Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 163540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 818(@200wpm)___ 654(@250wpm)___ 545(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 163540 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 818(@200wpm)___ 654(@250wpm)___ 545(@300wpm)
His hands fall to my hips, instantly silencing me. He bends and puts his lips to my ear. “You will get it.” Goosebumps scatter over my skin at the feeling of his breath on my neck. “But I’ll get this one.”
Oh jeez…
I stand and watch the bartender make the drinks as Enrico’s hands stay fixed on my waist. The heat from his touch feels like it’s starting a slow burning fire.
Shit, shit, shit, shit.
The waiter puts the drinks on the counter.
“I’ll help you carry them,” Enrico says. He picks up two and I pick up one. He follows me outside.
Natalie glances up as I approach. Her eyes widen when she sees him behind me.
“Here you are.” I smile awkwardly and hand over her drink.
“Thanks.” She smiles.
I turn to Enrico. “Natalie, this is Enrico, a friend I met in Rome.”
Enrico’s eyes hold mine for an extended beat and he raises a brow. Finally, his manners surface, and he smiles. “Nice to meet you, Natalie.” He shakes her hand and then passes me my drink.
Natalie goes back to the man she was talking to, and Enrico bends to whisper in my ear. “So, I’m your friend?”
“What would you prefer I introduce you as?”
He sips his drink with a straight face. “Not that.” Unable to help it, I smile over at him and he smiles back. “How has your week been, Olivia?”
“Good. Yours?”
He shrugs. “Okay.”
“Just okay?”
“Just okay.”
We fall silent, and I don’t know what to say. He makes me so nervous.
“Let’s go and sit down.” He gestures to a bench seat beneath a canopy.
My eyes flicker to it. “Okay.”
I follow him over to the corner of the courtyard. It’s darker here, but the space is lit with fairy lights. We find our spot and sit beside each other.
“Closer, bella.” He grabs my hips and drags me to him. The dominance of the act starts a series of memories to flood my mind. The way he moved me while we made love. He just flipped me around like a feather. My body was at his disposal.
“Tell me why your week was just okay,” I say.
He smiles as he looks out over the other clubbers. “Let’s just say that having you in town is very… distracting. I’ve been unable to focus on anything knowing you were so close.”
Hope blooms in my chest. I don’t know what I’m hoping for, but it’s most definitely there.
I look out over the club, searching for something intelligent to say. “I’m sorry about your father,” I whisper. “I was so shocked when you told me, I didn’t offer my condolences.”
A soft smile dusts his face.
“I wish you’d told me back then,” I say softly.
He clenches his jaw and stays silent.
I twist my fingers in front of me. “Do you come here often?”
We turn back to each other, and his dark eyes hold mine. “No.”
“Oh.”
An awkward silence falls over us. I have to concentrate to remember to breathe. He’s not chatty like he was before. He seems more intense, or am I imagining it?
“You’re different,” I whisper.
“How so?”
“You’re quiet now.”
He smiles sadly. “I just….” He stops himself from saying more.
“You just…?”
He shrugs. “Words escape me sometimes.”
I smile as I catch the first glimpse of the man I met. “Did you organize for me to come to Milan?”
“Yes,” he confirms without hesitation. “And you weren’t ever supposed to find that out. Damn Giorgio and his big mouth.”
I smile. “Why did you want me here?”
“I needed to see you.” His eyes hold mine.
“Why didn’t you just call me?”
A frown crosses his brow. “Because I knew you wouldn’t come for me alone.”
Does he even know me at all?
We stare at each other and I feel this connection that just shouldn’t be there. Not after this long—not after the way he treated me.
“What are you thinking?” he whispers.
“I don’t know.” Thump, thump, thump goes my heart. “What are you thinking?”
He leans toward me. “I’m thinking that you’re the most beautiful fucking woman I have ever seen, and I……” His voice trails off.
“And you what?”
“I need to kiss you.”
I stare at him as the air swirls between us. “So, do it.”
He frowns and his eyes lift to the people around us. “I can’t. I can’t kiss you here.”
“Why not?”
He gives a subtle shake of his head and clenches his jaw. “I don’t get to choose what I do in public anymore.”
Fuck, he doesn’t want me.
I fake a smile and stand. “That’s okay, I get it.”
He frowns and stands abruptly. “You get what?”
“I’m not playing this game, Rico. You don’t have to say pretty things. You don’t have to kiss me. I’m not going to beg. How pathetic do you think I am?”
“You think I don’t want you?”
I roll my eyes. “Just leave it.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me through the club quickly. “What are you doing?” I cry out. We cross the dance floor, walk through the hall, and we enter another room. I glance around to see we’re in an office of some kind.