Page 80 of Prelude To You

How many times had Steven been a saving grace in a sticky situation? Running interference when a guest overstayed her welcome, a business acquaintance got ahead of himself, or my inevitable boredom with a situation begged for an escape.

It was all very simple; Steven took care of everything. He came to the rescue without being asked, so I never had to look like the bad guy. That was Steven’s job. But tonight his presence felt like a curse.

I turned to him. His was the face of a man who wasn’t going stand idly by while I played with matches in a puddle of fuel.

“I’m waiting for my purchases, Steven. What do you think I’m doing?”

His eyes narrowed, as if trying to dissect the situation moment by moment. “Since when do you wait for purchases? Icould be wrong butyourhotel offers complimentary and secure delivery.”

“I need this now,” I said simply.

A lengthy silence followed as Steven contemplated how best to present the reason he was hounding me so closely tonight. “I have to admit,” he said. “I’m curious how she ended up here at the hotel…”

I felt my patience being tested.How was this my fucking life?“We ran into each other.”

“Convenient to say the least… And in case you were wondering, she did go up to the penthouse,” he said, scrutinizing my reaction.

It was impressive how Steven could read a situation without any briefing whatsoever. He knew I was hoping Isabel would go to the suite. And he knew I hadn’t waited to watch her make her final decision. He took the invoice I held and perused it at leisure, before handing it back to me. He shook his head almost imperceptibly.

“She already knows there’s no future here,” I said, without being asked.

“And you think buying her a $110,000 piece of jewelry will convince her of that.”

“Spare me the lecture. And when it comes to me spending my money, you’re way out of your jurisdiction.”

“It’s not the money that bothers me,” Steven replied. “Far from it. What concerns me is you veering so far off track it’s unpredictable where all of this might lead. Here I thought things were going along smoothly for the last decade. No ups, no downs. And now all of a sudden I have to worry about you having a bout of temporary insanity, all because of a girl. One who hasn’t even been vetted, which is a breach in itself. It would be great not to have to worry about stupid shit like this. Especially at this point in time.”

“You know what would really be fucking great, Steven? If you didn’t breathe down my neck twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

If he was surprised at my impertinence, he kept it under tight wraps. “I’m here to stay, Roman. So you’ll just have to get used to it. And here I thought you already were.”

Suddenly we were back in that Swiss chalet fourteen years ago, when he introduced himself as working for my father. When he hired the Swiss Splendor for three days to patiently teach me everything there was to know about a woman’s body. And then dragged me off to some torture camp for a week, where a few brutes in fatigues taught me how to be a man.

All very successful ventures, none of which had prepared me or Steven for this unforeseen moment. The one thing in my life that never changed was Steven’s merciless dedication to keeping the empire’s heir on the straight-and-narrow. He stepped closer, and even if I was taller, he still managed to effortlessly enforce his daunting will.

“Maybe, for once, you should just back off,” I said to him.

Steven didn’t twitch. “Roman, I’ll breathe down your neck for as long as it takes for you to remove your head from your ass.”

A sudden thought struck me. A terrible, nauseating thought. I looked at him and tried to work out whether he was capable of going down that road. “Tell me you didn’t send Cassandra to find me at the auction.”

“It’s the Rothstein-Fauber wedding. One of the vetted ladies was bound to be there.”

“Jesus Christ, why would you do that?”

“It’s called damage control, Roman. So keep in mind you have another, better, less complicated option tonight.”

He handed me a small leather pouch. I didn’t have to look inside to know it held custom-made lambskin condoms, the bestthat money could buy. Inside would also be a few small sleeves of lubricant.

My mind wandered back to the dim hallway, my eager fingers stroking Isabel’s silky skin, and eventually plunging into the soaking heat between her thighs. Lubrication would definitely not be required here.

“I’m going to have this night with her,” I told Steven. “Don’t take it away from me. That’s all I ask.”

Steven’s expression eased up a fraction. “Fine, go and do whatever the hell it takes to get her off your mind,” he said. “Let’s aim for making this evening history. Unnecessary, but history nevertheless.”

And with that, he left me waiting for my purchases. Only then did I allow relief to wash over me.

She did go up to the penthouse.

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