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She seems satisfied with that and sits back in her seat facing forward. "Where did you go just then?"
"Hmm?"
"Just then, it looked like you disappeared somewhere in your head."
I blink, I hope she can’t read my thoughts. Then I remember what I was thinking about. "My grandfather. I was just thinking about something he said to me once."
"Was it, ‘why do you talk so much?’" she says, wryly.
I let out a little chuckle. The heat in the car seems to thawed her out a little and she sounds like the Kiara I’ve known all my life. That was in fact something that not only my grandfather but pretty much everyone in my life has said multiple times. "You think I talk too much?" I tease her.
Her shoulder lifts in a "what can I say?" fashion. "My brother is hardly the silent type, but when he's with you, he can barely get a word in edgewise."
This makes me roar with laughter, my hands slap against the steering wheel. This is true. Nathan is certainly no wallflower, but he has nothing on me when I'm on a roll, I will talk him deep into the ground.
"It's just part of my charm," I say, taking my eyes off the road for a second to flash my brightest, most disarming smile at her.
She just stares back at me.
Utterly uncharmed.
"Wow, tough car."
That draws the tiniest chuckle from her, a single contraction and rise of her chest and twitch of the corners of her mouth. I'll count that as a win and makes me wish I could keep her talking forever.
"And now you’re the Director of the Asia Pacific region for Baxter Enterprises?"
I guess Nathan had shared that with her. "I am."
"Do you like it?"
"Yes."
"Are you good at it?"
"Yes."
She doesn’t argue. "What are you working on now?"
"Well, a few things. I’m working on a submission to LimTech for their Heracles chip. And then our entertainment division has a big project. We’re opening a casino in six months. We’ve almost finished outfitting the inside, but there are a few things still to be done." I glance over at her. "Including staffing. So, I answered a crap ton of questions," I say as she gestures to turn at the coming intersection. "Surely that buys me one answer."
I expect her to immediately refuse, but she thinks about it for a second and then shrugs.
Not one for many words, I guess, but that's okay, I have enough words for the both of us.
"What were you doing at that apartment building tonight?" I ask again.
She doesn't answer right away, but her eyes show that she's thinking. I like that. As much as I talk, everything that leaves my mouth I've thought about, even if only for a split second.
"What wereyoudoing there?" she asks.
Shit. I hadn’t even had a chance to think of an answer to the question that was inevitably going to be asked. The only thing to do was deflect. "I already answered a bunch of questions, remember? It’s your turn."
Her shoulder drops in a sigh. "I was working, okay? Sometimes... I have to go to a club... for work. And the apartment… it’s part of my work, too." She glances at me and then rolls her eyes at the way my eyebrow rises. "Not in that way. Geez. I don’t care about anyone who is a sex worker but it’s just not for me, okay?"
I force myself to let out the breath slowly and steady so she doesn't know my heart almost jumped out of my chest.
The GPS speaks and I turn into her street.
