Chapter Three
A CHIME ECHOED THROUGH the library, soft but insistent.
“The Tranquil Acres Community Library will be closing in one hour,” a pleasant voice announced. “Please proceed to the checkout desk to avoid queues for borrows and returns. Thank you.”
One hour then.
She had one more hour to enjoy everything this place had to offer, and surely...surely that was fine?
This place was just magical, and so it made her just a little sad, with how empty it was. How could the people living here not realize how lucky they were? Or maybe they knew...but they just didn’t care?
She had been here since half past four, and it was now six in the evening, but Andie was still in awe. Like, she had to remind herself several times to close her mouth because she had noticed the staff directing suspicious looks her way.
Not that she minded. It was their job to care for these books, like, like...um the Fellowship of the Ring, only this time, they were more like the Guardians of These Precious Books, and for real, every book in this place was exactly that.
Breathtakingly, mouthwateringly precious and gorgeous, and most amazing of all, all of these were free for the residents of Tranquil Acres to borrow!
Like, seriously?
All she had to present was her resident ID or guest pass, and that was it?
Guilt and pleasure warred inside of Andie as she ran her fingers over the spines of the books shelved under this year’s New York Times Bestsellers. She hadn’t forgotten her mission. She remembered what she came here to do, and while indulging in her favorite hobby obviously wasn’t a part of it—
One more hour in this place couldn’t hurt, surely?
She just couldn’t get enough of their texture. Soft vegan leather. Embossed letters that caught under her fingernails. Velvet so thick and luxurious it made her want to press her cheek against the covers like a weirdo.
And oh, wow!
Andie ran toward the shelf in the next aisle, eyes lit up like a kid with his first sighting of a life-sized gingerbread house.
Would you look at that?
An entire shelf dedicated to books with page edges decorated in full color. Limited edition box sets of her favorite romantasies. Foreign language editions with to-die-for covers. And oh my goodness, was that an honest-to-goodness first-edition of—
“I’m starting to dislike the way you keep surprising me.”
—devil with a Greek accent?
Andie crashed to a stop and spun around.
Make that, a devil dressed in another one of his obviously-expensive and perfectly-fitting suits.
As in...
The stranger who had kissed her in the dark
The seducer who had touched her secret places
Oh, will you please get a grip, Andie!
This...this man belonged to her aunt!
Joyce had claimed dibs on him, and one must always respect one’s elders.
Right?
Paul had one shoulder leaning against the end of a bookshelf, arms crossed over his chest. She knew he wasn’t posing or anything, but he still looked like he had stepped out of the pages of a Tatler photo shoot.
He looked very much at home in Tranquil Acres’ members-only library, and even though she knew for a fact he wasn’t a resident here, why did looking at him made her feel like she was the one trespassing instead?
He straightened, and her heart skipped a beat. He slowly walked toward her, and Andie automatically started backing away.
The more she looked at him, the more she realized she was dealing with someone completely out of her league.
The first time they met, shadows had softened his edges into something almost dreamlike.
The second time she saw him, Joyce was with them, and she had never really allowed herself to stare at him.
..not even when...not even when he was doing what he wasn’t supposed to doing, and making her feel things that she wasn’t supposed to feel for the man that her aunt desired.
But tonight...
Tonight, he was devastating like...fire.
The kind that made your throat tight to the point that you couldn’t breathe.
The kind that burned you alive even when its flames hadn’t licked your skin.
The kind that devoured and devastated because somehow, even if you knew it would be the death of you.
..the heat was mesmerizing and tantalizing, the feel of it impossible to resist.
Whispers reached her ear, distracting Andie into looking away from the shameful source of her obsession—
Oh.
The woman behind the counter. The woman cleaning the windows at the far end. And the woman at the reading area with the couches. They were the only other women in the library, but all of them were staring at Paul like he had made them forget their own names.
As expected, Andie deliberately reminded herself. She had looked him up on the Internet, and so she knew she was far from being the only girl to find the billionaire attractive.
But...even so.
It somehow hurt to see the other women staring at him like he was theirs to consume, and it also hurt to know that they had to be captivated by the same things that captivated her.
There was his copper-tinted hair, and the way it gleamed under any kind of light. His chiseled jaw. His broad chest, his towering height, his aura—
Ah!
Fingers cupped her chin, and she realized too late she had been so distracted by other women’s interest in him...that she had let him catch up to her.
And now it was too late to escape, with Paul standing right in front of her, and...argh.
The gleam in his eyes made Andie clench her fists against her sides, but a part of her was thankful for it because the sight made her feel more annoyed and less...infatuated obsessed silly.
So, yes, focus on that, Andie.
You’re annoyed.
Annoyed.
Because the way he was looking at her?
It was annoying.
And...and offensive!
Like...what right did he have to look at her like she was his personal toy? And...and why was he here in the first place? How in the world—
“You already know the answer to your questions.” Paul’s tone was gentle, but his smile was as lazy as it was cold. “So please do not disappoint me by insisting on asking them.”
Andie blinked. Did he just warn her...not to waste his time by being stupid? Was he saying in not so many words that...she should remember he was this hotshot billionaire, ‘Nuff said, and so of course, he could easily find out where she was if he wanted to?
Incredible.
Like...he might be the most beautiful man she had ever seen, and the most sinfully tempting man who had stolen her first kiss and first...well, never mind what he stole.
The point was, Paul might be all of those things, but that didn’t blind her to the fact that he was oh so incredibly jaded, and his ego just as incredibly inflated. It was as if he really believed everyone and everything existed to amuse him, and—
Whoa!
His hand was suddenly on the small of her back. Warm. Commanding. And spinning her around so that they were now facing the same direction.
What in the world—
She had half a mind to shove him away while a part of her was also seriously tempted to dig her elbow into his side, anything that would cause him physical comfort and lose his cool. But before she even move—
“I’d think twice if I were you.” His voice dropped, and his breath stirred the hair at her temple. “Do you not see all eyes are on us?”
Argh!
Andie didn’t have to look around to know he was telling the truth. After realizing that all her gaping had others looking at her oddly, she had learned how to keep to herself, and she had become good as invisible.
But now that she was with the great Paul Mitropoulos?
Ugh.
She was subject to everyone’s scrutiny once again, and she went from overlooked to trapped by virtue of being seen in his company. She had too much at stake to say or act as she pleased. All it would take was one wrong rumor to reach Joyce’s ears, and so she had no choice...
Absolutely no choice at all but to force herself to smile and nod when Paul exerted pressure on her back, his touch seemingly courteous, but in truth it was underscored with a command that was not to be defied.
Get moving.
All eyes were still on them as they started to walk, and Andie lowered her head so that no one would catch her gritting her teeth.
Thanks to her aunt’s party the other day, everyone here knew her as Joyce’s poor relation from Kansas, a dutiful niece who had been placed under Paul Mitropoulos’ wings while her relative honored her prior “commitment” in Monte Carlo.
“You don’t like me at all, do you?”
His words drifted to her ear, murmured this time in a silky tone, but she held her silence. Did he really think she’d be stupid enough to answer that?
“How does it feel, then?” His hand was on the small of her back once again, and she barely managed to keep herself from gasping when she felt his thumb deliberately moving in a slow circle against her spine, his hatefully tempting touch burning through the soft fabric of her shirt.
“Being attracted to someone you don’t like? ”
Andie...couldn’t help herself at this point, lifting her gaze up to his...so she could just for one moment—just for one tiny moment—glare at him.
What do you mean how does it feel to be attracted to someone you don’t like?
Do you really have to ask?
Seriously?
Another smile curved over his lips, and it was still lazy and mocking. “If it’s that bad...then that just speaks of how much you want me.”
Her mouth opened and closed.
H-how dare he?
B-But—if she were being honest...
“You probably won’t want to hear this...”
Oh, that tone of his was insufferable, and it had her wishing she could just shove him off the nearest cliff so, so bad!
“But while it’s true that you’re different from most other women...you’re still like all other women where it matters.”
ARGH!
If only her hands weren’t tied.
If only!
Then she would take pleasure in slapping his—
Swoosh!