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CHAPTER TWO
ALICIAHADWATCHEDhim position his knee in the same way he’d used to. She clearly recalled it now, as she poured him his coffee. He had been hiding his erection as they lay together, pulling down his clothes, lifting a knee...
She hadn’t known then what he was doing—not really.
Until he’d told her.
Taken her hand and shown her.
‘How long are you in Milan for?’ she asked, but he responded with a question of his own.
His voice was husky, dark and deep, as if he had been shouting, or smoking, or both. ‘How long haveyoubeen here?’
‘Years.’ Alicia glanced up and smiled. ‘Nearly a decade now.’
‘I meant how long have you been working at this hotel?’
‘Oh...’ She remembered to be casual. ‘It must be eighteen months—no, maybe two years now.’
‘I always stay here—well, when I’m in Milan.’
‘Really?’ Alicia pretended to check her memory. ‘Actually, now you mention it, I thought I saw you departing from the hotel once...’ She maintained her smile but could no longer summon it up to her eyes. ‘I was polishing the revolving brass doors, though you didn’t notice me as you passed...’
Alicia could hear the little note of bitterness in her voice as she recalled how it had felt to have the one man she had ever kissed, ever slept with, just walk on by with another woman on his arm, but she fought to check it.
‘Anyway, it’s so good to see you again!’
He did not return the compliment.
She stood unsure and a little perplexed, because this wasn’t in any of her carefully planned scripts—Dante recognising her and then basically ignoring her. Or rather, ignoring them and what they had once been. But then, mid-sip of his coffee, he glanced up. She smiled brightly at him.
‘Oh,scusi...’ Alicia watched as he put down his coffee, reached for his wallet and took out a couple of notes.‘Grazie.’
Alicia’s heart, which had been tumbling since her alarm had gone off that morning, suddenly landed.
It was an awkward landing, though.
A not particularly medal-worthy landing.
‘You’re tipping me?’ Her voice was incredulous.
‘Why else would you still be waiting there?’
He dropped the money onto the bed in a take-it-or-leave-it motion, and it was then that all of Alicia’s carefully rehearsed scripts went out of the window.
‘Is that really all you can think to do? All you have to say after all this time?’
‘What do you expect me to say?’ He frowned. ‘Okay—it’s great to see you, Alicia. You look incredible.’
‘In my chambermaid uniform?’ she flared. ‘You knew me in rags, and now you see me in a maid’s uniform and tell me that I look incredible—?’
‘Hey, if I’d wanted acrimony for breakfast I’d have ordered it,’ he cut in, and Alicia fought to check herself.
‘I was just...’ She offered her palms skyward. ‘Well, it’s justsucha shock to see you.’
‘So you already said.’
Dante’s intention had been to shrug, to dismiss her—yet for once he was curious as to what this claimant might want.
