She surrendered to the moment, tangling her fingers in my hair as she darted her tongue inside. Yet seconds later, she pushed me away on purpose, wiping the remainder of the cream from her mouth with her pinky.
“So you keep telling me.” The fork was still in her hand and very carefully she slipped the tines through the chocolate. I expected her to try the same trick. She even swirled the fork in the air, laughing yet again when I snagged her wrist, taking the bite myself.
There was a sense of satisfaction with my response; she sighed when I allowed her to lower her fork.
“What’s wrong?” Gazing at her face again, I brushed a strand of hair from her face. She’d insisted on changing out of her jeans after learning where I was taking her. Seeing her in a body-hugging dress, the light material accentuating her voluptuous curves had held my attention for hours.
My little sister knew what I preferred. Perhaps she’d thought the guest staying at my house was someone of importance.
A woman capable of dragging me from the shadows of the barely living.
“I’ve asked you several times who you were, yet your answers only provide a glimpse into your life.”
“What do you think you know about me?” I wasn’t certain what else she could want.
She toyed with the dessert for a few seconds before placing the fork on the plate and sighing again. “You have an incredible business. I guess I hadn’t realized you and your family owned Indulgence. I’ve been here several times for coffee and beignets but never thought about who owned the entire block.”
“We’ve owned the businesses on this block for years. Something my mother had wanted from a very long time ago. What else?”
“I can tell you’re close with your family, but even so, you’re a loner, choosing never to get close to anyone outside of your inner circle. While I was teasing you about your love life, you shut down the conversation. At least this time not with anger. I doubt you’re a monk, Alexander. You’re far too passionate a man not to have needs.”
She was hesitating to say anything she believed would upset me. “You can be candid with me, Catherine. As you’ve told me, you’re not fragile. Neither am I.”
“But your ego is.” She toyed with the fork again, sliding the tines through the dessert, slowly lifting her gaze to see if she’d angered me.
“I haven’t brought anyone to Indulgence for two reasons, one being I don’t mix business with pleasure. I don’t want anyone knowing anything about my private life, my family included.”
“What’s the other reason?”
In her reserved way, she was pushing me as if what we were doing was anything remotely close to being normal. I leaned forward once again. “You’re very right that I’m not a monk. I’m also not a man interested in a relationship.”
“What are you trying to say, that you don’t date?”
“There’s been no need.”
“Mmm…” She took a small bite, no longer finding it necessary to maintain eye contact.
“Just ask what you’re dying to ask.”
“The last thing I want to do is to infuriate you. Obviously, somehow, I managed to do so earlier and I don’t know why.”
“Ask.” The irritation was just below the surface, a reaction she didn’t deserve. Yet I continued to think about her father, the only man who’d threatened my father and had lived. Maybe it was something I wanted to keep from her, to use it when I knew telling her would hurt the worst. To push her away because that’s what I always did.
Her gaze lifted, holding the same conviction I’d seen inside the courtroom. “Maybe you didn’t kill Lorenzo Russo, but you have killed before. Yes?”
“Are you certain you want to know?”
“As I’ve told you already, truth is important to me.”
“Then yes, I have.”
“How many?”
My laugh brought a smile to her face. “That’s not something you need to know, Counselor.”
“Are you frightened I’ll turn you in to the police?”
“I think that with you being on a date with me that your insistence of my guilt would be frowned upon.”
