Elegant Sins - Stasia Black Page 0,41

and dominance… it connected to something inside me.

So, I just stopped thinking. Stopped judging myself for what I thought should or shouldn’t be my reaction in the situation. And I gave in to it. Gave in to him as he stared down at me with those stern but fiery eyes of his.

But later, as we got ready for bed, all that had been open and laid bare at dinner was suddenly yanked back again. Montgomery retreated inside himself, and he stayed there all week. Even though we shared a room, we might as well have been on different continents.

There was only one large bed, but Montgomery took some extra towels and a blanket to make a bed roll on the floor beside the bay window. He slept there all week long.

And though he’d displayed unapologetic dominance over me in front of the other men at each event, in private, he was deferential and quiet. He’d silently hold the door open for me if he saw that I was heading to the restroom.

He cleaned up his bed roll every morning and helped make the bed even though he never slept in it.

All day long, he worked diligently on his laptop at the small table in the corner while I spent my days reading. He seemed busy and important and I wanted to ask him about a billion questions about his life and what he did for a living.

But there was a line between us. I didn’t know who had laid it down, though really, I guess that wasn’t true. It was him.

He’d put these boundaries in place, but I couldn’t say I wasn’t grateful for them. With every over-complicated dish that arrived each meal, I realized more and more that I was out of my depth here.

Montgomery was a breed of a different kind and that was the point—he’d been bred to be this way. This was a small group of people whose bloodlines had been fostered, and in their flawed minds perfected, over generations with traditions and rituals that were almost as sacred as church. Maybe even more so, because their power and money made them gods in this kingdom on earth.

So yes, it was best if I didn’t mix too much with Montgomery’s kind. The aura of distant politeness we’d created over the past seven days suited me juuuuuuuuust fine.

Except for one tiny problem.

Every so often, I’d catch Montgomery’s head not bent over his work. Every so often, I’d catch him looking at me.

And okay, maybe sometimes, just sometimes… when I caught him looking? He was catching me back, because I was already looking at him.

Gah! Everything would be perfect if it weren’t for that damned buzz of electricity between us.

He might not be in the bed with me, but sometimes I still couldn’t sleep for knowing his hot, masculine body was only feet away from.

No matter how loud the crickets were outside, I could always hear his breathing. The way it settled out when he finally fell asleep. He didn’t snore like some of my boyfriends had in the past. It was more of a regular, loud-but-still-soothing exhale, like every ten seconds he was finally releasing tension he’d been carrying around with him all during the daytime with each heavy expulsion of breath.

Sometimes I wondered if he’d breathe easier if I were sleeping next to him. I wondered if he’d ever had anybody totally on his side, one hundred percent with no conflicts of interest. It seemed like a pretty convoluted, cutthroat world he lived in. Was there anyone he could actually trust?

And then I reminded myself it was none of my business.

I’d part ways with this gorgeous man who carried the world on his shoulders and a wicked dominant streak in his eyes when he got the hankering, and I wouldn’t look back. There were a thousand reasons why I couldn’t afford to.

I was just reaffirming this decision when another invitation came with our lunch. Ginger-apple chicken salad on a crisp bed of greens… and an invitation accompanied by another box.

My stomach flipped when I saw how small the box was. It wasn’t much bigger than last week’s, and surely it wasn’t big enough to contain much actual clothing.

“Thank you, Mrs. H,” Montgomery said to Mrs. Hawthorne. She beamed at him and then headed back out the door, closing it behind her.

I looked up at Montgomery for a second and got startled when our eyes met. Especially when the smirk I hadn’t seen all week suddenly came