His warning made it sound as if their interactions would continue beyond this lunch, or her going back to work.
A thrill of disbelief, dread and expectation buzzed through her all during their ordering process.
As soon as the maître d’ left, Antonio sat forward, his eyes growing somber, worsening her condition. “There’s just one thing I’m confused about.”
She took another sip to relieve her drying mouth. “You get confused like mortals?”
His smile didn’t reach his eyes this time. “No, I don’t, actually. But you affect me in unprecedented ways. You confuse the hell out of me. Therefore my inability to understand how you would seek the father who abandoned you. I have firsthand knowledge of how you can do without anything or anyone. Not to mention how unforgiving you are.”
“You describe me like such a well-rounded sociopath.”
“I describe myself, too. More things we have in common.”
“Things of which I have a drop while you have an ocean.” She fell silent until the waiters placed soup in front of them and left. “But you’re right, as usual. I had no intention of seeking him out. I lived my life without him and his family, and I never wished to change that. It took him months of persistence after my mother’s death until I finally agreed to see him.”
That earlier strangeness returned, deeper now, as if that piece of information disturbed him. Which made no sense.
Suddenly famished, for food or other things, she sought the refuge of the soup and changed the subject.
For the rest of what turned out to be the most incredible meal she’d ever had, they talked about so many other things, never again broaching anything personal.
After lunch he insisted on taking her to another place for coffee. Another place where he was treated like a god, and where she almost felt it was sacrilegious for her to be. And again, the place had only them.
She finally had to comment. “You emptied the restaurant at your exclusive club, and this place, too, for only us, didn’t you?” He only nodded. “Why? Do you have something against eating in o
ther people’s presence?”
“I ate in yours quite successfully, as I recall.” He leaned back in his seat, regarding her with that intentness she’d come to expect but would never get used to. “I wanted you to relax without intrusions or distractions.”
“I am known for being around human beings without any adverse reactions.” She shook her head, picked up her cappuccino cup, the finest china she’d ever touched. “But you’re way stronger than I am. Apart from the evident ways.”
“Care to explain that statement?”
“You can stomach all this over-the-top luxury and sycophancy. I wouldn’t be able to, even on an occasional basis. It’s actually one of the reasons I’m so reluctant to get any deeper into my father’s life. Like you, he lives in a rarefied world where I can’t belong.”
* * *
Antonio stared at Liliana and again felt everything spinning even further out of his control.
He’d orchestrated that lunch to give her a taste of what it would be like to be with a man of his caliber. Though his money and power had no effect on her when her research hung in the balance, he’d thought when she was made their beneficiary on a personal level, it would be different.
But the more he immersed her in its benefits, the more repulsed she was by the evidence of his status. She’d made sideway remarks through the past hours, but now she’d come right out and said it. Being in such surroundings, getting the treatment only limitless wealth bought, disturbed, not dazzled, her.
Taking another sip of cappuccino, she shrugged. “To each his own, of course, but I don’t see why you need to exercise your power in such ways.”
He gritted his teeth on another unknown sensation. Chagrin. “Maybe I was trying to impress you.”
A not-too-delicate snort made her put down her cup before she spilled its contents. “You thought this would impress me? Have you met me?” She sat forward, her eyes wide and earnest. “You know what really impresses me? It’s that if you were stripped of all your financial assets right this second, with that brain of yours, filled with all your knowledge and experience, with those hands that perform miracles on a regular basis, your worth wouldn’t be affected. Anything you lost, you’d re-create, bigger and better, because luck and circumstances played no role when you first created it. So no, this—” she swept a hand around “—doesn’t impress me. If anything, all this glitter and bustle doesn’t become you, actually taints your true value. Without any of those trappings, it’s you on your own, your gifts and abilities, that’s invaluable.”
Something swelled inside his chest until he couldn’t breathe. So he didn’t, let himself succumb to those whiskey eyes as they penetrated him to his core with their absolute truthfulness.
No one besides his brothers had ever treated him without artifice. But their candor had been nothing like this. It was indescribable being exposed to hers. Her ruthless bluntness at once slapped him for being a pathetic show-off and bestowed on him the most validating evaluation of his life.
He got adulation wherever he went, but no one had ever told him anything like that. That his intrinsic value remained unchanged without everything he’d achieved or acquired. It was what he’d told himself since he’d escaped The Organization. That his abilities would bring him success, would amass fortune and power, would re-create them if he ever lost them. But only Liliana had ever expressed that exact same belief in him.
And she did so when she still considered him an antagonist. She was fair enough that she’d give even an enemy his full due.
She raised her cup to her lips. “Though I commented because you dragged me to this creepily empty seven-star establishment, I hope you don’t always feel the need to flaunt your wealth and impose your worth on the world. I assure you you’re the last man on earth who needs to do that.”