11

It was a strangely peaceful moment as his eyes darted to hers for a second. She wanted to turn his face to look at hers, but he immediately shifted his hand from the side of the armchair to between his legs as he quickly stood up and pulled his jacket across the front of his pants. Vasko commented on the rocker's hair looking strange with all of that bleach but it was also attractive, he was so concentrated on getting the photo correct that the activities of his wife-to-be were unnoticed. Yuliya pulled her hand away as she saw their twined hands lean down in an arch as it had been held by the pressure of her person of interest.

"Are we boring you? I know you're most used to a higher class of entertainment. I'm sure I can provide you something interesting for you once it's time for the women to head home." Vasko said quickly as his voice coaxed Afuru to stay.

"My sister should be here and she'll need someone with her."

Vasko cocked his head in interest. "The one who spoke at the United Nations?"

"No, this is my younger sister who travels with a brood of children. They may not be good company as they are quite loud. They spill and break things often so it must be perilous to be around them."

"Children are always interesting. I don't know why they would be interested in this. Isn't it a bit late for young children?" Vasko looked at Afuru with some forlorn feelings as he joined Afuru. "I'll make sure to bring Yuliya around sometime to your place as well. I'm sure that she would enjoy seeing a true collector's work and worth. Maybe seeing yours will make her believe that I'm not as lunatic as I seem about my collecting."

Kai's eyes trailed to the outside of the door as his phone lit up. His movements were completely fluid as he hurried to the hallway to tall the call and the server who was there mixing drinks quietly closed the door behind the leaving guest. Yuliya couldn't stop looking at the pronounced musculature in the retreating guests back until her sight was cut off by the closing door. She was incredibly irritable thinking that she would not be able to look into his eyes more, when she remembered what he had said and realized that Mario did have a very good view of her phone and what she was doing now so she couldn't even though she wanted to look at it yet.

Mario, her darling, moved closer to her and accepted the drink that had been prepared for him by the server. "Be very thankful, my love, that I am nothing like that. He is actually crazy about collecting."

Her eyes turned to him as she felt the warmth from her previous encounter start to cool with the sweat that she had started to produce. She wiped her hands on the silk of her halter dress, she felt strangely vulnerable now in it. "Actually crazy? Whatever do you mean?"