Chapter 319 - 0319: To Smell My Sheets

Chapter 319: Chapter 0319: To Smell My Sheets

Elena’s Point Of View

"The real question is, what are you doing here, little thief?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. My throat felt like someone had coated it in dry cement, and my brain misfired so badly that I could practically hear the gears grinding to a halt. I stared at his jawline, mesmerized by the slight stubble shadow darkening it, the way his dark gray linen collar hung unbuttoned just enough to reveal the hollow of his throat.

The sheer mass of him sitting on the edge of the mattress made the whole bed tilt toward him, and I found myself sliding down the dip whether I liked it or not. Heat radiated from his body, cutting through the frigid air that had settled over the room. That warmth should have been comforting, but instead it only heightened my awareness of how close he was, how vulnerable I’d made myself by coming here.

Every instinct screamed at me to put distance between us, yet my limbs refused to cooperate, caught somewhere between the fog of sleep and the shock of his presence.

"I’m... I’m not a thief," I finally stuttered out, my voice sounding more like a squeak than that of a woman who ran a multimillion-dollar logistics firm. The words came out pathetic and small, nothing like the commanding tone I used in boardrooms, the one that made grown men reconsider their negotiating positions. Shame crept up my neck, hot and unwelcome, spreading until I could feel it prickling at my ears.

I tried to pull the satin duvet up to my chin, desperate for some barrier between us, but he was sitting on the edge of it, pinning the fabric down with his muscular thigh. The gesture made me feel even more foolish, like a child seeking protection from imaginary monsters, and I hated how small that made me feel in front of him, of all people.

Jaxx tilted his head, a slow, infuriatingly lazy amusement spreading across his features. His eyes gleamed with something that looked dangerously close to satisfaction, as though he’d been waiting for exactly this moment, savoring it the way a cat might savor cornering a mouse.

"Oh, really?" he drawled, drawing the words out as if he had all the time in the world. "Broke into my private building. Used my highly classified security code. Crept into my master bedroom without a single word to my front staff, and then passed out cold on my favorite pillows wearing nothing but an off-shouldered top that looks like it’s missing half its fabric."

He paused, letting each accusation hang in the air between us like smoke, his dark eyes never leaving my face. The silence stretched, deliberate and calculated, and I could feel my pulse hammering in the quiet. "If you aren’t trying to steal something, Elena, then what exactly are you doing here?"

The way he said my name... slow, deliberate, almost possessive, sent an unwanted shiver down my spine that had nothing to do with the temperature. It rolled through me before I could stop it, settling low in my stomach like a warning.

"I don’t know!" I snapped, the frustration finally cutting through the initial fog of my sleep. My cheeks burned with embarrassment and anger... a volatile combination that made my heart pound against my ribs. The truth was, I didn’t have a good answer. I’d acted on pure instinct, driven by exhaustion and something I couldn’t quite name, some magnetic pull I refused to examine too closely.

I tried to wriggle my legs out from under his weight, but it was like trying to shift a mountain range. The man was immovable, an anchor holding me in place, and the harder I struggled, the more aware I became of exactly how close he was.

"You are the one holding me hostage right now! Move your leg, Jaxx! You’re crowding me." My voice came out more desperate than I’d intended, betraying the panic fluttering in my chest.

"I am not crowding you. I am occupying my own property," he reasoned smoothly, his voice maddeningly calm. He didn’t move an inch. Instead, he leaned down just a fraction closer, his eyes scanning my face with a terrifyingly sharp focus that made me feel exposed, as if he could read every thought racing through my panicked mind. Those dark eyes missed nothing... not the way my pulse jumped in my throat, not the defensive set of my jaw, not the fear I was trying so hard to mask with indignation.

"And that’s because I found you on my bed, curled up into yourself like a frozen little shrimp."

Despite everything, heat flooded my face at the image he painted. How long had he been watching me sleep? The thought sent an uncomfortable jolt through me, half mortification, half something I refused to name. Before I could shoot back a witty retort... something cutting and clever that would wipe that smug expression off his face, his hand twitched.

He reached out and flicked my forehead with his index finger. It wasn’t hard enough to bruise, but the sharp thump made me blink in total disbelief. The casual intimacy of the gesture stunned me more than the sting. Had he really just done that?

"Ow!" I whined, rubbing the spot with my palm and glaring at him with enough heat to incinerate a smaller man. My pride stung worse than my forehead. "Did you just flick me? Are you five years old?"

The indignity of it all crashed over me in waves. Here I was, CEO of a successful company, being treated like a misbehaving child by a man who had no right to look so infuriatingly composed, lounging there as though he owned the moment as thoroughly as he owned the building.

"You couldn’t even turn off the air conditioner," he said, ignoring my outrage entirely as he pointed a long finger toward the digital thermostat on the wall, which was currently humming at a crisp sixty-two degrees. His expression shifted slightly, and for just a moment, something that looked almost like concern flickered across his face, genuine worry breaking through his carefully maintained facade.

"It’s a meat locker in here. You’re shivering, your lips are practically blue, and you’re still too stubborn to grab a proper blanket." He shook his head, and I caught the faintest hint of exasperation in his voice, softening the edges of his words. "What am I supposed to do with you, Elena?"

The question hung between us, weighted with something more than simple annoyance. In his eyes, I glimpsed a complexity I hadn’t expected... frustration, yes, but also something protective, almost tender. It confused me more than his anger would have, and for a moment I forgot I was supposed to be angry at all.

I rolled my eyes so hard I thought they might get stuck. "I forgot, okay? I was exhausted. I drove across town with my brain running on fumes, dragged myself up here, and the room was sweltering when I first walked in. But that doesn’t answer my question, Jaxx. What are you doing here? The suite looks like you haven’t lived in it for weeks. There’s no food in the kitchen, the air smells stale... like nobody’s been here in ages."

Jaxx paused. The teasing light in his eyes didn’t vanish, but it shifted, transforming into something heavier, something dark and dense that made the oxygen in the room feel scarce.

He let his propped elbow drop, lowering himself until he sat flat on the mattress, his large hands resting on his knees. The playfulness had drained from his posture entirely, replaced by a stillness that felt almost ominous.

"And that’s because I haven’t," he said softly, his deep voice scraping against the quiet of the bedroom.

"Haven’t what?"

"I haven’t lived here. I haven’t stayed here." He explained, his gaze dropping to my bare shoulders before snapping back to my eyes with an intensity that made my stomach flip violently. The weight of his stare pinned me in place, and I found myself holding my breath, waiting for whatever came next. "I can’t stay in here without you with me, Bambina. I’ve grown so accustomed to your presence in my space, so used to the sound of your keys dropping on the counter and you grumbling about your board meetings, that being alone in this penthouse feels like a curse. It’s just an empty box without you. A mausoleum."

I swallowed hard, my throat tight as my heart performed a frantic, unpredictable tap-dance against my ribs. What the hell was wrong with him? What was he saying?

He spoke like a man who hadn’t spent the last month playing ghost, like he hadn’t left me alone to deal with the fallout of our entire world shattering. Like he hadn’t abandoned me when I needed him most. The contradiction between his words and his absence made my chest ache with a confusion I didn’t know how to untangle.

"Don’t... don’t do that," I whispered, my voice shaking despite my best efforts to keep it steady. My hands trembled in my lap, and I pressed them flat against the sheets to still them.

"Don’t just show up and say things like that to me."

"It’s the truth," he murmured, leaning forward slightly. "Actually, one of my men down at the front gates informed me about your coming to the bar. He recognized the plate on your sedan. I hesitated when he called me. I spent ten minutes sitting in my car three blocks away, gripping the steering wheel, telling myself to stay away, telling myself that I’d only make things worse if I crossed your path again. But I needed to see you. My chest was physically aching from it. The need was unbearable. So here I am."

The anger, hot and volatile, rushed right back to the surface, breaking through the confusing warmth of his confession. I shoved his shoulder with both hands. He barely moved... solid as a wall, but the action felt good. Necessary. Something in me needed to push against him, to prove I still could.

"So why didn’t you do it during all these weeks?!" I yelled, my voice cracking with the sheer weight of the frustration I’d been carrying around like a stone. "Why didn’t you come find me? If you were so miserable, if you missed me so much, why did you leave me hanging? Why did you let three weeks go by without a single text? Not even a ’hey, I’m alive’ from your burner numbers! Nothing. Radio silence. Why?"

Jaxx looked down at his own knuckles, his jaw clenching so tightly I could see the muscle jump beneath his skin. "Because you told me that you didn’t want to see my face, Elena. The last time we spoke in that office, you looked at me like I was the source of every bad thing that had ever happened to you. Like I was poison. And I respected your words. I swore I wouldn’t force myself into your life if my presence was only going to cause you more pain."

"You are an idiot!" I screamed, hitting his arm again, harder this time. My palm stung from the impact, but I barely registered it over the roar of my own frustration. "You are completely in the wrong here! You should have come back anyway! So you avoided me just because I said so? Since when do you follow the rules, Jaxx? Since when do you listen to what people tell you to do? You’ve never cared about boundaries before!"

"I gave you the space you need and deserve after everything," he said, his voice dropping even lower, sounding almost defensive now. Almost wounded. "I wanted to let the dust settle. I wanted you to have a moment to breathe without me crowding your horizons. Without me suffocating you."

"But I didn’t say I needed it!" I retorted, my hands flying up in the air as I let out a loud, frustrated groan. The sound echoed in the empty penthouse, bouncing off walls that had clearly witnessed too much silence these past weeks. "I was angry! I was hurt! A normal person doesn’t just run away to the other side of Texas because someone throws a tantrum in a conference room! You’re supposed to fight back, you’re supposed to show up at my house with dinner and look stupid until I let you in! That’s what people who care do!"

Jaxx stared at me for a long, silent moment. The air between us crackled with unspoken words, thick with everything neither of us had said over the past weeks. Then, very slowly, that wicked, arrogant little smirk began to crawl back onto his lips. It was a terrible, beautiful thing that made me want to slap him and kiss him at the exact same time.

"You did say you needed it," he murmured, his eyes glittering with dangerous amusement. "Or... did you miss me throughout? Is that what this is, princess? Did you miss me so much that you

had to break into my bed just to feel close to me? To smell my sheets?"

"Shut up!" I snapped, my face bursting into a furious, hot blush that I knew he could see even in the dimming evening light. The heat spread down my neck, blooming across my collarbone. "I didn’t miss you at all. I came here to find you so I could give you a proper scolding and tell you that my Operations Director thinks you’re a menace. That’s it. Nothing more."

Jaxx chuckled, the rich sound vibrating from his chest. "I can tell, princess. I can tell exactly how much you didn’t care." His smile faded then, replaced by a sudden, sharp concern that made him reach out before I could stop him. His large, warm fingers gently cupped my chin, tilting my face upward into the gray light filtering through the window. His touch was achingly gentle, as if I might shatter.

"You’ve lost a terrifying amount of weight, Elena," he whispered, his thumb brushing over my cheekbone with a tenderness that made my throat swell with unshed tears. His eyes traced every hollow, every shadow on my face, cataloguing each change with a focus that felt like penance. "And look at your eyes... you’ve been crying yourself to sleep. The skin under them is bruised, dark. You look exhausted. Hollowed out."

I tried to pull away, but his grip remained firm, holding me in place with a gentle but absolute authority. His other hand came up to frame my face completely, and despite every reason I had to resist, I found myself leaning, just slightly, into the warmth of his palms.

"I’m sorry I’m the reason why," he said, his dark eyes searching mine, filled with a raw, bleeding sincerity that I had never seen in a Sinclair before. The vulnerability in his expression nearly undid me, cracking something open in my chest that I’d spent weeks trying to seal shut.

"I’m sorry for everything, Elena. I know a simple apology cannot atone for what I did to you years ago, or the mess I dragged you into now. I know I’ve been a wrecking ball in your life, destroying everything you’ve built. But I want you to know... from the bottom of whatever soul I have left... I am so, so sorry."