Page 118 of Dance of Madness

“You could be a part of it,” he grins, leering at me across the table.

I shrug my shoulders. “We could…talk about it.”

Leo’s eyes widen. “Wait, seriously?”

“About adeal between our families,” I say, raising my palms. “Look, Leo, nothing personal, but?—”

I’m cut off when the cocktail waitress brings over Leo’s Arnold Palmer. He grins, looking right at me as he sucks down half of it in one pull.

“You were saying, beautiful?”

Fucking hell.

I smile tightly. “What I wassaying, Leo, is that I’d love to?—”

“Iknewyou’d come around.”

The fake smile is starting to make my cheeks hurt.

“If you want to discuss abusinessarrangement between our families,” I say carefully, “I can tell you openly that my father is quite interested in the idea. With his US connections, and your father’s ability to move anything you want from Russia to anywhere in the world, that could be a seriously powerful alliance.”

Leo nods, looking at me…specifically, my chest…like he’s not listening to me, but imagining what's underneath my clothes.

It's creeping me out.

“Leo.”

His eyes are glassy as they snap to mine. “Yes, Milena?”

“We were…” I clear my throat. “Talking about a potential business relationship between our families.”

He sighs, waving a hand around. “Right, right. But how about…”

He gulps down the rest of his drink, slams the glass down a little too hard, then rests his elbows on the table as he leans across it toward me.

“How about we talk aboutus, Milena?”

What thefuck.

He doesn’t say “Milena”. It’s more like a slurredMlil-ayy-nah, with an extra “L” in there somewhere.

I frown as I peer at his glassy eyes and flushed face. At the unfocused way he’s leering at me. The slurred words. The slumped posture.

My eyes drop to the empty glass of ice and lemon twists in front of him: the virgin Arnold Palmer.

“Virgin.”

Shit.

Leo isdrunk.

I smile at him. “Hold that thought. I’m just going to the ladies' room.”

“Need a hand?” he leers at me.

“Pretty sure I’m all set,” I say crisply as I stand and march to the back of the bar.

I find the waitress by the service bar, loading up a tray with cocktails.

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