She wasn’t petrified of blowing the money, she was just petrified of revealing her work and the appalling vision of no one caring to stop.
She was going to do it, though, she decided. Tonight he had made her feel just a little bit wild.
‘Hey.’ A hand tapped her shoulder and Alina’s first instinct was to walk faster, not because she was scared of a stranger, this was no stranger to her brain for she knew Demyan’s voice, would never forget it, yet instinct told her to run from him. ‘Alina!’ He caught her wrist and turned her around and the scent that had driven Pierre crazy was doing the same to her now. Yes, she wanted to run, for he was more than her senses could deal with.
‘I have to get my bus.’
‘You’re so not getting a bus.’
‘I’m sorry about yesterday.’
‘First-day nerves.’ Demyan shrugged. ‘I’m very used to them. I will see you on Monday.’
‘No.’ It wasn’t selling the penthouse that terrified her—it was him, it was the way that he made her feel.
‘I’ll drive you home.’
‘The answer will still be no.’
‘I won’t ask again,’ Demyan said. ‘I loathe nagging.’
‘Begging,’ Alina corrected.
‘I don’t beg,’ Demyan said.
Nag still wasn’t the right word. Didn’t nagging mean constantly pushing for something the other didn’t want?
No, he wasn’t nagging, she was simply too scared to say yes.
‘Maybe we could go to my hotel and discuss it.’
‘No!’
Oh, my God, Alina thought, he said it so easily. She tried to tear her mind from sex to the conversation in hand but they matched perfectly anyway. ‘Demyan, I can’t work for you. I don’t have any experience.’
‘I think you will do very well.’ Demyan said. He was speaking the truth as he looked into brown, caring eyes. Those eyes were the reason that he had not fired her and why he had not called the agency today. It was not a nameless transaction. Selling up was difficult and Demyan had soon realised that Alina would take the care that the memories of his home deserved. ‘Anything you’re not sure of you will speak with Marianna. If she’s a bitch to you, tell her I said not to be.’
‘Why didn’t you tell the agency I’d walked out?’ Alina couldn’t help but ask him.
‘No need to. I was always going to ring you tomorrow. I thought I’d give you today to calm down. It didn’t work, though, did it?’ Alina stared into his beautiful eyes now in a way she hadn’t been able to yesterday as his hand brushed hers and then took hold. His breath was on her cheek as energy thrummed in the lessening space between them. ‘I’m not calm either,’ Demyan said, and his hand toyed with hers a little and she almost wanted him to move her palm, her fingers digging into his as she resisted an urge, an urge that had never, till now, existed.
She wanted to feel him, wanted his hand to guide hers to his groin, and Alina had never known such a feeling.
She was breathing too fast yet it felt not enough.