Alec caught her around the waist and held her up. “My place is just around the block. Why don’t we go there and get you something cool to drink?”
Sabina hesitated, then nodded. A drink of water. What harm could that do? Just because they were alone together didn’t mean that they were going to lose control.
He was right when he said he lived just around the block. They crossed the street and a few minutes later climbed the steps to a beautiful row house across from Walker Park. “You must sell a lot of buildings,” Sabina said, impressed by his address.
He chuckled, then held the door open. The interior was cool and dark, a relief from the heat outside. She glanced around as they walked back to the kitchen, admiring the simple yet traditional decor. “This is nice,” Sabina commented.
“The house?” Alec shrugged. “Thank the decorator. I didn’t have time to do it myself, so she did it all.”
The kitchen was sleek and modern, cherry cabinets mixed with granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances. Compared to the vintage kitchens in Sabina’s building, this was positively luxurious. Her grandmother hadn’t done much to the building since she’d acquired it beyond simple repairs. “This is nice, too. It looks like something out of Architectural Digest.”
He pulled out a stool tucked beneath the edge of the island, then crossed to the refrigerator. “We’ll get you a drink, then I’ll get my car and drive you home. We can go out some other time.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Sabina said.
He opened a bottle of water, then grabbed a glass from the cabinet above the sink. Alec placed both in front of her. She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t the heat, or dehydration, that had caused her knees to buckle. It was the experience of kissing him. Even now, staring into his eyes, Sabina felt off balance. She took a long sip of the water.
He reached out and captured her hand, toying with her fingers as she continued to drink. “Better?” he asked.
Sabina nodded, ignoring the tingle that skittered up her arm at his touch. She needed time to think, time to compose herself. Maybe she could hide out in the bathroom until she regained her senses. “Much.” She rubbed her forehead, feigning a headache. “I could use an aspirin, though.” A temporary headache should buy her a little more time. “I’m just going to go-”
“You could use dinner,” he interrupted. “But we’ll start with aspirin.”
He stepped over to her and gently brushed her hair out of her eyes. “I don’t think you have any idea just how beautiful you are,” he whispered, dropping a kiss on her lips. “I think you’ve bewitched me.”
One kiss wasn’t enough for him. With a low moan, he furrowed his hands through her hair and molded her mouth to his. Everything about the kiss challenged her to give more, to surrender to his taste and his touch.
With trembling fingers, Sabina skimmed her palms over his chest, brushing aside his jacket. Without breaking contact with her mouth, he pulled his arms out of the sleeves and tossed it on the floor.
The simple act of removing his jacket seemed to break some invisible barrier. Sabina reached up and nervously worked at the buttons of his shirt. His breath quickened at her touch and Alec tugged his shirttails out of his jeans, his mouth trailing kisses along her shoulder.
Sabina knew where they were headed, but she was powerless to stop it. Touching him…kissing him…needing him seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
When she’d undone the last button, Alec shrugged out of the shirt. His skin was warm to the touch, his chest smooth and finely muscled. Sabina pressed her lips to the skin at the base of his neck and breathed his scent in deeply.
He tipped his head back and she dropped lower, nuzzling his skin until she reached his nipple. Sabina suddenly felt bold, uninhibited and very powerful. But when her tongue touched his nipple, Alec drew a sharp breath and stepped back.
He smiled crookedly, then ran his thumb along her lip. “I think I’ll get you that aspirin,” he said.
As he walked out, Sabina sighed softly. What had happened? Why had he stopped so suddenly? At the rate they were going, they would have ended up in bed within the hour, a prospect that didn’t seem distasteful to Sabina.
She grabbed her purse and pulled out her mirror. “Oh, God,” she murmured, pinching her cheeks to restore some of her color. “Breathe. Everything will be fine.”
As she put the mirror back into her purse, she noticed the little brown bottle-Chloe’s love potion. Sabina pulled it out and untwisted the cap, then dumped a small measure into her glass. She wasn’t sure of the dosage, but right now, she needed any help she could get. Closing her eyes, she drank the remainder of her water.
Almost immediately, she felt an odd imbalance descend on her. Though she was perfectly calm, every nerve in her body was suddenly alive and aware. Sabina ran her hands up and down her arms, the sensation of her fingertips raising goose bumps along the way. She felt an overwhelming need to touch him again, to taste his kisses and to press her body against his. No man had ever affected her as strongly as Alec had, awakening desires that she never knew she had.
Sabina felt as if she’d stepped onto a carnival ride and was waiting for it to begin. The anticipation was almost too much to bear, every thought focused on the wild and thrilling and slightly dangerous ride ahead. It was scary, but she wasn’t about to get off now.
ALEC STARED AT HIS reflection in the bathroom mirror, a frown creasing his brow. Everything was moving way too fast. Never mind that he felt like a first-class cad lying to her about who he was. But now there was absolutely no way he was going to give her up. And how the hell could he even think of seducing her as long as she didn’t know who he really was?
A curse slipped from his lips and he shook his head. This had to stop right now. If he hoped for anything to happen between them, it couldn’t begin this way. Alec drew a deep breath. He’d known her a day, less than twenty-four hours, and already he was planning their future together.
“What is going on in your head?” he said, raking his hands through his hair. If he didn’t know any better, he’d suspect she’d used one of those crazy Gypsy spells or curses and rendered him completely defenseless to her beauty.
Hell, maybe she knew exactly who he was. After all, she was psychic. And that fortune she’d told in the shop hit pretty close to home. This could all be a plan for revenge, cooked up between her and her grandmother. She’d lure him into bed, make him all hot and crazy, and dump cold water on him.
He stared at his reflection for a moment longer, then opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the aspirin. “You’re not bewitched,” he muttered. “You’re temporarily insane.” On the way back to the kitchen, Alec stopped and grabbed a T-shirt from his bedroom. He found Sabina waiting where he’d left her.
“Aspirin,” he said, popping the cap off the top of the bottle. He shook two into her palm, then refilled her empty water glass.
Sabina watched him with a curious gaze before she tossed the aspirin into her mouth. Tilting her head back, she took a sip of the water, then smiled. “There,” she said.
Alec could see that she waiting for him to step closer and kiss her. His eyes were fixed on her lips, still damp from the water and slightly parted. She clenched and unclenched her fingers, but Alec stayed glued to his spot. “I should take you home. We’ll do this some other time.”
“I’m fine,” Sabina insisted, sending him a sultry smile. “My headache is gone.”
“You still look a little pale. You really should go home and rest. I’ll go get my car.”
She opened her mouth, as if to protest, but thought better of it. A tiny frown worried her brow. “You’re probably right. I still do feel a bit dizzy.” She quickly stood up and grabbed her purse. “You don’t have to drive me. I can get a cab.”
“Don’t be silly,” Alec said. “I’m parked just a few blocks from here. It will only take me a minute to go get my car.”
Sabina shook her head. “I’m perfectly ca
pable of getting myself home.”
Alec sensed the anger in her voice and decided to let the argument go. “All right.” He grabbed her hand before she had a chance to leave and gave it a squeeze. “I’ll call you.”
“Fine,” she said.
With that, she turned and walked out. At the last minute, Alec decided to stop her, but then he heard the front door slam and he thought better of it. If she stayed any longer, he’d forget that he was a nice guy deep inside. He’d forget that there was a reason he couldn’t spend the rest of his evening kissing her and undressing her and making love to her.
He strolled into the foyer and watched through the beveled glass of the door as she descended the front steps. If he looked at the situation objectively, she was just a woman. A beautiful woman, but a woman all the same. Hell, Manhattan was full of them-models, actresses, socialites, heiresses. Up until now, he’d had his choice.
But suddenly he didn’t want his choice. Only one woman interested him and that was Sabina Amanar. Maybe that was the Gypsy curse, to want something that you knew you could never have.
Alec wandered back to the kitchen. His briefcase sat on the counter where he’d dropped it that afternoon. He opened it and pulled out the Lupescu file, then spread the papers out on the granite-covered island.
Acquisition of the Lupescu property had been a crusade of sorts for his father. Simon Harnett didn’t like to lose. For him, business was like war. There were those who agreed with him, his troops, as he liked to call them. And then there were those who opposed him…the enemy.
If Alec opposed him now, then his tenure as president and chief operating officer of Harnett Property Development would come to a quick end. And why was he even contemplating that move? He’d only just met Sabina. He was acting as if he’d fallen in love with her at first sight.
Alec stared down at the papers scattered in front of him. It had been so easy when the building was just a building and not the people who inhabited it. But the five-story on Christopher Street was Sabina’s childhood home, not just a mass of bricks and mortar. She pinned her future on the shop.
If he bought the building, all that would be gone. At the least, they’d gut the interior, and at most, they’d tear the building down and build a new one. “This is why my father said you never get personally involved.”
That’s how Simon Harnett had turned the business from property management into development. His grandfather had begun his company before the war with two apartment buildings. He’d gradually purchased more, using an uncanny knack for buying buildings a few years before the neighborhood experienced a renaissance.
If his grandfather were still alive, Alec knew he wouldn’t approve of this move. Ruta was given the building as a gift, and to take that gift back would somehow break a promise between the Gypsy and George Harnett. And if his father was still running the business, he’d say there was no room for sentimentality.
Alec and his father had shared a fractious relationship. In truth, Alec never expected to work in the family business. His sister, Cassie, was much better suited for the job. But Cassie had married five years ago and was more interested in her growing family than the cutthroat business of Manhattan property development.
So a temporary job had become permanent. And after his father’s heart attack last year, Alec had become the man in charge. Though Simon still spent most days in the office, he’d given up the stressful job of property acquisition to concentrate on project management, the job Alec had done since he’d graduated from NYU ten years before.
Hell, what twist of fate had brought Sabina into his life? If he’d left just a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later that morning, he never would have run into her. And he never would have touched her face or run his fingers along her arm. And that current would have never passed between them. And then he could have ruthlessly done his job.
“Yeah,” he muttered. Turning from the counter, Alec retrieved a bottle of Scotch from the cabinet above the sink and poured a healthy measure into a glass. “You’re ruthless, all right. You take one look into those violet eyes and turn into a freaking marshmallow.”
He tossed down the Scotch in one quick gulp, then poured himself another. A new plan was in order. A strategy to deal with unexpected feelings. He grabbed the bottle and headed upstairs to the den. The Yankees were playing. He’d watch the game, get a little drunk and try to convince himself that he had absolutely no attraction whatsoever to Sabina Amanar.
And if that didn’t work, he’d resign from his job and go sell houses in Brooklyn.
“HE WAS IN MY CAB. I’m sure it was him,” Mario said. “I picked him up a few months ago in SoHo and he was talking on his cell phone. I remember him because I thought he might be a good match for Mrs. Methune’s youngest daughter, Lydia. It was definitely Alec Harnett.”
Ruta leaned forward and braced her arms on the back of the cab’s front seat. She peered through the small Plexiglas window. “And you dropped him off in front of my shop?”
Mario nodded. “That’s where he wanted to go-Ruta’s. I drove around the block and I saw him go inside.”
Ruta shook her head. “Simon Harnett hasn’t had any luck with me and now he sends his son to do his dirty work? I’m sure Bina told him exactly what I would have said. No! Her first loyalty is to her family.”
“Maybe she’s too loyal?” Mario asked, his brow arching. He met Ruta’s gaze in the rearview mirror.
“And what are you trying to tell me now? Do not speak in riddles. We have been friends for far too long.”
Mario pulled the cab over to the curb in front of Ruta’s shop, then twisted around in his seat. For a woman who claimed to be psychic, she wasn’t very good at reading her own granddaughter. “What life is this for a pretty young lady?” Mario asked. “This city is made for romance, and Sabina spends her weekends working on your accounts and sewing pretty dresses that she never gets to wear.”
“I have introduced her to many young men. What more can I do? In the old country, she would have been married years ago, with babies at her feet. I have made charms, I have given her potions. Nothing seems to work.”
“Romance is a bit more difficult these days,” Mario said.
Ruta pointed to the photos on the dash of the cab. “Your pictures say differently. Do you think you can do better for Sabina? If you can, then I give you permission to try.”
Mario chuckled. “And what if you don’t approve of this young man I choose?”
“You are my friend, Mario. I trust you to drive me around this city safely. I will trust that you can find a good man for my Bina.”
“I already have a good man in mind.”
Ruta reached into her pocketbook and withdrew a ten dollar bill. “Then you do your magic. And I will begin to save for the wedding, yes?”
“Yes,” Mario said. He flipped off the light on the top of the cab, then jumped out and circled around to Ruta’s door. “But I want one promise from you,” he said as he helped Ruta out. “You will not interfere with Sabina’s romantic life. No predictions, no warnings, no visions. And no curses.”
“It is against my natural instincts. I must look out for the girl now that her parents are gone.” She sighed. “But I suppose I can make that promise.”
Mario gave Ruta a quick peck on the check. “Why don’t you and I have a cup of tea at that nice little coffee shop around the corner? And when I’m done, you can read the leaves. I’m thinking of making a…change in my life.”
“A change?” Ruta slipped her arm through his and walked with him down the sidewalk. “I sense this has to do with Iris. I had a vision of Iris last night while I was watching Letterman. I saw her in a beautiful white gown with a lovely diamond ring on her finger.”
“You did, did you?” Mario chuckled softly. “You always see my future much more clearly than I do, Ruta. And did you happen to see how and when I proposed to Iris?”
“No,” Ruta replied. “But I am sure if we put our heads together we
can figure that out on our own. The important thing is that she will say yes.”
“And you’re sure of that?”
“As sure as I can be. But I can always mix up a little potion to dispense with any reservations she might have. And you can do your part by finding a ring with a very large diamond.”
Mario gave Ruta’s hand a squeeze. If only it were so simple. Now that he’d made the decision to propose to Iris, all he could think about were the reasons she might refuse him. Maybe a potion was the answer. After all, what could it hurt?
CHAPTER THREE
“IT DIDN’T WORK,” Sabina muttered as she walked through the bead curtain into the shop. She set the small brown bottle on the counter in front of Chloe.
Chloe took a sip of her quadruple espresso and stared at the bottle. Sometime between last night and this morning her hair had gone from pink to blue and she’d pierced her other nostril. Sabina shook her head in bewilderment. Chloe was strange, but she was the best employee they’d ever had.
“How much did you give him?” she asked, holding the bottle up to the light.
“I didn’t give him anything. I drank it,” Sabina replied.
“That’s not how it works. You give it to him and then he’ll find you irresistible. If you take it, then you’ll find him irresistible. And you already do, don’t you?”
“It worked!” Chloe and Sabina turned to see Mrs. Nussbaum hurry through the front door, the bell announcing her arrival.
“Are you all right?” Sabina asked as the old woman stumbled to the counter.
“I’m much better than all right,” she replied. “I’m…” She bent closer and whispered in Sabina’s ear. “Satisfied.” Mrs. Nussbaum drew back, her eyes twinkling. “I’m sure you know what I mean.”
Sabina frowned. “I’m not sure I do, Mrs. Nussbaum.”
The old woman fanned herself with her hand. “Your grandmother is a treasure. A worker of miracles. A gift from God. My husband, Irving, was having issues…” She lowered her voice again. “In the bedroom. Well, we tried everything. Those little blue pills, racy movies, I even performed a little striptease for him.”
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