Page 77 of Boardroom Ties
“Oh, I don’t know,” I tease back as my eyes sweep up and down. “I could think of one or two things.”
He smiles, just enough to reignite all the little fires cascading through my body. It hasn’t been lost on me that this room is the size of a coat closet. Every time I shift, I’m a half-step closer to him.
Matvei’s eyes flick to the door as if he can see through it, then back to me. “Is he still out?”
I nod in confirmation. “Squash, then drinks, then ‘partners only; could go late; don’t wait up.” After all these years in his close orbit, my Raymond impression has gotten pretty good. “He’s been on his phone all day. Since the second we left Manhattan, basically. He texts, sets it down, picks it up, types, stares at it, texts, sets it down. Rinse and repeat, with a side dish of glaring at me whenever I so much as sneeze. He’s keyed up like I haven’t seen him in months.”
Matvei frowns. “Define keyed up.”
I can only shrug one shoulder. “I just know it when I see it. All the telltale signs are there. Vein on his forehead, white knuckles, monosyllables. He was on the phone in the bathroom for fifteen minutes when we got here. Came out the color of steak tartare.”
“He say who he was talking to?”
“El-oh-el. As if he’d ever confide inme.”I hesitate, then add, “I think it’s the thing. The shady thing. Thething-thing.”
He nods, simple as that.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he already knew. I sometimes forget that Matvei has a whole other life I’m not party to. Secret folders and burner phones and broken noses in back alleys.
“Has something happened?” I ask.
“Nothing you need to worry about tonight.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is. Just not the one you want.”
I press my lips together. “I missed you.”
It comes out before I can do anything about it, soft but definitely audible and embarrassingly sincere. Instantly, I feel my face go hot.
He stops what he was doing and turns to face me fully. “Have you now?”
I let my face drop, but it’s too late to take back now. “Yeah, unfortunately, I have. Very stupidly. Like a lovesick girl in a bad movie. And I’m sorry for that; I know we have a plan and this has nothing to do with that, but?—”
He hooks two fingers under my chin and tips my face up to him and kisses me, just once, soft. The cold of the room and the heat of his mouth do the same trick they did in the stone passage. I feel the floor remember to hold me up.
“I missed you, too,” he murmurs against my mouth. “Every hour. Don’t be sorry.”
I exhale a laugh that almost turns into something worse. “That’s really, really good to know.”
He keeps his fingers under my jaw, but he doesn’t kiss me again. He just looks at me and looks at me and looks some more, and finally tilts my head to the side the smallest amount and presses his lips to the spot under my ear.
“How are you feeling?” he asks.
“Tired. Nauseous in the mornings. My boobs hate me.”
“And the rest of you?”
“Is lonely,” I admit. “Coiled up. Like if I don’t shake some of it loose, I’m gonna scream into a pillow.”
“Hm.” His thumb drags a slow line down the side of my neck. “We could do something about that.”
“Here?!”
He pretends to sweep a glance around the room and shrugs. “Plenty of room.”
“Room forwhat?”
