Page 25 of Out of Office Nights
‘Be warned. I give very little unearned latitude.’
He waited until she nodded. Accepted his caveat.
Then she trailed after him, telling herself she was merely being polite. Walking a guest to the door. The disarming truth was that she wasn’t entirely ready to see the back of him.
With a handful of words, he’d awoken something inside her tonight. She’d expected the pushy prince and received the enigmatic man who’d unsettled her with his peculiar questions and observations. A mere three hours in his company, and he’d muddied the waters of her conviction, rearranging himself just so he wouldn’t slot so comfortably into the pigeonhole she’d created for him.
As she’d accused him of doing to her in New York?
She leaned against the doorway, still unable to definitively dismiss him as he crossed the narrow street, swung one leg over the powerful bike and straddled it.
He didn’t glance her way, but a live-wire awareness throbbed between them. As much as she hated herself for this admission too, Sabeen couldn’t help but appreciate the sexy figure he cutastride his motorbike. A jolt of disappointment went through her for not accepting his invitation earlier but…
No. Hell, no.What the hell was wrong with her?
Stepping back abruptly, she grabbed the door, ready to shut it, just as his head swung her way, his gaze snagging her.
‘Buenos noches.’
‘Goodnight,’ she murmured.
She stood there, her feet refusing the order to turn around as he gunned his engine and roared out of the alley.
CHAPTER FIVE
Teo pulled upat the villa he’d rented seven miles away from Sabeen’s house.
For endless moments, he remained in the saddle, earning himself puzzled looks from his security detail.
He’d already made them nervous enough when the motorbike had been delivered. They had no doubt reported him to Valenti, their boss. Teo would bet a hefty slice of his fortune that his twin would text him with strident views about his recklessness before morning.
That was Valenti’s clinical way of coping. Teo didn’t begrudge him that. But neither could he live his life by his twin’s strait-laced standards.
Especially when he knew his father would sooner shuffle off his mortal coil than show his own son an ounce of regard.
Acid churned in his gut at the recollection of his father’s words at the wedding. He vehemently suppressed it, begrudgingly glancing up at the property his assistant had secured for him. It was beautiful, of course, as befitting a man of his status. The mellow stone blended well with the arched Moorish windows and the yellow light spilling from within.
The interior was equally welcoming.
Except he didn’t want to be here,seven miles away. He gritted his teeth as visions of another room, and the person occupying it, filled his head.
Dios mio.He was going out of his mind.
Every reason he’d conjured up for pursuing this thing with Sabeen disarmed and disturbed him.
You should cut your losses. Let it go and move on.
But…instinct insisted that unlocking her talent would be vital to his goals. Plus, hadn’t he vowed to make her regret those assumptions about him? Wasn’t that why he’d jumped straight into the hunt when she’d finally been located?
His skin tingled with anticipation. With the thrill of killing two birds with one stone. Taking a dire situation and turning it around so he wouldn’t be deemed so…superfluous? So worthless to both his father and Sabeen.
‘Your Highness?’
‘What?’ he snarled.
His head bodyguard took a step back.
Teo sighed. ‘What is it?’ He tried modulating his voice. It didn’t work. That hollow sensation stalking through him only intensified. Cartana was a mere two and half hours away by air. He could be there before midnight. He could confront the old man, demand to know why it was so easy to be discarded. Then maybe he might be free of this…this burr in his side he refused to admit was corroding something inside him.
