A Time for Hope (Lexi, #3)(30)

To say Nick’s office was immaculate was an understatement. It was pristine and alarmingly stark. While the club just outside the door was an explosion of colour and flair, this room was the complete absence of it. Bare white walls framed the room. The dark mahogany desk loomed in the center, its only adornment a computer screen. No phone, no files, no papers, no stationery, no printer. There wasn’t even a rogue paperclip laying on its surface. This man elevated OCD to a new level. I wondered how many times a week he was in therapy.

“Sit.” He took a seat in the large leather desk chair while he directed me to one of the plush chairs in front of the desk.

“I’d rather stand.” I spat back defiantly. My curiosity was only going to buy this man so many concessions and his clipped demands/overbearing * routine was wearing thin. It was no secret I didn’t do too well with being told what to do, in fact my resistance was almost compulsive.

“Always so difficult Lexi.” Nick smiled approvingly.

“Do I know you?” I narrowed my eyes, his familiarity now overwhelming me.

“Do you think you know me?” He tilted his head, the ghost of his smile playing on his lips.

“I have no time for your cryptic crap. It’s a yes or no answer.” My annoyance was conveyed in my tone.

“Ahhh, but the answer is actually quite complex.” Nick relaxed in his chair, it amazed me it didn’t even make the slightest of squeaks. It had probably been WD-40’d to an inch of its life. Yep, he had serious issues.

“We have never met but I know you and you know me. And more to the point, you know my brother.”

The smile. The face. The complexion. The self-assurance. There was a reason it had all seemed familiar. I had seen it before. Hell, I’d lived with it. It was so obvious now looking at him, how I had missed it to begin with astounded me. You are losing your edge Lex. How could you not have seen this?

“Riccardo? You’re Riccardo’s brother?” I felt my eyes widen in disbelief as the word f*ck rattled around in my head.

The Cassius family and I had not shared the greatest of associations. They viewed me as a lower class, gold-digging whore trying to swindle their youngest son, and my summation of them was that they were evil, elitist bastards who had somehow managed to produce an amazingly compassionate man (Riccardo) who was miraculously unaffected despite the silver spoon that had been shoved up his ass.

“The very same. Feel free to sit any time you want.” Nick mockingly pointed to the chair.

I continued to stand, more to prove a point than anything else. Nick f*cking Cass was Nicholas Cassius. The older brother who had already departed from the family nest in Rome (to go forge his own destiny and make his fortune) by the time I had become Riccardo’s girlfriend. Of course our relationship had started in the usual Lexi manner, sex being the only real “need” I had required. It had been convenient for both of us and also served Riccardo’s need for rebellion. We’d had fun, we’d laughed but I had never anticipated that he would actually have feelings for me. Feelings that I guess deep down I suspected, but only recently were confirmed when I saw him again in Rome, because I high-tailed it out of there the minute he suggested getting married. My rationalization that his marriage proposal had been tendered as a means of keeping me in Rome now seemed idiotic when I thought about it, but back then I hadn’t wanted to allow myself to believe that Riccardo had fallen in love with me. Not every guy would be cool hosting the girl who broke his heart and the guy she was in love with.

“So you want to tell me why you were in disguise last night or was that some intricate sex game for your husband?” Nick turned in his chair, amused I was still refusing his offer to sit.

“It wasn’t a sex game. I’m avoiding the press and the attention, obviously because of who he is makes that difficult. He wasn’t supposed to be there, Taylah and I were just having a girl’s night. Why am I even explaining this to you? Why do you care? Wait! Did you know who I was the whole time?” My mind clicked wildly over our initial interaction. He f*cking played me? He knew the whole time? Why?

“Lexi, do you think anything happens between these walls that I don’t know about? Of course I knew it was you. I was however, checking my calendar wondering if it was Halloween when I saw your attire. Not that I disapproved.” His eyes followed the curves of my body like he was remembering the scant layers of clothing that barely covered me.

“Don’t do that! Don’t look at me like that!” I immediately became defensive. Despite my corporate attire, his gaze felt too personal, it unnerved me.

“Do you think that is the type of man I am Lexi? Someone who would take a woman against her will? You think that I don’t have options?” I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or amused by my accusation.

“If you think rape is about sex and not about power, then I’ve overestimated your intelligence.” Asshole! I really didn’t think now was the time to tell me he didn’t have any trouble getting a date.

“I know what happened to you. I know it all. Why do you think you are here? If you think that you are standing in this room, with me, by pure coincidence then it is your intelligence that should be called into question.” Nick didn’t shout. Despite the force of his words, he had kept his voice modulated.

The gravity of his words floored me. I was here not by chance. I’m not sure what he was hoping to accomplish by pointing this out to me but it angered me. I was no one’s puppet and there was only one member of the Cassius family I trusted and he was not the one sitting rather arrogantly in front of me.