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His eyes followed the movement of my throat, and then dropped to the arm of the chair. I felt the loss of his gaze. It was as cold as the howling wind coming off a frozen tundra.
His eyelashes cast a shadow over his cheeks in the low light of his office, and I couldn’t help but think again of how deep my infatuation ran. Since I could remember, I’d felt something for him. Before I knew lust, it was the awe one felt for a distant but coveted being. I’d always ached to have his attention on me, and whenever he acknowledged me, I would float on cloud nine for days afterward.
“Sweetness,” he murmured in a low tone, the endearment wreaking havoc on my sanity. “You need to tell me everything.”
I swallowed again. “I-I don’t know…anything, really. She didn’t tell me anything before she left. I didn’t know she was gone until this morning. I texted her, thinking maybe she slept over in Queens, although that didn’t make sense, because…because she was mad at you and your mother…” I trailed off when his eyes lifted and held mine, freezing my brain.
Nodding his head, his strong fingers around my knee flexed to encourage me to continue. Shifting under his touch, I was thrilled, yet discomforted. Wetness gathered between my thighs, and I threw out a prayer of thanks that he had no idea the effect he had on me. The mortification would be more than I could bear.
“She didn’t answer,” I went on. “That’s when I started to worry. I went on social media, but there were no new posts. You know she always posts something. I mean, at least once a day. While I was poking around on my cell, I got a text from an unknown number. I don’t normally check them because they’re spam, but…” I gave a light shrug of my shoulder. “Call it instinct. I thought that…well, you know…” My heart pounded so loudly I could hear it in my eardrums.
His eyes drilled into my face like a hawk, piercing me with his hunter’s vision. “No, I don’t know. Tell me what you thought.”
My eyes trailed away from his concentrated gaze. Our conversations rarely got this heavy and never reached this level of truth-telling.
Are we really doing this? Are we going to speak about who you are? What the Lupu family is?
“Nina,” he called me back to him. My eyes snapped to his.
I guess we are.
Grasping the armrests for strength, I took a big breath and announced, “I thought she might’ve been kidnapped.”
His gaze burned my face. The warmth of his hot focus raised flags of red to my cheeks. Seriously, if looks could burn, I’d be scorched earth at this moment. A tidy pile of ashes is all that would be left of me.
“I see,” he murmured. “And you don’t think she has been?”
“No, honestly, I don’t. From the tone of the text, it was absolutely her. I’m not an expert, but there’s no reason for someone to kidnap her and then go out of their way to contact me to convince me that she’s safe. I’m nobody. Kidnappers would contact you, not send me a text to relieve me of my worry. Only Tasa would do that.”
His lip twitched. “Yes, I believe you’re right. I’d be the first to be contacted, as the head of the family.” The emphasis on those two particular words was significant.
“Exactly.” I nodded in agreement. “As the head of the family.”
“I see very little reason to be anything but perfectly honest with you, then,” he observed dryly. “How long have you known?”
“A long time.” Then I hurried to add, “I’ve been around your family, like, forever, and it doesn’t take much to put two and two together.”
He chuckled. God, the sound of his rumbling laugh rolled through me like the languid smoke of incense. So. Sexy. I doubted the man could do anything that wasn’t sexy. He was the embodiment of everything sinful, luxurious, and indulgent.
“We’re currently working under the assumption that she hasn’t been kidnapped, because of the text my grandmother received. It seems that Tasa feared a war might ensue if we thought she’d been taken. Which leaves me to deduce she has concocted this little rebellion on her own.”
His thumb swiped back and forth over my knee, mesmerizing me with its languid rhythm. The heat of his touch melted me, and I had to tighten my grip on the armrests to keep myself upright.
His eyes sharpened; shards of crisp moss gleamed with focused intent. “Am I to assume you knew nothing of this, Nina? Hmm? You’re her best friend, are you not? You go to the same school. You live with her. You practically finish each other’s thoughts.”
“I didn’t know,” I rushed to say. “You have no reason to believe me, but I really didn’t.”
He cupped the side of my face and leaned in, close enough for me to pick out the different shades of green in his irises. Unwittingly, I moved closer. The sandalwood fragrance assaulted me, pulling me in and dragging me under. Does he feel anything toward me, or is he using my attraction to him to get information about Tasa?
We moved toward each other, closer and closer. Alex took a sharp inhale and twisted his head away at the last moment. An expression of pain crossed his beautifully sinful face. His eyes shuttered tightly for a second and then he was back, his mossy green eyes on me. “I believe you. We both know I can extract every secret from you. If I so chose. Tasa knew as well, and she spared you from that fate,” he said softly.
My breath stuttered in my chest. His words were true, of course, but that didn’t take away from their impact. We had never spoken of the attraction I had for him. Not in a joke. Not in a whisper. Nothing. Had I been that obvious over the years? God knows, I’d never had the guts to hit on him. Never had the bravery to even flirt with him. Still, mortification crept up my throat in a red flush.
His hand lifted and slid down the side of my face, along my chin, and halted to cup my throat. His strong fingers wrapped around the front, just below my chin, and tilted it up.
“Tasa made certain not to tell you anything. She’s shrewd enough to know I’d tear down anyone to find her. I’d make you talk, and talk you would.”
His fingers slipped down the column of my throat, over my collarbone, and landed on the top button of my silk top, nestled between the curves of my breasts. Tinkering with the mother-of-pearl button, he popped it open and traced his finger into the dip of my chemise. My lower jaw dropped open. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. What the hell was going on? My breathing sped up a mile an hour.
