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Her statement stabs like a knife into my stomach. It takes everything and more not to show her how much it hurts. Lifting my chin, I say in my most confident tone, “You don’t know that either.”
She crosses her arms and cocks a hip. “Oh, but I do darling.” The pity in her regard intensifies. “He told me so himself yesterday.”
If she’d impaled me on a sword, she couldn’t have tortured me more. Not sparing her another glance, I walk out of the bathroom.
Igor and a few guards I don’t know are waiting outside. Dania exits on my heels, smiling as if butter won’t melt in her mouth.
The guards follow us quietly back to the hall. Alex and Mikhail stand when we arrive at our table. Two waiters jump to action, pulling out our chairs. The appetizers have been served. The others wait until Dania and I have been seated before picking up their eating utensils.
“Is everything all right?” Alex whispers in my ear, rubbing a thumb over my shoulder.
A shiver runs down my arm. “Yes.” I force a smile. “Perfectly.”
“I was starting to miss you,” he says in a husky voice.
“Wine?” Mikhail asks.
“Vodka, please,” Dania says.
Feba gives her an approving nod.
Mikhail flicks his fingers, at which a waiter approaches and pours vodka for Dania and wine for me. Mikhail goes on about the sweet wine that’s paired with the starter, but I tune him out. All I can think about is Dania’s cruel words.
There’s a kernel of truth in Dania’s argument. Two, actually.
One: will I forever be Alex’s puppet? He likes being in control. Will he let me have my life back when all of this is over? And two: am I harming Alex by being in his life? Igor implied I was the reason Alex risked our lives by taking me sightseeing. True, Igor believed I’d selfishly asked Alex to take me out, but even though I actually suggested we stay home, Alex still took the risk for my benefit, and that makes me responsible. In an indirect way, my presence is having a negative impact on Alex’s life. What if I am making him weak? What if his obsession with me is making him more of a target?
Throughout the five-course dinner, the questions keep churning in my head. I don’t remember what I eat and drink, or what the women talk about. When it’s time for the keynote speech about nuclear power, Alex considerately translates for me, whispering what is being said in my ear.
The content of the speech goes in one ear and out the other. What sticks is my growing conviction that this potential joint venture is important to Alex because he believes in affordable heat for everyone, including the less fortunate communities.
It feels like forever before we say our goodbyes, which takes a good hour as Alex has many people to greet. At last in the car, I relax marginally for the first time.
“What’s wrong, kiska?” Alex asks, draping an arm around my shoulder.
I make another brave effort to smile. “Nothing.”
He pulls me closer. “You barely said two words during dinner.”
I escape his piercing gaze by looking through the window. “It was difficult to follow the conversation.”
Gripping my chin, he turns my face back to him. “The conversation was in English. That’s why I made sure the women seated at our table were fluent in your mother tongue.”
“Thanks for that,” I say with genuine gratitude.
“It’s only normal.” He searches my face. “There’s something else you’re not telling me.” Narrowing his eyes, he asks, “Did Dania say something to you in the bathroom?”
“Actually, yes.” I study him right back. “She said she saw you yesterday.”
“She did,” he says slowly, a question in the admission.
Then she wasn’t lying about that. “She said I’m your weakness.”
In the soft, interior light of the car, his blue eyes darken. “You are.” Tracing the line of my jaw with his thumb, he says in a low, deep voice, “The only one I’ve ever had.”
I drag in a breath. “If I make you weak—”
His tone turns harsh. “Don’t you even dare say it.”
“I was just—”
He splays his fingers over my cheeks, pouting my lips, and growls, “I’m not letting you go. Not now. Not ever. Do you understand?”
The truth twists inside me, cutting a little deeper.
“This isn’t love,” I whisper. “This is obsession.”
His blue eyes glimmer as he narrows them another fraction. My heartbeat picks up. The man looking at me is a predator with incredible intelligence and cunning human insight, one of the most business-savvy and intelligent people in the world. He’s got power in spades, both the natural kind some men are born with and the kind that comes with money. He’s the most powerful person I know, in fact, and he’s observing me like a hunter who has no intention of letting his prey get away.
