Page 17 of Bearing Secrets
Without warning, Kirell stood. For the first time, she got an up-close demonstration of just how fuckingbighe was. He was huge. She suddenly felt incredibly tiny next to him as he slipped out of the booth. His hand slipped into a pocket of his suit jacket, retrieving a card which he lay flat on the table and pushed it across to her.
She went to grab it, only to find her hand snatched up in his.
“It was a pleasure, Natalia Kristoff. Take the night and think about it. Call me.” He brought her hand to his mouth, brushing his lips across the knuckles. “Any drinks you and your friend want are on me tonight.”
Then he was gone, disappearing down the stairs. She watched him move through the crowd, like a shark passing through a school of fish. People parted around him smoothly, closing up the gap as he walked out the exit, not bothering to acknowledge a single person as he went.
To her knowledge, he’d spoken to her, the owner or whoever it was when he’d first arrived, and the security guard. Nobody else.
Who the hell are you, Kirell Ursa, and why do you need me?
8
“When are you going to call him?”
They were lounging on the couches at Loren’s place, having crashed there after coming home from Para late at night. True to his word, Kirell had paid for all their drinks. She had no idea how, since he hadn’t talked to anyone, but anytime they went up to a bartender they weren’t asked for any money. The drinks were just handed to them.
“Who says I’m going to call him?” she countered lazily, tiredly contemplating whether or not to think about breakfast.
“Oh, please. Theleastyou’re going to do is call him, and you know it. He was sohotNat, how could you not?” Loren said dreamily.
“You just want to fuck him.”
“That’s not true,” her best friend said with a pout. “He’s yours. But if he has a brother…” she winked.
“I’m impressed you can say no. He is quite handsome.”
“So youdothink he’s hot,” Loren crowed victoriously.
“I never said he wasn’t hot.” She adjusted the pillows under her. “Only an idiot would argue otherwise, Lore. He’s quite hot. And that stare of his, his eyes, it’s so intense!”
“I thinkyouwant to fuck him.”
Loren was only teasing, but Natalia had a hard time openly denying it. He was extremely attractive, and she wouldn’t object to sleeping with him purely on looks alone. She needed a connection to him before she would do that, though.
Contemplating the situation didn’t make the decision any easier for her. “What if he’s not for real?” she said. “He could be in organized crime.”
“You’ve watched one too many mob movies, where they all spend their time in the clubs and shit,” Loren told her, sitting up. “Seriously, mobsters don’t actually do that, you know.”
“He could be bad news though. He’s attractive, charming, a very smooth talker. It’s guys like him that lure women into things like human trafficking to begin with.”
Loren was staring at her wide-eyed. “You’re ridiculous, Nat. Shit like that doesn’t exist here.”
“You’re not that naïve Loren, so don’t act like it. It’s not becoming of you.”
Her friend sat up as the conversation turned serious. “You don’t really think he’s into trafficking people, do you?”
“There are bad people here, Lore. The same ones from back home that bring the girls over here in the first place don’t just turn them loose out of the kindness of their hearts. It’s much cheaper to find local talent to fill the ranks of their strippers and prostitutes. Just because it’s harder to do, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
Loren frowned. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to remind you of home.”
“It’s fine. It’s not your fault I grew up in a shitty part of the country. If I was hideous, I would be fine.”
“Do you think he’s part of that stuff?”
Natalia didn’t have to think about it. “No. There was something…different, about him. He wasn’t like the other guys I met, even the suave ones.”
“What was his name again?”
