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She snorted and kicked a stone with her faux suede black ankle boots. Another thing, I was sure neither of our salaries could comfortably afford. “I doubt it.” Sudden curiosity flashed through her green eyes. “You never told me what happened yesterday.”
I lifted a brow. “Yesterday?”
“The dark–I mean VIP room? John said you chickened out too.”
Something like a burst of flames erupted in my chest. Subconsciously, my fingers crawled up to my collar and fumbled with a button on the navy-blue cotton shirt.
“Oh,” I chewed on my lip. “About that, I ... yeah, I didn’t go through with it. I just went in to take their orders and had John serve them.”
Ava peered through narrowed eyes. “Why? What happened? Did they say something?”
I shook my head. They didn’t have to. There were three grown men in that room, but one had eyes and a presence that spoke louder than the words that rolled off his pink tongue last night.
A sense of foreboding consumed me, and a gloomy cloud formed over my head. I’d been forced to remember everything. Statuesque man, dark suit, and ocean blue eyes.
He filled out his suit quite nicely with his broad shoulders and buff body, a subtle hint of chest hair poking from his two button-down shirt, and his long strong legs crossed over like he owned the world, Le Coin Brulet not excepted.
Me not excepted.
His aura had a solid tilt over the line of confidence. Arrogance. And his eyes had a spark of something beautiful yet deadly—conviction. He knew what he wanted and was going to get it no matter what the cost.
I remembered, as soon as I entered that testosterone-filled room, our eyes met. I couldn’t tear myself away from his intense gaze. I’d thought, I had never seen a man with such untamed allure. Chiseled cheekbones, a shadow on his jaw accentuating his lush lips that begged to be kissed, and long dark hair that called for a comb with my fingers.
Rule one was officially screwed. I’d messed up big time. I’d looked for too long and got caught.
“He looked at me like he saw right through me, Ava ... like he knew I had scrambled eggs and burnt toast for breakfast ...”
“Nonsense.”
“I’m telling you.” This time, my eyes held hers, and she saw the fear swimming through them. “A gaze that intense? I’ve never experienced a thing like that. That man ... he stripped me. I felt naked standing before him. It was scary ...” and yet so thrilling.
Ava shook her head, probably disregarding my thesis as crazy. “John said he asked about the waitress that attended to them earlier.”
I felt strange knowing that he’d taken note of my appearance enough to ask for me, but “Well, good thing I didn’t go back there,” I said, and she sighed.
“I, for one, am glad that’s over. Hopefully, we never have guests like them again.” She glanced at the old watch on her wrist and flashed a small smile. “I’m on the clock. Gotta head inside now.”
She started walking and, when she noticed I wasn’t on her tail, she stopped. “Aren’t you coming?”
I sighed and found it hard to shake off those memories that resurfaced. “My break’s almost over anyway.”
I turned to follow her in, and that’s when I noticed that the old man smoking on the curb was gone. Instead, a black Mercedes with a shiny roof was in his place.
Tinted windows all wound up, except one. The driver’s side. A man sat inside with a phone pressed to his ear and barely moving his lips. But what sent chills down my spine like a trickle of ice water were his eyes pinned on me.
I blinked, hoping to chase the image away. But it stayed there, looking more real as the seconds passed by. He sat there, staring at me, and it was almost as if I might have been the subject of his conversation with whoever was on the phone with him.
Ava’s voice floated back to me. “Nonsense.”
I shrugged off the nerve-wracking anxiety, scoffed, and turned around. She was right. It was all up in my head. Who cared that much about me anyway, to have someone follow me around? Who’d want to waste such time?
No one.
I didn’t often admit this to myself, but deep down I had accepted that I was as significant as a speck in a global village of more than eight billion people. Which was pretty insignificant, if you ask me.
Chapter 4 – Rafail
I stood at the edge of the pool, hands in my pockets, staring at the shimmering ripples on the crystal-clear water and the spectacular view of the open white sky over the forest green rolling hills. The air was crisp, and from a distance, I could hear the faint voices of happy evening hikers. The view reminded me very much of home and of the time when I grew up in Moscow.
