Page 77 of Begin Again, Part 2

"No way!" Liam scrunched his nose. "I'm not touching your snot. You have to wash it first."

"You—" Eden rolled her eyes in frustration, only to realise he was teasing her when his lips curled into a slow smile. "You are insufferable!"

Liam shrugged. All the amusement was gone from his face, and the ocean in his eyes had darkened to a stormy blue. "I miss you, and I'm tired of all this fighting, Princess. Come home, please?"

Eden's heart sprinted out of control at his words, and she stood dead still, afraid to move because she didn't trust herself not to fly straight into his arms and tell him she was ready to come home and submit to his demands. She was also tired of fighting with him, and desperately missed him.

Sensing her moment of weakness, Liam pounced on her, not giving her room to rebuff his attack. "It's my last night with you, and I won't see you for three weeks. You have to come home tonight, okay?"

Before he could break down her walls completely with his sweet words and gruff voice, his phone rang, and he excused himself to take the call.

She carried on with her tour, happy to be alone again. Liam made her feel all sorts of crazy things, and the longer she stayed in his presence, the more she ran the risk of doing something stupid like—

"—Well, well." A low, familiar voice drawled from behind her. "I had a feeling you'll be here."

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

COLLISION COURSE

Eden turned around to find Aleksei Ivanov nursing a glass of whiskey in his hand, an unlit Cuban cigar sticking out of his thin lips.

Draped in a dapper black three-piece suit, his silver cufflinks matching his gleaming tie pin and the Rolex on his left wrist, he pulled off the look of a Russian mobster to perfection. Sexy yet deadly. The perpetual smile he wore was as cold as ever, and it terrified Eden. But she refused to be intimidated by him. The last time they met at Crush, her gut had screamed at her to play far away from him. Even now, her intuition told her as much. But if she ran, Aleksei would think he had some power over her, and she refused to give in to her fear.

"Mr Ivanov," she said as she shoved a morsel of caviar in her mouth.

"You look absolutely ravishing." Aleksei tilted his glass at her. His eyes lingered a little too long on her chest, even though there was no cleavage in sight, before resting on her toned leg peeking through her dress slit.

She ignored him and grabbed a champagne glass from a harried-looking waiter passing by.

"Do you see anything you like?" He trailed at her side as she drifted through the room.

"I'm working tonight, Mr Ivanov; I don't have time to see anything I like," she replied, drinking more of the bubbly. "And if you're done undressing me with your eyes, I suggest you state your business and leave me alone. I don't have time for small talk."

"I'm sorry." He held up his hands apologetically, but his blindingly white smile said he was far from sorry. "I saw something I liked, and I wanted to take a moment to appreciate it."

Eden shrugged nonchalantly at his comment and moved along, struggling to keep her irritation in check the longer Aleksei hovered beside her.

He cleared his throat, demanding her attention. "I'm glad you brought up work. I have a business proposal for you."

"No thanks," Eden declined, convinced the man was messing with her. But even if he wasn't, there was no way she'd jump into bed with him. Not when she knew he was in the business of pimping out women and selling drugs to underage kids.

"I haven't even told you what it is." The hearty sound of his laugh booming from his throat was so normal, so ordinary she almost forgot he was a sociopath.

"Not interested!" Eden said as she scanned the crowded room, hoping to see flame-coloured hair towering over the sea of heads ebbing and flowing in front of her eyes. But Liam was nowhere to be found. Matthew, too, had mysteriously vanished.

She paused in front of a marble bust of Brutus, sculpted by Michelangelo himself, and brought the champagne flute to her lips, relishing the bubbles popping in her mouth.

She doubted the bust was the real deal. But it was still a convincing replica worthy of appreciation.

"The LUSSO deal." Aleksei forged on. The man didn't seem to understand no, or it didn't exist in his world.

"I'm not discussing that with you." Eden finished her champagne and dumped the empty glass on a nearby table.

"Fine, you just have to listen to me." He twirled the cigar in his fingers, and popped it back in his mouth. "This is a proposal of a lifetime. You'd be a fool not to accept."

"Still not interested—" Eden tried to refuse, but Aleksei hushed her up when he placed his finger on her lips, startling her with the sudden contact.

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