He planted a foot on the chair in front of him and braced his forearm across his knee as he leaned forward. The position emphasised the long muscles in his back. Whatever he was working on had his attention more than she did.
Although he’d somehow spotted her when she’d made little to no noise.
She edged backwards. ‘I’ll stay hidden in the treeline.’
‘Did you watch TMZ last night? They were trying out a thermal camera.’ He tapped a few more keys on the keyboard. ‘They managed to spot one of the rabbits that run around the place.’
His gaze was on her again in that second. ‘My rabbit.’
She froze under his stare.
‘There’s no telling how rabid they’ll get if they spot a person.’ That grey gaze slowly trailed down her body. ‘Especially if it’s female.’
There it was again, the crackling in the air. Self-consciousness overcame Elena as she stood before him – or was that just awareness? Awareness of her body, acknowledgment of their differences, him male, her female? He missed nothing with that gaze, and she felt the way her breasts filled out her knit top. She sensed the lift in the heels of her boots and the resulting tilt of her hips. Even with the extra three inches, she barely came up to his chin.
The hoodie’s zipper bit into the palm of her hand.
His hoodie.
The one she was wearing and hadn’t returned.
Her immediate impulse was to give it back, but the bulkiness hid her shape. In that moment, she could no more take it off than she could walk down a stripper runway. ‘I suppose I shouldn’t do that then.’
‘Leonard will let you know when it’s clear.’
She nodded. All right. That sounded like a dismissal. It rubbed wrong, but this was his land. He hadn’t invited her here. ‘Thank you,’ she forced herself to say.
The sooner she got out of here, the better.
She turned on her heel, this time back towards the lake. His voice stopped her again.
‘You haven’t been doing yoga in the evenings.’
Oh, yes. He knew exactly what her body looked like underneath his fleece jacket.
Awareness ran like an electrical charge down her spine. When she looked over her shoulder, she found him still watching her. His pose was casual, still leaning over with one foot braced on the patio chair, but his eyes were alert. She might have been watching him on his walks through the woods, but he’d been watching her too.
Warmth unfurled inside her and began to circulate through her veins.
‘It’s getting too chilly.’
He waited for a long moment, almost as if he was debating what he’d say next. When he spoke, the offer surprised her.
‘You could use the gym in the main house, if you’d like.’
The main house. She’d made use of the library before he’d returned. There were some valuable resources there that rivalled those she’d found in the NYU library. Yet he was offering her more than that, and she wasn’t certain how to interpret it. She doubted he was the type for friendly gestures – although he’d been a renowned philanthropist before the scandal had broken. Or had that all been part of the illusion?
‘I found space in the living room of the lake house,’ she replied. She had to move the coffee table and she constantly bumped up against the sofa, but he didn’t need to know that.
Although, from the look on his face, he probably did. He owned that tiny bungalow.
His gaze narrowed and his lips flattened. Finally, he dropped his foot back to the ground and folded his arms over his chest. ‘It’s up to you.’
And with that she was summarily dismissed.
This time she knew it and she felt it.
She also felt a bit guilty, as if she’d hurt his feelings. Which was just silly and wrong on so many levels. What this man had done had hurt so many people. Yet Elena knew she’d dwell on it all night if she thought she’d been rude. She hadn’t been raised that way.
She took a step forward.
His concentration was on the laptop again, but she saw the muscles in his back stiffen. Those long, thick ropes of muscles … He knew she was still there.
‘However …’ she started.
He didn’t react, just stood there with his back turned.
It unsettled her. Should she continue? Just turn and go?
‘The library,’ she made herself say. She had Internet access, but, contrary to what some people believed, not everything could be found with a Google search.
She nearly jumped when he turned. She had his full attention. Only then did she realise she’d had it all along. The signs of fatigue were still on his face and his mussed hair made her fingers itch to smooth it into place, yet it always came back to his eyes. She couldn’t look away from them.
‘Leonard said you were going for your PhD.’
Her mouth went dry. They’d spoken about her? She nodded.
‘What subject?’ he asked.
She had to lick her lips to get them to function, and her stomach squeezed when his grey eyes sparked. ‘Ec … Economics.’
The expression that crossed his face was at once amused, ironic and resigned. ‘Of course it is.’
The knot in Elena’s belly turned fiery. ‘As it was before you and my father came clean about your Ponzi scheme.’
His jaw hardened, and the lines on his face deepened. The air between them pulsed and, for a moment, she thought she was going to see his anger flare to the surface again. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Ice was what she received instead. Cold, hard and unyielding. ‘I think everyone knows that I never came clean about that.’
She held his stare, refusing to back down. He had never admitted guilt, and it was something that galled most people. Yet there was something in his tone …
He said nothing more. He just stared at her, daring her to come at him again. She’d seen that look before as he’d done interviews. She recognised it from videotape of the prosecuting attorney questioning him. It made him look cocky, aggravating and sexy as hell.
But she wasn’t the one who was going to bring him down.
Better, more powerful people had tried and he’d come away with barely a slap on the wrist. Although … her gaze was drawn to the ottoman that sat a cockeyed angle.
‘Forget it,’ she said softly.
She turned towards the lake house, but was surprised when he took a step to follow her. It wasn’t a voluntary move, and they both knew it.
‘You can use the library,’ he said, his tone low and rough.
She looked at him through her lashes, but his gaze was on her body. Or, more precisely, on the way she’d wrapped the sweatshirt around herself. Hot embarrassment ran through her. He wasn’t the only one throwing off mixed signals.
‘But stay away from me.’
Her chin came up in surprise. Now that wasn’t a mixed message at all. It was a direct blow and it stung, but before she could say anything he turned, swept up his laptop and walked away.
* * *
The woman was a distraction.
Alex considered the implications as he did pull-ups in the gym in the basement of the manor. High-tech equipment surrounded him, but he’d learned that old-school still sometimes got the best results. Crossing his feet at the ankles, he kept