Crisis averted.
As she walks away, Alec turns toward me. “What did you think she was going to say?”
“Pardon?”
“You held your breath. What did you think she was going to say?”
I stammer for a moment, a bit disconcerted by his perceptiveness. It gives me a little thrill that he’s paying such close attention to me that he can hear me breathing. “I, uh, she, um. With Chris, it’s hard to tell.”
“Were you afraid she’d divulge some deep, dark secret?”
I would say that I don’t have any, but I’d be lying. And I’m a terrible liar. Instead, I go with silence.
“A woman with secrets. I’m even more intrigued,” he says softly, his eyes dropping from my eyes to my mouth. “Maybe I can work my magic on those lips of yours, make them open up a bit.”
My lips tingle as if he were actually touching them. Or kissing them.
“Alec Brand,” a voice booms from the right, breaking the spell of the moment. “Glad you could make it.”
“Glad you could make it”? He was already invited?
A white-haired bear-of-a-man stops in front of us, clamping one meaty hand on Alec‘s shoulder and grasping his hand with the other. The man’s chest is barreled and his face is red as he huffs breathlessly. He looks like a walking advertisement for a heart attack.
“Dr. Simmons, it’s good to see you.”
Dr. Simmons smiles and pumps Alec’s hand, his eyes drifting over to settle on me. They twinkle with mischief.
“Ah, now I see the trick to getting the elusive Mr. Brand out for the night. Put a beautiful woman on his arm.”
“What won’t a man do for a night with a beautiful woman?” Alec says amicably, smiling blandly at the doctor.
“A good question, my boy.” The doctor laughs heartily, as though Alec just made a great joke.
“Dr. Simmons, meet Ms. Samantha Jansen.”
“A pleasure, my dear.”
I smile politely and nod. “Sir.”
Dr. Simmons turns back to Alec. “Helps with the boredom, am I right?” He elbows Alec in the ribs and laughs an inordinately boisterous laugh again. “I’m sure you’ve been to your share of these things, what with your father being in the business.”
Alec nods, but says nothing. I wait anxiously for the good doctor to reveal another tidbit about Alec Brand. When he doesn’t, I make an inquiry, trying to keep it as light and nonchalant as possible.
“Your father’s in medicine?” I ask.
Before Alec can answer, Dr. Simmons chimes in. “Oh yes. One of the most brilliant minds in the field.”
I nod, tucking away the tiny piece of information in the pitifully empty mental file labeled Alec Brand.
“It was a pleasure seeing you again, Dr. Simmons,” Alec says abruptly as he places his hand in the small of my back. “Samantha, shall we?”
I’m puzzled by his curt response to Dr. Simmons. Puzzled, but very curious. Does he not want his business associate giving away any more details of his life? Does he not like him for some reason? Why the hasty departure?
Rather than ask any questions, I nod and smile politely at Dr. Simmons.
“It was nice to meet you, sir.”
“Likewise,” he says in his gruff voice, seeming a bit more subdued now. If I had to guess, Dr. Simmons is probably accustomed to people sucking up to him. Although Alec was polite, he certainly wasn’t unduly impressed or too keen on making more conversation with the doctor. Just another facet of Alec’s personality that reminds me of Mason.
Stop doing that, I chastise as Alec guides me off in the opposite direction.
I’m distracted by the voice in my head, so the question gets out before I can stop it. “So your father is in medicine?”
“Yes,” he replies.
“I’m surprised I haven’t seen you before then. My father is a neurosurgeon.”
Alec doesn’t even glance down at me as he answers. He just keeps moving us through the crowd, his answers still short and clipped.
“My father is out west.”
“Oh. So you’re not from around here?”
“No.”
“But you work here now, right?”
“I have an office here, yes.”
“What kind of office?”
“Consulting.”
He doesn’t hesitate to give me the answer, so I don’t doubt that it’s true. But it only serves to spawn more questions.
Consulting? What kind of consulting? It must be something in the medical field for him to be at a function like this. That or he’s some kind of rich big-wig donator. That’s not entirely out of the question considering that he has a tailor-made tuxedo on hand and he drives a Range Rover.
The questions keep coming, but at least they stay inside my head. I get the feeling by the firm set of his mouth that he isn’t enjoying my interrogation nearly as much as I am.
“What k—”
Alec comes to a sudden stop and turns toward me.
“This really isn’t necessary, you know.”
“What isn’t necessary?”
“Knowing every detail of each other’s life. I already know everything I need to know about you for what I have in mind. I don’t want you to be confused about what’s going to happen between us.” I’m disappointed that he doesn’t want to know me and doesn’t want me to know him, but I don’t have time to consider it before he takes a step toward me. “The things I’m going to do to you, the things I’m going to show you have nothing to do with your job or your family or where you spend your time. It’s just about you. And me. And all the pleasure we can give each other.”
There’s fire in his eyes. And fire in my belly. There’s no denying that he kindles a reaction in me.
In addition to the excitement he makes me feel, however, there’s dread and unease. Anxiety. Yes, I feel a nervousness about stepping into the unknown, but I also feel an old, familiar fear clawing its way up, the fear that this will end just like all the others—badly.
But it’s not too late. I can stop it. I can spare myself the pain and humiliation, the devastation of my reality. All I have to do is walk away from this man, from what I see in his eyes.
It sounds so simple. And it might be. If he were anybody but Mason. My Mason, come to life. Whether it’s the right decision or the healthy decision for me remains to be seen. Maybe this could be a breakthrough. Maybe this could be a setback. I have no way of knowing.