each beat of my heart, it expanded and contracted, skull, gray matter, the whole package.
It had been a long day. A long two weeks, if I was counting. And there was no end in sight. I’d accepted that, but today’s series of meetings had been the cause of the spike in my skull.
If my head had been pounding less, I wouldn’t have bothered getting on the elevator to my condo. Riding my bike in this condition wasn’t smart, though. That wasn’t to say there wasn’t a time in the recent past I would have thrown caution to the wind and gone for a ride anyway.
As the consultants had drilled into me today, my age of recklessness had ended.
I stepped off the elevator and opened the door leading to my entryway, where I was greeted by lights, music, people. Somewhere in the recesses of my tired mind, I remembered my cousin, Vin, who was here from Italy for an undisclosed period of time, had asked if he could have a few people over.
This was more than a few people. At least fifty strangers were milling around my living room.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. It was typical Vin. He had friends, acquaintances, and business partners on every corner of the globe. The last time he’d visited Denver and stayed with me, he’d had a party twice this size.
He probably considered this showing restraint.
If my brain didn’t feel like it was being liquefied, I would have poured myself a drink and joined in. As it was, I had no inclination to make small talk. I was all talked out.
As I stood there, surveying my home, Vincent moved through the crowd, coming my way. A petite brunette who had attached herself to him came with him.
“Luc, you’re here,” Vin boomed. He leaned forward, cupping my face and air-kissing both my cheeks. “Come in, get something to drink. There’s food in the kitchen.”
I pulled back from him, frowning. “You realize this is my place, right?”
He laughed, throwing his head back. “Of course, of course. Have you met Kara?” He pushed the small woman toward me. “Kara, this is my cousin, Luc.”
His woman’s cheeks flushed as she raked her big brown eyes over me. There was interest in her gaze, which immediately turned me off, even though she was attractive. Disloyal women were one of my biggest turnoffs, and considering she was here with Vin, she shouldn’t have been looking at me like I was an option for her.
I kept the introductions short and broke away from the two of them. Hunger gnawed at my stomach, so I used that as an excuse to duck into my kitchen. Obviously catered food lined the counters. Every surface was covered with some type of dish.
“Jesus, Vin,” I muttered as I grabbed two bottles of beer from my fridge and the box of prosciutto pizza from the counter.
I took my food and drinks to the part of my condo where I spent most of my time. Even more than my bedroom lately, though that hadn’t been entirely by design. Suddenly working twelve-hour days had taken more out of me than I’d expected. I often found myself startling awake in the morning on my couch in the den, having passed out cold the night before.
Striding by the strangers standing in my halls, I shut myself in the den, locking the door behind me. There was a light on in the bathroom. I didn’t remember leaving it on, but I wouldn’t have put it past myself.
Not bothering to turn on any other lights, I put my beers and pizza on the tray atop the ottoman in front of the sectional, kicked off my shoes, and yanked the tie off my neck. Once that was tossed aside, I unbuttoned my shirt partway and rolled up the cuffs.
Only then did I sit down and release a long exhale.
A glint of light coming through the center window brought me out of my moment of respite. That window was the bane of my fucking existence, with its forever-breaking automatic blinds and direct line of sight to a glaring spotlight on top of a high-rise tower.
Two nights ago, I’d solved the problem by nailing a throw to the window frame since I didn’t have time or the will to call a repair person. Why wasn’t it working now?
I started to get up to see if it had fallen down when I noticed the lump on the other end of the couch. A lump covered with my fucking throw blanket.
“Who are you?” I barked.
The lump stirred, and a soft sound, something like a moan, came from them. The person beneath the blanket straightened, and the light spilling from the bathroom illuminated them.
Her.
She found me in the dark and jumped slightly. “Oh, hi. I think I fell asleep.” Then she pointed to the corner I’d started to settle in before spotting her. “Fair warning, this couch eats your energy like a snack. I wasn’t even tired when I sat down, then boom, I was out like a light.”
I knew that, of course, since the couch belonged to me. But I found myself staring at this woman, trying to understand her presence in my home. In my personal space.
“What’s your name?”
She’d just lifted her wineglass to her lips and answered me around it. “Sasha.” She took a long sip then raised a brow at me. “What’s yours?”
Interesting. She didn’t know who I was. Either that, or she was playing coy. Generally, women in my social circles in Denver recognized me, if not by my face, then by my name. To be completely honest, my name was recognizable far outside of this city too.
“Luc,” I answered, which wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the complete truth either. If she truly wasn’t aware of who I was, I wanted to keep it that way. It was easier for me.
She nodded toward the pizza box. “I stole some crackers, but I’m impressed with your plunder. Is that a whole pizza?”
“It is.”
“Well”—she scooted forward, her eyes darting from me to the box—“are you going to share? Some of us are starving.”
“I was planning on eating it all myself.”
She shifted closer to me and the pizza. “That isn’t nice, Luc. If I’m going to share my hiding spot with you, it’s only fair you share your food. I promise to only eat two or three slices.”
Reaching an arm out, I snapped on the table lamp beside me, then turned back to my intruder. In full light, she was even more gorgeous than I’d suspected. And I’d suspected she’d be beautiful. A woman didn’t have the type of easy confidence she did if she wasn’t used to moving through the world on a path made by all the lesser beings who willingly stepped aside for her.
“Fine. Two pieces are your limit.”
Her full, pink lips spread into a wide smile, revealing a row of straight pearly-white teeth that were almost too big for her face but suited her impeccably. She leaned forward to flip open the box, and my gaze drifted to the subtle swell of cleavage peeking from the top of her corseted, black dress.
She straightened back up, holding a slice victoriously. “It’s cold, my favorite.”
“Really?” I lifted a brow while snagging a piece of my own.
“Yes. I can eat it faster this way.” She crammed a large bite into her mouth to demonstrate. It wasn’t a sexy move, but it did something to my cock anyway.
But this was what I meant. A woman who looked like her could get away with anything, and idiots like me would think it was adorable or quirky. Look at me, sharing my pizza and my haven for no other reason than Sasha intrigued me. And she intrigued me because she might have been one of the most beautiful women I’d ever laid eyes on.
We ate in silence for a few minutes. I didn’t protest when she went for piece number two and three. I would have eaten the entire pie, but sharing wasn’t a hardship when it meant I got to listen to her breathy little moans as she bit into another slice and she crossed and uncrossed her mile-long legs as if the flavor was so incredible she couldn’t sit still.
“You never said why you’re hiding in here when there’s a party going on out there.”
She wiped her mouth with a crumpled paper napkin and patted her flat stomach. “I only came because my friend asked me to.”
“Do you do anything friends ask you to?”
“I have this thing—” Her mouth twisted, and she didn’t elaborate.
“Thing? Explain.”
“I say yes when I’m asked to do things if I think there’s even the smallest chance I’ll get something out of it.”
She only became more and more intriguing as time went on. “Your friend asked you to come to a party with her, and you said yes because you thought you’d get something out of it?”
She nodded.
“What do you think you’ll get out of being here tonight?”
“That’s yet to be determined.” She uncrossed and crossed her legs again. “Friend isn’t really the right word for Kara anyway. We temped together last year, and we still hang out every once in a while.”
“Kara? Small, red dress?”
“Mmhmm. Do you know her?”
“No.”
“Oh.” She huffed lightly. “Well—”
“That’s what you do? You’re a temp?”
By the nature of their job, I never had a chance to get to know my temporary employees, though I was certain we employed them from time to time. I was also certain they did not look anything like Sasha.
She waved her hand around. “I’m not ready to settle into a career, much to my mother’s displeasure. I’ve tried it, and it didn’t suit. I get bored easily.”
I related to that on a visceral level. “It sounds like you haven’t found the right career.”
Her full mouth tipped into a tepid little smile. “I like things temporary. It makes life more exciting. What about you, though?”
“What about me?”
She gestured to me then my boots piled on the floor. “By the looks of you—the Rolex on your wrist and Tom Ford boots you kicked off—you have money and a good deal of it. My guesses are a trust fund baby, a foreign prince, some bigshot CEO, or a Mafia don.”
I lifted an eyebrow, amused by her guesses, especially with how close she was to her target. “Which one do you want me to be?”
She hummed and tapped her cheek with her forefinger. “CEOs and trust fund babies are a dime a dozen. You don’t have the right accent to be a foreign prince.” Her eyes flicked over me. “The all-black clothing gives you a sort of villainous edge, so I’ll go with Mafia don. Am I right?”
Leaning forward, my elbows on my knees, I leveled her with a hard, unflinching stare. “If I told you…well, you know the rest.”
“Yeah, yeah. Death, destruction, that kind of thing.” Her lips curved into a sexy, amused grin. “Can we circle back to Kara? You don’t know her?”
“I don’t. I had the pleasure of being eye-fucked by her before I retreated in here.”
Laughter floated like bubbles on a clear, blue sky. “That sounds like her, although she came for this other guy, so I’m surprised she was hitting on you since she seemed so into him.”
“Vin?”
“Yes, that’s his name. Vincent. I spilled wine on my dress to give them alone time while I cleaned up. I’m hiding in here now because when I came out of the bathroom, Kara looked like she was going to murder me.”
I scrubbed at the scruff on my jaw. “You…purposely spilled wine on yourself for the sake of someone who’s not even a good friend?”
She lifted an elegant shoulder. I wanted to press my mouth there to see how smooth her fine skin was. “It isn’t a huge deal to me. The dress is dry-cleanable.”
“Why not leave instead?”
“I promised I’d stay.”
“That simple?”
“Well, that and I fell asleep in here. If you know the owner, don’t tell him.” She picked up the blanket and waved it around. “I kind of pulled this down from the window. I think the blinds are broken, so I feel bad, but also, he should invest in more blankets. Who only has one throw blanket? Then again, maybe he spent his fortune on art and concrete slabs and this one puny blanket is all he can afford. In which case, I feel doubly guilty since I ripped the corner a little.”
I had to laugh, and that was when I noticed the ache in my head had all but vanished. I could have given credit to the beer and pizza, but I seriously wondered if some of it had to do with this pretty blonde who continued to surprise me each time she opened her mouth.
“I’ll make a note of it,” I quipped.
She froze as she tucked her long hair behind one ear and her soft-brown eyes rounded. “Oh shit. Is this your place? Have you been humoring me to keep me here until the cops show up to arrest me?”
“Why would you think that?”
Her hand fell to her lap, where she twisted her fingers into knots. “Which part? That you’re the owner or that you called the cops?”
“Either. Both. You sound experienced with having the police called on you. Should I worry I’m alone with a criminal?”
“I’ve only been arrested once, and the charges were dropped. It was a nonviolent crime, so you’re safe.” Her eyes narrowed, and she actually did seem worried. “You never did answer my questions.”
I snagged the blanket from her lap, examining the corner, which was in tatters. Then I put her out of her misery. “Yes, this is my place, and no, I didn’t call the cops. As long as you don’t steal anything besides my pizza and some crackers, I doubt I will.”
She licked her lips then rubbed them together. My cock noticed all of it, even though I was pretty certain she wasn’t flirting. “But you’re not making any promises?”
I raked my gaze over her, letting the voices in the back of my head, telling me I had to clean up my act, dim.
“When it comes to trouble, I make no promises.”
