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“I’m sorry,” Draco added, his expression altering when she didn’t immediately respond. “It was rude of me to ask such a personal question.”
It was. The apology was nice, but humor danced in his eyes. The cheeky so-and-so had asked the question on purpose and now it looked as if he wasn’t going to drop the subject. “Not many. I’ve been too busy studying. I thought you might have guessed that.”
He inclined his head. “So your comment about olives is based on a vague generalization?”
“No!” With a quick laugh, she reached for her glass. “It’s a known fact, women like olives more than men do.” She’d read it in a magazine, but she was relieved he’d moved conversation away from her love life. She’d said enough on that subject, as if he was really interested anyway. Instinctively she knew he had plenty of experience, an attractive guy like him. His confidence was bone-deep too. It came from being able to talk to anyone, being able to equal his peers and more, being able to go after what he wanted and having the cheek to do it—even if it meant walking on the wrong side of the law.
“A known fact, huh?” Draco replied, amused. “Well, I must be some sort of freak olive-eating-male, I’m an aberration.”
“You said it.” She shot him a look, laughing.
It felt good to share the joke.
She wondered again where he’d been. “I’m not going to lose you to a better offer, am I?”
The question seemed to level him, as if he were surprised she was even concerned about it. He locked eyes with her and shook his head. “Just an unexpected irritation.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
He swigged again from his glass then sighed heavily and tugged at his tie. Undoing it, he rolled it up and put in his pocket. The sight of his strong collarbone made her want to touch him, to put her hand inside his shirt and feel his strong, muscled chest.
“My sister, Sky, she’s in London. I ran into her the other night, unexpectedly. I didn’t like what I saw.”
“You didn’t know she was here?”
“I knew, I’d seen something about it on Facebook.” He shrugged and there was a guilty look in his eyes. Lara caught it before his eyelids lowered to hide it. “She’s seeing someone I don’t approve of.”
Given his background in criminal activity and his stepbrother was banged up in jail, she wondered what would make him disapprove of his sister’s boyfriend. “Not suitable?”
“It’s a difficult situation,” he commented, eventually, but he kept looking back at her as if he wanted to confide.
“Someone you know well enough to make an informed decision on?”
“Yes, in fact it’s the guy who taught me how to hack code.”
“Oh, really.” She laughed softly.
He looked at her quizzically.
“You’re judging him on the very crime you yourself do.”
“Did, I did. We both gave up, actually.”
“He started working again?” She could see how he wouldn’t want his younger sister involved with that.
“No he’s gone straight, he stuck to our vow. In fact he wanted to talk to me about disposing of his hacker kit, ending it for good,”
Boy, they really were close, like some sort of gang. She was both intrigued and nervous at the same time. Maybe it was better she didn’t know.
“He’s a mechanic now, doing well. Anyway, it’s not what he does that worries me, it’s who he is. He’s our stepbrother.”
“Oh.” Lara frowned, trying to get her head around it. Then she noticed he was looking at her waiting for more of a response. “I suppose the more you tell your sister not do something, the more likely she is to do so.”
“Absolutely.” Again he studied her.
“It’s the way I’d be with my brothers.”
“Like now, like you should be staying out of a challenge your dad set for them but you’re diving in there trying to get a piece of the action?”
