Page 3 of Reckless
“I’m fashionably disrespectful.”
She laughed.“Go sit.We are starting.”
Parvis looked up from the head of the table with the calm, unnerving warmth he managed better than any man alive.“Kelly.”
“Pedar.”I smiled.“You look terrifyingly powerful tonight.”
Charlie barked a laugh.“That’s because he is.He finished a deal worth more than most country’s GDP today.”
“Thank you, Charlie,” Parvis said dryly.
I should have been used to this by now, the way they all folded me in without question.But it still got to me.The easy welcome.The assumption that of course I would be here, of course I belonged at the table, of course there was room for me in this massive, impossible family.
It would have been easier if they were cold.
Hope nudged me toward my seat.
And then I saw who was sitting across from it.
Of course.
Xerses Norouzi.
He was leaning back in his chair like all this beauty and wealth and family chaos had personally arranged itself to amuse him.Black shirt.Sleeves rolled once at the forearms.Dark hair.Darker eyes.Clean jaw.That unfair mouth.He looked expensive in the same way the house did, only less welcoming and more dangerous.
He lifted his brows when he caught me staring.
“Kelly.”
“I like to make an entrance.”
His gaze slid deliberately over me and back up.“You succeeded.”
Heat inched up my neck.
I sat down too fast and reached for my water like that was a perfectly normal response to being looked at by a billionaire who made half the male population seem decorative.
Miley leaned toward me on my left.“You’re flustered.”
“I hate you.”
She smiled into her wine.
I looked straight ahead and found Xerses still watching me.
Wonderful.
Dinner started the way dinner always started here: with too much food, too much love, and at least four conversations happening at once.Platters appeared like magic.Rice jeweled with saffron and barberries.Herb stew rich enough to make me emotional.Eggplant softened to silk.Flatbread.Yogurt.Fresh herbs.Pickled things.A level of hospitality that made every holiday I’d grown up with feel undercatered.
Tea came after the first round, poured into clear glasses that caught the light like amber.Sugar cubes, reddish and fragrant with saffron, sat in a bowl in front of Roxanne like a test I was somehow always failing.
Michael and Parvis were discussing something financial and terrifying in calm voices.Charlie was telling a story loud enough for the mainland to hear.Hope was laughing at him.Isabel was pretending not to enjoy herself.Avril kept trying to make sure everyone else had enough on their plates.Jeff and Miley were having one of those deeply married conversations that mostly involved eye contact and three words at a time.Roman was quiet in that way that somehow still drew attention.
And across from me, Xerses drank tea like he’d been born with glass and saffron in his hand.
I hated how noticeable he was.
Not extravagant.Never loud.That would’ve been easier.
