Dirk: A Stepbrother Romance(17)
They jumped comically and hastily scattered, murmuring quick apologies as they scampered for safety after taking one quick collective look at the large man who looked like he ate boys like them for breakfast.
Alexandra hesitantly lifted her eyes to Leandro’s, her pulse already pounding in her veins as she locked eyes with his dark, dark ones. Why had he rushed to her rescue, she wondered even as her ‘admirers’ beat a hasty retreat?
“Why would you help me?” she asked voicing the question foremost in her mind.
He shrugged, “I’m not a complete monster, despite what you choose to believe.”
He seemed different somehow, she noted, her blue eyes scanning him from head to toe to decipher what it was. He was every bit as dashing and sexy as ever but he did seem less... aloof somehow. She remembered how he had insulted her the last time and her spine stiffened, going straight as a poker.
“I see. Well you’ve filled your damsel in distress quota for the day, why don’t you toddle off to find your merry band of hookers. I hear you could get them a dollar per trick in these parts,” she said bitterly as she gathered up her novel and shoulder bag before flouncing off in the direction of the hotel. She was eager to put as much distance as possible between them and she assured herself that it wasn’t just because he made her pulse leap all over the place.
Leandro stood back, enjoying the furious sway of her curvy hips. God, she was a beauty!
His arm shot out like a vice and gripped her arm with surprising gentleness as he drew even with her. She drew to a halt, looking up at him, into dark, stormy eyes. His hair ruffled in the wind, standing around his head in artful disarray that irrationally made her want to run her fingers through it.
“I deserved that. I’m sorry,” he said, his black eyes boring into hers with blazing sincerity stamped into his features. “I behaved like a pompous ass and I had no right to. Plus I insulted you and if you never speak to me again, you’d be justified.”
What he didn’t tell her was that he had wanted to buy time to verify if she knew who he truly was. His investigations had revealed that she did not after all and he had relaxed accordingly.
Alexandra sighed. He sure did know how to take the wind right out of her sails.
“Why?” she asked.
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “I wanted you too much and my passions can run a little too strong at times. I just needed to take a step back and think things through. I handled it wrong, and as I said, I’m sorry.”
The apology sounded sincere and maybe even a bit awkward on his lips. She had an inkling he wasn’t a man who apologized very much. Well why would he? He was some sort of rich mogul obviously. Even now, clad in nothing but a bright tourist shirt, shorts and flip-flops, he managed to look as though he had just stepped off the pages of GQ.
“You threatened to hit me!” she reminded him waspishly.
“Are you forgetting that you had just struck me and were preparing to do it again? Interesting double standard you have. Besides, I did not hit you. I only wanted to get you to back off and perhaps open your eyes a little. Come on, we both know you have nothing to fear from me. You think I’m the sort of man to hit someone so much weaker than himself? At worst I would have had to restrain you had you continued on like that, and in hindsight, that would have been fun for both of us. Think of all the fun I would have had rubbing up against you as I strained to get the binds in place; and think of how much you would have enjoyed the contact as you pretended to resist,” he said, waggling his brows at her.
“You are a pervert,” she told him, without heat.
“Guilty,” he agreed, grinning happily.
She stared at him a beat, the ice around her heart inexorably melting as she looked up into those intense, hooded dark eyes.
“It was merely a wrong choice of words. Let me make it up to you,” he pressed. “Have dinner with me?”
She stared at him. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s a meal where two people sit down to eat, usually in the evenings,” he told her, amusement glinting in his dark gaze.
Alexandra blushed gloriously, cursing her fair complexion even as he chuckled.
“Alright.”
“I’ll come pick you up,” he promised, pressing a light kiss onto her cheeks and Alexandra sternly cautioned her nerves to stop jumping all over the place in reaction.
Alexandra took another look at her reflection in the mirror; she looked hot, even if she did say so herself. Her blond curls had been caught up in an intricate knot atop her head with wispy tendrils escaping to fall against her neck and bare shoulders; she was wearing a black, sheath dress that hugged her curves, making her look svelte and shapely. High heels accentuated her long shapely legs making them appear even longer and the slight tan she had acquired in three days on the Island gave her skin a golden undertone that positively made her glow. She had contoured her face expertly, giving her an instantly slimmer look; and the dark color of her gown helped too.
She knew she looked nice, and she couldn’t wait to see Leandro. There was just something about him that made her want to throw caution to the wind.
She laughed happily, twirling about with such unchecked excitement that she managed to nudge off one of her earrings.
“Oops,” she muttered, bending over to pick it up.
The earring was easy to spot, the tiny diamond twinkling on the dark rug. As her eyes fell on it, she thought of Andrew Carson, her ex-fiancé. He had bought her those earrings. They were actually the only pair she owned because she had only gotten her ears pierced after he bought them for her. She had not thought about him in days, she realized with a jolt. Ever since she had met Leandro, he had been all she could think about; aggravating man that he was.