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“Can I ask something?”
I turned around even though I shouldn’t have. I stared her down and silently gave her permission to speak her mind.
“Is everything okay with Ariel?”
Ariel was focused on business and business alone. That was why I liked her so much, trusted her instincts as well as my own. “We worked it out.”
She slowly nodded, obviously wanting more detail than that. “What’s her problem with me? Maybe there’s something I can do to annoy her less.”
There was nothing London could do to annoy her less. London would have to stop being beautiful, stop stealing my focus, and stop being the ornery spitfire that she was. All the women I encountered were poised and refined, always behaving with class that was borderline boring. London would have to change everything about herself. “No.”
I woke up the next morning with London on her side of the bed. We fucked every night before we slept, but we never cuddled. She always stuck to her side of the bed, and I stuck to mine.
Which was how I preferred it.
I showered then got dressed just when she woke up.
She sat up and stretched her arms over her head, the sheets falling and revealing her perfect rack. Her hair was a mess from the way she rolled around, and the sleep was heavy in her eyes. Her gaze immediately went to the window, which was covered by the curtain.
I read her thoughts and pulled on the string so she could see the view. The Tuscan hillside immediately became apparent, the green grass and the distant vineyards easy to see.
She stared with wide eyes, taking in her first sight of the beautiful country.
I opened the door and found my breakfast tray on the ground where I instructed my crew to leave it. Two coffees and two breakfast plates were prepared for me and my guest. I carried it to the table and sat down.
London’s eyes followed me. “Can I join you?”
I nodded and sipped my coffee.
She pulled on one of my shirts that was left on the ground then sat across from me. Her brown hair was wavy but still soft. Her green eyes were a lot more vibrant now that she had a full night of sleep. She cupped her mug with both hands before she smelled the steam.
I watched every move. “What are you doing?”
“What?”
“Are you smelling the coffee?”
She took a drink before she set it down. “So? I like the smell of coffee.”
She looked so cute when she did it, but I refused to tell her that.
“People smell wine before they drink it.”
True. I wasn’t a big wine drinker, so I’d never personally done it.
“What’s on the agenda today?”
I cut into my egg whites and greens. “I’m meeting with my suppliers this afternoon. Need a few things.”
“Am I joining you?”
I never mixed business with pleasure. “No.”
“So what am I going to do? Stay here all afternoon?”
“Yep.”
Her face contorted into one of annoyance. “I’m in a beautiful place. I’d like to see more of it.”
“Meeting my suppliers isn’t going to facilitate that.”
“It’s better than being stuck in here. You know I’m not going to walk around when Dunbar is hanging around.”
I drank my coffee. “I know he’s a bit ominous, but he would never seriously hurt you—unless you deserved it.”
“His standards for punishment are much lower than yours.” She drank her coffee then stared bleakly at her breakfast. “Seriously, this looks like shit.”
“It’s good for you.”
“There’s no fat.”
“Fat isn’t good for you.”
“Actually, that’s incorrect. We need good fat to help us burn bad fat. We all need protein, carbs, and fat. Without one, you’d be missing a corner of the pyramid, and it would come toppling down.”
Sometimes I forgot she was training to be a doctor before I stole her. “What kind of doctor were you training to be?”
“I was in medical school before you took me, not residency. So I hadn’t made a decision yet.”
I didn’t have any idea what she was talking about, but I didn’t let her know that. “And what would you like your decision to be?”
She pushed her eggs around without taking a bite. “Emergency room medicine.”
“Why?” My universe focused on diplomacy, royalty, and business. I never took an interest in any other discipline, whether it was law or medicine. I lived in my own little world, and I liked it that way.
She shrugged. “Personal reasons.” She pushed the food around again. “Man, I miss Finley.”
I ignored the last thing she said. “What personal reasons?”
She kept her eyes down. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then why did you bring it up?”
“I didn’t.” She looked up, her mood souring. “You’re the one asking all these questions.”
“And you’ve been answering them until now.”
“I just don’t want to, okay? It’s not like you tell me everything.”
“You’re my slave. I don’t have to tell you anything.”
