Sienna POV
The rain kept falling, heavier now than before, drumming against the roof and the windshield.
I didn’t hurry him.
I only stood outside the car in the rain and looked quietly at him.
My uniform was soaked through, the shirt clinging to my skin and my long hair wet, plastered in strands against the side of my face.
I deliberately didn’t push it all back at once.
I only raised a hand to brush the water from the corner of my eye, then smiled at him.
“Wasn’t that man going to take you home?” he asked.
“Ethan?” I said.
I let a flicker of reluctance show across my face.
“I don’t really know him. I can’t trouble someone else every time it rains.”
Luca looked at me.
“So you came to trouble me?”
”I didn’t have a choice.”
I curved my mouth into a small smile, lifted a hand and pushed the wet hair back from my face.
“Besides, I thought you wouldn’t mind,” I added.
His fingers tapped once against the steering wheel.
“You know me very well,” he said.
I knew exactly how wretched I looked right now.
If this were Luca five years ago, he would have gotten out of the car by now.
He would have frowned, put his coat over my shoulders.
Could five years really change a person that much?
I lowered my eyes and drew a small, deliberate breath.
“If it’s inconvenient, forget it.”
I turned to leave.
“Wait.”
His voice finally came from behind me.
My steps faltered.
The lock clicked, soft and final.
“Get in,” he said.
I turned back, the smile rising again on my face.
“Thank you, Mr. Hawthorne,” I said.
I pulled the door open and slid into the passenger seat.
The car was warm, and his scent wrapped around me the instant I closed the door. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Water still ran off me; my foot slipped, and I pitched forward, my hand landing on his thigh as I nearly crashed into his arms.
I looked up and found his eyes on me, unreadable.
“Sorry,” I said.
I didn’t pull back at once.
I smiled instead.
“If I said I didn’t mean it, would you believe me?”
Luca looked down at my hand where it rested on his thigh.
“Sorry, Mr. Hawthorne. I got you wet,” I said.
I let my gaze drop.
The rain off me had soaked a large patch of his pressed trousers, the fabric clinging to his leg.
Luca’s fingers paused on the steering wheel.
“I mean the pants,” I said.
He didn’t take that up.
“If someone saw this, they’d think we’d just been up to something,” I said.
“No one saw,” Luca said flatly.
“Except you and me.”
”Doesn’t that make it more interesting?” I turned toward him, elbow on the center armrest, chin in my hand.
“A man and a woman alone in a car, and I’ve got you like this. If word got out, Mr. Hawthorne, your reputation would suffer.”
Luca finally turned his head and looked at me.
That glance was cool and thin, the kind that saw straight through everything.
“Miss Hart, what are you trying to say?”
”Nothing much.
I just feel rather bad about it.
Why don’t we find somewhere and I’ll help you dry off?”
Luca turned away.
“Miss Hart, are you mooching a ride, or mooching off me?”
”Both,” I said, smiling openly.
“You’ve got a good car, and you’re not bad yourself. Either way I come out ahead.”
Luca didn’t answer me.
He started the car.
I leaned back in the passenger seat, watching his profile out of the corner of my eye.
His brows were faintly drawn, whether in impatience or something else I couldn’t tell.
I looked out the window.
“Rain like this, my neighborhood will probably be flooded again,” I said.
He said nothing to that.
“Last time it rained I stood downstairs for half an hour, and my phone died,” I said.
Silence again. Get faster updates on g.com.
I sighed, as if to myself.
“I left in a hurry today. I forgot my keys too. That’s a problem.”
Then I turned my head to watch him.
Luca kept his eyes on the road ahead, his face expressionless.
“From giving you a ride to forgetting your keys,” he said.
He paused.
“Miss Hart, do you want me to take you home, or take you straight to my place?”
”Mr. Hawthorne is very clever,” I said, admitting it freely.
“So, are you willing to take me to your home?”
Luca didn’t answer.
He held my eyes for two seconds, then his mouth pulled to one side and he picked up his phone and dialed.
“Theo. Get a room. Now.”
My smile faltered for an instant.
He hung up, tossed the phone back onto the console and glanced at me.
“Done. Someone will meet you there.”
”Mr. Hawthorne isn’t going to walk me up?” I asked.
“Inconvenient.”
”What’s inconvenient about it?” I asked.
Luca tapped his fingers on the wheel.
“Miss Hart, I’m an engaged man.”
”Not married yet, though.
As I recall, she’s only a fiancée,” I said.
“A fiancée is still a wife,” he said, looking down his nose at me.
“Taking a woman to a hotel room at this hour wouldn’t look good if it got out.”
I laughed.
“Mr. Hawthorne is that afraid of his fiancée?”
Luca said, “I just can’t be bothered with trouble.”
He glanced at me.
“Especially trouble like you.”
The car stopped at the hotel entrance, where a doorman came forward with an umbrella.
Luca didn’t get out.
“We’re here,” he said.
I pushed the door open and stepped out into the rain.
Before I left, I held the door and looked back at him.
“Good night, Mr. Hawthorne,” I said.
I paused, and let the smile turn deliberate.
“I hope you sleep well tonight.”
I walked through the revolving door.
In the moment the glass closed behind me, I looked back once.
Luca’s car was still sitting where it was.