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It had been more insidious than physical attraction, more dangerous. An intense curiosity in his eyes—as if he meant to peel away her armor and see beneath. As if, for the first time in their history, he found her interesting.
She’d even seen a flash of admiration in his eyes, and if she wasn’t careful, she’d begin chasing it all over again. Like her mother was forever chasing the impossible win at the gambling tables. Like her dad with his alcoholic binges.
Addiction was in her genes. Only her drug of choice was this man’s approval. And desire. And respect. And want. And her own need to bring him to his distinguished knees.
Not a week after Jacqueline’s death, he’d turned on her. Accused her of conspiring with his late wife to separate Zara from him permanently. Accused her of cozying up to him even as she’d planned to betray him again. He’d consigned the worst motives to her actions and written her off as a backstabbing bitch, without giving her a single chance to defend herself.
His consequent cruelty was a shield Yana couldn’t let go of.
“If I was wrong about you—”
“If?”she bit out. “Is it any wonder that I find rotting in penury more appealing than being saved by you?” She let out a huff, breaking eye contact and adjusting the oversize jacket around her shoulders. As if all of this was nothing but a nuisance she could shrug off. “Why couldn’t you have just brought Zara to me?”
“Because she’s already gone through too much upheaval in the last few months.”
“Fine. You can oversee our visit together, looking down your beaky nose and holding me up to your impossible standards. I’d love to spend time with her here.”
“Or you could be smart and just accept my help. It’s not like you have a thousand other offers.”
“Arrogant of you to assume that I don’t have people who’d dig me out of my financial hole as you call it. All I have to do is ask.”
“Like who?”
“Like my sisters, who are both independently wealthy,” she blurted out, hating his arrogant assumption that she’d been abandoned by one and all. That no one found her worthy just because he didn’t. “Like Caio, who’s my grandfather’s right-hand man and my brother-in-law, and the new CEO of OneTech. Like Aristos, my other billionaire brother-in-law.”
“And yet, you haven’t confided in any of them, have you? Why is that, I wonder?”
Every minute with him was a danger to her persona of shallow supermodel. “How do you know you haven’t caught me right before I did that? As tacky as I can be, even I know not to ask for handouts just two days after my grandfather passed away.”
“I don’t believe you. I think you hate the thought of asking them for help. Of letting them see how spectacularly you’ve failed in managing your life. Especially when one of your sisters is a doctor and the other’s a...coding genius. After all, you have that stubborn pride to contend with.”
Dismay filled her at how clearly he could see through to her deepest wound. But then, no one else knew her flaws as well as he did.
She was saved from responding when his phone gave a series of loud pings. His frown went into scowl territory with each swipe of his fingers.
She pushed onto her knees. “Is it Zara? What’s wrong?”
“Some imbecile snapped a pic of us going into the elevator.” A pithy curse flew from his mouth. “It’s clear it’s you and me.” His scowl changed direction. “You don’t care?”
She shrugged, examining his reaction. His privacy was sacrosanct to him. No one even knew where his permanent residence was. “That cute doctor, can we make sure he doesn’t leak that I fainted?”
A shrewd glint dawned in his eyes. “You don’t care about being linked with me but you don’t want anyone to know you fainted?”
She blurted out before she thought better, “I don’t want my sisters to know.”
“A hint of a rumor about you and me just months after Jacqueline’s death...”
“Everything that mattered to me is...already gone. So please, keep your threats of destruction to yourself.”
It was not some dramatic threat or a bait for pity.
The resignation in her eyes burned Nasir with its honest edge. And for a second, he felt the most overwhelming urge to save her. From herself, if required.
God, he was as arrogant and egotistical as she called him. “Not even if Zara were to hear of that kind of gossip about her Yana Auntie and her father?”
“She’s only five.” She jerked her head up, her golden hair spreading around her face as if she were a lioness shaking out her mane. “She wouldn’t hear such...lurid gossip.”
“And yet, she knows the name of every one of heruncleswho visited her mama on photoshoots at work. She’s aware that her mama was fobbing her off on you even before she was gone. She’s confused and heartbroken, Yana.”
