And at this point, he knew I was full of shit, but he still said, “Good.”
I eyed him.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he reminded me softly.
It was exactly what I needed though.
I held my breath, took a second, and then asked, “Is Selene coming? I liked her. I got a good vibe from her.”
“No, she’s in New York right now, and she got a good vibe from you too.”
“Is she like you? Or like Athena?”
He shook his head. “She’s stronger than Athena but not like Alana.”
What the hell? “Not everyone in the family ends up being so special then?”
Something awful funny came over his face. “Not anymore. From what I understand, our bodies, our genetic makeup, have been adapting over time.” The way he cleared his throat was a lot more aggressively than I thought he needed to, and I was pretty sure his funny face got even funnier. “It’s part of the reason why my grandmother is trying to find the rest of the Atraxian lines. To make sure some of us continue on; to give the kids the best shot at continuing the genes as long as possible.” I was pretty sure he glanced at me so fast he didn’t mean for me to notice, but I had.
Why did that sound loaded?
Before I could ask, he kept talking. “Let’s get the hell out of here so we can leave faster,” he said before turning forward again, putting the car back into drive.
A great, big question pecked at my brain: why he would admit all of this to me and at what cost? None of this information was out in the open. I understood his grandmother wanting to keep track of the bloodlines, but there were still some holes in his story that didn’t add up to me. I could worry about my chances of getting murdered for knowing too much later on.
And a part of me didn’t doubt for a second that if I breathed a word of this to someone, Alex wouldn’t be the only person to end up with a broken back.
And I knew I wouldn’t be able to heal from it the same way he did.
The passenger door opened, and a valet held out a hand to help me out of the car.
I took it and got out, wobbling on my heels after I thanked her and moved forward on the path to wait for the man-being making his way around his car.
I gave him a smile that was a lot less nervous than it would have been five minutes ago as I undid the buttons of the wool coat that Alex had left on the bed for me. It was heavy and so fine that I was scared of getting it dirty. Which was why I was taking it off ASAP.
And that’s when Alex stopped walking. Right there, in the middle of the pathway. He just stood there.
Staring at me.
More like in the direction of my chest.
And his voice was deeper than usual as he asked, “What are you wearing?”
Slipping my hands into the pockets of the coat, I spread the sides wide and looked down at myself. “The dress you got me?”
Oh, he was definitely looking at my boobs.
I had done the same thing after I’d put it on and realized that even though it had looked modest on the hanger, my boobs decided they wanted to be the center of attention. And they were. The sweetheart neckline dipped in there, not actually showing a ton of skin but hugging the shit out of them. But he’d seen me in tank tops. He’d seen me in my bra of all things. And he’d definitely seen me without a bra on. He’d seen all kinds of parts of me.
But none of that seemed to make a difference because he wasn’t looking away. Why the hell was he frowning?
“That’s not what it looked like on the mannequin.”
I shimmied my shoulders just a little. They were already C-cups when I was in middle school. He could stare at them all he wanted, and they weren’t going to get any smaller.
His gaze flicked up toward mine. He scowled. “Keep the jacket on.”
It was my turn to frown. “Get real. I’m not risking getting this coat dirty; I read the label. And maybe there’s a sugar daddy or two that might be interested in an all-right-looking, almost thirty-year-old virgin. Do you have a lonely, rich cousin?”
His scowl went nowhere, and it might have even got meaner. “No, and don’t do that shoulder shake again.”
I blinked, and his scowl hit yet another level. He eyed my boobs one last time and finished coming over, walking beside me toward the double doors, where a man in a dark suit stood. He must have recognized him because he stood up straighter, cleared his throat, and said, “Welcome, Mr. Akita.”
A woman came over and helped me take the coat off, handing over a small slip of paper to Alex who pocketed it. That was when I got my first look at the inside of the house.
Mansion.
Estate.
I had never used the word “opulent” before, but that was the best adjective I could think of to describe the house. Everything was massive and expensive. The hallways wider than normal, and even the artwork on the walls seemed like something I should have recognized in a museum.
I pressed my lips together to make sure I wasn’t walking down the hall with my mouth open.
“How rich is your family?” I whispered.
His elbow bumped mine, and I glanced over at him to see him raising his eyebrows.
Oh.
I slipped my hand into the crook of it.
That was nice. Some of the tension left my shoulders as I squeezed the hard muscle beneath his clothes. It felt like a rock under there.
“Rich,” he answered simply.
I snorted. “The fact you didn’t even try to play it off says everything, huh?”
He grunted, but I knew it was an amused one.
“I meant to ask when we went to that building… are they, your family, the same Akita family that—”
To give him credit, he didn’t try to play that off either. “Yes.”
“You didn’t let me finish. The electronics, the cars—”
“Yes. Both sides of the family have successful businesses and investments.”
“No shit,” I breathed. That was going to take me another second to process. “And the rest of the families? The other Atraxian people?”
“The head of the house in Eastern Europe is a steel magnate.”
I blinked.
“The family living in India is in biotech.”
“Huh,” I muttered. “Wait. Did everyone that came from Atraxia look different, and did that determine where they settled? So they could fit in better?”
He nodded just as we made it to another set of double doors where yet another man in a tuxedo stood.
I needed to start a list of all the things I was curious over so I could ask him in a better situation. Not when we were surrounded by other people who might have his incredible hearing.
“Are those security guards?” I asked him instead.
“Yes. We don’t need it, but it’s more the impression.”
I’d fucking bet. “I was thinking, if you want to get out of here sooner, I can pretend to faint so we can leave faster. Wink at me or something. That can be our sign. But you have to promise to catch me.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“What? Catching me or me fainting?”
“Catching you.”
I tightened my hand over his inner elbow and groaned. “Never mind. At least point your mom out to me so I can pretend to use the bathroom when she starts to make her way over.”