Page 20 of Claimed By Desire

But this man is going to be my husband in exactly one week. So what if he didn’t pick out those presents himself? At least he thought to delegate the task to an overly-aggressive assistant instead of forgetting about me entirely.

And it helps that Adriano’s a good looking man. He’s tall and muscular with dark hair and lightly tanned skin. His lips are full and his jaw is square, and there’s a small scar puckering the top of his mouth. I like the way he talks and laughs, and maybe after a while we might be able to build something together.

Maybe not a romance, but something.

“Alright, I shouldn’t keep your father waiting,” he says after a little while. He comes over and awkwardly kisses me on the cheek. I keep waiting for a flutter of excitement—Adriano really is gorgeous, if I’m being honest with myself—but there’s nothing at all.

“Thanks for stopping by. I guess I’ll see you next week.”

“I’ll be there,” he says and gives me the first flash of humor I’ve gotten so far.

He turns and leaves. I follow after him into the hall and watch him go, feeling myself slowly crumble once he disappears around the corner.

That’s my future husband. A man that didn’t even send his own gifts, and barely seemed like he cared about visiting me.

That interaction had the feel of a coworker stopping by a cubicle on their lunch break.

As I turn to head back to my piano, I catch sight of Alex standing nearby. He’s sitting on the stairs not far from the living room’s door, his elbows on his knees and his fingers interlocked in front of him. He tilts his head and barely reacts when I meet his gaze.

I feel more in that brief second of Alex’s attention than I felt during that entire conversation with Adriano.

“What are you doing out here, creep?” I snap at him, not even sure why I’m getting annoyed.

“Waiting for Lev,” he says. “We’re supposed to be in the meeting with your father and your husband.”

“He’s not my husband yet. And that doesn’t explain why you’rethere.”

He keeps on staring at me with that totally neutral face. I haven’t seen him at all since that brief interaction in the kitchen, almost like he’s been avoiding me until right now.

“I heard you playing,” he says, which is not what I expected at all.

I feel like he just shoved me up against the wall.

Like he did back in Paris.

“You were listening?”

“I’ve been listening,” he says and gets to his feet. “You just haven’t noticed. Which is typical of you.”

Anger stabs into my chest. What the hell is that supposed to mean? He’s such an arrogant asshole that he thinks I should instinctively know when he’s lurking around? I open my mouth to tell him to fuck off, but Lev’s already coming down the steps.

“God, you two better not be arguing again,” my brother says, grinning broadly. “One of these days, you two are going to get over this whole feud you have going on.”

“Doubt that,” I mumble, glaring death at Alex.

He doesn’t even look at me. “We have business,” he says to Lev and walks off.

Lev rolls his eyes and winks at me. “Perfect robot,” he stage-whispers and strides off after Alex.

I wrap my arms around myself and shiver as I walk back to the piano.I’ve been listening.

What the hell did that asshole mean by that?

Chapter 8

Alexander

Iunwrap a Rolex Datejust 41 from its plastic sleeve and start taking pictures of it for the shop’s website. It’s boring grunt work, and there are normal employees that can take care of this stuff, but I hate hanging around the shop and not doing anything.

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