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in you?”
    How she wanted to say he affected her in no way, but they would both know she was lying. Better instead to focus on fighting it. “Why the sudden change of heart, then?”
    â€œA strong sense of familial duty? A core made of kindness?”
    Rolling her eyes, she swatted him. Deftly, he caught her hand in his.
    Her breath stuck in her throat. Her fingers moved over his in the dark, registering the different texture of his palm—rough and abrasive, devoid of any softness, so different from her own.
    It was his absolute stillness next to her, just as powerful as that latent energy, that made her realize what she was doing.
    She jerked her hand away, the air she had been holding rushing out of her.
    What the hell was she doing,
pawing
him like that? He was her employer, her enemy...
    No man had been so dangerous to her internal balance as him. No man had ever spun her senses so easily.
    Rubbing shaking fingers over her face, she struggled to think back to their conversation. “You’re agreeing to see Robert, then?”
    â€œIf you give me a date now as to when you will sign the deed over to me.”
    â€œStay here in San Francisco until their wedding. See Robert, let him speak to you. And I’ll sign over the estate the day after the wedding. Also, none of my staff will be made redundant. When this is all over, I want you to go away and leave Travelogue alone. Forever.”
    â€œThat depends on if Travelogue stays intact that long.”
    â€œIf you give us a fair chance, I have no doubt it will.”
    His eyes gleamed ferociously. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, setting conditions to sell my mother’s house back to me.”
    â€œYou’re a billionaire, you’re your own boss and as far as I understand, you have no one in your life that you’re answerable to. What’s two months in the big picture of your life, Nathan?”
    â€œEverything, Riya.” There was no humor in his smile now, only a dark warning. “This is your last chance to let it go.”
    She didn’t take even a beat to think it over. “No. Robert...he...I’ll do anything for him.”
    His curious silence swathed her and Riya felt like the rabbit in the story her father had told her when she was little. The rabbit had gone into the lion’s den, determined to change his mind about eating one animal every day.
    At that point, she had stuck her fingers in her ears and begged him not to continue. A few days after that, she and Jackie had left. Her father had never seen her again, never called her, never sent a birthday card.
    For years, she had wondered if he thought of her, hoped he would write to her, call Jackie to ask about her.
    Only utter and absolute silence had greeted her hopes.
    Now...now she didn’t even remember his face clearly. On the road with Jackie, hearing her crying at night, not knowing where they would go next—it had been the most uncertain time of her life. Until Jackie had met Robert and he had taken them to his estate, Riya had thought she would never know a stable home again.
    And to see Robert ache to see Nathan, to speak a few words to him, she couldn’t back down now. Not when Nathan was finally here.
    â€œFine. Come to work Monday morning.”
    She saw the shadow of something in his eyes—a promise, a challenge.
    â€œI’ll stay two months. I’ll even dance with you at the wedding.”
    â€œI don’t want to dance with—”
    â€œYou started this, Riya. I’m going to finish it.”
    She breathed in cold gulps of air, only then seeing the faint shape of a chopper. “Stop saying my name like that,” she said, not sure when the words had exactly left her lips.
    Frowning, he stepped closer. “Am I saying it wrong?”
    There was that strange little tension again. Winding around them, tugging at them.
    â€œNo. I just...we’re...”
    The helicopter blades began whirring,