Against my better judgement, I nod, agreeing to follow him towards his hotel room, for old time's sake. Because above all we had been close as children.

We step into the elevator, the mirrored walls reminding me that I was only in my pink thong bikini. I curse myself internally before I slowly wrap the beach towel around my waist, just as the elevator door closes.

I had hoped I was discreet but as I slowly look up, I find Jace leaning back against the elevator side, his eyes lingering on my hips. Before they move up to my bikini top which I have yet to cover.

He makes no attempt to look away, not even when I clear my throat...my face blushing from his stare.

"What floor?" I feel my own brows furrow as I break the odd tense silence that had fallen upon us, my finger preparing to press any of the ten floors. "Pent house." He grunts, his eyes finally breaking away from my chest.

"The pent house?"

“The pent house...." He pushes off the wall with a sigh, his eyes locking on to mine as he looks at me strangely.

If I knew better I would think he was hungry, those predator eyes of his eyeing me as prey...but I'm not a daydreaming young girl any more, he just wants me to promise him that I'll keep quiet about his location.

That I won't inform his parents.

The air between us becomes harder to breathe, my heart pounding violently against my chest that it now causing me some pain. A charged energy forms between us, I guess I've been around human males for the most part of the night...and to stand in front of an alpha born that isn't from my own pack might create this level of atmosphere.

"Why are you here Cleo?" With each step closer he takes towards me, I take a step back; until I press against the elevator wall. I was caged between him and the mirror.

"I'm...it's my...I'm with Maya."

"Yes, so I saw. But why are you here?"

How many times have I fantasied about Jace as anoveldrama

young teenager how many times have I played this scenario out in my head...that we would be alone...that he might finally see me as more than just a family friend...more than just the little girl that doted on him since forever. That romanticised for more.

He was playing me, he has to be....he was using my childhood crush on him to manipulate me, to seek out information...

"I'm not here for you, if that's what you want to know."

Ding!

The elevator doors open behind him, my eyes darting to the penthouse suite. The Varon's weren't short of money that was well known but to live here for the length of time that Jace has would rake up quite a hotel bill, one...without his pack's backing...he wouldn't be able to pay.

“Quite a pad you have here... " I move past him, stepping out into the stylishly designed hotel pent house that was shrouded with darkness from the windowed wall design.

It was pitch black outside, a few lit up boats in the ocean water breaking the blackness of the night. Flashing lights glowed from the massive pool party downstairs, yet the noise didn't prate through the windows. It was silent.

I move towards the windows where a balcony is now visible. White sofas adorn the outdoor space...the pang of jealousy surges through me of how many females he has had up here, seduced outside.

While he's been shagging women in bikinis, his family has been worried sick of his well being.

This is where the missing alpha had been all along. Not bleeding out in a ditch but living quite the glamorous life on the coast.

"Have you been here all this time?" I ask out, my voice dry.

"Yes."

"Here...you've been here all this time? You can afford this...without your family knowing?"

"Cleo, I own this. This hotel is mine."