“Any beer is good,” he answered in a rough voice.
The aunt and niece looked at each other before disappearing into the crowd.
Alex slid into the seat that Selene left beside me. Lights flickered around, striking his face in different angles. Everything about him seemed normal. The same. I saw just enough to notice he had his contacts in.
He angled his body in the chair, giving me a good view of his thighs in those dark jeans. The nice black boots he had on. As handsome as he’d been in his tuxedo, and as perfect as he filled in his Defender suit, him in everyday clothes put everything else to shame.
I pressed my lips together before asking, “What are you grouchy over?”
“I’m never grouchy,” he said, dead serious.
I burst out fucking laughing, and it took me a minute to calm down. When I did, I said, “All right then. You look nice, by the way.”
He stared. His throat bobbed, and the second shit he said to me was, “I didn’t know where you were.”
I’d missed the sound of his voice, I thought as I shrugged, not trusting my own.
“You didn’t leave a note,” he kept going, his voice still that low, crabby one.
“I did at first, but I stopped leaving them…” That was a weird statement. How did he know about my notes?
“Why?”
All righty then, we were going straight into this. He wasn’t going to ask how I’d been doing, what I’d been up to. Okay. So I told him, “You were gone. I didn’t think you’d care if I left the house for a little while.”
For one millisecond, his irises did that unreal glow before just as quickly going back to normal behind his contact lenses. The urge to look around to make sure no one had seen it rode my chest, but no, he knew what he was doing. “Why would you think that?” he asked.
It wasn’t that much of a mystery. “Because you were gone,” I repeated slowly.
“I could’ve gotten home any time.”
Like I didn’t know that. I set my elbow on the tabletop and cupped my chin with my palm, deciding to be the reasonable one. He could be annoyed with whatever he wanted to be annoyed with, but I wasn’t going to let him drag me down into Crabby Town. “But you didn’t.”
His eyes moved around my face, over my throat, across my chest by my breasts. I’d bought a cute top at the outlet mall, and I’d decided to wear it tonight. It dipped low enough that my grandmother would’ve been scandalized, but then again, she thought Tshirts showed off too much arm.
“How are you?” I asked him, trying to be calm and cool like he hadn’t dropped me cold turkey without even saying goodbye.
“Fine.” I was pretty sure a muscle in his cheek might have tensed. “Did you have a good time while I was gone?” Alex asked slowly, so strangely, it felt like a test or something.
I nodded.
“Hiromi and Selene were good company?”
“The best company.”
Oh, that got me a raise of an eyebrow. “The best?”
“Yep.” I smiled.
“Nobody else is better?”
Was he…？ “No, they’ve been the best.”
His cheek did that thing again. He knew I was fucking with him. Keeping my chin up, I looked him right in the eye and told him the truth. “I didn’t think I could really feel that alone anymore, but they made it go away. I like them a lot. They’re nice.”
Something about my words must have not been what he’d expected to hear because those elegant features suddenly went stricken. “You were lonely?”
He made it sound like I’d broken a hip. “Little bit.” I tapped my fingers against the beer bottle. “We were together for so long, I guess I got used to knowing you were usually close, even if you were in your office for hours.”
“You mad?” he asked after a moment.
I was going to play it innocent. There really wasn’t a point in making him feel bad. For what? Working? Staying away? I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t. “About what?”
But his shrug got on my nerves even though we both damn well knew what he was talking about.
So I pretended not to know either and took a sip of my beer while his gaze followed me, and then I held it out toward him.
He took it. Bringing the glass to his lips and taking a slow drink, still watching me the whole time like it was me who was about to do the disappearing act. He made no sense.
But now that we were here and talking, and he wasn’t running off, I might as well take advantage of it. He might leave in a minute and be gone for another month. And then what? Would I see him again?
The possibility of that happening made my nose tingle. But I’d known this wasn’t permanent from the beginning. And this had to be done. “Umm, just so you know, in case you have to leave again soon, your legal department called while you were gone—”
“I know. I talked to them.”
So he’d communicated with them but not me. “Okay then. They said they were going to get my things transferred from my safe deposit box in Arizona to a bank branch that your family does business with. Also, I think I’m going to stay in this part of the state. Housing isn’t too bad, and maybe, if you could rent me a place out under your name, or if you know someone who owes you a big favor and can do it, I should be fine. I can pay for it, but I just don’t want it even under my business, or an alias if I can help it. The fewer breadcrumbs I leave, the better,” I told him. “We don’t need to talk about it right now, and if you don’t want to do that, it’s all right too. I just wanted you to know before I forgot to mention it and you need to go.”
I didn’t miss the way his eyes briefly glowed again.
Was that it? Was he fine with it? Why wouldn’t he be after all? I was just a friend living in his house, using his utilities. With his permission, but it still was what it was.
I would treasure the time and the experiences we’d had together. The laughs we’d shared when it felt like the world was on the verge of collapsing. He said he would be my ally for the rest of my life. He’d promised, and I knew he would keep his word. That was what kind of man he was.
A very, very special one.
And one that hadn’t wanted me and still didn’t. He’d made that real clear being gone for so long. I understood.
Alex reached forward and grazed the ends of my hair with his fingertips. “Your hair looks nice like this. Pretty.”
The noise that came out of my throat was unholy.
He pinched some of the strands and spread his legs a little wider as he settled that heavy gaze on me, snapping his hips and the stool forward, trapping my knees between his. “But I liked your hair the way it was before too.” He rubbed those strands between his fingers a little more as he watched me so, so closely.
My skin buzzed with his energy.
Alex’s head tilted to the side as he gave my ends a tiny tug, and I didn’t think I imagined the way one corner of his mouth went up.
It took me two damn tries, but I finally got it out. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” he replied just as Selene and Hiromi parted through the crowd, on their way back.
But my stomach… my stomach disagreed. It didn’t feel like nothing.