“Saffron,” he repeated. As much as I hated that name—and the woman who gave it to me—I found I didn’t mind it so much when he said it. Actually, it was kind of nice. “That’s an unusual name.”

“Yes, well, my mother was an unusual woman.” Just the mention of her was enough to let me slip back behind my defenses. I didn’t even have to pretend to be an ice queen. Memories of my early childhood made me plenty bitchy for real. I moved away from him. I put two arms’ lengths between us. “Though, I’m not sure you can speak, Soren.”

“It means ‘stern’ or ‘severe,’” he explained. “Seems fitting.”

It seemed he had his guards too.

They were firmly in place as he moved down the small wing to the side of the stage.

Good.

That was good.

If we both had our walls up, the chances of us doing something as monumentally dumb as fucking up against the wall in an abandoned building were much lower.

“This is plenty of room for an elevator,” he declared after moving around. “Care to test walk the path with me?”

I’d almost reminded him that he’d already done that, but Renzo’s voice popped in my head, reminding me that he needed this deal to go through and I needed to check my attitude for that to happen.

“Sure. After you,” I said.

“I insist,” he said, holding a hand toward the exit.

“I have to lock up,” I said, reaching in my pocket for the keys.

“As you wish,” he said, going ahead of me but holding the door until I was outside.

I liked to think that I didn’t care for manners. That I genuinely just wanted to be treated like one of the guys. But I could admit just to myself that I kind of liked how he held doors, insisted I go first, and waited to sit until I was seated. It was nice. Respectful in a different way than I was used to.

“This is going to need security of some kind. No woman is going to want to walk through here at night. Even if she has her own detail.”

“I’m hopeful that I can talk the building owners to putting up a gate. It would be in their best interest not to have a dark alley where anyone could hide out and do all kinds of things anyway.”

We moved out of the alley, both of us looking up and down the street.

“What’s this area like at night?” he asked.

Now we were talking my language. Because if there was anything I knew, it was my neighborhood.