Part 3 (1/2)
Gigl wasn't deceived, and said quietly, ”He is the man from Germany.”
”Yes.” She had never found it easy to confide in anyone, even her best friend, so her response stopped with that.
With a searching look Gigi murmured, ”Already he has changed you, cherie. There is a look in your eyes I have never seen before. This will be painful for you.”
Katrina shrugged slightly and felt her lips curve in a smile. She wondered what her expression looked like to make Gigi's gaze even more intent. ”I'll survive it,” she said flatly.
After a moment Gigi straightened from the desk, her face troubled. ”It is never wise to Interfere. But if you need me, Trina ...”
”Yes. Thank you, Gigi.”
”I will warn Skye about your meeting with Matthew.” She left the office without saying anything more.
Katrina worked steadily for another hour until one of the a.s.sistant managers came on duty for the second s.h.i.+ft. Then she went up and got ready for dinner.
”Dance with me.”
Katrina halted to face the tall man standing squarely before her, a man who looked almost unbearably handsome in a stark black dinner jacket. His face was masklike, his eyes so completely veiled that she could read nothing in them. His command was an abrupt one, but she had the odd feeling he hadn't meant it to be.
Matthew had gone almost an hour before; she had been summoned to deal with a minor crisis in the kitchen, and was only now making her way from one of the hotel's fine restaurants.
This one, unfortunately for her peace of mind, provided music and a dance floor.
When she didn't answer, Skye took her hand and led her toward the cleared s.p.a.ce where several other couples swayed together in time to the slow, romantic music. Katrina didn't resist, nor did she avoid his shuttered gaze when he took her Into his arms and held her far too close.
For several minutes they danced without speaking. Then, in that same taut voice, he said, ”So silent?”
”Did you expect a scene?” she returned, her own voice as cold as she could make it.
”No, I suppose not.” His laugh was hardly a breath of sound. ”You haven't changed.”
Katrina felt uncertain, and searched his face with an unconscious intensity. He was different, she realized, and she mistrusted the change in him because it seemed so sudden. He had left her only hours before, his implicit demands and remote voice ringing in her ears, having as good as told her they would be lovers again; yet now he was guarded, and she could feel his strain.
”Haven't I?” she managed to say at last.
”You were always so reserved, so calm. I never knew how much you felt.”
”You knew,” she said before she could stop herself, and wished she had left the words unsaid.
His face tightened. ”No. You were loving. Pa.s.sionate. But always elusive.”
Wondering what he could mean, Katrina was silent, unable to say anything between her surprise and the uneasy suspicion of his motives.
”The way you are now,” he said abruptly. ”Is this going to be your defense, Trina?”
She couldn't misunderstand that. ”I'm afraid you're jumping to conclusions-again,” she said deliberately. ”I'm defending nothing.” She thought that he might have winced, but if he did, the expression was so fleeting she couldn't be sure.
His arms tightened around her, and with the fluid grace that was so compelling about him, he began turning the dance into a subtle seduction. His body was hard against hers, his movements so sensuous that her own body responded immediately.
”No?” he muttered.
The sound of the music receded as she felt heat flow through her, and her own heartbeat sounded like a drum in her ears. Only her knowledge of his motives enabled her to keep her expression placid. Her body was his for the taking, and she knew it, but there was more bitter than sweet in that certainty.
”No.” She met his gaze steadily, unaware of the clear honesty in the direct look. ”If you mean to hurt me this way, I can't fight you. We both know it. But I won't let you destroy me. Not this time.”
”Could I hurt you?” he asked roughly. Katrina didn't hesitate. ”Pa.s.sion without love is always hurtful.”
He was staring down at her, a muscle jerking in his lean jaw, and his eyes intense. He glanced around as if suddenly aware of where they were, then swore beneath his breath and led her swiftly from the restaurant. Alone with her in the elevator, he held her hand tightly and said in a grim voice, ”You seem to bring out the worst in me.”
She stole a glance up at his profile and felt a strange tremor within her. There was something in his face she'd never seen before, something she was almost afraid to try to define. She could almost have believed... But it wasn't possible, there was too much bitterness and pain between them; it was only revenge he wanted.
He didn't take her to her suite but to his own room on the eighth floor, and when the door had closed behind them he released her hand and went to the window, standing with his back to her. ”You believe I want to hurt you,” he said finally in that same bleak tone.
Katrina could have left, but something in the stiffness of his body or the dullness of his voice held her motionless by the door. ”You told me-” She broke off as he made a curiously uncontrolled gesture with one hand.
”I know what I told you.” He turned suddenly but didn't move from the window. ”I said some of the things I've wanted to say to you for six endless years, and it almost killed me.”
She swallowed hard. ”I don't understand.” Was he only toying with her now, attacking from a different direction? She gazed at his white face-and couldn't believe the answer was yes.
He seemed to hesitate, then said steadily, ”Can we start over, Trina? Or have I made you hate me?”
Katrina felt oddly suspended; she had nerved herself for a battle, all her will bent on surviving intact, and now she didn't know what emotions were churning inside her. ”What do you want from me?” she asked finally, huskily.
”Another chance.”
”Why?”
Skye drew a deep breath. ”Because I've never been able to forget you. Even when I wanted to. Because you still feel something for me, even if it's only desire. And because we both have to settle with the past.”
Her legs felt shaky, and she moved to sit in a chair near the foot of the bed. ”No,” she heard herself saying.
Skye came toward her slowly and sat down on the bed so that only a few feet separated them. He didn't say anything for a long moment, and when he did his voice was low and somewhat curt. ”I don't seem to have much pride where you're concerned. Not enough, anyway, to accept your answer.”
She shook her head slightly. ”It's impossible. You must see it is so.”
”I don't. Trina, I'm sorry for what happened in Germany, and I'm sorry for the way I've acted today. I thought-h.e.l.l, I didn't think at all. When I saw you again without warning, I knew I still wanted you, that I'd never stopped wanting you. And when you felt something too . . . But that isn't enough, not for us. There's something more between us, even now.”
”Wounds.”
He hesitated, then nodded jerkily. ”I can't deny that. But they were wounds caused by a terrible mistake, and we have to let them heal.”
”You wanted revenge,” she said, her voice almost inaudible. ”You wanted to-to use me.”
”No.” He made a movement as if he would have reached out to her, but then his hand fell back to clench against his knee. ”I know that's how it seemed to you, how it sounded, but I swear I never wanted that. It's just... I don't know how you feel, what you're thinking. You're so d.a.m.ned calm, and I-I'm not. But I realized I could still make you want me, and that seemed to be the only way I could reach you.”
”What changed your mind?” she asked steadily.
”It hurt too much,” he said, his voice rasping over the simple words. Then he cleared his throat and said, ”I know I've made you hate me, but please, Trina, give me a chance to change that.”