“Bully for you,” I said, then amended it by adding, “Look, I appreciate that you like women of size, but I’m not interested.”
He frowned. “You said you do not have boyfriend?”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to hop into bed with you.” I glanced toward where Dixon was sitting, wondering if there was room at his table for one more, and if there was, if it would appear clingy on my part to go sit with him.
“You don’t like me?” He looked offended now. “There is something else you like? Ladyboys?”
“No! Look, I’m just not interested. OK? It’s nothing personal—I’m sure you’re a charming lover, but I’m just not looking for a man.” Not while Dixon was around, anyway.
“I am a charming lover,” he said complacently. “Very good. I give womens much pleasure, you know? With my mouth and hands. The womens, they like that very much. My jaw is quite strong.”
“OK, one, ew. And two, I have no doubt you’re the king of oral sex, but that doesn’t change anything.”
Movement at the corner of my eye had me turning to glance at the doorway. A man stood there, holding a sheaf of papers.
It was the man from the hallway.
“Right. Twice is odd; three times says my father hasn’tlearned that he can’t run my life,” I said, ignoring Luca’s questions when I jumped to my feet and began to wend my way through the packed room to the door. The man stared at me for the count of four, then turned on his heel and left. “That’s right—you’d better run,” I growled to myself, and gave chase.
“Stop!” I yelled when I whipped around a corner and saw the man standing at an elevator. He gave me an odd look as I puffed my way over to him. (Note to self: Really have to get back to Pilates class.) “OK, that was extraneous since you were stopped when I yelled that, but still, stop! As in, stop running from me!”
“Madam,” he said in a deep voice with an edge to it that I recognized instantly. “I do not know you.”
“Aha!” I pointed a finger and shook it at him. A woman with a housekeeping cart wheeled past us, giving us both a suspicious look. “I knew it! You’re Russian!”
“I do not know you,” he repeated.
“No? I bet you know my father, and you can just tell him for me that this is not going to work. I’m onto you, buckaroo, and I have no qualms in telling the production people you’re following me any more than I’d have qualms about doing the same to Boris. So just put that in your samovar and smoke it!”
“A samovar is not a pipe,” he said with maddening calm.
“And you can just stop that, too,” I said, shaking a finger again.
“Stop what?”
“Acting like I’m the deranged one here, when it’s you who is trailing me at my father’s behest.” I straightened up my shoulders and tipped my head back so I could look down my nose at him. “If I so much as see you again, I’ll report you.”
“You will be doing quite a bit of reporting, then, sinceI have been recruited to join one of the racing teams,” he said mildly.
“You have not,” I said on a horrified gasp. How the hell had Dad managed that?
He indicated his paperwork. “I have my contract here, as a matter of fact. Now, if you don’t mind, I have left my phone in my room and want to get it before I attend the evening’s events.”
The elevator opened. He entered and turned around to face me.
I glared at him. He let one eyebrow rise slightly before the doors closed.
“Bastard,” I growled, and immediately sent a text to my father.
July 24
To: Daddy
You think you’re so smart, don’t you? Well, I’m onto you. I don’t know who you had to pay off, but it won’t work.
July 24
From: Daddy
