In the nicest of ways.
He wore a slim dark coat and there was such an air of magnificence about him that he simply turned heads.
Not just for his dark looks—there was more to him than that—but they were rather wonderful to dwell on. His hair was black and glossy and swept back. He stood tall and his posture was so upright he always made Gabi want to pull back her own shoulders.
There was a shift that ran through her body whenever he was near, an awareness that made it difficult to focus on anything other than him, for all else seemed to move to the periphery of her consciousness to allow Alim centre stage.
‘Quanti ospiti?’
Marianna’s voice was coming from a distance and as she asked how many guests for the wedding, it was Mona who answered instead of Gabi.
For Alim had looked over and met her gaze.
He was beautiful.
Always.
Effortlessly elegant, supremely polite, he was the calm, still water to Gabi’s fizz.
She was a dreamer, which meant that though he was out of her league, he was not out of bounds to her thoughts; innocent in body she may be, but not so in her mind.
And as for those eyes, they were a dark grey with silver flecks that spoke silently of the night.
His gaze was a dangerous thing to be held in, Gabi knew, and she was trapped in it now. There was a fire crackling in the grate and there was heat low, low in her stomach and rising to her neck.
She wanted to excuse herself from the conversation and walk over in response to his silent command. She wanted work to be gone, for his lover to disappear, and for Alim to lower her down onto a silken bed.
Just that.
‘Gabi…’ Marianna intruded.
‘Alim,’ his lover called.
But he was making his way over.
‘Va tuto bene?’
He asked if everything was okay, and though his Italian was excellent, it was laced in his own rich accent and rendered Gabi incapable of response, for she had not expected him to come over.
It was Marianna who responded and told him the preferred date for the wedding.
‘That would be fine.’ Alim nodded to Marianna and to the other guests and then he looked directly at Gabi; she found herself staring at his mouth as he spoke, for it was just a little safer than to stare into his eyes. ‘How are you, Gabi?’
‘I am well.’
‘That is good.’
He turned and walked away and she held her breath.
It was nothing—just an exchange so tiny that the others had not even noticed its significance, yet Gabi would survive on it for weeks.
He knew her name.
‘Perhaps you could take Mona to see the ballroom while I discuss details with Fleur,’ Marianna suggested.
Details being money.
‘Of course.’