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‘I won a large section of them from Kozlov playing at cards.’
‘You play cards?’
‘I am very good at hiding my vices,’ he said, the double entendre out of his mouth before he could stop it, the words landing between them both true and poignant.
Henna blinked, whatever she had been about to say stalled by his careless response.
‘And Lykos gave me his. Together they would have been enough to force Kozlov’s hand.’
‘But because he sold it, the company is no longer a way to punish him.’
‘Yes.’
She frowned and sat back in her chair. ‘You can’t punish bullies,’ she stated.
He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Kozlov is a bully, like Viveca. He is looking for a fight, always. And you will never win while you give him what he expects.’
Aleksander considered her words, unable to forget what she’d told him about her stepsister. ‘Go on,’ he encouraged.
‘So...’ She sighed, looking over his shoulder in concentration. There was a little furrow between her brows that he wanted to smooth with his thumb. He could have watched her think all day. And when he caught himself thinking that he mentally slapped himself. ‘You want him to go, but you can’t terminate his membership because of the rules.’ He nodded. ‘So...you make leaving his idea.’
‘That’s what we were trying to do with his company,’ Aleksander said, throwing his hands in the air.
‘No, you were trying to force him to go, using his company. You need to make him offer you his membership.’
‘But how?’
She laughed at him then, a sound that hit him in the solar plexus. ‘I can’t do itallfor you.I’mnot a member of your secret cabal.’
‘You have your own, remember?’ he fired back, before realising that she was completely right. ‘I have to go,’ he said, getting up from the table and slipping into his suit jacket. He looked back in time to see the tease leaving her eyes, to be replaced by something else. It wasn’t quite sadness, but it wasn’t soft either.
‘What is it?’ he asked, his stomach clenching instinctively, preparing for a blow. She swallowed, the little flex of muscle at her jaw showing how much she was fighting whatever it was. ‘You can tell me anything, Henna,’ he replied truthfully.
She lifted her head and the look she gave him pierced something deep within him. ‘I want more.’
Aleksander wasn’t petty enough to pretend he didn’t know what she was asking for. ‘I can’t give you that.’
‘There’s a difference between can’t and won’t.’
‘Do you know what you’re asking?’ he demanded, angry that she was pushing him, making him want more than he could have.
‘I’m asking for nothing more than the remaining days. But I’m asking for everything in them.’
‘Everything?’ he asked tonelessly. ‘You are asking for the impossible. There is nothing more in me, Henna,’ he said, turning from the table.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and he paused, half wanting to know why and half not. Unable to resist, he turned back to face her. ‘I’m sorry that no one was there for you while you grieved. The way,’ she said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, ‘that you were there for me.’
‘I gave you nothing, Henna.’
‘You gave me your hand, you gave me a friend, you gave me a family and a home. You gave me what I needed.’
It was a gut punch—that she knew what he’d wanted following Kristine’s shocking decision devastated him. But she didn’t understand that it was precisely not having that support that had made him who he was today. The king he was: accomplished, driven, single-minded...and broken. But, instead of admitting that to the smart, sexy woman sitting at his table, he turned and left the cabin.
Javier Casas was talking on his phone outside the hotel but terminated the call when he caught sight of Aleksander.
‘You have an idea,’ he correctly guessed when Aleksander came close enough.
