I drank, feeling the wine, and the company I’m with, going straight to my head. I hadn’t eaten since lunch, and if our meal doesn’t come soon, I’ll be completely shit faced when it does. Alaric’s focused attention on me both flattered and alarmed me. Brad, my ex, barely paid any attention to me unless he wanted sex.
Alaric couldn’t possibly fall in love with me.
Not with me.
***
“Do you want to go for a drive before I take you home?”
Home? Is that what his house is? His home, sure. But not mine, never mine. Nor will it ever be mine.
“Remember, I have to get up early and go to work. The boss won’t like it if I’m late.”
From behind the steering wheel, Alaric sent me a wickedly impish look. “Tell the boss to go stuff himself.”
“Oh, he’ll love that.”
“You can afford to quit, you know.”
“Since he’s leaving soon, I’ll have no choice in the matter.”
For that comment, I received a sharp glance and a shake of his head. He said nothing, but the air between us turned several degrees chillier. My head spun slightly from the wine I’d drunk, and not even the heavy meal managed to take the edge off. I felt stupid and lonely and depressed, a familiarmenage a troisthat surely would haunt me for the rest of my life.
Alaric drove us toward the coast, and the cliffs high above the beach. I know the area is a hot spot for lovers, a place where kids make out in the back seat of their fathers’ cars. I absently wondered if Alaric had more on his mind than he’d let on.
“Why are you here?” I asked. “In America, that is. Working a real estate company.”
Alaric rubbed his jaw with his free hand. “My home is rich in beauty, but poor in resources. We have companies all over the world turning profits and funneling the money home. We use it to purchase the goods we need.”
“That’s cool,” I said, meaning it. “So, you’ll have a manager run the office here once you’re gone?”
“That’s the idea,” he replied, turning the truck onto a dirt road that led to the park and the ocean’s overlook. “But I’m also looking for someone.”
“Not your true love, obviously.”
“Cease with the jabs, can’t you?” Alaric sent me a short glare. “I hoped for a pleasant evening tonight.”
“So, who are you looking for?”
I made the question light, humorous, but the look I received from Alaric’s icy gray eyes was far from amused. It sent an unpleasant shiver through my stomach. It occurred to me, not for the first time, that Alaric could be a very dangerous man.
He spun the wheel to enter the gravel covered parking lot. He said, his tone flat, “My fiancé.”
I blinked. “Your – fiancé?”
“Ex-fiancé to be perfectly accurate,” he replied in that same expressionless voice. “She’s with my enemy, Damon.”
“Oh.”
“It’s not just for the sake of my injured pride that I’m searching for her,” Alaric went on. “But she committed a heinous crime back home. She must be returned for trial and punishment.”
I sure don’t want to be in her boots. I wouldn’t want a guy like Alaric chasing me with deadly intent.
“Do you know where she is?”
“I hired a private investigator to help me locate her,” he replied with less animosity and more humanity. “He said they went to Mexico. Acapulco.”
“How will you get her back when he finds her?” I asked, curious. “I mean, you’re not like a cop. Or a lawyer? Are you?”
