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Then Sebastian had had no doubt that he and Shane could seduce her. Now he was certain he’d have to kidnap her to get a dance. She ignored his texts, his phone calls, and refused the single written invitation he’d sent her for dinner.
She had his confidence a bit dented for sure.
“She’s far too fragile to deal with you and your cousin, Sebastian,” Khalid warned him again.
Sebastian’s jaw tensed. He heard the tone in the other man’s voice, the knowledge that added an edge of pure confidence to the accented tone. There were times Khalid could be a pain in the ass. This was beginning to look like one of those times.
Acquiring information was one of Khalid’s more interesting hobbies. Unfortunately, it appeared he’d become far too curious in the time Sebastian had been watching Alyssa. No doubt he would begin investigating why very soon. If he hadn’t already put that far too intelligent brain of his to work in a matter that didn’t concern him.
“That look of shattered pain in her eyes hadn’t been there until she returned from a trip she took after graduating high school. Many attributed it to her mother. They said Margot wasn’t kind to the girl, though I’m not one of those who believe it. A few of us deduced a broken heart. What do you think?” Khalid’s question almost caught him off guard. And he damned well knew better than to allow Khalid’s chatter to slip beneath his defenses. “I’m beginning to believe it was a broken heart myself.”
“I think you better go join Marty now,” Sebastian snorted as Alyssa moved to continue walking gracefully through the crowded ballroom. “You’re giving me a headache.”
Not to mention some heavily suspicious looks.
Khalid chuckled at the invitation, though he wasn’t quite finished yet, it seemed.
“Alyssa was once part of a rather unique little group. She joined just after her twentieth birthday.” Khalid lowered his voice further as he spoke of the Sinclair Men’s Club Khalid was a member of and Sebastian had managed for the past two years.
“I know this.” He was growing rather irritated with the other man now. Khalid merely stared back at him for long moments before evidently deciding to let that question pass.
“She maneuvered her dismissal from it very well about two years ago, though,” Khalid continued. “I was actually rather proud of how she killed two birds with one stone so to speak.”
Sebastian restrained the tug of a smile at his lips. He had to agree with Khalid, though he was still rather curious why she had maneuvered her dismissal rather than simply resigning from the club. She’d been married at the time. She’d never had an affair with any of the men; according to club files, she’d simply been a member, accepted under a special-circumstances clause in the Club membership rules.
Hell, she’d married six fucking weeks after she’d left Barcelona and no one knew why. There was so little gossip where she was concerned that it was impossible to figure out what the hell was going on.
“Your chatter is irritating me, Khalid,” Sebastian sighed. “And that nose of yours is going to get you into trouble. Stay out of it.”
He didn’t need Khalid in a troublemaking mood. It didn’t happen often, but when it did happen the other man could become a problem.
“Have I mentioned I sometimes get bored when Marty’s busy?” Khalid asked curiously, crossing his arms as he settled in against the heavy support. “It’s a terrible failing, I must admit.”
He got bored when Marty was busy?
Khalid didn’t have enough sense to give himself time to get bored. He jumped right into everyone’s business without invitation or warning.
“How long has it been since you’ve touched her, my friend? Since you broke her once tender heart?” Khalid queried then, his voice much lower, more dangerous, than before. “And still you watch her with the hunger of a new lover. Tell me, were you and your cousin the reason she returned from Spain eight years before with all the passion and love for life she held, silenced?”
And his cousin Shane accused him of getting overdescriptive and poetic? He obviously hadn’t been paying attention to Khalid over the years.
“Shut the hell up, Khalid,” Sebastian ordered him, still watching her profile as she moved for the wide French doors that led to the gardens.
It was in those gardens that he and Shane had first seen her. They’d been attempting to seduce another CIA courier they had worked with before heading back to Spain.
How they’d managed to miss the beauty who had found them in the farthest corner of the garden that night so long ago they had never figured out. They’d spent several hours in the ballroom, yet they hadn’t seen Alyssa until she nearly stepped into a sheltered arbor where they’d stood with another woman.
“Excuse me.” He moved to follow Alyssa, stopping when the other man blocked his exit with a subtle move of his body.
“Have I mentioned Alyssa is a friend? One I am quite fond of, actually. This could be a problem for me. Loyalty issues, you know? I’m very protective of the opposite sex in general. Friends even more so.”
The warning in his voice could be a prelude to something far more dangerous, Sebastian knew. Not that the danger worried him; he was fairly confident he could at least match the other man in any fight. It was the sheer aggravation of time taken to do so that had resignation drawing a frown to his face.
Sebastian turned his full attention on Khalid then, tension beginning to prepare him to confront anyone daring to keep him from his siren.
“Stay away from her, De Loren,” Khalid ordered with dark menace. “Don’t make me tell you again.”
“Do you really want to deal with me, Mustafa?” Sebastian stared back at him, his determination to get to Alyssa tightening in each muscle of his body. “Because, trust me, tonight’s not a good night for that.”
