She’d pointed to the door. “Get the hell out of my dressing room.”
He’d just stood there. “Everyone has a price, Kate. Name it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” She’d walked past him to the door and flung it open. “I don’t.”
He must have seen the hatred burning in her eyes, because he’d left. Afterward, Bruno had denied involvement, then had been fired a few weeks later for stealing money from the club.
Alexander Gagnon had shown up for the next two nights to see if she’d changed her mind. It had been the hardest two nights of her working career, her ability to concentrate nonexistent.
“Bailey?”
Davide was frowning, eyeing her plate. “You didn’t enjoy your meal?”
She looked up to see the waitstaff hovering by her side, ready to remove the seafood salad sitting practically untouched in front of her. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “I’m just a little off.”
“Perhaps you got too much sun today,” he suggested in French. “You are so fair.”
“Perhaps,” she agreed. “I’m sure I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.”
Jared hadn’t taken his eyes off her the entire meal. It could have been because she didn’t seem able to add any intelligent insights to the conversation, or alternatively, ask any valuable questions. Either way, it felt hard to breathe and she needed to escape.
She excused herself and made a beeline for the ladies’ room. It was downstairs, off the opulent drawing room, done in royal-blue marble with gold accents. She pulled in some deep breaths, splashed water on her ashen face, then pressed one of the thick, luxurious hand towels to her face.
Could a nightmare actually come to life? Because this was hers…
She applied some lipstick and pinched her cheeks to give them color, but she still looked deathly pale as she left her sanctuary and headed back upstairs. She had just stepped on deck when Alexander cut her off at the pass.
“You’ve done well for yourself, Bailey.” He leaned his arm on the railing and blocked the way back to the others. “Or should I say Kate? What is your real name?”
Bailey gave him a blank look, fighting to keep her composure. “I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You think I don’t remember you?” He rested his gaze on her face, as chilling and unnerving as it had been that night he’d sat in the audience watching her. “I remember every curve, every dip of your mind-blowing body. How you seduced every man in that room and left them begging for more.”
A fresh wave of perspiration broke out on her brow. “You have the wrong woman,” she rasped. “And this is not at all appropriate.”
“I don’t think I do.” He pushed away from the railing and took the last couple of steps toward her. Bailey’s heart knocked against her ribs. A cool Mediterranean breeze flitted over her but she felt vaguely feverish. “I saw it on your face that night. You wanted to say yes.”
“I don’t know you,” she bit out and started to brush by him. He curled his fingers around her arm and brought her to a halt.
“They don’t know, do they?” His smoky gaze heated with challenge. “You’ve moved on. Gone to a great deal of trouble to put your past behind you…”
Yes. And she wasn’t going back there now.
“Get your hands off her, Gagnon.”
Jared’s low, menacing command came from behind them. She twisted around and found him watching them, hands clenched by his sides, tall, lean body coiled like a cat ready to pounce. Her heart zigzagged across her chest, threatening to explode right out of it. God, no. He couldn’t know about this.
Alexander lifted his hand from her arm and stepped back. “Cool your jets, Stone. We were just having a conversation.”
Jared took a step closer until he was toe-to-toe with Alexander. “I don’t particularly like the nature of it. And neither does Bailey from the looks of it. So perhaps we should all return to the table for dessert?”
Alexander stared him down, just for the fun of it, Bailey guessed semi-hysterically. Her airways seemed closed to oxygen. Alexander lifted his hands in the air. “Beautiful, isn’t she? Can’t blame you. Ask her about the sexy mole on her hip, Stone. It’s quite something…or maybe you already know that?”
Bailey’s heart sank into the deck. A trickle of perspiration rolled down her neck as Alexander turned and sauntered off. He had not just said that.
Jared’s gaze moved over her face. It was the stillness, the absolute stillness about him that got to her. “What is he talking about, Bailey? And how do you know him?”