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“Excuse me.” I abruptly stood, ignoring Dante’s and Vivian’s startled looks. Isabella dropped her hand and refocused on her food, her cheeks pink. “I’ll be right back.”
A bead of sweat formed on my brow as I strode through the dining room. I pushed my shirtsleeves to my elbows; I was burning up.
When I reached the bathroom, I removed my glasses and splashed ice-cold water on my face until my pulse slowed to normal.
What the hell was happening to me?
For a year, I’d successfully kept Isabella at an arm’s length. She was the opposite of everything I considered proper, a complication I didn’t need. Her flamboyance, her chattiness, her incessant talk about sex in public venues…
Her laugh, her scent, her smile. Her talent for piano and the way her eyes light up when she’s excited.They were the most dangerous kind of drug, and I feared I was already sliding down the slippery slope of addiction.
I let out a soft groan and wiped my face dry with a paper towel.
I blamed that cursed Monday two weeks ago. If I hadn’t been so caught off guard by the CEO vote’s announcement and timing, I wouldn’t have sought out Isabella at Valhalla. If I hadn’t sought her out, I wouldn’t have overheard her in the piano room. If I hadn’t overheard her in the piano room, I wouldn’t be taking refuge in a public restroom, trying to hold myself together after a two-second touch.
I allowed myself another minute to cool down before I put on my glasses, opened the door—and ran straight into the devil herself.
We collided with the force of a football tackle—my arm around her waist, her hands braced against my forearms, the air vibrating with a disturbing sense of déjà vu.
My heartrate surged even as I silently cursed the universe for constantly throwing us at each other. Literally.
Isabella blinked up at me, her eyes like rich pools of chocolate in the dim light. “I was right,” she said. Her playful voice contained a hint of breathiness that wound its way through my chest in smoky tendrils. “Youarestalking me.”
Christ, this woman was something else.
“We happened to exit the restroom at the same time. It could hardly be classified as stalking,” I said with infinite patience. “Might I remind you I left the table first? If anything, I should ask if you’re stalking me.”
“Fine,” she acceded. “But what about when you followed me to the piano room?Twice?”
A dull throb sprang up behind my temple. I suddenly wished I’d never agreed to dinner. “How many times are you going to bring that up?”
“As many times as it takes for you to give me a straight answer.” Isabella stood on tiptoes, bringing her face closer to mine. Every muscle in my body tensed. “Kai Young, do you have a crush on me?”
Absolutely not. The mere idea was absurd, and I should’ve told her so immediately. But the words wouldn’t come out, and I hesitated long enough for Isabella’s eyes to widen. Their teasing glint dimmed, giving way to what looked like alarm.
Irritation ignited in my chest. I wasn’t romantically interested in her—my interest was intellectual, nothing else—but was the prospectthatterrible?
“We’re not in high school,” I said, voice tight. “I don’t get crushes.”
“That’s still not a straight answer.”
My back teeth clenched. Before I could inform her that my response had, in fact, been a straight answer if she read between the lines, a low buzz filled the air, followed by an ominous flicker of lights. A low, collective murmur swelled in the dining room.
Isabella stiffened, her fingers curling around my biceps. My pulse thudded against my veins. “What is—”
She didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence before another buzz traveled the hall, high-pitched and angry, like a saw tearing through wood.
Then, with a final, sputtering flicker, the lights died completely.
CHAPTER 9
Isabella
Afew screams from the dining room shredded the restaurant’s hushed elegance into tatters. I gasped—not at the cries or the sudden death of light, but at the weight of a solid, muscled male body caging me against the wall.
One minute, I was teasing Kai as payback for his toy question in the car; the next, I was pressed flush against him, chest to chest, thigh to thigh, my lungs inundated with the heady scent of wood and citrus.
Our proximity carried me back to last week, when we’d found ourselves in a similar position in the piano room. Only this time, it was no accident.
