He radiated a kind of controlled aggression I wasn’t used to in my world—a world of polish and money. Alex had both those things in spades, but this guy? He also had power, the kind born from knowing he could snap his fingers and doors would open, problems would dissolve, and people would just sayyes.
He could get everything he wanted with just one, scolding look. That was a rare trait. The rest of them had to grovel. Most wealthy men carried insecurity like a hidden accessory.
I’d seen it. I’d negotiated with it. They overcompensated and performed, but mostly, they inevitably wound up groveling in one way or another.
Alex, however, had never groveled a day in his life. I was willing to bet anything on it, and to me, that made him dangerous. Because he’d still get what he wanted. I just wasn’t sure yet how he’d go about getting it.
A few minutes later, he cleared his throat. “You realize you could’ve been kidnapped.”
“That’s always a possibility when I leave the house.” I scoffed. “And it’s just called abduction when it’s an adult.”
His mouth twitched into something that might’ve been trying to be a smile. “Good to know.”
“To be clear, I only got in because it’s cold,” I snapped.
“Sure.” He paused for a moment, slowing as the traffic thickened into stop-and-go clusters of red brake lights. “You smell like patchouli.”
I didn’t even look at him, just staring at the string of lights against the snow outside. “I had my weekly séance tonight. The spirits said I would soon meet an annoying prick.”
Alex chuckled but his eyes stayed fixed on the cars ahead. He steered through traffic like the car was made of butter and the ice-covered road was a heated skillet. Smooth. Effortless. His big hands shifted over the wheel with an ease that made it hard to breathe and absolutely impossible not to imagine what else those hands could control with that same authority.
I needed to get out. Immediately. Preferably before I combusted or did something deranged like sigh into his shoulder.
Silence stretched between us for several long minutes, filled only by the hum of the engine and the rhythmicthwumpof the wipers brushing snow aside.
“I don’t get you,” he said finally.
I let out a sharp exhale. “You don’t know me.”
“You’remean.” He chuckled, clearly surprised, and shot me a glance like he was impressed, which only made the blush crawling up my neck even more infuriating. I stared straight ahead, determined to will it out of existence.
“I’m a woman in business,” I said crisply. “What you callmeanis really justassertive.”
I braced for the laugh. The patronizing smile. The eye roll. Or worse, the classic, “Must be that time of month,” quip spoken by men who thought they were being clever, but none of that came.
Instead, he sighed and cursed under his breath. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
The unexpected response startled me enough to look at him. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and ran his other hand in an almost absent motion through his hair, but something told me nothing this guy did was absent.
Absolutely every move was intentional. Calculated. Yet, he really did seem genuine right now. “What I meant was that I watched you make a grown man shit his pants in traffic two weeks ago. I know for a fact that if your mom and brother hadn’t been with you at that dinner at my dad’s place, you would’ve made Zach cry. Maybe Nate, too. You probably would’ve put my father into cardiac arrest.”
He paused, then shrugged. “And we’ve been… trained to do this. Since birth.”
“Do what?” I snorted before I could help it. “Ruin other people’s lives?”
“Your board is digging their own graves, Jane,” he said, his voice dropping into something heavier. How did he soundsexier, talking about business? “You know it. I know it. What I don’t understand is how you ended up COO of your father’s company when the CEO seat was open.”
The car stopped at a red light and I stared out the windshield at the swirling snow, swallowing the burn rising in my throat. Finally, I just shook my head. “Ask the board. You’ll have them by the balls within the week, anyway. They’ll tell you.”
“Will it be the truth?”
Holy mother of… he really is damn good at this.Picking me apart. Probing. Searching for cracks. Trying to find the spot where I’d break open and spill every ugly thing I’d kept locked down for years.
Too bad for him, it wasn’t going to work. No matter how good he was.
“Take a left here,” I said and he followed my directions, the brownstone coming into view at the end of the block.
Before he even had a chance to pull all the way up to the curb, I was unbuckling, snatching my bottle of wine, and launching myself out of the seat like the car was on fire. The door slammed shut behind me and I knew it was dramatic, but it’d also been necessary. I’d neededoutof that damn car.
