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She shook her head. “I’m just finishing up an email.”
“Do you want to hear this?”
“Um...yes. Of course. I can do two things at once.”
There was an extended pause as though he was deciding if she were truly interested or not. “Well, I asked Nico for permission to offer up his vineyard as one of the sites for the wedding. The photographer from the village is stopping by tomorrow to take some professional photos.”
“I’m glad the meeting went smoothly between you and your brother. What about the new owner of the neighboring vineyard? What did you say her name was?”
“Louisa something or other.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I talked to her about using her vineyard, since it’s larger than Nico’s place, but she was adamant that she wants absolutely nothing to do with the wedding.”
“Really? How odd.”
“Not as odd as this.”
“What do you mean?” Kayla hated putting on this pretense, but she knew that he would never abide her splitting her work hours between the royal wedding and a charity event. He’d already made that abundantly clear.
“You won’t face me and there’s something off with your voice.” His approaching footsteps had her body tensing. He knelt down next to her. He placed a finger beneath her chin and turned her face to his. “Now tell me, what’s got you upset?”
His voice was so soft and comforting. All she wanted to do in that moment was lean into his arms and rest her face in the crook of his neck. She wanted to feel the comfort and security of his strong arms holding her close. She wanted him to tell her that everything would be all right—that they would work together to find a solution.
But none of that could or would happen. Angelo would never understand how she’d knowingly gone behind his back to work on this fund-raiser instead of focusing solely on the royal wedding. She’d never be able to justify her actions to his satisfaction.
“I’m fine.” Her gaze didn’t meet his.
“You’re not fine. Not by a long shot.” As though he’d been privy to her thoughts, he reached out and pulled her to him.
She shouldn’t do this. It wasn’t right. But her body had other thoughts and willingly followed his lead. Her cheek pressed against the firmness of his shoulder and she inhaled the spicy scent of his cologne mingled with his male scent. It was quite intoxicating.
Her eyes drifted closed and for a moment she let go of everything. The silent tears streamed down her cheeks. She took comfort in the way Angelo’s hands rubbed her back. It wove a spell over her and relaxed muscles that she hadn’t realized were stiff.
“I’m sorry for working you too hard.”
She dashed her fingers over her cheeks and pulled back. “You aren’t making me work this hard—I want to do it. I want to do everything to make our pitch stand out.”
He ran his hands up her arms, sending goose bumps racing down her skin. “But not to the point where you’ve worn yourself to a frazzle. Look at you. You’ve gotten yourself all worked up.”
She shook her head. No matter how much she wanted to open up to him, she couldn’t. They only had two days until they had to catch a plane to Halencia, and they still didn’t have a completed pitch. And what they had didn’t sparkle. And it didn’t scream “pick me.” There was something missing, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. And now, add to it the problem with the fund-raiser and she was at a total loss.
“Kayla, if you won’t talk to me, how can I help?”
Her gaze met his, and she saw the worry reflected in his eyes. “You can’t.”
“Why don’t you give me a chance?”
He just wasn’t going to let this go. His eyes begged her to open up to him—to trust him. But she couldn’t give up her dream of being the sort of person that Angelo Amatucci would want as an ad executive—she’d given up everything to follow this dream. She couldn’t return to Paradise and face her parents as a failure.
“The truth is I...I have a headache.” And that wasn’t a lie. The stress of everything had her temples pounding.
He studied her for a moment as though weighing her words. “Did you take anything for it?”
“I was about to, but I hadn’t made it there yet.”
Angelo nodded as though he knew what needed to be done. “Go lie down on the couch and rest—”
“But I have stuff that needs done—”
“Later. Right now, you’re going to rest. I’ll get some medication for you.”
