Page 16 of Secret Babies For My Brother's Best Friend

I sighed my defeat and simply nodded. Then Luca pushed up from his desk and started toward me. My first instinct was to get the hell out of there, to wrench open his door and make a run for it. It was my first day seeing him after Shanghai. I was nowhere near ready to have him be within two feet of me. I was either going to punch him or jump his bones.

But, of course, Luca was unaware of my racing thoughts and continued his brazen advancement in my direction. He had a determined look in his eye, which made him seem a lot taller than I remembered. More commanding.

It was hot.

“Tell Giorgio you want something green,” Luca said once he’d drawn up to me.

Not so close that I could touch him by some happy accident but close enough that each breath was a taste of his intoxicating cologne.

I did my best to keep my shit together. “I don’t like green.”

His lips curled into a gorgeous half-smile that made my heart burst into a swarm of butterflies and go ape-shit in my chest.

“Olive, yes. That’s the green you want.” Luca reached out and cupped my cheek.

I swallowed the breath that got caught in my throat. “Luca, I—”

“For the eyes. The olive green will work perfectly,” he said. Then, tracing the line of my jaw and along the length of my neck, he continued, “And your hair will be up.”

I was never one to take kindly to orders, but my God, when they came out of his mouth, dripping with his accent… I shook off a shiver that crept across my back. The air between us suddenly felt thick with that same lust that made me reach out and grab him in the hotel lobby that night in Shanghai.

I knew he felt it too, because Luca took another step toward me. And then another. My feet still refused to work, and our bodies were right up against each other. Or maybe they were working, and it was just that standing that close to Luca was exactly where they wanted to be.

I didn’t blame them.

Luca’s hand floated from my neck and traced the curve of my shoulder, then inched down my arm with a feathery touch. He slid his fingers between mine, holding on to me with the lightest of touches.

“Why do you look like you want to kiss me?” he asked with a sly grin.

I tilted my chin up to get closer to his face, despite myself. “Why does it sound like you’re projecting?”

He laughed softly, his tongue coming out to wet his lips as his gaze became transfixed on my own. That shiver from before came back full force, and I started to tremble.

“It’s okay if you want it,” he whispered, leaning into me. “I want it too.”

My eyes floated closed, and I waited, lips slightly parted, rapt with anticipation. His breath tickled my mouth, making me tingle in the best possible way.

“Knock, knock.”

Luca and I jumped apart like we were struck with a taser gun and whirled to find my idiot brother poking his head in the office door. I’d known it was him before I turned around because that stupid “knock, knock” thing was something he’d done since I was a kid.

“Christopher.” It was a single word from Luca.

Not a question, not an exclamation of surprise, nothing. Just a dead word. I could imagine what he must’ve been thinking.

“Who’s up for celebrating their first day of work?” Christopher asked, the goofiest grin on his face.

Chapter 7

Luca

“Ifyou’regoingtobe a nuisance, then be a useful nuisance,” I told Leo, who was bouncing around on my bed as if it were a trampoline. “Bring me the silk bow tie in my closet.”

He fell to his bottom and slid off my bed, making a run for my walk-in closet. “What’s a nuisance?” he called out over his shoulder.

I chuckled to myself and turned back to the mirror, but it wasn’t me I was looking at. I’d worn countless tuxedos in my life and could gussy up for the press with my eyes closed. No, it was Scarlett I saw. Or at least, my fantasy of what she’d look like that night.

I felt a fumbling nudge at my knee and looked down to see Leo with an armful of bow ties. “What’s silk?” he asked, offering up the whole bunch for me to inspect.

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