Wondered what it would be like if he could scrub the dirt from his skin and walk on. Clean. Like nothing had happened.
But it wasn’t possible.
He shrugged. “That’s the way the world works, Julia. The man with the money holds the power, or in your case, the woman with the money. Do you think anyone gave a damn about me when I was a poor orphan? When I was living on the streets?”
She shook her head. “I’m sure they didn’t otherwise…you wouldn’t have been on the street, would you?”
“No one cared when my mother died,” he said. “Because she had nothing to give anyone. She only had a son, a son no one wanted to look after. A boy who fell through the cracks.”
“How did you survive?” she asked.
“For a while? The church. I lived there for a few years, went to the school the nuns ran. But after a while there wasn’t enough money to care for me, and I found myself homeless again.”
“I suppose that makes my complaints about gold-digging men sound a little silly.”
She looked away, her expression sad. He should compliment her. She’d just fed him the best information, told him that she craved that sort of male attention. She was giving him ample material to use against her. A chance to form a bond that he could use to his advantage later. After he took down Hamlin. When it was time to take Anfalas, and Julia, out, too. He could use this in conjunction with information already in place. All he had to do was use it.
But he didn’t. And he wasn’t sure why.
Perhaps because she was honest. Her words weren’t designed to manipulate. She was truly giving something of herself, and no one had ever done that with him before. No one had ever made him want to share his past before. Just now, he’d told her more than he’d ever told anyone else before.
Again, he felt that strange sort of warmth. Fire licking at his veins.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She turned to face him. “Uh…sure?”
“Good. Let’s go find something for dinner.”
“O-okay. Just let me get something on other than this.”
He nodded, and suddenly, he was assaulted by an image of her peeling those leather pants from her body. The flames burned hotter.
“I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
He strode out of the hotel room and closed the door behind him. And he was cold again.
CHAPTER SEVEN
JULIA TRIED TO shake the little shiver that seemed to cling to her skin whenever Ferro was around. It would be so convenient to blame the Alaskan chill, but it wasn’t really fair or accurate since she’d felt this way ever since their kiss on the balcony.
She wrapped her shawl more tightly around her shoulders. Red, which was unusual for her, paired with matching shoes and lipstick, and a fitted black dress, all provided by her stylist with explicit instructions. Along with every other outfit she would wear this weekend.
True horror had been discovering that her very helpful assistant, who did not know her affair with Ferro was fake because she couldn’t have anyone privy to that, had ensured that a different horrifically see-through negligee was provided for every night.
This had prompted her to send Thad a very angry text message about her being in the frozen tundra. His response had been that skin-to-skin contact was the best way to reduce hypothermia. He suggested she get that “delicious bastard” naked and snuggle up for safety.
Her follow-up text had been unrepeatable in polite society.
Ferro was waiting for her at the bar in the hotel restaurant, a glass of whiskey in hand.
“That ought to warm you up,” she said.
His dark brows shot up. “Who said I needed to be warmed up?”
“Earlier you said you didn’t like to be cold.”
His lips curved into a half smile. “I guess I did.” He knocked back the rest of the whiskey, his face remaining placid when she knew his throat had to burn. “Let’s get a table.”
“Sure.”
Ferro flagged down the hostess and she led them across the restaurant, decked out in the same rustic sophistication as the rest of the hotel. They were seated in a corner at a table fashioned from a ring of log and polished so that it was smooth.
“I really like it here,” she said when they were seated. “It all kind of reminds me of something from a fantasy movie. I can imagine dwarves eating here. Though, it would need to be more rustic and less polished. But the idea, I mean.”