There was somebody with him, the half sane brother, Dom, drinking from a glass. He winked at me.
I glanced between the both of them as they walked past the men, heading for the elevator.
“What business would you have with my father?” I put the basket on Sasha’s desk, turned around, and followed them.
Alessandro kept walking, not once looking at me.
“What did you talk about?”
Nothing.
I stamped around them and stood in front of the elevator, blocking them off.
“Well,” Dom clasped a hand on Alessandro’s back. “I’ll go try with that lovely secretary. Take your time.”
He left, and I crossed my arms and raised a brow.
“You will look at me and fucking answer, or you’ll use the stairs.”
His eyes came down then. Eyes so hot my breath caught in my throat. There was barely any time to think before he rushed me, hands against the elevator on either side of my head, my back pressed against the ice coolness of the iron doors.
“I came to confirm that there was a man I needed to kill, Katya. Slowly and terribly.”
I raised a brow, my throat was trying to work itself, but I was resisting so hard. I wouldn’t swallow when he was this close, when he could see and hear it.
But the flesh is weak. I think a reverend had said that once, because I swallowed, and his eyes locked on my throat.
I licked my lips. Every thought that ran through his mind was leaking into me.
But he didn’t crack that devilish smile. He stared at my throat for a minute with a perfectly serious face. Then, he stepped back and pressed the elevator button.
I stood up straight just as the doors started to open. Alessandro stepped around me, my eyes trailing him.
“Is this the famous anger of the Sorvino don?” I asked, halting him before he could press the button. “I’d heard so much about it, but it’s a bit disappointing.”
He regarded me for a while before talking.
“If you want to test me, Piccola, you’ll have to try on another day. If I get too close to you, I’ll touch you without a care for where we are, and if I do, I guarantee you won’t be able to get up.” He thought about that last part. “Very much like the man on my mind…except for a completely different reason.”
I looked at Alex for a minute. Something stirred inside me. More than one thing, actually.
Today, I knew that one of them was desire.
I smiled at him. “I think I like seeing you like this. Furious. Out of your mind.”
Alessandro pressed the button, and the doors started to close.
“I think it runs in your family.”
***
I had Martha’s delectable borsht in the basket, a small loaf of rye bread, and a bottle of brandy.
Anything more, and I’d have been pushing it.
The mouth-water scent of Martha’s borsht filled my father’s office as he ate what I’d laid down for him.
“What?” I asked because I couldn’t possibly have heard right.