Midnight’s Queen (Stroke of Midnight #3)

Chapter 9

His head spun as his brain conjured reasons for her to be back at his hotel. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Was she here for a repeat performance? His heart—and brain—almost stuttered to a stop with that thought. He slammed the door shut on the possible scenarios his wayward brain was cooking up.

She looked at him and their gazes met. “We should talk. Can I come in?”

“Yes. Of course.” He stepped back into the room, holding the door open so she could enter.

Portia looked left and right down the hallway, then slipped inside. Aleks gripped the door and as he closed it, he checked the hall too. All clear.

When he turned around, it was to find Portia all the way across the room, staring out the privacy-shaded window. Her hands were tucked into her pockets.

He approached slowly, making sure she could hear him coming. He didn’t want to startle her.

Questions bounced around his head and he clenched his jaw to keep from blurting them out. The suspense might kill him, but he’d let her start.

“I love this city.” She spoke without turning around.

Aleks took it as an invitation and joined her at the window, standing close enough to hear her, but not crowd her. “It seems to be a very nice city,” he said carefully.

“Seattle will never be a New York or San Francisco, but we’re still a world-class city. High technology nestled in a beautiful location.” She turned to face him now.

He shifted sideways to watch her and waited to see where she was going with this.

“At least, that’s what I’ve always been told. I’m used to seeing it from this high. More an abstract painting than a true city. Dizzie’s the one who knows it inside out at the ground level.”

“Your sister.”

The words fell between them. There was no explosion, just a subtle tightening of her lips.

She sighed. “I spoke with her this afternoon. Told her that your employers wanted to meet her.”

“What did she say?” He asked because it was expected, not because he cared at the moment. Portia fascinated him and he wanted to talk about her, not her sister. Wanted to get to know the real woman instead of the digital dossier.

She opened her mouth and his gaze dropped to her lips. Memories of kissing her, of the enticing blend of whiskey and her essence flooded him.

“She didn’t say anything,” Portia said.

That pulled him back to the present. “What? She won’t meet them?”

Portia laughed. “She didn’t say anything at all. Honestly, I think she was overwhelmed.”

His brows furrowed. In light of that, Portia’s presence made no sense. “If she didn’t agree, then why are you here?”

“Idontknow.” Her words ran together and she turned back to the window, pressing her palm against the glass.

His brain picked up the puzzle that was Portia Tremaine again. Was she here to see him? Needing a distraction, he fell back on the manners his grandparents had drilled into him. “Can I get you something to drink?”

She looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Water, please. I’m always thirsty after I run.”

“You ran here?” he blurted. Her workout attire made sense now, but the thought of her running alone through the streets at dusk chilled him to the bone.

Not your problem , he tried to remind himself.

It didn’t work.

Removing a bottle of sparkling water and one of still water from the small in-room refrigerator, he offered her the choice.

She took the bottle of still from him, their fingers brushing. Shivers ran up his arm. He’d had the same reaction last night every time they touched. He set the other bottle unopened on the coffee table, too distracted by her presence to drink.

Her attention back on the city, she opened the bottle and took a long sip, presenting the perfect opportunity to study her. Her long neck was emphasized by her movement and by the braid that hung past her shoulders. The dark color was fine, but he missed the sunny blond cascade he’d tangled his fingers in.

“Is that your disguise?” He cringed. Way to make conversation, Aleks.

Portia lowered the bottle and smiled at him.

His heart skipped a beat. Even as a brunette, she was still so beautiful. And her smile—it was real, versus the tight, fake one she gave the newsies.

“Yeah, I guess you can call it that,” she said. “It keeps people from bothering me when I run.”

Questions tumbled out of him. “Are you safe? Do you have security? Does anyone know you’re out alone?”

She raised a dark brow at him. The Ice Queen look didn’t work as well that way. “Yes. No. No.”

He quickly processed her answers and frowned. But was she really safe if she was out running without security? And why did he care so much? “What if something happened to you?”

“Is that a threat?” She lowered her bottle and stared at him.

“No!” Startled, he stepped backward and ran into the table. The other bottle of water fell over and rolled off the table, hitting the carpet with a thud.

“No,” he repeated as he bent to pick up the bottle. He took the moment to pull himself back together. “Never a threat. It can be dangerous for women alone at night. That’s all.”

Sadness flashed over her face and he cursed internally. Of all the choices he could make around her, he always seemed to pick the wrong one. “I’m sorry.”

Her lips curled up into a shadow of a smile and she shook her head. “It’s okay. It’s been a while since anyone has worried about me. In a positive way, I mean.” She laughed self-depreciatingly.

“No one?” That couldn’t be true. How could anyone leave this beautiful, dangerous, vibrant woman alone?

“No one who isn’t paid to.”

Fuck! There he went again, saying the wrong thing. “Oh.” His fingers wrapped around the bottle cap, twisting it off until it released with a soft pop.

The silence between them grew. It wasn’t awkward, but he wouldn’t call it comfortable. More like... waiting.

Because he couldn’t trust himself not to say something stupid, Aleks sipped his water with an air of calm he didn’t feel. When he neared the end of the bottle—and his breaking point—Portia finally spoke.

“Thank you.”

Aleks tipped his head. “For what?”

“For letting me in when I showed up completely unannounced.” She rolled her bottle between her palms. Her voice carried a hint of question in it.

Was she asking him why he let her in? Or asking herself why she was here? “You’re welcome. Any time.”

Her return smile was strained.

“Would you like to sit?” The suite’s living room had a number of places to sit. He swept his hand out to indicate any of them.

“Thank you.” The smile that accompanied her words was less sad.

He waited until she had taken a seat—she chose the sofa, with a view of the city—then sat far enough away that he hoped her presence wouldn’t short-circuit his brain. He felt like an idiot, tripping over his words.

“I should have waited until morning, made an official appointment in my office,” she said, gazing at the window.

“Why didn’t you?” He’d turned her presence over in his mind, exploring all the angles for why she might be here, but nothing made sense. Before arriving in Seattle, he’d been given a dossier on Portia Tremaine, compiled by the Solveig Consortium’s intelligence division. The woman in that report wouldn’t have just shown up here.

In all honesty, she also wouldn’t have come back to his hotel room last night. Either intelligence had gotten it wrong, or Portia Tremaine had hidden depths. Aleks was sure it was the latter.

Portia fiddled with her water bottle. “I was in the neighborhood.”

He huffed out a disbelieving laugh.

She groaned and light pink tinged her cheeks. “That sounds so cliché, I know. But it’s true.”

He grinned at her. “Your run took you by my hotel?”

“Yes. I know it sounds crazy. I just... run. Wherever the mood takes me.” She shot him a smile that lit up the room. “I like to see my city from the ground.”

“Instead of from up high?” he asked to show that he listened to her. That he liked listening to her. Portia was... soothing wasn’t the right word... but she settled his brain since it was completely, 100 percent focused on her.

“Exactly.”

“At night?”

She frowned. He replayed his words and realized they sounded judgy. “I mean, there’s not much to see in the dark, is there?”

“Are you kidding? It’s—pardon another cliché—night and day. During the day, it’s all business. But at night, when the buildings are illuminated, it’s a beautiful nighttime rainbow. Energetic and pulsing with life. Didn’t you notice it last night?”

Aleks canted his head and thought back over the previous evening. He’d been so focused on getting his glimpse of Portia Tremaine, he hadn’t paid much attention to the city. “No, sorry.” He meant it—he was sorry that he hadn’t seen Seattle the way she did.

She shook her head. “You should pay more attention,” she admonished gently. “Seattle has different faces in the sun and the rain, too.”

“And that’s important?”

She tilted her head to study him. Aleks fought the urge to fidget under her gaze. Which was ridiculous. The woman had seen—touched—his naked body. But now she studied him as though she would strip him bare.

“You’ve never studied your city? Stockholm?”

He shook his head, reluctant to interrupt this decidedly romantic perspective from the woman that the newsies—and everyone else—called the Ice Queen.

“In the sun, Seattle shows off her finery, the sparkling blue jewels of Puget Sound. In the rain and fog, she’s moody and mysterious.”

“That’s beautiful.” Aleks hadn’t expected that level of poetry from her.

Portia flushed and for a moment it reminded him of when she’d been wrapped in his arms, their bodies entwined.

He crossed his legs to hide the sudden redirection of blood and changed the subject. “Tell me more about your meeting with your sister.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew it was too abrupt a change. The room’s energy changed. Their friendly, flirty camaraderie was buried under the new business-like atmosphere.

Dammit, Aleks.

Portia’s lips pinched together. “She and Killian St. John came to my office this afternoon.”

Left unspoken was the timing: the same day as their meeting. He hadn’t expected that.

“What did she say about our offer?”

“ Our offer?” Her arch tone wasn’t the turnoff she likely intended. Instead, that prissy, pissy voice heated his blood, just the way it had last night at the bar.

But if she wanted to spar, he’d spar. Aleks nodded. “The Consortium’s offer, then.”

Her lips curved into a small smile. Was she enjoying this as much as he was? Before his brain could go wild exploring that thought, he reined it back and refocused on their conversation.

“Nothing,” she said. “Dizzie ran out of the room when I mentioned it.” Now her smile reached her eyes.

“She ran out of the room?” Aleks blinked and tried to process Dizzie’s unexpected reaction.

“Like it was on fire.” Portia laughed.

Aleks smiled, but he was still confused. “That’s... not a good thing, right?”

Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “I have no idea. We’re not close.”

That made him sad. He’d always believed family should be treasured. “Perhaps you should be.”

She snorted. “Why?”

Wasn’t it obvious? “Because you’re both Tremaines. The last two, if I’m not mistaken.”

Her eyes glimmered softly, then she turned away. “And my father.”

Fucking Phillip Tremaine. Aleks refrained from saying that out loud. From what he knew, the man was a monster, both in business and in his personal life. But Portia appeared to have loved him and Aleks didn’t want to upset her.

“Right, your father. What happened to him? No one has seen him for months.” Keeping his tone flat was a struggle.

When Portia turned back to him, the sheen of tears was gone and her face was composed. “I have no idea,” she said stiffly.

Aleks gazed at her, soaking in her beauty, her spirit, the peace her presence brought him. And he hated himself, but he was about to destroy the moment. “That’s too bad.”

She wrinkled her brow and studied him. “Why is that?” Hints of the Ice Queen colored her words.

“My employers have some...” he paused and considered his words “... strong feelings about your father. If you knew his whereabouts, they could deal with him directly, rather than put you in the line of fire.”

Portia’s gaze turned to ice. “Is that a threat?”

Tension flared between them, a volatile mix of anger and passion. He held her stare, not threatened by her icy demeanor. “It’s not a threat, Portia. It’s a warning. One I shouldn’t be giving you.”

His hands clenched at the thought of anyone threatening her. “The Solveigs want to destroy the Tremaine Corporation.”

She scoffed. “They’ve tried before. Several times.” One slender finger tapped against her lip. “The last attempt was industrial espionage, if I’m remembering correctly. We stopped them. Hard.”

His jaw tightened. “Yes, so I’ve heard. But this time... ” He tried to find the right words. “This time they know about Dizzie. And they’re pissed.” Aleks wasn’t entirely sure they were even rational about the subject. “They want no trace left of the company.”

The color drained from Portia’s face, but she didn’t flinch. “That’s ridiculous,” she said. “I’m in charge of the company now. And there are no more secret projects like my... like my sister.” She bit off the last two words.

How could she not understand what a precious gift family was? He’d give anything to see his brother again.

Not the time, Aleks. He was here to do a job, not facilitate her reunion with a sister she obviously didn’t want.

He stood and stalked toward the window, staring down at the city she loved so much. Colorful lights decorated the buildings and the traffic on the roads below painted lines of red and white. But he was too agitated to see the beauty she described.

After several deep breaths, he turned to face her. “I don’t want to be the bad guy, Portia. But I’m not going to sugarcoat it. They want Tremaine destroyed. And they won’t care if you’re caught in the destruction.”

She stared at him a long moment before she stood too. “Thank you for the water,” she said primly. “I should go. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you.” Her lips pinched with her final words.

“Yeah, you will,” he said.

With a haughty lift of her chin, she left his hotel suite for the second time that day.

Air whooshed out of his lungs when the door closed behind her.

He’d known this job would be messy when he had been assigned it. But now... it was going to be a clusterfuck.