Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his lips tilted in a dangerous half smirk, his eyes rolling over me heatedly once more. I fought the instant reaction of his gaze against my skin, glancing to the Pelmeni and shrugging to show him it didn’t matter to me one way or another.
“Red wine,” I offered off-handedly, ignoring the way he lifted his hand immediately to the waiter and instead looking over at the men sitting in the corner. “Funny, that you paid enough attention to that . . . but neglected to notice that it seems like I’m being followed,” I sniffed.
I had watched them get out from the car next to my own, careful to watch where their gaze landed and their movements. As removed as I had been from my father’s business these last few years, I had not become suddenly naive. I knew the mark of a man following me, and the three that had come into this restaurant so closely after me carried it strongly.
They were all large and underwhelming in their lack of any distinctive features. The perfect sort of ambiguity my father would have chosen to tail someone. Unremarkable in every way save their size so that when the police questioned someone later, there would be nothing notable that stood out in their memory.
My narrowed eyes focused on Dmitry, triumphant in the fact that I had noticed something that he had failed to, glad to have finally found the upper hand.
When his gaze slid to the men I indicated, it wasn’t suspicion that darkened his gaze, but rather amusement, and I could feel my newfound confidence wavering. Like a too-thin piece of parchment in a strong breeze, it faltered, my eyebrows dropping as he let out an unexpected bark of laughter.
Sitting this close to him under the soft fluorescent lighting, I could see that his eyes weren’t only blue. They were icy blue, for sure, but the green flecks that moved through them made them all the more desirable, and I found myself fighting back a stab of attraction.
I didn’t want to be drawn to Dmitry. I didn’t want to even know his name, and yet, as he laughed at me, I couldn’t help but lift my chin higher as I tried to fight both responses.