Page 40 of Her Dark Salvation

I huffed. “What about secondhand smoke? It’s not all about you, you know.”

He wrapped his forefinger around the cigar and removed it from between his teeth. “This room has a top-of-the-line ventilation system.” He placed the cigar between his lips and took a long, slow drag, never breaking eye contract. He made anOwith his mouth and blew a lazy train of smoke rings into the room. Biting the cigar between his teeth again, he leveled me with the most arrogant, shit-eating grin imaginable. And damn, if I didn’t find it sexy as hell.

“Doesn’t matter if you’re blowing it in my face.” I glared at him and folded my arms. His eyes traveled to my breasts; I’d inadvertently pushed them together with my defiant gesture. I dropped my arms and balled my fists, heat surging up my neck.

He chuckled, plucked the cigar from between his teeth, and ground its glowing end into the ashtray. He gave me a look that said, “Satisfied?” and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands across his stomach.

I narrowed my eyes, and we stared at each other for several heartbeats before he broke the standoff.

“How’s your model coming?”

Thank God he wanted to talk about work. I needed to cool down. In more ways than one.

“I finished the preliminary draft on Friday,” I said and relaxed into one of the chairs opposite his desk. “You have a sound organizational structure, each office with its financial autonomy. It made the base elements easy to construct. I’m impressed.”

He nodded, acknowledging the compliment. Which he deserved. Privately owned companies were often a spaghetti mess of financial and organizational interdependencies. DEI’s structure was clean and calculated, just like Mr. DeVita. He had a sharp tongue, but he also had a sharp mind for business and finance.

My curiosity got the better of me. “Where did you go to business school?”

He looked at me like I was from another planet. “The school of hard knocks.”

My cheeks heated, and I groaned inwardly at my awkwardness. Classic Anna.

“I—I’d never have guessed.” Not the most graceful recovery, but I cleared my throat and shook my head, determined to stay on track. “Anyway, it’s a matter of refinement. The more details we add, the higher the fidelity. I want to capture as accurate a representation as I can before I run the Monte Carlo analysis. That’s the best chance we have at pinpointing any deviations and their sources.”

“How long?”

I scrunched my face and stared at the ceiling, running down the list of elements I needed to add. “Another week? Then I’ll work out any kinks using test data before I start the simulations, so…” I rocked my head. “Two weeks before we start seeing results?”

“That’s faster than I thought.”

“To be fair, the preliminary results will only provide a list of discrepancies, deviations between predicts and actuals. We’ll need to investigate to see if they’re false positives. And, of course, that doesn’t include how it’s being done. Or by whom, for that matter.”

His energy had shifted while I rambled. He regarded me curiously, as if impressed by my progress but preoccupied by something more important than the finances of his multi-million-dollar company. He seemed distracted, but he was so difficult to read with his impenetrable poker face.

“How was your date Saturday night?” His question came out like an accusation, and my mouth fell open trying to process how wrong it was on so many levels.

The old Anna resurfaced, flustered by a sea of racing thoughts and unable to form a coherent sentence, much less sharp reply. “Wha—What are you talking about?”

“You went on a date this weekend. To Lombardi. Not the best Italian in the city. Not even the best in Cambridge. But they do have a decent view of the Charles. How was it?” There was an edge to his voice, like I’d done something wrong by going on a date.

A flurry of reactions played tug-o-war with my emotions. Flattered by his possessiveness, outrage at his presumption, alarm at his knowledge of my whereabouts?—

“Oh my God,” I whispered. “You had me followed.”

Lava traveled up from my belly and headed for my face. I ground my teeth to suppress the impending eruption. “You had me followed.” This time the words came out throaty and molten, and I surged to my feet.

The corner of his mouth kicked up as if he found my outrage amusing. “There’s that spark.”

“I knew it!” I squeezed my hands so tightly my nails cut into my palms. “I knew someone was following me! How dare you? How dare you invade my privacy? You had no right!”

“No right?” His eyebrows lifted, and he removed his feet from the desk. He stood and prowled like a cat until his powerful body loomed over me.

Adrenaline electrified my insides, and I stiffened, nerves slicing through my anger to paralyze me.

“I had every right,” he growled.

My breath came fast and heavy, anger burning my cheeks as I stood my ground against the righteous authority flashing in his eyes.

---