Vanessa Fewings - The Chase

“Yo¯koso.” She bowed low.

These impossible seconds unfolded like a cruel nightmare. Her fading image flickered back into focus.

“What the fuck...” I hissed through clenched teeth.

“She’s a bit glitchy.” A male voice. My stare shot toward it.

Tobias Wilder stood at the top of the stairs with his hands tucked casually inside his trouser pockets, his thoughtful frown deepening. He was more striking than I’d remembered him, that dark blond hair crowning his handsome face and his green eyes were mesmerizing as they held mine. His well-defined physique was now dressed sharply in a classically styled tuxedo, his white shirt open at the collar with no bow tie.

I chastised myself for staring too long. The geisha was gone.

Blinking furiously, my brain tried to process what I’d seen.

Tobias made his way down the stairs. “The uncanny valley.”

“I’m sorry?”

“A hypothesis.” He paused on the last step. “From the field of aesthetics.” He raised his gaze to the ceiling. “The brain triggers unease. It clearly senses what it’s seeing isn’t real. What was your initial emotion?”

My thoughts swirled, my jaw easing its tension.

If try not to pee yourself was an emotion, that would be it.

He gave an assured nod. “Revulsion? Even if she is pretty.”

“A hologram?” I wanted to tell him that was wrong in so many ways.

He arched his eyebrows playfully. “I started off with a rat. That did not go down well.”

This man was bloody insane.

And I was in the middle of the country and quite possibly alone with him.

Trying to pull back on my startled expression, I said, “You have a beautiful home, Mr. Wilder?” It came out as a question. “Long driveway.”

“Please, call me Tobias.”

My gaze darted around to see if anyone else was here.

“Would you like a drink?” He gestured to the left.

I knelt to retrieve my handbag and cringed when I saw the shattered glass on my iPhone’s screen.

He stood above me in that devilishly handsome pose, his face calm as though he’d not just scared the crap out of me and smashed my phone. I peered up to see his intense stare locked on mine, and a rush of ill-timed excitement flooded my veins.

He’d frozen me there with his stare.

“I’ll get you a new one,” he said firmly. “You’re three models behind, Zara. This will not do.”

My gaze swept over my phone.

He held out his hand, and I felt his firm grip as he assisted me up. I stared at him. “That won’t be necessary.”

“I think you’ll find contradicting me is unwise.” He winked.

God, I’d forgotten how gorgeous he was. How his striking green eyes crinkled so seductively when he smiled.

“I insist.” He waved it off.

My cheeks scorched with embarrassment as I followed him out of the foyer. This was my first day out in the field, and I intended on getting my act together and impressing both Tobias and my boss when he reported back to him.

For now, I’d have to tuck my cheeky retorts away.

His cologne wafted around me and I subtly sniffed him in. The scent of a fresh forest in the morning, and something spicy, something forbidden. A poorly timed vision of his naked, toned torso flashed through my thoughts.

I wondered if Tobias’s messy-yet-artful, post-fucked hairstyle was on purpose. His flawless bespoke tux showed off his tall frame and broad shoulders and his onyx-and-silver cuff links shone as they caught the light. He had the kind of walk that proved his unwavering confidence as he went about intimidating those who dared to enter his stratosphere.

He’d either come from a posh dinner or was heading out to one. Probably with some übersexy vixen who made me look like the girl next door. Might as well have worn that parka, it wasn’t like he was going to be admiring my curves anytime soon.

“This shouldn’t take long,” I reassured him.

He turned and flashed a heart-stopping smile. “I’ve already had the pleasure of a demonstration of your skills, Zara.”

“The Jackson Pollock?”

“Quite a gift.” He gave a ghost of a smile and his American aura oozed approachable and yet those stunning good looks were unnerving.

We made our way into a large sitting room, sparse like the foyer, a leather couch facing the long sweeping window from floor to ceiling. Beyond the view lay miles of lush green grass that eventually met with a forest that stretched out for miles.

All that lovely nature extended in here too with those tall thriving plants that gave the place an earthy feel. To the left there was a clear wall of glass with falling water echoing like rain along the full length of the room.

The beauty of it took my breath away.

“The house is run by solar,” he said when he caught me staring at it.

“Why the hologram?” I asked. “Is it part of your security system?”

“I tinker.”

“With holograms?”

“Inventions.”

Of course, I’d read that about him but hadn’t expected to see one so soon, and certainly not such a brilliant demonstration of what he was capable of.

Tobias made his way over to a chrome bar. From behind there he opened a fridge door and brought out an impressive bottle of Krug champagne and a carafe of orange juice and set about making us drinks. “You made a fine test subject.”

“You observed my reaction?”

“Software failed. The experiment was compromised.”

“What else do you invent?”

He arched a brow. “The nature of an invention is to create that which does not exist.”

“Obviously.”

Tobias paused as though I’d offended him.

“I’m sure it’s all top secret.” I softened the moment.

“Failure is common.”

“Didn’t Edison say something about being so close and not giving up? That you’re usually right there when you give up.”

“And how would one test such a theory?”

My teeth scraped over my lower lip as I ran through that logic.

He turned around and reached up to the glass cabinet behind him and brought down two champagne flutes.

“I’m driving,” I said. “Water would be nice.”

“Not tonight.”

“I meant when I leave later.”

He spilled a trickle of orange juice onto his hand and licked the tip of his finger; a curl of his sensual mouth, a flash of tongue.

He threw me a mischievous grin. And I almost melted on the spot.

Being in the same space with him addled my thoughts, and I had to force myself to pull back on my imagination, which was teasing how wonderful his gorgeous body would feel against mine. A fantasy that felt impossible.

“Thank you for driving all the way out here,” he said.

“It’s my pleasure. I’m glad to be of help. Do you rent the property when you’re in town?”

“I own it.”

Of course he did, and it felt like such a silly question now.

He peered out the long window. “I’m not too popular amongst the neighbors. Whoever submitted the schematics for the height of the fences got their metric system muddled with the foot units and measured it all wrong.”

I had noted how tall the gates were as I’d driven through his property.

“Turns out,” Tobias continued, “fox hunters can’t jump the gates during a hunt.” He uncorked the bottle of champagne. “And their hounds are too big to fit through. So those foxes use my land as a sort of sanctuary. Naughty foxes.”

I caught his cheeky grin.

“Well, that’s quite wonderful,” I said.

“In the winter I like to stand right where you are now and look out and watch them play in the snow.”

With a tilt of champagne and a dash of orange juice he’d prepared two mimosas. My gaze roamed over him in awe.