AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, thank you,” Frank says. “I’ll let her know, and pass her your number so you can arrange everything. I’ve got a flight to get ready for, unfortunately.”
“Before you go – give me her number, too,” I say, clicking my pen. “I don’t want to miss her call or message. I’ll give it to my secretary so he can screen the calls and talk to her on my behalf if I’m in a meeting.”
Or, translation I will use it to message her first and meet sooner rather than later. I’m not making the same mistake twice.
With the number scrawled on a pad on my desk, and the phone call finished, I quickly press the intercom to call my assistant into the room.
“Sir?” he asks primly, pushing his glasses up his nose as he walks right up to the front of my desk, brandishing a pad of paper. I like Henri, he’s eager to work and eager to please. He wants to have my job in twenty years, and he’s starting at the bottom now. I don’t doubt that he will get there in eighteen.
“I need you to cancel everything on my schedule for the rest of the week,” I tell him. “I mean, everything. I won’t be free again until Monday.”
“Yes, sir,” Henri nods. To his credit, he doesn’t question me or try to argue. Maybe he should – after all, this is a lot of important work I’m pushing to the side. But he knows by now that I know what I’m doing. If this is a flight of madness, so be it. It’s nothing that I won’t be able to fix next week. “Would you like me to cancel them completely, or reschedule for next week?”
“Next week, or the week after,” I nod, thinking about how full my schedule already is. He’ll be hard-pressed to fit it all in, but I think he’ll manage it. “After I leave the office today, please don’t call me about anything. I’ll be ignoring my emails, too. Something important has come up, and it needs my full attention.”
“Yes, sir,” Henri nods again. He pauses, looking up from the notes he has neatly scratched on his paper. “Something exciting?”
I give him a slow smile, glancing out the window at the harbor. I think about the days ahead. “Yes,” I tell him. “Something very exciting indeed.”
Chapter Twelve
Liliana
My heart is in my throat as I wait for him, awkwardly standing by myself in the lobby. I cross my arms over my chest, then let them hang loosely by my sides so I’ll look more approachable, then fold them again because I don’t know what to do with them.
Dad left in a hurry over an hour ago, and shortly after that, I got a text from Nico telling me to go downstairs and meet him at a certain time. I’m early, but I just couldn’t sit upstairs in the hotel room waiting any longer. I had already second-guessed my outfit five times.
I picked out my flirtiest dress, a little lower cut than usual, with a flared-out fifties-style skirt that flatters my shape. It’s the only good dress I have with me, really. I’ve spent so much time in front of the mirror already, lamenting the fact that I didn’t bring this outfit or that outfit. This is my only option, so it’s going to have to do.
Still, I’m on the verge of marching back upstairs and changing again – when I see him.
Nico is unmistakable, coming across the lobby towards me with a flash of white teeth and tanned skin. He’s setting his expensive sunglasses on top of his dark hair, and I can’t help but notice the three receptionists all snapping to attention when they see him. But he ignores them all, walks straight by them, and comes up to me.
I won’t pretend it’s not gratifying to think that this person – who everyone wants to look at them – is only looking at me.
“Hey,” he says, stopping in front of me with an easy smile that sets my stomach flip-flopping inside me. I’m on fire from the moment our eyes meet. I want him badly, and that hasn’t changed in the night since I saw him last.
He was literally my hero last night. He’s smart and cool, and suave, and drop-dead-gorgeous levels of handsome. How is a mere girl like me supposed to resist?
“Hi,” I say, smiling back at him. I try to batter down the shyness that threatens to rear its head, even as I feel myself flushing slightly. He’s so far out of my league. What am I even hoping for? “Thanks so much for saying you’ll look after me. Dad wasn’t going to let me stay on my own unless someone was keeping me safe.”
“It’s my pleasure,” Nico says. “By the way, you look lovely.”
