She couldn’t help making a face at the sandwich. She would have made it at him, but she was nervous the moment she was alone with him. He had a way about him of taking up an entire room with his presence. She’d always loved the way he could do that, walk in and just by making his entrance fill the room, but living with it was much more difficult than she’d anticipated.
Her body responded to him the moment she saw him. He made her heart beat faster every time she looked at him. Her lungs would burn for lack of air. Her sex clenched and went damp. She hoped those things never went away. She knew a few of the older shadow rider women would talk of still having such reactions to their partners, and when they spoke of them, their eyes would light up and their faces would take on a glow. That had been her dream. Her dream had always included Elie Archambault.
“Brielle?”
She blinked, bringing him into focus. That was the problem when she was around him. She went off into her fantasy world instead of paying close attention the way she should. She was too over-the-top crazy about him. Two weeks in his company had just made her reactions worse.
“I’m listening.” What had he asked her? She scrambled desperately to remember. She was really, really intelligent, but she always looked like such a fool around him. She wanted him to respect her work and yet every chance she had to impress him, she did this kind of thing, went off into her own mind. Oftentimes it was to puzzle out where she was going next in the investigation and other times it was to fantasize over him.
A slow smile lit his eyes. “Eat, bébé.”
Nutrition classes. That was what he had been going on about. She pushed the sandwich around on the plate. “I did take the nutrition classes, Elie. All of them. Too many if you ask me.” She lifted the corner of the toasted melted cheese sandwich to her mouth.
“So, you do know the importance of protein and carbohydrates to keep your stamina up.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I passed the classes with no problems.”
Elie’s phone went off and he glanced down. “Cleaners are gone. Leone and Raimondo are taking off along with Ruggero and Lorenzo. We’re locked in for the night.”
Her heart jumped. She kept her eyes veiled with her lashes as she diligently ate her sandwich.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had discovered your photograph along with Val, Dario and mine right away?”
She winced. His voice was casual. Too casual. She risked a quick look at him. There was no expression on his face, but he was watching her closely. She was absolutely certain he could read her like a book.
“I didn’t have the answers yet.” That was a partial truth. She knew Carlo Santoro had sent the picture to Dino Colombo, but how had Carlo acquired it? She recognized the large plants and pottery in the background of the photograph. The café was one of her favorite haunts. Small, a hidden gem, she studied there when she could. “I wanted to find them before I gave you the report.”
He continued looking at her without speaking. She detested when he did that. She knew he wouldn’t stop until she confessed everything to him. She took a sip of water to wash down the suddenly dry bite of sandwich sticking in her throat. She waited until her heart had settled down and she could swallow easily.
“I knew the investigation Val and Dario started here in the States had to be connected to what I was doing in Barcelona, but it didn’t make sense that someone had identified me. You were already very protective. I thought if I could discover who had been the person to send the photograph to Santoro from Barcelona, then I’d be able to figure out how they managed to find out I was onto the freighters and the crime family in New York.”
“But you had planned to tell me . . .” He paused. “Eventally.”
Her breath left her lungs in a long rush. He wasn’t in the least bit happy with her. “I planned to tell you right away, Elie. I did tell you right away.”
CHAPTER TEN
Elie studied Brielle’s face with that curious melting sensation he was becoming familiar with in his chest. All soft, all feminine with her long sweeping lashes, and beautifully shaped lips, yet she had a backbone of steel. He admired and respected her. They needed shadow riders, and by all accounts, she was an extremely good one, but on a keyboard, she had a gift that surpassed anything he’d ever seen. She was a treasure for many, many reasons and she clearly had no idea.
“Your idea of telling me immediately and mine are clearly two different things,” he informed her, keeping his tone casual. She didn’t need to know how hard he was falling for her yet. Not until he could figure out what she was holding back from him. She’d been growing more and more restless the last two weeks, although he’d felt they’d grown close.