A vibration between longing and apprehension arrived in her breastbone, sending skittering sensations into the depths of her abdomen. The vibration dropped low, like embers that stayed hot and heavy in the notch of her thighs.
She yanked her hand away and shoved the card into the back pocket of her jeans. “Must be nice, being able to arrange something like this at the drop of a text,” she said, using a snotty tone because she was so disconcerted.
“You’ll soon find out, won’t you?”
The elevator doors opened, and Axel waved her to exit first.
* * *
Joy had been working up her courage to have her blood drawn. She hated needles, but it turned out to be a cheek swab. She had barely removed her hat and jacket before the nurse was leaving with the sample, Heskel on her heels.
Blinking with astonishment, Joy suddenly found herself alone with Axel. This time there was no bouncer beyond the door or a CCTV to record what happened between them.
“Happy?” She rose and touched the credit card in her back pocket, wondering if it would really work. She reached for her jacket where it was draped over the arm of the sofa.
“Wait.” He picked up the card the nurse had left on the coffee table, the one with Joy’s file number written on it. “Email Umberto. Tell him you’ve sent your sample to this lab and give him this number. Tell him that when you receive confirmation that it’s a match, you’ll make arrangements to travel to Germany to meet your father. It’s the middle of the night there, but he’ll see it first thing. By the time you wake here, you’ll know.”
“Give you an inch, and you take a mile, don’t you?” she muttered as she dug in her bag for her phone.
“What is that in metric?” he asked with false interest.
“A crap ton of arrogance,” she provided with a sweet smile. “I can’t just drop everything and fly to Germany, you know. I have responsibilities.” Even so, she took the card and sank back onto the sofa while she began to scroll through her trashed emails.
“All of that will be taken care of. Don’t mention me in the message.”
“Why not?” She looked up.
“Because I asked you not to.”
She snorted. Arrogance didn’t begin to cover his brashness. “This all sounds very shady. Are you making me an accomplice in something illegal?”
“No.”
“As if you would admit to it,” she grumbled.
“I will explain after you send the message.” He took on a tone of weary patience and walked over to the bar. “Would you like something before dinner arrives?”
“What is this, a date now? Because I don’t care how much money is on the credit card. You paid for a test and a conversation.”
“Then make the test happen, and we’ll continue our conversation.” He didn’t even look at her, only focused on unboxing a bottle of scotch.
Dictator.
She found the email from the agency and typed her response to Umberto, reading it aloud before she sent it. “My sample number is yada yada at the lab yada yada. Once a match is confirmed, we can discuss a meeting with my birth father.” She looked to Axel for confirmation.
“Perfect. Thank you.”
She hit Send, and the whoosh filled the quiet room.
He poured a finger’s worth of amber liquid into a glass. “None for you?” he asked again.
“No. Thank you.” She stood as nerves arrived with a return of her crackling awareness that she was alone with him. It had been different in the private room at the club. She always felt confident in her costume. Yes, it left her mostly naked, but it was still a type of mask, one that gave her a certain power.
Wearing her worn, dated jeans and thrift-store sweater was a different type of revealing. Things had been financially dismal before she’d moved home and discovered her father’s coffers were also empty.
She moved to the window. The luxurious corner suite was one of the hotel’s finest with a full-size lounge, a dining table for six and views of Navy Pier. Out on the black lake, the pinprick lights of ships bobbed like untethered stars.
“Don’t results take a few days?” she asked over her shoulder.
