I turned to the door and stepped into the hallway.
“And you don’t seem like the kind of guy that does.”
I faced the elevator but stopped, unsure if I should refute those words or embrace them. Instead, I chose silence, walked to thedouble doors, and pressed the button. We got in together, and a moment later, we were at the ground floor, the entrance to my villa the renovated lobby of a former hotel.
Andre was already there because he was electronically notified when the elevator was in use. “A driver is ready for you, sir.” He moved to take the bags from my shoulders.
“I’ve got it, Andre.”
“Of course, sir.” He immediately stepped back and moved to another part of the house.
I stepped outside just as the blacked-out SUV was parked at the curb, retrieved from the underground garage where I kept my personal vehicles as well as those my drivers used. One of the guys came out and took the bags from me, and he put them in the back of the SUV.
Aliénor stared at the SUV unnecessarily long, like she didn’t want to face me. She crossed her arms over her chest like she was cold, wearing jeans and a thin long-sleeved shirt. She finally found the strength to look at me, and her eyes were soft and vulnerable and emotional…a spectrum of it all.
“I don’t believe in fate. Meant to be. But now…I don’t know. Something tells me I was meant to hop into your car that night. That you’re the answer to my prayers. Or karma… I don’t know.”
I didn’t believe in any of that. “You were in the right place at the right time.”
“And with the right person.” The engine from the SUV ran beside us, and the exhaust had a scent. The armed guys kept their distance and did their best to look at anything but us. But I wasn’t aware of any of that, only her, the way her eyes told astory without words. “You’ll never understand what you’ve done for me. I just got my life back.”
“What will you do with it?”
“I don’t know yet. I never planned for the future when tomorrow has never been promised. The present was barely promised.” She looked away again. “But I’ll figure it out.” She moved into me, and instead of kissing me, she rose on her tiptoes, hooked her arms around my neck—and hugged me.
My arms immediately engulfed her like it was second nature. My chin moved to the top of her head like I hugged someone every day, when I never hugged anyone at all. She rested her forehead against my chest, and even though our eyes didn’t meet, it felt more intimate than all the fucking we did.
She lingered.
I let her.
She eventually pulled away, and her eyes lifted to mine.
My hands remained around her waist, my hands gentle on her hips.
She held my stare with vulnerability, like there was so much she could say but chose not to. Then she moved into me again and kissed me. Not a passionate kiss as we’d oftentimes shared, but a simple one, gentle and soft, full of something different from lust.
Affection.
She planted her hand on my chest as she pulled away. “Thank you for everything.” She turned quickly, like she wanted to break the connection between our stares as soon as possible. To rip off the bandage from a wound that shouldn’t hurt. One of the guysopened the back door for her, and she hopped inside before they shut it behind her.
The windows were tinted black and bulletproof, so I couldn’t see her.
But I stared as if I could.
11
LUCA
A waiter handed me one of the flutes of champagne.
I took it out of obligation then stood there like an idiot and held it. The room was full of people I knew and didn’t know, the elites of society, getting together for another function that no one actually cared about. It was just another opportunity to flaunt money, jewels, and connections.
I’d prefer to deal with a dealer over this any day.
I moved toward one of the walls with a potted plant and poured the piss into the soil.
“Classy.”
