14. Alexi

I draggedmy feet again as I took the bus and then walked to another area of the city I hadn't been in.

After sending the Elite Connections contact an email saying I no longer required their services, I was surprised to get an email asking to meet their agent. This time, I wasn't given the name and address of a coffee shop but what looked like a home address.

I'd been living a pretty normal life since moving to the US, but I wasn't naive. When I got the address, I contacted my Uncle Sergei to check if it was safe to go there. He said it was, so I was apprehensive but also curious.

The flight back from Connecticut two days ago had been torture. Uncle Rory and Sergei had insisted on coming with me. Rory said he wanted to visit a friend he knew from college, and since my parents' private jet was already coming this way, they might as well come.

Pretending to be fine when I was anything but was the closest I got to real acting. No awards for me when, after Rory left us, Sergei took me to a restaurant for dinner and made me open up.

Considering he was an overprotective grump most of the time, he could be really kind and gentle when he wanted.

Troy's voice message played on a loop in my head. I felt so bad about how I'd treated him, and the more I talked to Sergei, the more I believed that Troy had initially refused to "spy" on me.

Like my dad said, we should have communicated better, and that was on both of us, but I should have listened when he wanted to talk at the party.

So, my current lack of interest in anything, including meeting the Elite person, was due to not hearing from Troy since he'd left the voice message.

I found the right building and rang the buzzer. A moment later, the lock released, so I pushed the door open.

My anxiety spiked. Was this a good idea? Going into a building on my own to meet someone who had canceled on me repeatedly?

The whole elevator ride up, I debated going straight down as soon as it arrived on the top floor, but my feet carried me forward until I was in front of the correct door.

When the door opened, all blood drained from my face when instead of the Elite person, I found myself face to face with— "Troy?"

I fell a few steps back, but he grabbed my hand to keep me steady.

"Hey. Come inside."

"I…um…I'm in the wrong place. I shouldn't be here. I must have the wrong address."

I tried to let go, but then my eyes narrowed on the pin he had on his sweater.

"The key." I instinctively reached up to touch my own pin. "No." I shook my head.

"Alexi, please come inside. We have a lot to talk about."

Words were stuck in my throat, but my mind ran a thousand miles an hour.

Troy was the Elite person? Did he know he was meeting me? Was this all a game to him?

My dad's words got into my head again.

Communication.

Troy took me inside and led me to a large couch in what looked like a living room. This was someone's house.

Was this Troy's apartment? How could he afford to live here?

He knelt in front of me and held my hands. "I can see you're panicking and probably reaching all the wrong conclusions, so let me start by saying I didn't know you were the client, okay? I canceled all the meetings because I saw you and didn't want my two worlds to collide."

"Two worlds?"

"Remember when I said in my message that I had a secret?"

I nodded.

"Three years ago, I started a company with my then-roommate, Marco. I'd built a piece of software and an algorithm that was good at pulling information from various sources and sorting it into categories. In basic terms, it's a sophisticated search engine that gives us access to things most people can't access when they do the same searches. Marco joked that we should start a matchmaking service. The idea evolved into a concierge service where we matched people with what they wanted. His dad lent us the start-up capital, and we ran with it. The company is currently valued at over two billion dollars. Our goal was always to sell it when we graduated because we both had…personal goals we wanted to achieve outside of Elite. Elite was just a way for us to get what we wanted."

I tried to keep up with all the information, but it was too much. Troy started a secret company? He was a billionaire?

"What did you want?" I asked, thinking about what he said about personal goals.

"The one thing I can't buy with money. You."

I opened my mouth, but no sound came.

"Yes, Alexi. I've wanted you for a long time. Elite was my ticket to buying my parents' retirement so they could enjoy their life together. Maybe they could even donate the store to a young couple who'd want to continue the business they started before I was even born. Elite was also my way to gain the freedom to leave everything behind and follow you."

"What if I didn't want you?"

He sighed and sat back on his feet. "Then I guess we'd remain friends, and I'd just be stupid rich."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"Because there's a threat to the company. Someone has started leaking information about its existence. Our success is based on no one knowing we exist. Every client is referred by another client. That's how it was in the beginning and how it is now. We never expected the company to grow this much, and now many people depend on us. We employ people all over the world. If we collapse, they lose their jobs."

"I won't tell anyone."

He smiled. "I know. We deleted all records of you ever being an Elite client from our system in case things ever get out. Our team is working really hard to find the guy who's doing this, and it's better if you're never associated with Elite."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Two questions, actually."

I smiled. "Okay."

The confidence I'd seen since he'd opened the door seemed to falter a little. I turned my hands over so my palms faced his.

He took a deep breath before he spoke. "When Wren asked me to check on you to make sure you were settling in okay, I didn't want to do it. It felt wrong, especially because I was already avoiding you because I couldn't tell you about Elite. If you were in my life, you'd have known something was up. Look around. What student do you know that could afford to live here?"

"This is your place?" I asked.

"Yes. I didn't want to avoid you. Quite the opposite. I couldn't risk being in your life, but then you kept appearing everywhere, and I couldn't resist. So, no, I didn't spend time with you to report back, and I only pretended to do it for Wren because he'd asked me about you. It was easier to follow that line of questioning than risk them knowing about us." His eyes were so earnest when he asked, "Do you believe me?"

"I believe you. I'm sorry I reacted the way I did at the party. I overheard your conversation with Wren, and I was hurt. I should have trusted you. I feel so awful." Tears started building in the back of my eyes.

"Hey, baby, look at me." He caressed my cheek, rubbing his thumb in smooth circles. "There was no way for you to know everything. Your reaction was justified, okay?"

I nodded. "What was the other question?"

"I was wondering why you contacted Elite. Even after I got your record unsealed, there was no information. Usually, someone of your status will come to us looking for a date for an event or a fake wife."

"A fake wife?" I laughed.

"It happens more than you think."

I bit my lip. I guessed it was time to share my secret.

"When I said no more secrets, I didn't think I'd have to confess to this one." I let out a breath. "I heard about Elite from my roommate. His cousin's girlfriend's best friend used Elite. He told me some stories, so I decided to check for myself because…um…" My face felt so hot that it had to be the same color as my hair. "Because I wanted help to get you. God, that sounds so lame."

Troy stood on his knees, so we were face to face now. "What do you mean to get me?"

"Ugh, you're gonna make me say it."

"Uh-huh."

"Fine." I huffed. "I came to the US because I wanted to be with you. I'd decided I was going to tell you how I felt, but then I couldn't get any time with you, so I figured I wasn't…grown up enough for you. Which is stupid because I'm twenty-two, but you seemed so cool and collected all the time. And I…I was just me. I wanted help to be maybe more American, more like the kind of guy you'd go for."

I tried to cover my face with my hands, but Troy swooped in for a kiss. When I opened my mouth to take a relieved breath, he deepened it. His hands on either side of my face kept me in place while he ravished me.

"Lexi, you are perfect as you are, and I'm so in love with you it's unreal. I think I have been for a long time, but before I tasted you, before I was with you, you were this concept. This person I knew I wanted down to my core, but there were so many walls between us. I would never want you to be more American or more anything than just yourself. That boy I met years ago who tried so hard to memorize everyone in his new family. He's the one I fell for. He's you, Alexi."

I sucked in a deep breath. "Troy."

"Shhh, it's okay, you don't have to say it all back. I just needed you to?—"

"Shut up. I love you too."

We kissed again. It was frantic and also not because we were cementing our feelings for each other with every touch, every lick, every pass of his tongue over mine.

"Hey, Troy," I whispered between kisses.

"Yeah?"

"This is really your place?"

"Hmm."

"I don't suppose you have a bedroom here."