Page 60 of Out of Office Nights
A designer’s dream workshop, with a wealth of fabrics, six workbenches, mannequins and an entire wall dedicated to some of Teo’s most celebrated designs. She’d mistakenly believed that his treasured workshop was in Milan, but this felt…special.
‘I didn’t know this was here,’ she murmured then frowned. ‘You didn’t mention it when I was making Eden’s trousseau.’
‘Because very few people know this studio exists. And fewer are granted access. Or so I thought,’ he muttered darkly.
‘Why?’ she asked before she could stop herself. ‘And why are you showing it to me at all?’
That curious bewilderment flashed across his face once more. Then he shrugged. ‘You showed me your grandmother’s chair. This place is my equivalent,’ he said, his voice rough and raw.
Perhaps it was a sweetener to keep her exactly where he wanted her. Or Teo exposing another layer of himself. Either way, her heart lurched, her emotions frantically scrambling not to bubble over.
‘Use the space as you see fit.’ Striding to a workbench that turned out to be automated, a switch lit up the whole table. ‘Place your sketches here, and they’ll be converted into a 3-D version, and you can continue creating from here…’ A flurry of instructions followed, most of which only half registered.
She’d remained old-school with her designs because it was a custom of her grandmother’s she’d wanted to honour. But this, Teo letting her into his inner sanctum, showing her a part of himself others rarely saw…
‘Thank you,’ she whispered, the near-terrifying sensation of brimming with too much emotion choking her again. ‘Teo—’ She stopped when, with a perfunctory knock, the doors swept open.
Valenti Domene filled the doorway. His gaze passed briefly over her and the studio before settling on his twin.
‘Everything okay?’
‘Why shouldn’t it be?’ Teo asked.
Valenti didn’t answer. The two men watched each other, peculiar expressions weaving across their faces.Twin-speak.After several moments, Valenti nodded gruffly at his brother, his dark silver gaze moving over her before he turned.
‘Thanks for checking in. But maybe next time use one of the many phones you’ve got next door?’ Teo teased a little tensely.
‘I would if I was sure you’d answer’ came the grouchy reply as Valenti left as abruptly as he’d arrived.
‘What was that all about?’
Teo shrugged. ‘It’s not every day I find out I might become a father. My emotions are somewhat…amplified.’ The edge had sharpened, shards of bitterness cutting through his voice.
‘And he felt that too? Does that happen often?’ she asked, stunned.
‘Very rarely. So it’s…meaningful when it does.’
Her heart did that dipping thing again, her eyes desperately searching for a sign that this wasn’t all a proprietorial claiming.
Thatshemattered in this too.
But his gaze was efficiently shuttered when it raked her face before he nodded. ‘I’ll see you later,’ he said crisply.
Then he was gone, taking the very air with him. Leaving her amongst his most treasured creations.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
If she’d thoughtthe first days in her grandmother’s house with Teo were emotionally strenuous, they were nothing compared to her first week in Teo’s Cartana mansion, starting with the harrowing decision to move her things out of Teo’s suite and into one of the many luxurious guest suites. The part of her that wasn’t furiously trying to preserve her heart had mocked her for attempting to elicit a reaction from Teo.
After her announcement at the breakfast table the next morning about moving bedrooms, he’d remained silent for a full minute. Then he skewered her with one of those hard, censorious looks that somehow also managed to hold shades of perplexity and disquiet. As if her decision had wounded him.
He’d left for the palace straight after. And that had set their routine. She’d work all day in his studio, her heartache temporarily alleviated by creations that were positively bursting free from her sketching pencil. In the knowledge that she’d well and truly come through the fire. She filled sketchbook after sketchbook, and still the ideas poured out.
It was only after she’d completed her fourth that the disturbing truth that Teo hadn’t enquired about her work since their arrival propelled her to his suite before breakfast halfway through their second week, her nerves gobbling her as she knocked on his door. To no response.
A throat clearing showed Fernando hovering several feet away.
‘Is Teo here?’
