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Odin

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

After her sudden burst of courage, she says nothing on the way to the restaurant, preferring to look out of the window rather than face me.

The air between us vibrates like the strings of a guitar.

My urge to touch some part of her, any part, is almost painful.

I'm not the kind of man who holds hands while walking, but with Elina I feel compelled to do so, to touch her, as if to make sure she doesn't disappear from my sight.

I think about what Grigori said. She is the enemy's daughter.

Rationally, I know she's the worst person I could choose to get involved with. First, because she's an Argyros, whose patriarch I'm going to exterminate from the planet, and second, because during the short time we've been together, Elina has been inserting herself under my skin at a terrifying speed.

Even if I overlook whose daughter she is, she'll never forget. The time will come when I'll destroy her father. There'll be nothing left of Leandros, and I don't believe that if she has to choose a side, it will be mine.

However, those certainties are useless given that I can't walk away.

Of course, I’ve made the excuse that we're going to dinner for business, even though I chose the River Café, which is located in Brooklyn and has a beautiful view of the Manhattan Island. It's not a place I'd take someone to discuss business, but I feel like spoiling her, showing her a little bit of my city. I have long considered New York my home.

We could have talked on the phone, or I could simply have given her instructions through one of my secretaries. So even to me, the excuse that this is just a work dinner sounds weak.

I look at her profile as my driver steers through the vibrant streets. New York is not the kind of place that makes you want to go out in a car, especially on a rainy night. Actually, Manhattan is not a place you want to drive at any time .

Traffic is chaotic, even more so at night, and it can take almost an hour to travel just four kilometers. Besides that, even though the restaurant has valet parking, the security team in the vehicle behind us won't be happy with the exposure we'll risk by jumping out and handing over the keys.

I have other enemies besides Leandros. The old Greek just tops the list.

Does she know how to drive? Things between us are so strange. While I already feel somehow close to Elina, there are trivialities concerning her that I know nothing about, and despite telling myself that I don't need to delve too deep, that whatever happens will be fleeting, something pushes me to unravel her.

“Do you know how to drive?” I echo my thoughts.

She takes so long to face me that I think maybe she hasn't heard, and even when she turns to me, her mind seems to be elsewhere. A place she doesn't want me to go. “No.”

I don't understand. Although on the island she had everything at her fingertips, thanks to the luxury she’s always lived in, how can someone her age not know how to drive?

Was it by choice?

Once again comes the realization that she's still as inexperienced as a baby.

I wonder if her father did this on purpose, isolating her and her mother so that they were completely dependent on him.

“Wanna learn?” I could arrange this quickly. Yes, this is my screaming need for control and planning.

She shrugs. “Won't I be working from home? Almost everything can be arranged over the phone, anyway. If I need to go to your office, I can walk.”

“My offices are at World Trade Center Site, Elina,” I explain, indicating the complex constructed to replace the buildings destroyed in the terrorist attack of September 11. “About half an hour away from your apartment by car, depending on the traffic.”

Her cheeks turn red, and her mouth opens in an O of astonishment. "Is there someone who could teach me how to take a bus, then? Or the subway. In the movies, I’ve seen people riding the subway here in New York.”

Something tightens inside me with that simple question. What the hell was I doing, taking her out of the safety of her world and bringing her into a city such as this?

I take her hand and intertwine our fingers.

No, I'm not thinking clearly, but she brings out my protective side every damn time we're together. Since the night I saw her cornered by Naim in my house, it's like a bond has been created between us.

“When you have to go somewhere, we'll find a solution.”Perhaps it would be better to put a driver at her disposal. In addition to the fact that the New York subway is not safe at certain times, there's still the ghost of Naim hanging around.

“Okay, then.” She's letting me hold her, as if she understands that I need it right now, and that's just another one of her paradoxes.

I never know when she's going to send me away or ask for more, and instead of pissing me off, that turns me on. Our cat and mouse game makes my blood boil.

“How was your first day?”

“I didn't do anything but unpack my things. I wanted to take a walk around the city, but I feared getting lost.”

I nod, thinking about what I'm going to do when I get back to Greece. Even with the security team looking after her, she's not a prisoner. I can't keep her locked up in a tower, as tempting as the idea is .

“I have to be out of town for about three days. I'll probably leave tomorrow.”

Her face loses some of its color, but she disguises it quickly. “You don't have to tell me anything about your life,” she says and lets go of my hand. “We need to keep the lines clear between us.”

She's right, but the idea of being deprived of her company drives me a little crazy.

“As you wish.”

Before the waiter can pull out a chair for her, I step forward.

There's something about Elina that makes all men want to run to meet her needs at a single glance from her, and to my annoyance, I'm included on that list.

As we entered, heads turned to watch us pass, and while my face is familiar to the island's high society, I suspect it was her presence that drew so much attention.

Her beauty is impressive. There's no way to remain indifferent to my Greek goddess.

The sommelier approaches with the drinks' menu.

“Wine?" I ask, when he leaves us to decide.

“I thought it was a work dinner, boss.” She's goading me, I know, but what she’s unaware of as yet is that I never back down.

“It is, although right now I'm trying to guess whether there's a piece of silk protecting the middle of your thighs.” I return the teasing with what she did to me when I went to pick her up, but now my imagination really is stuck on the fact that her sex might be free of any protection under her dress.

She blushes and looks from side to side to see if anyone has heard us. When she's sure they haven't, she leans forward and whispers, “That was a low blow.”

“Really? As low as what you said to me at your apartment door, making me hard all the way here? ”

“Are you . . . huh ? Of course not?—”

“If we were side by side, I could prove what I'm saying.”

“Stop this.”She scowls, and I smile at her anger.

“If you can't handle the game, don't start playing.”

“Who says I can't handle it?”

“Elina, Elina . . . you don't know what you're getting yourself into.”

“Maybe not even you know.”

The waiter and sommelier return, and after I choose a pinot noir from Oregon, Elina asks me to suggest a dish without even looking at the menu herself.

And so she shifts again from the woman who keeps me at a distance, from the provocative muse, to the vulnerable being who stirs hidden parts of me.

Hot and cold. Hot and cold.

Annoying and exciting at the same time.

She never lets me predict what she's going to do next.

So self-possessed, yet she doesn't know the simplest things like how to take the subway. She plays with my desire and then, like a delicious temptation, submits to my choice of food and drink.

I could get addicted to it. Addicted to taking care of her.

I've never liked dependent women, but Elina is very complex. She is everything at the same time: the one who drives me mad with desire...and the girl from an island lost in the middle of the Aegean Sea who needs guidance and protection.

I surrender. “I like it when you let me take the lead.”

“As if I had a choice.”

“You were the one who asked me to choose your meal.”

She sighs and looks totally defenseless. “Do you know why? It's because I trust you. This is going to sound crazy, Odin, but even if I'm sure you hate my father, I know you wouldn't hurt me.”

“How can you be so sure of that?” Her faith in me is scary because the time will come when I will hurt her, yes, even if not directly.

“I thought about it a lot today. I considered that you may have brought me here because you wanted a guarantee against him. Like some kind of hostage.” She watches my reaction as she speaks.

“Continue.”

“But if that was the case, you could have simply let me stay on the island. I wouldn't have gone anywhere. Instead, you brought me here to protect me from Naim.”She strokes her fork slowly as she speaks, seeming in no hurry.

“And why do you think I did that?”

The beautiful woman looks at me quickly but then goes back to her silverware. “Because I think you care about me.”

I lean back in my chair to watch her.

She is exposing herself. Even if it's a small part of her, she is, and the least I can do is present her with the same honesty.

“Am I wrong?” Her voice cracks, and I think she’s revealed a lot more than she intended.

“No. You're right. I won't let anything happen to you.”

“And?”

Damn, she's too brave. Elina knows, even in her inexperience, that this cat-and-mouse game between us cannot last forever.

“I want you.”

“I know.”

“You do?”

She looks at me without turning away. “I can't get involved with you until you give me your word on something.”

I try very hard to hide my astonishment, because I never imagined she would be so direct. “Are we negotiating?” I'm curious to know in which direction she wants to go and, at the same time, hyped by the possibility of satisfying my hunger for her.

“In a way, yes, but it's not about anything material—it's about my freedom. I mean, the job you offered me represents my freedom. I don't want to have to ask my sisters or Theo for help. I need to prove to myself that I can do it alone.”

I stay silent, waiting for her to finish.

“I'm attracted to you and also curious. You woke up my body yesterday.”

Jesus, she's still going to be the death of me. Does she have any idea how crazy I am to get her out of here right now?

“I'd like to try out things with you, but when it's over, I don’t want it to cost me my job. ”

“ Over ?”

“Odin, we both know that what we feel is only desire.”

It's not easy to surprise me, but she manages to leave me, figuratively speaking, speechless.

Elina is laying the cards on the table about our future relationship, as if to say: when we are done, there should be no more waiting for "something more".

That's usually my way of doing it. Making it clear to my occasional partners that they won't get anything other than what I'm willing to offer.

Now I can say that being on the other side of the table is not pleasant. Despite that, I want her too much to back off. “What are your terms?”

She doesn't hesitate. “I want you to promise me that when our desire has burned out, we'll get along like two adults. That means I'll still have my job.” She pauses and takes a sip of her wine. “I will never bother you with dreams of love or anything else. If you're willing to test the physical attraction we feel, only that, then I'd like to give it a try.”