as succinctly over the phone. This has gone on for long enough.’
‘And it will keep going until I win the merger. I’ll be at your offices tomorrow as scheduled. I advise you to be there.’
‘You’ll do well not to issue threats, Gael.’
‘Or what? You’ll up sticks and relocate again?’ There was a gruff note in his brother’s voice that made Alejandro’s brow twinge in a brief frown.
‘I have no intention of going anywhere. What I’ll do is pull out all the stops to end this if you don’t back off.’
Gael laughed. ‘I look forward to hearing all about it when I arrive in Chicago tomorrow. And don’t bother sending your jet for me. I have one of my own.’
Alejandro braced one hand on the window, welcoming the cold glass’s fractional calming of his turbulent emotions. Slowly he breathed out. ‘Gael, I don’t wish to go to war with you.’
Another pulse of silence ensued. ‘This only ends one way, brother. With one of us walking away. And I don’t intend it to be me.’
Alejandro closed his eyes against the morning sun’s glare. Behind him he heard the door open. He didn’t need to turn around to know Elise had arrived, at precisely 6:45, as she’d done all last week. He also knew that he’d spend the day with his senses attuned to her every movement in her office, although his interactions with her would be clinically brief because those charged ten minutes last Tuesday morning had deeply unsettled him. To the point where he had still remained perplexed at his own behaviour hours later. To the point where he’d questioned his own sanity.
He’d almost kissed her.
Had almost dared her to kiss him in payment for obtaining her services. Even more deplorable, for those insane minutes, he hadn’t cared about the potential damage he risked with his actions. Hadn’t cared about the ‘once bitten, twice shy’ warning that had been the dogma of his professional relationships for a decade.
The need to taste her had been unrelenting. Consuming. He remained disconcerted that just beneath the surface of his interactions with her, the need still fiercely burned.
‘Do you wish me to repeat that in Spanish, hermano?’ Gael’s voice brought him back to earth. To the room. To the click of heels drawing closer.
‘Muy bien, if this is the route you wish to take, then so be it.’
He ended the call and turned around.
Elise eyed him from her position before his desk. ‘Good morning.’
He nodded tersely, then made a concerted effort to shake off the barrage of unwanted sensations evoked by his brother and Elise. ‘Buenos días. I trust you had a good weekend?’
Her eyes widened, no doubt because his cordial tone was unexpected. ‘It was okay, nothing life-changing.’
‘How unfortunate. Weekends that aren’t life-changing ought to be stripped of their title and renamed Pointless Days.’
Her head tilted to one side. ‘Is that your attempt at a joke, Alejandro?’
‘Since you’re not laughing, I must respond firmly in the negative,’ he replied, his tone bone-dry.
Her mouth twitched, then she smiled. It was transformative enough to deliver a punch to his solar plexus, causing his breath to snag and the hairs on his arms to rise in near alarm.
Alejandro had dated women who could command the covers of fashion magazines with a snap of their fingers. And yet he was certain none of them could hold a candle to Elise’s smile.
All the same, he shouldn’t be this enthralled.
And yet...
‘Are you okay?’
‘Of course. Why should I not be?’ he quipped.
Her smile dimmed. ‘No reason. I just...overheard a little of your conversation. Something about not wishing to go to war?’
Any trace of mirth disappeared. ‘Eavesdropping, Elise?’
‘Not intentionally.’ She glanced at his phone. ‘Was that your brother?’
Her lack of fear when it came to him should’ve aggravated him. Sure, he tolerated the underlings who challenged him, but it was what he paid them to do.
Elise challenged him because she couldn’t help herself. When she wasn’t irritating him, Alejandro had found himself almost...refreshed by her.
But not right now.
‘Yes,’ he replied, paradoxically going against his better judgment of telling himself he owed her no answers.
A soft look entered her eyes. ‘And?’
His mouth twisted. ‘As predicted, he refuses to listen to reason.’
‘So he’s just like you, then?’
Alejandro stiffened. ‘Excuse me?’
She shrugged. ‘You’re both determined to win.’
‘You say that as if there’s something wrong with winning.’
‘What’s wrong is you gripping that phone as if you’re about to crush it. You want to win, yes, but I’m guessing not if it’s costing you this much.’
He glanced down and visibly unclenched his fingers from the handset. ‘You guess wrong. Pain and the cost of winning only affect you if you give them the power to,’ he replied, then froze at the words that had left his lips without permission.
Elise’s eyes rounded. ‘Unless there’s a mind trick you picked up along the way to dull it, no one is immune from pain.’
A note in her voice tweaked his flaring senses. ‘When have you known pain?’ he asked, then realised he was holding his breath for her answer.
Her gaze flicked away from him. ‘I’m human. I feel pain.’
The thought that she’d been hurt shouldn’t have abraded his equilibrium. And yet it did.
‘You seek specifics from me, yet generalise about yourself.’
‘I was just pointing out you’re not the only one with issues, professionally or personally.’ She jerked towards the drinks trolley and picked up a bottle of water.
Alejandro frowned. ‘You have a professional issue with me?’
She looked up from toying with the lid. ‘What? No. I mean... I like to think our differences have been aired successfully.’
The slow drag in his groin as his gaze landed on her lips informed him his success in that department was distinctly lacking.
‘Then what do you mean?’
Nerves clearly fuelled her sudden twitchiness. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
