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“Harder to run away?” Artie suggested in a deep Boston-accented drawl paired with a comical face which, had I not been mortified for my fate, might have made me laugh. Even Tyler fought a grin.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Tyler said and yanked me in. But there was no anger in his voice, only a note that almost seemed like amusement. “Take the rest of the day off, would ya? I’ll talk to you two tomorrow.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Pasquale said, and Artie made an affirmative noise.
The doors swung shut and Tyler let me go, gesturing with his head as he walked over to the couch. “Sit down,” he ordered and I did so, trembles running over me. “And calm down. Maybe eat somethin’ forchrissakes. You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“You did something to me,” I whispered. “Chloroform?”
“Yep,” Tyler said and I looked up, wondering why he wasn’t sitting down. “Got a problem with that, Miss Goldin?”
I gasped and shrank back, staring up at him. “My — that’s not my name.”
“You were a better liar last night,” Tyler said. “And that’s sayin’ something. Eat. You’re too pale. Especially for someone sopiccolina.”
“What?” I asked.
“Petite, you know,” Tyler said and loomed over me as I looked at the table by my knee. Fruit and pastries were spread out on a platter, little bowls of jelly and other dips with crackers and pieces of bread arranged around them. “Eat, already, short stuff.”
Needing to look away, I glanced around Tyler’s office. It had high-ceilings with tall windows hidden behind white, gauzy curtains. Artwork filled the walls; pastoral scenes from the Italian countryside most probably, along with some other pieces that looked more recent, and part of me itched to go and inspect them closer.
We were sitting in the middle of the room in a half-circle of couches with the low table in front of us. Along the wall behind us were bookcases and tucked into the corner was a desk — the only thing that wasn’t pristine and hard-edged.
No, the desk was messy and gloriously human, with a laptop half-buried in notebooks and paper.
Feeling Tyler’s eyes on my neck, I realized I’d been staring around too long and half-lunged for the table to try and cover for it. My fingers closed around a strawberry. I tried to eat it in spite of the roiling in my stomach but I was shaking so badly that I dropped it.
Oh no.
My body went haywire with nerves, heat, and terror as the couch sank. A tall wall of muscle had sat next to me, so close that our sides almost brushed.
“Don’t worry about it. Here.” Another strawberry appeared and, for a wild second, I thought Tyler was going to feed me. But he dropped it into my shaking palm.
I couldn’t eat. As starving and weak as I was, I couldn’t eat.
“Lia,” Tyler said and took one of my hands in his own – which resulted in me dropping the fruit out of the other one. A smothered laugh escaped him and I watched as he bent down, picking up the two strawberries and setting them on a napkin. “Flora will kill me if I stain the rug.”
“What do you want?” I asked, hating how close Tyler was but, at the same time, not pulling away from him anymore.
Tyler’s hand felt comforting and strong around mine while his body was big and warm, a lovely cologne rising from his skin. He was so close to me that I could see the gold flecks deep into his dusky eyes and the way his dark hair swept up from his brow into a wave that seemed totally unfair, because he clearly had good genes, as was his smooth and flawless deep olive skin.
I swore he was distracted for a second, his eyes flicking down but then he gave me a smile that made my heart beat faster, a smile that was all angles and harsh purpose.
“I want to know who the fuck you think you are, Lia Goldin,” Tyler said. “Because you don’t make any sense in my world.”
“No kidding,” I retorted without thinking and then looked away.
“Who hired you?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see his face.”
Tyler let out a dry chuckle. “You get a name? Was it White? Ryan White?” When I didn’t answer, Tyler’s grip tightened but I still didn’t look back, not even when I sensed him leaning in. “You said as much when you told me to fuck off last night, Lia.”
I gasped. I’d forgotten about that. Maybe I did have a death wish.
“I want to confirm my information,” Tyler said.
I took several seconds and then admitted in a small voice, “Yes. That’s the name I got. That’s all I know.”
