Page 114 of Point of No Return

I turn just in time to see him pulling on a blazer as he saddles up next to me. He looks so much like Skar for a moment that I watch as he adjusts his cufflinks and offers me a casual grin.

I realize I’m staring, so I force a smile, casting my book aside and shoving him playfully. “You Benenati boys sure know how to make a girl blush.”

His signature straight-toothed grin is bright. “I don’t mean it like that. I just mean you look tired.”

I blink at him, trying to decipher whether or not he’s saying it because he somehow knows I haven’t been sleeping well. Or maybe I really do look like I’ve been run over by a truck.

Paranoid, I tell myself.You’re being paranoid.

“I’ve just been staying up too late the past few nights.”

His grin only widens, and he shakes his head, his hair falling forward. “I know. I’ve heard you.”

My eyes widen, and I curse as a blush creeps up my neck. I swat him. “Keep talking. I dare you.”

“Hey, hey!” He holds his hands up in mock-surrender. “I’m just surprised you guys finally sealed the deal.”

I narrow him a look. “I feel like you know entirely too much on the matter.”

“Not for my lack of trying,” he laughs, and I swat him again. He hisses, rubbing his chest. “Geez. You hit harder than my brother.”

“Remember that,” I tell him, but when he beams again, I can’t help but smile back. “How has work been?” I prod. The longer I look at him, the less I care about information as much as I care about his genuine reaction.

His shoulders rise in a shrug. “Interesting… Complicated. Boring sometimes. But Skar is a good teacher. He’s built so much since Dad died. He’s changed a lot of things for the better.”

I try to hide my reaction, happiness bubbling inside me at the admiration in his voice. Things haven’t been easy between them since we’d gotten back, but the hostility has lessened. Aleks doesn’t blow up just because Skar is in the same room anymore.

“You seem… dare I say, happy?” I tease, but as soon as his eyes land on me again, it feels too close.

Too personal.

“I could say the same about you. And my brother. No one makes him grin like you do.”

I ignore the way my heart skips a beat at his words. “No one makes himangrylike I do.”

“That too… but my brother doesn’t care about anyone else enough to get angry.”

“That’s not…”True, I want to say but it’s at that moment that the devil himself enters the room.

I can feel the exact moment the air changes. I can feel his presence, his heat, the look he gives me from across the island. He’s tugging the blazer of his suit on and grabbing a mug from the cupboard.

Ignore it, I tell myself.It meant nothing. It means nothing.It’s just sex. I take another sip of my coffee as I flip the page of the book I wasn’t really reading.

“I have a dinner at the Belmont with your father tonight.”

He’s being honest with me. Open.

Something about it makes my heart squeeze. Without glancing up, I try not to sound too strained as I answer, “Is this something you expect me to be there for?”

“Not if you don’t want to be.”

There’s silence, and Aleks grins, clearing his throat and straightening his tie as he stands. “I’ll be in the car.”

He’s gone. I tap my fingers, finding it particularly difficult to focus when thoughts of last night keep flashing through my head.

“You had nightmares,” Skar says suddenly, stopping behind me as he stirs something into his mug. Something about it is so nonchalant, so casual yet somehow so intimate, and I tense.

It means nothing.

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