The CEO's Regret: Darling, Don’t Leave Me novel Chapter 311

Chapter 224. A Dangerous Mistake.

Chapter 224: A Dangerous Mistake.

Alexander

She’s right in front of me, so close I can feel the heat radiating from her body, so close I could reach out and touch her, and yet I don’t. I remain still… Because if there’s one thing I’ve learne life, it’s that moving too soon can ruin everything.

Vanessa just ran her finger over my lips, a small gesture, but full of intention. It wasn’t accider

wasn’t innocent. And we both know it.

I watch her in silence. The nightgown she’s wearing-one of mine, by the way-falls lightly ove figure. The thin fabric doesn’t conceal much. The dim light in the room subtly highlights the c

of her body, suggesting more than it reveals. And I’m not blind… Nor am I a saint.

I notice the tension of her n*****s beneath the discreet transparency of the fabric. The line of h

bare legs emerging from the hem of the nightgown. The exposed skin of her thighs. The obvio

fact that she’s wearing nothing else underneath. All of this rushes before my eyes with brutal

speed, awakening something basic… primal.,

My essence as a man, and no matter how much self-control I have, no matter how much I’ve

trained myself to think before acting. I’m still a man, and I have before me an attractive woman..

Sexy. Vulnerable in a dangerous way. Searching for something that perhaps even she doesn’t

understand.

I glance down for barely a second and return to her eyes; I mustn’t deceive myself. Vanessa is

beautiful, she has an obvious, immediate kind of beauty, the kind of woman who draws attention

the moment she enters a room. She knows how to move, how to look, how to use silence as a

weapon.

And I also know something else… I don’t see her as a woman with whom I could build a life. I don’t imagine her in my mornings, I don’t imagine her in my future, I don’t imagine her bearing my name or raising my children… It’s not cruelty. It’s clarity. There are women who awaken desire, and there are women who awaken a shared vision; Vanessa belongs to the first group.

Clara…

I clench my jaw slightly…

No, I’m not thinking about Clara now. Not when I have another woman breathing in front of me, her

mouth slightly open, her pulse racing.

Vanessa watches me, waiting for something, maybe a reaction, maybe for me to kiss her, maybe for me to take her in my arms and take away her pain with a convenient distraction. It would be

Chapter 224 A Dangerous Mistake

easy, too easy. And that’s precisely what makes me suspicious.

“You’re hurt,” I finally say, in a low voice.

She blinks, as if she hadn’t expected that.

“And a hurt person often confuses many things.”

“I’m not confused. What makes you think that?”

I didn’t say anything.

“Just because I came here doesn’t mean my emotions have gotten mixed up.”

“Then what?”

I don’t take my eyes off her face. I want her to understand that I’m seeing her completely, n the body she offers me without offering it.

“I came for two reasons… Loneliness with desire, or perhaps anger with impulse, emptiness need… one of those, but not because I like you, Alexander, nor because I’m in love with you.”

Her lips barely part.

“And you?” she asks. “Are you confusing things?”

Good question.

I look at her mouth for a second, then at her legs… Then back at her eyes.

“No.”

I take a step toward her; now the distance between us is minimal.

“I know exactly what I see.”

My voice is deeper, more honest.

“I see an attractive woman.”

Her pupils tremble.

“I see a woman who knows how to provoke without saying much.”

I bring my hand to a strand of her hair and tuck it behind her ear… I do it very slowly, without haste.

“And I see a woman who doesn’t want to sleep alone tonight. I’ve noticed her loneliness for a long

time

I also noticed that she doesn’t know how to be alone, but I can’t say that now.

< Chapter 224 A Dangerous Mistake.

Her breathing changes; I notice it in the movement of her chest beneath the fabric.

My fingers slide down her neck until they barely touch her collarbone. No more, not yet.

“But I also see a woman who might regret what she does tonight tomorrow.”

Silence…

We stay there, sizing each other up.

Vanessa swallows.

“I don’t usually regret things.”

A half-smile plays on my lips.

“That’s what almost everyone says before they do it.”

She takes another half step closer, now her torso is almost touching mine. The tension rises, and

my body responds, of course. It would be a lie to deny it, but my mind is still awake. Always awak

“I hope being here doesn’t change the way you see me.”

I shook my head.

“You asked me to be the wornan you saw the first time, and this is me.”

I nodded then. With that, I was more than certain I could never see her as someone I could have a

serious relationship with.

I gently took her wrist, which was still close to my face, and slowly lowered it. Not with rejection,

but with control.

“You’re not a woman for me, Vanessa.” I said it bluntly; her eyes barely changed. Not from pain,

perhaps from surprise. “But you are a woman a man notices, when he walks into a room.”

Honesty can also be a caress. And sometimes it hurts more.

I looked her up and down once more, not hiding the fact that I desired her physically, not feigning

absurd purity.

“Tonight you decide if you want comfort…”

I tilt my head slightly.

“Or if you want to make an interesting mistake.”

The whole room freezes in that instant, and for the first time in a long time… I don’t know which of the two is being more dangerous.