Tempting the Tycoon

Chapter 23

"The problem, Orrin, is that Alexios didn't say any of this to me. It's all well and good that you tell me your opinion, but the man of the hour hasn't deemed it important enough to tell me how he feels. I can't stay with a man who won't even tell me whether he loves me or not!"

It was Orrin's turn to look as if he were going to gnash his teeth down to stubs. "For chrissake, Syd--"

Just then the music cut off abruptly, and there was a commotion on the stage, with the microphone making an ear-splitting squeak that had everyone covering their ears and glaring in that direction.

"Excuse me for the interruption, ladies and gentlemen, but I need to make a public announcement."

Orrin and Sydney locked gazes as they recognized the speaker. As if connected, their eyes then flew to the stage and who was on it. Sydney's jaw dropped; her legs, fairly steady for the last few minutes, threatened to collapse right where she stood. Her whole body began trembling as she shook her head.

"No. No, no, no, no," she chanted in a whisper, covering her mouth with suddenly shaking fingers. She made the mistake of glancing at Orrin beside her, who was grinning in open admiration at Alexios, the one who had commandeered the microphone and whose eyes were now searching the crowd.

Orrin met her shocked look with a slow grin. "I guess he's telling you now." He waved his arm to signal her whereabouts to his brother, and she smacked it down. The heat of embarrassment flooded her face.

"Don't!" She hissed, but it was too late. Alexios's head whipped in their direction. Sydney forgot Orrin immediately as she became snared in the tractor beam of Alexios's smoldering eyes.

He began to speak, and it was like they were the only two people in the room. Everyone, everything ceased to exist except for them.

"I've recently realized that I'm a first-class idiot when it comes to love." Titters of embarrassed amusement fluttered through the crowd, reminding Sydney that they were not alone, but she couldn't drag her gaze away from Alexios, standing straight and tall upon the dais.

Her heart began to pound deep in her chest, so hard she was amazed it couldn't be heard over the sudden silence sweeping the expectant crowd. Once again, heat chased her blood through its veins, causing her palms to go all sweaty and clammy. She wiped them down the sides of her black knit dress, knotting her fingers together afterwards to stop their trembling.

"I was dating the most beautiful, intelligent, vibrant woman I'd ever met, but I was too scared to admit that I'd fallen for her. I couldn't believe that at thirty-two I had finally met that one special person. And by not articulating my feelings, I let her slip out of my life."

"Jeez. Articulating, Lex? Seriously?" Orrin whispered. "Only you would speak that way when you're baring your soul." Sydney shot him a quick look. He was shaking his head, eyes trained on his brother, but his admiring tone belied his criticism. Sydney returned her attention to Alexios. And the warmth that had begun to thaw her inner winter cold spread and heated at what she saw in his expression.

His face had lost its rigid self-control. It was naked of all artifice, and Sydney caught her breath at the longing she spied there. The longing and the pain. Even from this distance she could see the tightness of his mouth, the creases in his forehead that hadn't been there just two weeks ago. He'd aged in her absence, but she dared not hope that it was because of her leaving. She couldn't allow herself that possibility. Not yet. He continued to speak directly to her, as if several hundred people were not witnesses.

"I need you in my life, Sydney Hughes. These last two weeks have shown me that. I haven't been able to think, to sleep, to even work without you crossing my mind a thousand times a day."