Her Dark Knight Read Free Page B

feet weren’t appreciative of the exercise. What the hell was going on? He acted as if she were the one who caused the scene.
    He motioned to someone before pushing open a door with a sign that read Authorized Personnel Only on the front and quickly ushered her into an office. After the noise of the music and the loud conversations, the quiet was disconcerting.
    Lainie breathed deep to calm her racing heart. A large glass-and-chrome desk with a very comfortable-looking black, leather chair dominated the room. Tall picture windows looked out over the line of people waiting to get in. Wonderful. He’d probably seen her waiting in line.
    Finally she met his penetrating gaze, which was filled with a fury she’d rarely witnessed in a man before.
    “Who the hell are you?” he growled.
    “If you’re angry about that scene, I’m not the one who caused it. The man you served drinks to until he was too drunk to know better did.”
    His eyes were such a light gray they were almost silver. “Ronald says you claim to have an appointment with me. Who are you and who sent you?”
    Ronald must be the bouncer who wouldn’t let her in until she paid. She yanked her wrist free of Chevalier’s tight hold while one very strange thought whispered through her mind. He had an accent. French if she wasn’t mistaken and it was sexy as hell. And he’s overbearing as hell. “I don’t claim anything. I do have an appointment with you. Giselle Blanche sent me.”
    His nostrils flared. She didn’t think it was possible but he seemed even more menacing. “How do you know Giselle Blanche?”
    “I work for her.” Unfortunately. But she didn’t say that because she had no idea what his relationship was to Giselle and she was here on business.
    “You work for Etienne Lucheux?” he asked.
    “Mr. Lucheux owns the company, yes.” She’d never actually met Mr. Lucheux because she reported directly to Giselle.
    “Why did he send you here?” He still didn’t sound convinced she was telling the truth and why did he think Lucheux sent her when she’d told him Giselle had?
    “I have papers you need to sign.”
    Those silver eyes turned hard as granite. “Show me the papers.”
    She put her briefcase on his desk and extracted the envelope with shaking hands, biting her tongue to stop herself from telling him where he could put the damn papers. He snatched them out of her grasp. What an arrogant ass!
    While he leafed through them, a harsh line drawn between lowered brows, she fumed. And yet, despite her anger, she had to admit he was good-looking. Almost breathtakingly handsome with his full head of black hair, a little on the long side but not too much. And those gray eyes that went from dark to light and back again. She almost had the feeling they’d met before but that was impossible. She would have remembered meeting someone like Christien Chevalier.
    The muscles in his jaw tightened and he tossed the papers on the desk. They missed and landed on the chair, one sliding to the floor.
    “They’re fake. Now why don’t you tell me why you are here?”
    Stunned she stared at the lone page on the floor. When she glanced through them while waiting in line she’d thought something was weird, but fake?
    “All I know is I was supposed to bring them to you. I was told we had an appointment and all you had to do was sign them and I’d be done.”
    “I assure you, Miss…” He raised a brow in inquiry.
    “Alexander. Lainie Alexander.”
    “Lainie.” Her name sounded foreign and exotic coming from him.
    “It’s short for Madelaine.” She didn’t know why she was telling him this. It wasn’t any of his business what her name was.
    His perusal of her sharpened until she felt like a bug pinned beneath a microscope.
    “Madelaine.”
    If Lainie sounded foreign and exotic, Madelaine sounded downright sinful when whispered in that way. Suddenly images of a large bed with navy curtains and soft sheets invaded her mind. She suppressed a