“That’s physical attraction, Giovanni,” she pointed out a little desperately.
He nodded, sweeping one hand down the back of her head. He leaned forward to sip at her tears. He wanted them gone any way he could get rid of them. “I know that’s physical attraction, Sasha. Believe me, I know what my body feels.” Before she could say anything more, he had to tell her the rest. “I watched you all evening. I saw you give that bottle of very expensive champagne to the couple who couldn’t afford it. I saw you pay the bartender out of your tips.”
She ducked her head. “They were celebrating their tenth anniversary. He’d gotten the special tickets for that private table and it was all they—”
“I know that. I made it my business to find out. The money for their tickets was refunded to them and they were comped a dinner at Salvo’s. Thank you for bringing them to our attention. You also helped a young woman whose blind date was a nightmare.”
She frowned at him. “I couldn’t just leave her sitting there crying when he told her to get herself home and she could pay the tab.”
“You didn’t have money to pay his tab.”
She shook her head slowly. “No, but I asked Alan if I could make payments. He consulted you, and you said you’d take care of it.”
He had taken care of it. The man who had run up a very big bill and was down on the floor dancing with his real girlfriend, leaving his “blind” Internet date with his mess, had been escorted by security into one of the offices. He’d paid the bill and was then escorted to the door, thrown out and told never to return. The woman sitting alone on the second tier was given a free cab ride home.
“I could go on to tell you several other things I discovered about you by just observing you, but you get the point. I got there just after we opened. You were an interesting pastime, and the various tables that were filled. People come and go throughout the night, but I was more interested in you than watching any of them. I learned more than the fact that I was seriously attracted to you. And at that point, I didn’t even know about your brother.”
She pressed fingers to her mouth to try to suppress the last of her hiccupping tears. “Why do you say it as though knowing about my brother is a good thing?”
“You love family and are loyal to them no matter the circumstances. I’m the same way. I want that trait in my wife. I want it instilled in my children. Your brother is a highly intelligent man and he’s also strong in what Francesca refers to as ‘shadow blood.’ That means, when his shadow touches mine, I can read him just as he can read me.”
“What does your shadow tell you about him?”
He heard the curiosity in her voice. She was becoming distracted, calming down from the storm of tears. He could breathe easier. If she cried like that again, he knew he’d be on his knees, promising her anything, and as a rule he was as tough as nails.
“He’s a good man. Doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, but he’s strong. He’ll stand when it’s for something he believes in.”
She pressed her forehead against his chest. “He was like that, Giovanni. What’s he like now?”
“Baby.” He tipped her chin up. “You’re adept at reading shadows. Why are you asking me? You know the answer.”
She shook her head. “I don’t.” Her eyes met his and there was pleading there. That look shook him just the way her tears did. “What you told me and what I read are the ways he was before the accident. He can’t remember anything. How could he remember what he believes in? The answer is he can’t.”
“I don’t know what he remembers and what he’s forgotten. He accepts you coming to visit him,” Giovanni pointed out. “He likes you reading to him. It makes him feel peaceful when so many things upset him. He doesn’t like that he can’t remember and becomes agitated in his mind. You have to have felt that.”
She nodded. “That’s why I read to him. It calms him down.”
“You calm him down, Sasha. Not the reading. You. When you sat on that couch with his head in your lap while you read to him, I stepped into your shadows. He was feeling you. The way you love him. He might not know your name, but he knows who you are to him. You represent love. His world. His family. He doesn’t believe in a what. He believes in a who. That who is you, honey. He becomes agitated if more than a couple of days go by without seeing you, according to Goodman. No, he doesn’t know what being your brother or sibling means. He doesn’t know your name from one day to the next, but he recognizes you. Never think he doesn’t.”
He spoke the raw truth to her, looking into her eyes, willing her to see the honesty. He wasn’t lying to soften a blow, he knew the truth of every word. He’d read Sandlin’s shadow. His shadow had deliberately connected to her brother’s in an effort to assure himself that there was no threat to Sasha.
“He doesn’t understand that we’re siblings,” she insisted.
He shook his head. “That doesn’t really matter. His life is all about you, waiting for you, seeing you, listening to you. He likes that you tell him stories of his past. He might not remember them, but he hears the love in your voice when you talk to him about the ranch, the cattle, the horses and your parents. He listens for the sound of your footsteps. That’s love, Sasha. It might not be what you had before, but you still have your brother.”
“How did you get that from just his shadow?”
How did he tell her he’d been reading shadows from the time he was a child? He cleared his throat, hoping she wouldn’t think he was a stalker. She already had one of those and didn’t need two. “I went down the hall several times to check on you while I waited for Goodman to arrive. I listened to you talking to your brother, telling him funny and loving childhood stories, and I watched Sandlin’s face. I deliberately connected our shadows so I could feel his emotions. Sandlin was acutely aware of me because I was so locked on to you, yet during the telling of those stories, his attention didn’t wander once. He barely knew I was there, he was so interested in what you were telling him.”
Sasha framed his face with her hands and looked into his eyes. Twin sapphires, so brilliant, a deep blue, stared straight into him, looking past the fa?ade he wore for everyone else. Seeing him—seeing the man he was inside.
“Thank you.” She whispered it. “I am falling very hard for you. Very fast. I let myself doubt you and I’m sorry for that, but seriously, Giovanni, I can’t afford to get my heart broken, not with everything I’ve been through these last months. You’re that heartbreak. I can’t seem to resist you no matter how hard I try.”
“Please don’t. I’m right there with you, Sasha, just as vulnerable.” How could he make her believe him after the stupidity of his game? The sad truth was, it had been his invention.
He’d been sidelined far too long from his real purpose in life. He was a shadow rider. He meted out justice. He didn’t know who he was without being a rider. Just sitting around acting like a bored playboy, flying into various locations and having women climb all over him while his picture was taken for months and months while his leg healed, was enough to tip him right over the edge. Maybe it had. He’d come up with the game thinking it would relieve his boredom—and truthfully—maybe to get back at the women hunting his brothers, cousins and him for their money. He’d been an idiot and now he was paying the price.
“How can I possibly know I’m not just one of those women you compete with Aaron or some other men for?”
He stiffened, adrenaline rushing through his body. He’d seen her with Aaron. He’d forced himself to sit at the table while his friend talked and laughed with her. While the MMA fighter had walked her down the stairs, engaging in what appeared to be a very serious conversation with her.