He laughed, enjoying the expressions flitting across her face. She was beautiful yes, but still young and everything she was thinking was transparent on her face. “Your eyes darted to the door handle and then scanned the sidewalk, Helen. I didn’t have to read your mind. Reading your body language and facial expressions is easy enough.”
He chuckled at her disgruntled expression, then let his eyes go lower. Did she realize that her arms were pushing her breasts higher? That he could see her nipples through the thin layer of her shirt? Did she have any idea how desirable she looked right at the moment?
“What do you do, Mr. Dionysius?” she asked, desperately wanting some way to get him to stop looking at her. She was embarrassed that he could read her so easily and wanted to figure him out as well. Any clue she could garner from conversations that might give her the upper hand, if only for a moment, would make her feel much better, more in control.
“Call me Alec, Helen. And what do you think I do?”
Helen shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t imagine. I’m guessing you’re pretty awful.”
“Why would you say that?”
She smiled impishly, loving the fact that she was about to give him a good set-down. “Obviously a lot of people hate you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t need the extra body guards. I’m guessing they’re here to keep the throngs at bay?”
Alec laughed softly. “Yes, at times, they keep the paparazzi out of the way. But they have other purposes.”
“What would those other purposes be?” she asked, wishing she knew who he was. She felt at a disadvantage. He looked like he knew so much, whereas, she barely knew his name.
“I don’t think you want to know,” he said simply and enjoyed the frustration in her beautiful green eyes. He wasn’t just being annoying. He didn’t want to worry her about the potential threats that he received occasionally or the fact that, due to his wealth, there was a constant threat of kidnapping. They might live in the civilized world where these things were more rare. But they weren’t unheard of and unscrupulous people would do a lot for even a fraction of the money in only one of his bank accounts.
Helen eyed him carefully before shrugging and looking down. “I probably don’t although leaving it that way leaves much to the imagination.” She laughed and peeked back at him before saying, “I can imagine a lot of things people might want to do with you.”
Alec threw back his head and laughed before his amused glance settled back on her delicate features. “Yes, and I can imagine several things I would like to do with you,” he countered and was rewarded by seeing her soft skin turn pink once again.
She should never have dared to challenge him, she thought to herself. He could dish it out much better than she could. “More evidence that you need those guards,” she grumbled. “You never mentioned what you do, Alec. I’m guessing you’re in investments or something boring like that.”
“Why are investments boring?” he asked, not confirming or denying her question.
Helen shrugged. “I don’t know. It just seems like a horrible life to be stuck in an office all day, never really getting outside and seeing what’s going on?”
“I guess you get to do a lot of that in your line of work?”
She smiled and nodded eagerly. “Oh, yes. I love watching people and making up stories about them. Sitting in the park or at a coffee shop, I get to see so many people, all of them rushing around, working or just reading something as they relax. Sometimes I catch interesting people through my camera and I can’t wait to get back to my flat and develop the pictures to see if I captured their expressions in the same way I saw them on the street.”
“You make up stories about them?” he asked, stunned at the possibility.
“Of course.” She looked at him with a curious expression. “Don’t you?”
“Never. What kinds of stories to you make up about the various people you see?”
Helen looked out the window of the limousine, a dreamy smile on her face as she thought about some of the people she’d seen today. “Oh, I don’t know. Lots of things. If there’s a couple, I look at their body language. If they’re stiff and smiling politely, I assume they’re on their first date and wonder about the conversations they’re having, what new information they’re finding out about their potential life mate. If they’re angry, then they’re having a fight about which school their kids should attend or maybe about the color of the sofa they want to purchase…” she stopped and looked back at his face, noting the ever present amusement. “Don’t you ever wonder what other people are thinking?” she asked, more curious now than angry.
“No.”
Helen scowled back at him. “Of course you don’t,” she said, obviously miffed. “You don’t like people very much, do you?”
Alec hesitated on his answer, not wanting to disillusion her on the pretty way she viewed others. “Let’s just say that I get to see a different variety of people in my day to day life that don’t lean towards possible romantic outcomes.”
Helen surveyed him and saw the cynicism in his eyes and felt sad for him. Odd, she thought as she looked at his dark, mysterious eyes, ten minutes ago she wouldn’t have guessed that she’d actually feel sorry for a man as obviously strong and wealthy as Alec. “I guess you see the bad in people a lot.”
Alec didn’t answer, but simply shrugged.
“And that’s why you have the security detail?”
Alec was suddenly uncomfortable with the perceptiveness of her comments and the way she was looking at him, as if she could see some sort of hurt inside him that simply didn’t exist. He didn’t really answer her question but said instead, “I protect my privacy.”
Helen grinned. “You mentioned the paparazzi. Are they really that bad? Are you some sort of movie star?”
Alec laughed. “I guess you don’t get to the movies very often, do you?”
She grimaced. “Not really. People on the street or in a playground are much more interesting than a group of actors spewing out the lines someone else wrote for them to speak. Life is too interesting as it happens.” Then she realized she might have insulted him and looked worried. “You’re not really an actor, are you?” she asked, pained to think she might have hurt his feelings.