fully clasped, tight and intimate. With her other hand, she lifted her phone and took the picture.

His hand was seriously unfairly beautiful.

The veins along the back of it, the clean shape of his knuckles, those long fingers—every detail looked sharp and perfect in the moonlight. Her own hand looked so much smaller against his, her fingertips just brushing his skin. Side by side, their hands looked almost too good, like something staged for a photo shoot.

Slowly, carefully, she pulled her hand back out, then tiptoed from the room.

After closing the door, she climbed back into bed, adjusted the picture, cropped it a little, and let the moonlight and shadow do the heavy lifting.

Then she posted it to Instagram.

Eliza would see two hands clasped together in the dark.

She would know whose hand that was.

She would know whose bed that was.

Tonight, she was definitely not sleeping.

Lena smiled to herself, set down her phone, and closed her eyes.

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