Sienna POV
Luca finished speaking and closed his eyes again.
The car went quiet, broken only by streetlights flickering past the tinted windows.
I hesitated a few seconds, then edged a little closer to him.
Luca didn’t react.
I moved again, until my shoulder touched his arm.
This time he opened his eyes.
“Didn’t I tell you to behave?”
”I’m not doing anything.” I said it as though I were perfectly in the right.
Luca glanced down at our shoulders, almost touching.
“You call this not doing anything?”
I laughed.
“I’m just getting comfortable.”
He didn’t call me on it.
He only closed his eyes again.
Watching his cold profile, I felt something familiar stir in me.
It had been like this five years ago too.
He always looked impossible to reach, and yet, as long as I was willing to take one more step, he would let me close the distance in silence.
Back then I knew exactly what I was doing.
Now it was different.
I wasn’t sure I could still treat every step toward him as part of an assignment.
But I reached out anyway.
My fingertips found his tie, and I straightened the knot that had loosened during the evening, working slowly.
Luca opened his eyes.
“What are you up to now?”
”Fixing your clothes.”
”I didn’t ask you to.”
He stared at me.
I met his eyes and smiled suddenly.
“Besides, didn’t you say I’m your personal assistant? This is part of the job.”
”A personal assistant handles files and schedules.”
”Not necessarily.” I let go of his tie and let my fingers drift to his collar.
“If the boss has other needs, the assistant can take care of those too.”
Luca caught my wrist.
Fast, but without force.
“How much have you had to drink tonight?”
”Not much.”
”Are you drunk?”
“I’m perfectly clear-headed.”
Luca turned his face away from the heat of my breath, then raised a hand and caught my chin, forcing my head up.
His grip wasn’t hard, but there was no easy way out of it.
“Who do you think you’re flirting with?”
I didn’t answer.
Instead I lifted both arms around his neck and pressed a light kiss to his jaw.
Luca went still under my touch, the muscle tightening inch by inch beneath his suit.
He swallowed whatever sound he’d been about to make and forced the words out through his teeth.
“Sienna… what is it you want from me this time?”
I stopped.
His eyes rested on my face, deep enough that I couldn’t read them.
“Or do you think the same trick you pulled five years ago is going to work on me again?”
I laughed.
“Are you afraid?”
My mouth traced the line of his jaw until it stopped at the corner of his lips.
“Afraid I’ll play you again?”
I didn’t give him the chance to answer.
I leaned in, arms still around his neck, and pressed my mouth hard against his.
Luca’s body went rigid.
He didn’t push me away at once, and he wasn’t as unmoved as I’d expected either.
The air in the car thickened.
I could feel his chest rising faster, feel his hand at my waist tighten on its own, his fingertips pressing into my skin through the thin fabric.
His breathing grew heavier, and the kiss grew deeper.
He was responding.
Heat came off him through the wool of his suit, his breath landing on my face; when I swept my tongue across the corner of his mouth, he let out a low sound against his will, and his hand slid from my waist to my back, pulling me harder against him.
I was almost lost in it when he suddenly turned his head away.
He caught the wrists still locked behind his neck and pushed me back a little.
“Enough.”
Seeing him fight so hard to look composed, I couldn’t help laughing.
“Luca,” I said, still a little breathless, “do you know what this is called?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, after a moment of silence, he took a cigarette case and a lighter from his inside pocket, lit up, and drew deep.
Smoke drifted from his lips and covered whatever was left in his eyes.
“You’re pretending,” I said.
I held his gaze, my smile deepening.
“You feel it, and you still have to act this calm.”
Luca didn’t take me up on it. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
He only reached up and pressed the button for the partition.
It rose slowly, sealing us off from the front of the car completely.
“Theo.” His voice had already gone rough.
“Boss.”
”Take Sienna back to the hotel.”
”Yes, sir.”
The car pulled away and turned smoothly at the next corner.
I said nothing more.
I simply sat there beside him.
Before long we stopped at the hotel entrance.
We had booked rooms in the same place, and yet Luca made no move to get out.
His eyes stayed on the window, as though none of what had just happened had happened at all.
I pushed the door open and got out alone.
Back in my room I didn’t shower.
I locked the door first and took the brooch from the inside of my gown.
Evelyn had given it to me.
A micro camera was hidden inside it.
I took out the memory card, plugged it into my phone, and the photos loaded quickly.
The shots from the ballroom were reasonably clear.
The ones of me standing beside Luca showed our faces well enough.
But in the car it was a different story entirely.
The light back there had been too poor, and the camera sat at a bad angle, so most of the frames came out as nothing but blurred shapes.
Photos like that wouldn’t prove anything to anyone.
I set the phone on the table and leaned back in the chair.
“Damn it.”
Another night wasted.
I’d thought I’d at least walk away with something I could hand to Evelyn, and I’d walked away with nothing.
And yet…
I picked the phone back up and looked at the blurred images again.
My gaze stopped on one of them.
At least Luca hadn’t pushed me away.