Page 76 of Better Left Unsaid

I cleared my throat. “I read it somewhere, actually.”In my mother’s pregnancy journal, to be exact.“It’s easy to forget when you’re living your life, though.”

“No, no!” he insisted, taking my hand and squeezing it in his. “You must remember this because tomorrow isn’t promised, Maria. It’s important we live the day we were blessed with. I live by that notion. You should, too.”

“I’m really glad you sent those flowers,” I replied, my eyes darting between his as I thought about his words, letting them wash over me one more time. “Both bouquets, actually. They were truly gorgeous.”

He winked, and my ovaries practically fluttered. Darn, Bianca had been right—he was dreamy. “I didn’t hear back from you after the first one.”

“You don’t like to be ignored,” I noted my observation.

He disputed, “No. I like to go after what I want, and I want you, Maria.”

I swallowed, the lump in my throat nearly stopping me. “You want me?”

“We make magic together in the industry, am I right? You’re a very attractive woman. You’re intelligent, and family means everything to you. You have all the qualities I look for in a woman. You are”—he stopped himself, placing a hand on his chin—“the complete package.”

I laughed, my breathing coming out shaky. “No one has ever said that to me before. You’re the first.”That is what the first part of that sentence implied.Geez, I was sweating. Why did he make me so nervous?

“I’ve lived my life, and this much I know to be true. It’s hard to find someone you’re passionate about in every way. I could see how passionate we could be about each other.”

Just then, the waiter came over and took our orders, so I didn’t have to answer Paolo. Frankly, I was happy about that because I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. It was interesting to be admired by a man the way he admired me. No one cared about me that much. Well, Dom, but that was different. We were friends. He had to look at me that way, and we had that stupid arrangement.

As the waiter was walking away with our orders and menus, Paolo turned to me and grinned. “I heard they have an extensive dessert menu here, but they have a cheesecake I thought you would be most interested in.”

Cheesecake? Sirens went off in my head, remembering the time Dom had coated my lips with our arousals, and I’d licked it clean, telling him it tastedbetter than cheesecake.

I retracted my hand, placing it in my lap, and shrugged. “I’ve been here one other time, and they actually have really good tiramisu. I’ll probably just order that.”

“If that’s what you want.”

I nodded. “It is.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Dominic

It was late.Too fucking late to be leaving Jeff’s office if you asked me, but he’d left me little choice in the matter.

He’d called me down there to bust my balls because I had to make a decision about Italy. Luckily for me, he gave me more time to think on it. The only trouble was that I knew I wouldn’t have forever. It was only six weeks, but it just felt like a big decision, and something was holding me back, I just didn’t know what it was.

All right, fine. That was a lie. Fuck me. I knew what was holding me back. You knew what was holding me back. We all goddamn knew what it was. Except it wasn’t awhat, but rather awho. Her name was Maria Morelli, and she was all I ever thought about.

There was a very good chance she was home and Isabella was already asleep, so I called her. When she didn’t answer right away, I texted her.

Dominic:You home?

Maria:Yeah, sorry I missed your call. I was in the shower.

Shit. Maria in the shower. That meant she was wet. I could just picture taking her in the shower. My body grew tense at the prospect. We’d never had sex in the shower, but I’d be damned if I didn’t want to now.

Maria:What’d you need?

I shook my head, needing to clear my rogue thoughts.

Dominic:I’m on my way out of the city. Was hoping I could stop by.

Far too many minutes went by before she answered. So many, in fact, I was practically home when she finally did.

Maria:We should talk.

---