Page 25 of The Boss's Forbidden Assistant

He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Have dinner with me tonight.’

In Venice, of all places. ‘Is this work? Are you ordering me to?’

‘Ordering you?’ he repeated incredulously. ‘No, I’m not ordering you to. I’m...asking.’

She was dumbfounded. How dared he? He was blowing hot and cold with her, her not knowing what he wanted from one day to the next, and she wasn’t going to be jerked around by him any more.

‘Oh, good,’ she murmured. ‘Then my answer is no. Thank you,’ she added for good measure, flashing a false smile before turning and stalking away. There was no door to slam this time but she still felt damned satisfied by her hasty retreat.

He watched her walk away with a strange feeling in the pit of his gut and an anger that was completely self-directed. Why the hell had he done that? After having drawn a line between them in Greece, why invite her for dinner? Because he was a fool and needed to learn his lessons many time over? He made a disgruntled sound of impatience, aware that his body was poised to follow Harper even when he knew it was the last thing he should do. He hated the silence that existed between them, that was why. He hated being near her and not talking. Not hearinghertalk. But silence was still better than the alternative, so why not let sleeping dogs lie?

It was as though a fever overtook him every time they were together, and he hated it.

What he needed was to make it through this trip without making another Harper Lawson related mistake, and get back to the relative safety of Ilha do Sonhos.

He was still staring at Harper, without realising it, as she approached the lifts. Perhaps he was willing her to look back at him because, as the doors opened, she angled her head, their eyes met and Salvador had the strangest feeling that he was dropping into a deep ravine with nothing to grab hold of and no one to help him.

He turned and stalked away before he could do something really stupid and go after her again.

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘THEREHASTObe a mistake.’ Harper spoke in her best, calmest voice as she looked at the clerk across the shiny marble desk. ‘I booked two rooms. See?’

‘Yes, madam.’ The clerk had turned beet-red. ‘And I can only apologise again, most sincerely, for this mistake. For some reason, the computer system took one of the rooms from your booking and allocated it to another guest.’

‘Well, we require two rooms,’ she said, refusing to think about the man standing behind her, listening to this conversation. ‘One for Mr da Rocha and one for me.’

‘I understand, madam, and again, I apologise, but we have only the one room available. I can make some calls to different hotels in the city, to see if there is availability, but with the festival Prague is very heavily booked.’

She ground her teeth together. ‘Festival?’

‘Prague Majales,’ he said with a nod. ‘I can thoroughly recommend you walk through the town to enjoy it.’

‘I’m not really in a festival mood,’ Harper said wearily.

‘I am sorry.’ The clerk’s gaze encompassed Harper and Salvador. ‘Allow me to make a suggestion.’

‘Go right ahead.’ Salvador’s voice dripped with ice and Harper shivered. She hadn’t dared look at him since ‘Room Gate’ had begun, but now she lifted a gaze and saw an expression that would have turned a dragon to stone.

‘The concierge will take your bags to the available room. Go make yourselves comfortable while I arrange some refreshments, with the hotel’s compliments. In the meantime, I will endeavour to find a solution—at our expense—in a nearby hotel. Will this be acceptable?’

‘It doesn’t sound like there’s much more you can do,’ Harper muttered.

‘Thank you, madam, sir.’ The clerk either missed the tone or chose to ignore it, handing two key cards across the counter with a cheery smile. ‘Enjoy your stay in Prague!’

Harper glared at him before turning away, her worst nightmares unfolding. ‘There has to be another room. As soon as he finds it, I’ll go.’

Salvador sent her a look that was both weary and, for some reason, bemused. ‘Ask yourself if it sounded as though he was going to break a sweat trying to find something else for us,’ Salvador commented, and when Harper looked over her shoulder she saw the clerk had already moved on to the next guest, busily drawing lines on a map of Prague.

She turned back to Salvador and her mood deteriorated. ‘This isn’t funny.’

He sobered. ‘I know.’

Mollified, she moved to the lift, waiting as far away from Salvador as she could. The lift took a few minutes to arrive and, by the time it did, she and Salvador had been joined by six or seven other people who crowded in with them, pushing them together at the back of the lift. Harper stood like a stone, completely still.

At one point, Salvador’s hand brushed hers and she almost jumped out of her skin, jerking into the woman beside her, who gave Harper a look of irritation. Harper stayed where she was anyway, close to the woman’s shoulder, rather than risk another incendiary touch with Salvador.

For all she felt like one touch could light her bones on fire, she just had to remember the way he’d pushed her away in Venice and her desire was extinguished. She wasn’t going to be made a fool of. She’d let Peter do that to her, and Harper wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

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