Page 6 of Kai
"Maxie—"
"It's nice to see you again." Glancing at her watch, she pressed her lips together. "I really have to run."
"I need to talk to you."
"About what?" She pinned the smile in place, aware that people were giving them curious looks. Or it might be the fact that Kai Tanaka, looking dangerously handsome in all black was standing inside her store. His hair was different, superbly cut with not a strand out of place. In the ten years, he had grown even taller, his body whipcord lean. His eyes were the same intense black that seemed to look right through her. "We have nothing to say to each other. Now, if you don't mind—"
She forced herself to stay there while his hand curled around her elbow to stop her from leaving.
"Kai, let go." Her voice was low but firm, though her heart raced as his grip tightened ever so slightly. His presence seemed tosuck the air out of the room, and she hated the way her body betrayed her, remembering too much.
As if realizing they were attracting attention, he released her and stepped back. "I need to see you."
"We have nothing to say to each other."
Without waiting for his response, she turned on her heels and walked back to her office. Shutting the door, she leaned against it, fighting the nerves and trying to steady her shaking limbs. Pressing a hand on her chest, she breathed in and out slowly. Her flesh burned where he had touched her, and she could still smell his spicy cologne.
She had been on her way to the bank and had decided to deal with the delivery first. Closing her eyes, she wished fervently that she had stuck to her original plan.
"We're supposed to be having lunch," Marie protested when he simply came around to help her out.
"I have a meeting that I must attend." He hated explaining himself and it showed. "The reservation's already made. Now, I really have to go."
He had spent the half an hour in complete silence, a frown etching his brow. She had wanted to ask him about the woman in the store but thought better of it. Kai was not easy to deal with, and she was already treading on shaky ground where he was concerned. But she had seen the look on his face when he saw the woman—one of shocked surprise and something else. It was the something else that had her feeling this unease.
Her career was drying up; parts were few and far between and she wanted him as her back-up plan. He was an excellent lover, and it did not hurt that he was gorgeous and loaded. He had connections, the kind that would catapult her dying career and give her the respectability she craved. As Mrs. Kai Tanaka, she would be untouchable. No one was going to take that away from her.
Forcing an alluring smile, she touched his arm lightly. "I expect dinner tonight at my place."
Without responding, he rounded the hood and tipped the valet who had rushed out to take care of the car. "I won't be staying."
"Right, Mr. Tanaka."
Kai slid into the driver's seat, the tension still coiling in his stomach like a spring wound too tight. He replayed the encounter in his mind, her voice, her defiance, and her watchful eyes that revealed nothing. Maxie had always been like that—guarded, enigmatic, as though she could disappear into her own world and take all her secrets with her. It infuriated him.
He gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles whitening as he navigated the streets with precision born of habit rather than attention. His mind, however, was consumed by her. The years had not dulled her beauty, nor had they softened the sharp edge of her demeanor. If anything, she had become more formidable, more self-assured. And yet, there had been that flicker—so brief he might have imagined it—of vulnerability when he had touched her. It was that vulnerability he couldn't shake from his mind.
Parking outside his office building, Kai strode past the glass doors without acknowledging the flurry of greetings from staffwho instinctively stepped aside for him. His assistant, a sharp-eyed woman with a no-nonsense demeanor, hurried to keep up, her tablet at the ready.
"Cancel my afternoon meetings. I don't want to be disturbed unless it's an emergency," he said curtly, not breaking his stride.
"Yes, Mr. Tanaka," she replied, her tone neutral, though her raised brow spoke volumes. It wasn't like him to deviate from his meticulously crafted schedule.
Kai entered his private office, closing the door firmly behind him. The vast room, with its minimalist décor and floor-to-ceiling windows, seemed too expansive, too hollow in that moment. He loosened his tie and sank into the leather chair behind his desk, staring at the skyline without seeing it.
He needed answers. About Maxie, about the life she had carved out for herself, and about the walls she had built so expertly around her. The past was not something he revisited lightly but seeing her again had awakened something in him—something restless, something unresolved.
Pulling out his phone, he hesitated for only a moment before dialing. The voice on the other end answered on the second ring.
"Mr. Tanaka," the man said, his tone professional but curious.
"I need you to look into someone. Discreetly," Kai said, his voice steady, though his hand tightened around the phone.
"Of course. Name?"
"Maxie..." He paused, the sound of her name catching in his throat. "Maxie Priestley. I want everything—her business, her connections, her life over the past ten years. And make it fast."
"Understood, sir."
