Page 29 of Darkest Desire

A man enters the large living room with a beautiful blonde on his arm. He’s strikingly handsome with black hair and a powerful build. I notice multiple women look his way, admiring him. At least there are a lot of women at this party. I was initially worried I’d be the only one. But there seems to be an equal ratio of women to men, which helps relax me a little.

The man sets his eyes onto me, then flicks them over to Nico, then back to me again. I feel rooted to my feet. Who is he?

I’m going to find out because he comes right in my direction.

“Nico, who is this?” he asks in a French accent.

“Ah, Adrien.” He turns away from the Italian man, who was in the middle of a sentence from what I could hear. “Adrien, this is my wife, Sasha. She’s American so we need to speak English around her.” Not that Nico has been doing that for me at all with his other guests.

“American. But a Russian name.”

“That’s America for you,” I say.

Adrien laughs. Of course it’s warm and deep. Everything about this man screams handsome and sexy. The blonde on his arm gazes up at him adoringly. Fair enough.

“She’s funny,” he says to Nico.

“I think the same thing.” His hand presses more firmly into my back.

“So, things are going well in New York?” Adrien asks.

“Of course. Everything is going well.”

It’s like the men are speaking in a secret code that I don’t understand.

“I’ll catch you up after the party,” Nico says.

“Good, good.” Adrien’s eyes settle back onto me. “You are beautiful, may I say?”

“You may not,” Nico says, his tone dark, suggesting that he’s serious.

“I’m French, Nico. You’re Italian. You understand the need to compliment a woman.”

“Yes but notmywoman.”

“Touchy, Nico. Touchy. I’ll leave you two be. I hope to see you in the maze later tonight, Sasha.”

“She won’t be there,” Nico says.

“Ah. Such a shame.” He turns to the woman on his arm and flashes her an award winning smile before walking away.

The moment they’re gone, I turn to Nico. “What was that about?”

“I work with Adrien.”

“Clearly.”

He sighs, patting my back. “You ask so many questions, don’t you?”

“When you leave me in the dark, of course I have questions.”

“Adrien is part of the Corsican.” At my blank face, he elaborates. “The French mafia. We’ve been working together for the past year, growing our business here in Europe. I was looking to expand and so was he. That’s all there is to it.”

“He was looking at me.”

Nico’s face hardens. “So I noticed.”

“Did that make you jealous? Having another man look at me? Knowing you’re not going to get any of my firsts?” I don’t even blink as I taunt him with my lie.