Page 14 of Boss Unyielding (Boss 1)

“Yes. I was wondering...” No, that wasn’t the right way to ask. “I was planning to take Bartolo Bianchi up on his offer to take me to dinner one night while we’re here.

“What?” It was a simple question, but the volume it came out in within the small confines of the car gave her a startle.

“Bartolo, the designer. He offered to show me around the city while I’m here. I’d like to take him up on it.” She wanted to add if you don’t mind, but she would not give him the satisfaction of asking his permission. He was her boss, but he didn’t own her, and he couldn’t dictate her

personal life any more than she could dictate his.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He said the statement in a tone with such finality, like he expected it to be the end of the conversation.

“With all due respect, sir, I’ve thought about it and I’d like to go,” she said, trying her best to sound confident, but knowing she fell short.

He eyed her thoughtfully for a moment. “I can show you around the city,” he offered.

“Thanks,” she said with sarcasm, “but it wouldn’t be the same.”

The truth was, she could only dream about Rayner being the one to take her out to a romantic dinner in Rome and showing her all the beautiful sights this amazing city had to offer. She would love to have him escort her, romancing her like lovers, but she knew that’s not how it would be. Maybe it wouldn’t be like that with Bartolo, but at least there was a possibility, a chance at an innocent flirtation.

“I’ll think about it,” he said as they pulled up to their hotel.

He got out of the car and strode off inside before she had a chance to argue. Was he avoiding the conversation? She couldn’t believe him. He was making her feel like an obstinate child. She had the ridiculous urge to stamp her foot and yell you can’t tell me what to do, but she knew it was irrational and pointless. She was young, but she wasn’t stupid.

One thing was certain, she thought. This would not be the end of it.

TEN

“Tell me you will come visit me again, Bellissima. Summertime in Italy is an other-worldly experience. We can get lost in the vineyards and olive groves of the countryside, and make love beneath the Solstice moon.”

Bartolo was laying it on thick, just as he had from the moment he picked her up from the hotel earlier that evening. After dinner at a gorgeous restaurant, the likes of which Farren had never seen before, where their meal was actually candle-lit and serenaded by an accordion-playing gentleman, he had taken her for a walk around the inner city. He held her hand, and every now and then stopped to point out his favorite shops and locales.

At the moment, they had stopped in the middle of a bridge over a park stream, and he had turned to look deep into her eyes. His left hand held her right, while he stroked her long strands of hair with the other. His lips hovered dangerously close to hers, leaving her suspended within that delicate, tempestuous place that one could only experience just before a kiss. She couldn’t dare turn away.

“I’m not sure it’s possible,” she breathed, “but I can try.”

He leaned in and pressed a light kiss to her mouth. A girl could get used to this, she thought, wondering when he would take it a step further and kiss her like he meant it, but she didn’t push it. Likely, she knew it was all just a temporary flirtation that would never go anywhere in a million years, but since she found herself living in a dream at the moment, she figured she might as well make the most of it.

He was standing close enough to her now that she could feel his phone vibrating in his pant pocket against her leg.

“Is that a phone in your pocket, or are you just that happy to see me?” she teased, pulling away from him just enough that she could gesture down to where the vibration had originated.

He smiled and laughed. “What if I told you both?”

“Do you need to get that? I don’t mind,” she said.

He pulled the phone from his pocket and glanced to see who the call was from, but instead of answering, he pressed the button to put the phone back to sleep. He shook his head and told her, “No no, it is fine. It is nothing I cannot tend to at a more appropriate time.”

She smiled. “Really, it’s okay. It is getting late, and I’m pretty sure Rayner has a meeting scheduled first thing tomorrow. I should probably be getting back soon.”

She left out that Rayner hadn’t wanted her to come in the first place, but she’d put her foot down and come anyway.

“Very well, then,” he conceded, and led her back down the trails they had come to get back to his car.

When he got her back to the hotel, he insisted on walking her up to her room. “I am a man. It is my duty to see that I have safely delivered you to your quarters, Bellissima,” he said, so she didn’t argue. Instead, she led the way.

Once she got to the floor she was staying on and stopped just outside the door, she paused, digging for her room key.

“I had such a nice time tonight, Bartolo. Thank you so much for inviting me, and for this whole experience. Everything was beautiful,” she told him.

“It was my pleasure. I could not pass up an opportunity with such a beautiful woman. I hope you will take me up on my offer to come back and visit me sometime.”

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