“What do you think?” Adrian said, keeping his hand firmly on my back.
“I think it’s a nice view,” I said. And it was—arguably the best view of Vegas I’d ever had. Being on top of the Stratosphere was pretty good, but that had always been temporary. To live here…
Adrian turned to me and raised an eyebrow. I swallowed.
“I will remind you why I’m here, Adrian,” I said. “I asked you a question about the lines between your professional and personal behavior, and you insisted on doing this in person. Fair enough. I have met my end of the bargain. Now it is time for you to meet yours.”
“Of course,” Adrian said, way too comfortably. He snapped his fingers, and from seemingly out of nowhere, some servants came by and put a table by the railing. Two glasses of wine were also placed down and filled quickly with a red wine that I did not recognize. “You will forgive my hospitality. It is, as you know, the industry that I work in.”
“There’s hospitality, and then there’s bribery,” I said.
Adrian laughed at that. It wasn’t intended as a joke, but I didn’t mind it being interpreted as one. If it put Adrian in a better mood, all the better.
For professional purposes, of course. A more cheerful Adrian made for a better interview. That was it.
“Now then, cheers,” he said, grabbing his glass and holding it out. I was happy to oblige.
“What are we giving cheers to?”
Adrian shrugged.
“To us, to a lovely evening together.”
Sure,I thought, not willing to say anything that could be twisted in a certain way.
Not willing to show that his words had a certain effect on me, a certain pleasure that I didn’t care to acknowledge to myself, let alone to him.
“Now then, my questions,” I said after I’d taken a gulp and centered myself.
“But of course, you are here on work,” Adrian said. “I would just remind you, Delilah, that you don’t always have to be on work. A good journalist does build relationships. And if you are professional twenty-four-seven, it’s difficult for relationships to build.”
Professional relationships, Adrian. Professional.And yet no amount of thinking or rationalization would deny the fact that his words affected me like no other’s had.
“You’ve been accused of blurring the line between professional behavior and personal desire,” I said. “What comment do you have?”
“A fair question, especially considering our meteoric rise,” Adrian said. I realized then another reason he’d requested to do this in person. It had served as an effective stall to give him time to think. I’d have to think of different buttons to push. “I would simply say that I never acted in a violent or cruel manner, and that if there was someone I was attracted to, that the feeling was always mutual. I am aggressive in getting what I want, but I am not rapacious.”
Well, that was good to know, at least. Strongly worded, ethical, all that good jazz. But also not particularly revealing.
Maybe it was the ridiculousness of being served wine in the penthouse of the CFO, maybe I was just tired from it being Friday night, maybe it was a combination of other factors Ididn’t care to ponder too deeply, but I wasn’t willing to play this game for long. Clear the game out of the way.
Get to the truth.
“Is being aggressive in getting what you want include taking me, a reporter, to the top floor of your penthouse with some wine?”
Adrian smiled, raised an eyebrow, and sipped his wine, all the while never letting those hauntingly powerful brown eyes leave my gaze. I had good practice at this game of stare downs, but fuck, it was difficult to keep my composure. And worse, he was doing the same thing that I did so well.
Keep silent until the other person speaks.
“Are you going to answer my question, or are you going to just stare at me?”
“I will repeat to you what I said on the phone earlier today, Delilah,” Adrian said before taking another sip of his wine. “You want to see the real me? You want to see the details of my life? You’ll only see them this way. And you should be flattered—no other journalist has gotten this level of access.”
“So this is the real you?” I said. “Charming women with wine? Flattering them with praise?”
“No,” Adrian growled. “‘Charming women’ implies that I see all women the same. That I don’t seeyou,Delilah Reyes, but instead just a beautiful woman.”
He stood up from his chair, leaned over the railing, and then turned back to me.
