He finally faced me, but he was completely closed off, like he’d flipped some switch and now there was a sign that read, ‘Keep Out’.
“Did I do something? Say something?” I pressed.
“Everything is fine, Miss Montgomery.”
I rolled my eyes. “So we’re back to that.”
“You were the one that wanted to keep things professional.”
I let out a groan of frustration. “You can’t tell me that being in the room with me, touching me, makes you think about business and mergers.” I looked at him hard, wondering how I could get back in. Maybe he needed me to take the first step. To open up.
I swallowed. Here goes nothing.
“I fought you at every turn before because I’ve always been in control. I’ve never had to not work for anything my whole life.” He was still as a marble statue, but he wasn’t bolting from the room, so I continued. “Even if you never noticed me and just kept walking in the lobby that day, I would have been the best damn research aide Whitmore and Creighton ever had. I would have kept my nose to the grindstone and eventually snagged a position as an aide to a PR specialist, and climbed my way up the ladder. But you had other plans.”
He finally took a step in my direction. “Leila-”
“Let me finish,” I said gently. “I don’t regret accepting your proposition. It was the right move for my career. But agreeing to the other terms? It’s a huge thing to me. Giving myself to you is not something I take lightly.” I took a step, and then another, looking up at him and fighting the urge to kiss him. I had to get out the last bit. “I held back in the stairwell, and in the office. But I don’t want to hold back anymore.”
There it was. All my cards out on the table.
And he didn’t say a word.
I felt my eyes water and kicked myself. Of course I was gonna cry. That would show him. “Are you having second thoughts about this arrangement?” A traitorous tear unhinged and spilled down my cheek. “Am I unsatisfying?”
Tears were like kryptonite to most men and I didn’t expect a hardened male like Jacob to be any different, but he brought his hand to my cheek, wiping it away.
“You’re far from unsatisfying, Leila. I-” His mouth hung open, whatever was to come next painfully unfinished.
He cleared his throat and broke contact. “I should check with the pilot and see if we’re ready to get in the air.” He turned his back to me again and I could have pummeled it with my fists, trying to force him to let me in.
He pulled the divider open and stepped back into the cab of the jet. He flashed me one last look. “Take as long as you need.”
****
I peered out the window, the sight of the downtown skyline of Venice taking my breath away.
"We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow prior to the start of the festival." His tone was purely business. "I suggest you get as much rest today as possible."
The city on the water was close enough that I could see and smell the blue. I'd always wanted to study abroad in Europe and now I was here. I was here—and everything that hung between Jacob and I kept me from playing tourist and bouncing with glee.
“A response, Miss Montgomery.”
I wrenched my eyes from the window and turned to him. "Fine."
Satisfied, he turned back to the tablet in his hand, his fingers gliding across the screen. "My liaison here, Allegra De Luca, will meet us landside and from there, take you to your hotel to get settled."
His fingers stopped sweeping but his attention was still on his screen. My attention was squarely on the roundabout way he’d let me know that we wouldn’t even be at the same hotel.
Questions rushed around in my head. My hotel? So we're not even staying in the same place? We're separating? I figured you'd need me. Don’t you need me, Jacob?
All of them were left unanswered as the plane came to a stop and the pilot announced that we were free to move about the cabin.
I stole a glance at Jacob stuffing folders into his briefcase, slowly unbuckling my seatbelt. "So you’re not going to drop me off at my hotel?"
"I have business to attend to. You'll not find a better companion than Ms. De Luca." He stood up and paused, allowing me to pass first. "After you."
I pushed my shades up to the bridge of my nose and clutched my bag, mumbling a thank you to Maggie as I exited the jet. Once outside, I turned in a slow circle, scanning the landing strip for Allegra De Luca. A name like that screamed jet black hair and a sophistication to match the beauty of the Italian city sparkling in the distance.
I gasped when I felt a hand on the small of my back then cheesed from ear to ear when I realized the hand belonged to Jacob.
Visible amusement colored his eyes before he slid his sunglasses into place. "Ms. De Luca is waiting."
I walked in step with him, his hand on me a gesture that probably meant nothing; but I couldn’t help but read into it. Maybe we still had differing views about what was actually going on between us, but there was no mistaking the intimacy as he made a slow circle at the curve of my back, right?
I tilted my head in his direction, wanting to bring it up while he was being touchy feely, but my mouth hung open in surprise as a deep, throaty laugh spilled from his lips.
No--it had to be jet lag, because Jacob Whitmore barely smiled and he definitely didn’t laugh. But another baritone volley erupted beside me and there was no mistaking the source. I stared at him in shock, a smile cracking through the stone. The hand was gone as he breezed toward an older woman standing beside a black sedan.
There was no time to be offended, even though it was obvious that this 'Allegra' person was behind his complete 180. I watched him embrace the older woman and spin her in a circle.
She was Allegra…and I’d never been so relieved in my life.
Allegra was about his height, but wider than Jacob. She staggered a bit when he finally released her, giving him a shove that sent him stumbling before he went back in for a bear hug.
Up close, I saw that despite Allegra's muscular physique, her face had gentle curves, intensified by bright, olive colored eyes and a lazy smile. She wore a gray blouse tucked into dark wash jeans but still looked efficient and professional. Her midnight colored hair was cropped short and specks of gray weaved throughout.
Her eyes shot to me as I got close. “Buongiorno.”
Jacob turned and eyeballed me, suddenly remembering there was a second in his party. "Oh, uh, Allegra, this is Leila Montgomery. My new personal assistant."