“Yes, sir?” I asked mildly.
He raised one haughty brow at my innuendo and the simple gesture was enough to send an arrow of desire straight to my core. God, but that man could imply a lot with a simple look. It probably helped that he was already sinfully attractive.
“If you’ll excuse us, Iago, I have plans to show Elle around the office.”
It was my turn to raise my brows, but Santiago leaned forward to take both my hands in his for lingering kisses.
“Of course, but allow me to request Giselle’s company on my walk to the elevator. One does get lonely in a foreign city,” he added sagely.
Sinclair would have snorted, I think, if it wasn’t such an undignified thing to do.
I linked my arm through Santiago’s and smiled over my shoulder at Sin as we exited. “Be back in a moment.”
Margot was at her desk outside his office when we passed by, but happily Santiago blocked her view of me and we escaped unscathed. He must have sensed my relaxation as soon as we were out of hearing distance because it was only then that he patted my hand where it rested on his arm and leaned in close to say, “Are you a religious woman, Elle?”
I startled a bit at the randomness of the question. “Um, no, not particularly. My parents used to be Roman and Irish Catholics but we all kind of abandoned religion when we felt God had abandoned us to poverty and abuse during my childhood.”
He frowned down at me, not in sympathy as I might have expected, but appraisingly. “I sensed poverty in you. It gives a person a certain quality, a greedy ruthlessness.”
I tried to step away from him but his clutch on my arm only tightened and he tutted me like an old matron. “Now, now, don’t shy away from the truth. I didn’t mean it as an insult. Only when you’ve known true hunger and desperation are you willing to go after what you want, the consequences be damned. It is, if not an admirable quality, than certainly a successful one.”
He gave me a moment of silence in order to digest his words while we waited for the elevators. The unpalatable thing was, I agreed with what he was saying. Only the ruthless succeed. I truly believed that. The only thing I remained unsure of was if I had the balls to submit to my brutal instinct to steal happiness away from my own sister.
Santiago was watching me as if he was asking himself the same question. “You are no longer the person you thought we were before you met him, Giselle. That woman, one whom you undoubtedly thought was good and moral? She has already been murdered by the new you, the one that went after a taken man knowingly even if it wasn’t without qualms.” He held up a single finger to hush my protest. “There was strength in making that decision. Do not be weak and unkind now by not going after what you want. In my experience, it only leads to misery for everyone.”
My throat was swollen and aching as if I was responding to his words with anaphylactic shock.
“Besides,” he cast me a sidelong glance, “wickedness looks good on you.”
I was mute as he leaned forward to press a kiss against my cheek, smelling like heat and expensive cologne. He stepped into the elevator without breaking eye contact and we watched each other as the doors slid close.
Just before he winked out of sight behind the metal partition he lifted his hand to his throat and said, “You would look even better in a collar.”
Chapter Fifteen.
I didn’t go back to Sinclair’s office.
He would come looking for me, I knew, but I still needed a moment to digest Santiago’s words. Besides, I reasoned with myself as I fled the 60th floor in an elevator of people dressed in impeccable business attire, I had business to conduct in the gallery and I might as well take care of it while I was in the building.
I made my way to the storeroom where we were housing my completed paintings, too preoccupied to notice the woman following in my wake. It was only when the door closed with a slam that I twirled around to see Margot Silver standing against it with her thin arms crossed over her chest.
I sighed. “I don’t suppose you came down to help me move these?”
“Don’t be cute with me, Giselle. We both know it’s just an act.”
I crossed my arms to mimic her pose and raised my eyebrows Sinclair-style.
She rolled her eyes at my demonstration. “I’ll get to the point because spending any amount of time with you rubs me the wrong way. Stop fucking around with Sinclair.”
“I hate to break it to you when you’ve been so nice to me, but I don’t care what you think. You don’t know anything about the situation.”
“I know that Daniel Sinclair is the best man I know and yet he’s acting like a moronic dickhead chasing after your nice pair of tits.”
“Awe, thank you, Margot,” I said with faux delight.
“If you think I’m the only one who has noticed you two, you’re an idiot.”
That gave me pause. I had wondered about the twins knowing but the people Sin worked with? I didn’t want them to think less of him.