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‘So, a financial loan...?’ she probed.
His eyes were hidden by his half-lowered lids but the smile that quivered on his sensually sculpted mouth intrigued her. ‘Not as such, but I remain in your grandfather’s debt. I doubt very much if I would be where I am today without his intervention.’
‘Where would you be?’
‘I sometimes ask myself that, but not often. I prefer to deal with the here and now, and in the here and now I consider myself in Alekis’s debt.’
‘Do you like him?’
His dark brows drew together in a straight line above his aquiline nose. ‘He has many qualities I admire and many faults I accept.’ His dark eyes had a mesmeric quality as he captured her gaze and there was an intensity in his words as he spoke. ‘The door to the world you are about to enter is rarely opened to outsiders. I was an outsider, so maybe Alekis thought I was well placed to help your transition.’
‘So you’re not an outsider now?’
‘I have never been a joiner.’
Did he ever give a straight answer? she wondered. ‘But you want me to join.’
He shook his head. ‘That will be your choice. I want you to be aware of the pitfalls. To learn how to—’
‘Blend in?’
He gave a sudden laugh, deep and uninhibited. It melted his expression into a smile that made him look years younger and made the bottom of her stomach dissolve. She realised that if this man ever made the effort to charm there wasn’t a woman alive who could resist.
Including me!
Now there was a fact to keep her awake at nights.
‘What is so funny?’
‘The idea of you blending in anywhere.’ The laughter died from his face, leaving something much darker, much more intense, more dangerous, she realised, than mere charm. ‘You’re an exceptionally beautiful woman.’
His deep voice was like rumpled velvet, warm, sensuous and will-sapping. She had no idea how long she sat there staring at him before the blare of a car horn jolted her back to reality.
The reality being that Zach possessed a voice that really ought to carry a danger warning! Ah, well, the next time, should there be a next time, she would be prepared and not look like such an idiot.
She broke the seductive hold of his dark, mesmerising stare, though the effort filmed her skin with sweat as she snapped out contemptuously, ‘Don’t be stupid!’
Obviously she knew she wasn’t bad to look at, but exceptionally beautiful was not a term used for a woman who had a mouth that was way too big for her face, a gap between her front teeth and the sort of body that looked great in clothes but without them... She hated her bony collarbones and she didn’t see how anyone could consider the visible angles on her hips feminine.
Her reaction to him stating the obvious seemed strange. You could be excused for assuming, given her reaction, that no one had ever told her how beautiful she was before. Even if she had had lovers who left a lot to be desired, he thought scornfully, the woman had a mirror.
‘Even if you could blend in you shouldn’t. You should carry on being yourself, as much as is possible.’
She looked bemused by the advice. ‘Who else would I be? I think you worry too much. I’m used to being the odd one out. The kid in care with the wrong clothes.’
If the comment had been made in an attempt to garner sympathy, Zach would not have felt any. He did not want to now, and yet as he looked at her he experienced less sympathy but a sudden deep anger for the childhood she had been robbed of. And yet she seemed to have her own set of values that nobody had been able to take from her.
Could he say the same? Maybe she had come to terms with her past more than he had his?
He pushed the thought away; the past was something he did have to come to terms with. It was gone and buried. Not only could he not imagine himself discussing it so openly as she did, but he could not imagine wanting to.
