IN THE QUIET OF HIS OFFICE

that Elena was only meant t

d seen Julian only in passing-glimpses of him through glass partitions, surrounded by men in charcoal suits. He looke

peppermint sitting on a coaster. A window left cracked so she could feel the evening breeze. He wasn't speaki

he ceiling, their scent so thick it was almost cloying. Elena was assigned to the "Rapid Resp

crack of a door. The music was a lush, sweeping orches

she sa

velvet of his dinner jacket caught the light, and his hair was brushed back, exposing the sharp, aristocratic lines of his fa

ht, and her bucket mad

he service door. It was an animal instinct. He didn't see her-she was hidden in the dark-but he felt

art thumping against her

the "Rapid Resp

the VIP lounge. Red wine-a vintage Bordeaux-had

he room. She felt the weight of a hundred gazes, none of them seeing her as a human, only as a

ghed, pulling her satin hem away. "T

cused on the rhythm of her w

sive cedarwood and cold rain cut through the orchids. A pair of hand-stitched leather shoes

ough," a v

ud, but it had a gravity that pull

of controlled intensity. He wasn't helping her up-that would be too much, too soon-but

. Vane," she whispered, her voi

t he shifted his body, blocking the view of the woman who h

over her, the distance between them vanished. Elena could feel the heat radiating from

le she was cleaning. His fingers were so close to

d, his eyes fixed on the red stain, tho

, her breath hitching as h

was a low, rough vibration that made the hair on her ar

of his skin, the heat of his presence, and the dangerous, magnetic pull of a man wh

the polished wood of the table toward her hand. It didn't make co

ared behind him, her voice sharp w

ingering on Elena's face for one heartbeat too long before he final

s voice turning back to ice. "Just en

ushed against Elena's shoulder-a brief, searing co

wiped the last of the wine. She wasn't thinking about the red stain. She

ter, and the silence was