Page 45 of His Smile
“We will be landing in twenty minutes, Mr. Mashir,” the jet’spilot announced over the intercom.
~*~
Mosca put the SUV in gear and pulled away from the privateairport. Passing through the manned gate station, he acknowledged the guardwith a nod and pulled through. The backseat was quiet, but he could feel theboss’s radiating presence from behind him. He had gotten the call an hour agoto meet him at the airport, no earlier warning just the single call stating hisplane was in flight, and he was landing.
When Roman stepped off the plane, he informed Mosca thatDimitri would be arriving on a separate flight, but that was all he said. Thesilence wasn’t unusual he had spent countless hours in Roman’s presence and wasaccustomed to the large man’s bouts of silence. This silence, however, seemedheavier though.
Goddamn Rahina.
The oppressive silence was her fault. The awkwardness Moscafelt in the car’s atmosphere was all because of her. The other day he went tocheck on the security feeds as he always did and Mosca nearly had a heartattack when he read that his boss had logged on the night before. With franticenergy, he raced to see if that night he and Rahina ate pizza was viewed—itwas. Of fucking course, he thought. Glancing up to the rearview mirror Mosca’sinsides turned cold at the steady gray gaze staring directly into the mirror athim.
Fucking hell, he thought.
“Umm,” Mosca cleared his throat and looked away from themirror as he accelerated through a light. “I should inform you, sir, thatRahina is not at home right now.”
There was no response. Mosca could feel his steady heartbeatpump harder in his chest as he glanced back up to the mirror. Roman’s gunmetaleyes had not moved, and his impassive facial expression did not change.
Knowing what he wanted, Mosca shifted in his seat andcontinued. “She left just as I was leaving, she was dressed…” He should havestopped her Mosca thought, remembering the tall girl’s impish smile as shewaved goodbye to him before sliding into her yellow roadster. “She was dressednicely, for an evening out,” he clarified.
A few minutes of silence passed, but Mosca’s pulse did nottake comfort in that silence, it only suffered for it. Looking back up to themirror, Mosca felt his stomach flinch at the sight of the smile in the mirror.
“Where did she go?” Roman asked softly.
Chapter 17
Stepping out of the car, Rahina smiled at the valetattendant who reached out a hand for her, politely helping her out of the car.She didn’t miss the young man’s eyes widen as he took in her full height in hersix-inch gold heels nor did she miss the look of male appreciation on his andthe other valet’s faces as she walked past her car and up to the club’sentrance.
Tonight, she was well aware she looked good. Wearing anemerald green velvet strap dress, the long skirt of the gown parted around eachof her long legs due to the two slits down the front. The plunging back of thegown left her back mostly exposed with only her voluminous black hair toprovide her a cape of cover.
Earlier that evening, she had been restless and full ofenergy. Practice at Ephemeral had gone wonderfully, her lunch with Rubina wentgreat and was filled with laughs, but when she got back to Roman’s empty, quiethouse, she immediately felt bored. Ignoring the texts from her mother andanswering the ones from her younger sister, she paused when she had gotten thetext from Dev. It was his usual text asking her out and wanting to talk.Normally, she would politely rebuff the request, but tonight she had anotheridea. She knew Dev and his family sorely wanted a connection to her family, andshe knew because of that anything she said with him had a high chance ofgetting back to his and her mother. For days, she had been debating on how sheshould sit down and talk to her mother about the changes in her life, but asshe read Dev’s persistent text, she realized something, she didn’t actuallyhave to sit down and have this conversation with her mom at all—Dev would do itfor her.
Stepping through the double glass doors, she saw Dev rightaway. Standing next to the hostess’s stand, he stepped forward, dressed in adeep purple tailored suit and a black silk shirt and tie.
"You look beautiful,”he said. She could feel his eyes hovering a few seconds longer at her exposedthighs before travelling and pausing yet again at the rounded curves of herbreasts.
"Thank you, you lookhandsome as well,” she replied chipperly, as she turned away from him to lookaround the three-story nightclub, Swerve. "I've always wanted to comehere; I was really excited you suggested it."
Between her hectic personallife and busy work schedule for the past few years, Rahina had hardly had timeto try out this exclusive club. Normally, she and Mario tended to go to thesame dance clubs every few weekends knowing that was where all their friendswould be and more importantly, that was where Mario made his money doing clubpromotions. Rahina didn’t feel at all bad that she was using Dev’s desire totalk as an opportune time to see the place, though she knew she should have.
Following the hostess,Rahina was a little dismayed to find that they were being ushered to the mainlevel and not taking the infamous glass elevator down or up to the otherlevels. Directing them to one of the club’s famous circular glass booths, thehostess smiled cheerily at them.
"Here you are, pleasesimply use the data pad to put in your order and the drinks will come to you onthe conveyor belt.” She pointed to a black tablet sitting on the table and alit-up box at the end of the table.
Following the line of theconveyor belt, Rahina looked around excitedly to see that all the booths whichwere configured in a giant rectangle were connected to the lit-up conveyorbelt. All three floors were each lined with the half circular glass booths inan atrium effect allowing each booth to look down to the main floor, where thedance floor was set up.
The hostess stood there afew seconds longer than necessary, forcing both Rahina and Dev to look back upto her from their seats. Smiling sheepishly, the girl looked directly atRahina. "I just want to say that I love your work, Miss Chopra, I followyou online and I have seen two of your performances,Black SwanandAnastacia.I have already pre-ordered my tickets for your Ephemeral performances.”
Rahina couldn't help butsmile wide as she stood up and opened her arms to the cute girl. Excitedly, thegirl accepted her hug and thanked her. Taking a quick selfie together, Rahinathanked the hostess and smiled as she reluctantly went back to her hostessstand at the entrance.
"Wow, I guess I neverrealized the level of your fame," Dev remarked. And though his tone seemedto convey interest, there was something about his eyes that told her it was alla farce, as if he was simply remarking upon the scene for social sake.
Rahina sat back against theplush seat and gave a smug smile. "It's only going to get better fromhere," she boasted. She was just so damn happy with her life right now,she could scream. The only thing that would make it better was if she was herewith Roman instead of Dev.
"You seemdifferent," Dev remarked, pulling her attention back to him. Hisclassically handsome face held a note of dissatisfaction.
"Mmm," she made asound that bordered on questioning and agreeing, she was still too overjoyedwith the memory of happiness on the hostess’s face as they hugged. It was theexact same moment she experienced in reverse when she met her childhood idol,Nina Ananiashvili, in New York after begging her mother for a month to take herto one of her performances. When she got to hug Nina, Rahina had cried. It hadfelt so amazing to be able to meet her, and now she just had her own momentlike that.
"I take it you're happywith the new dance company?" Dev observed. Rahina got the impression thathis question had a deeper underlying meaning.
