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CHAPTER TEN
JUSTBEFOREFIVE o’clock that evening, there was a buzzing sound, and she moved towards it with a perplexed expression.
‘Delivery.’
She pulled open the door, bemused to find the concierge there, holding a bag towards her.
She took it, closing the door with a thundering heart, peering inside only once she was deep into the lounge room again.
And a smile lifted her lips, at the same time uncertainty dipped her heart.
‘Leather pants?’ She squeaked, pulling them so a piece of paper dropped to the floor. She scooped it up, saw his handwriting confident and bold.
Trust me. A
She put the paper down and turned her attention back to the pants, remembering their earlier conversation when he’d joked about wanting to see her in a pair. But it was madness. Sienna had never worn anything so figure-hugging. She couldn’t.
So why did her fingers curl around the supple material and lift it higher, towards her chest? Why did she clutch them as she moved into the bathroom?
They fitted like a glove, and when she spun around and peered over her shoulder, into the mirror, she wasn’t completely disgusted by what she saw.
She couldn’t have said what she expected for their not-really-a-date, but when she stepped into the luxury foyer a few hours later, it was to find Alejandro already there, his eyes pinned to the elevator with an intensity that stole her breath. It was as though he’d been waiting for her all his life, not simply for a few minutes. She tried to modulate her breathing, but it was rushing out of her in fits and spurts, and the closer she got, the worse it felt.
He moved his finger in a semi-circle pattern. ‘Let me see.’
Her heart leaped to her throat as she did as he said, and began to twirl, slowly.
The low, guttural noise of appreciation was a salve she hadn’t known she needed.
‘Almost perfect.’
‘Almost?’
He reached into his pocket, removing a small black velvet pouch. She took it without thinking, expecting it to contain something irrelevant, something small and trivial, so she flicked it open and upended it over her palm, only to find a stunning green gem on a fine rose-gold chain. The emerald was raw, not super polished, making it look almost as if it were alive—patches of pale green, vivid green and black swirled together beneath a slightly porous exterior. She stared at it, the beauty unmistakable, a lump in her throat making speech difficult.
‘It’s lovely.’ What an insipid word. ‘What’s it for?’
‘It is for you.’ A simple answer that told her nothing.
‘Why?’
‘Why not?’
Her heart stammered. Was this what he did on dates? How he made his lovers feel special?
Everything slowed down as sense gradually replaced wonderment. Of course it was. This was an act. He did this all the time. It was only her inexperience that made it all seem so special. He was treating her as he would any of his other lovers. It wasn’t special. It wasn’t unique. It didn’t mean anything.
‘You don’t need to buy me gifts,’ she blurted out, the gesture strangely tainted by her knowledge that this was him going through the motions.
‘I know that.’ He took it from her and reached behind her neck, clasping the necklace in place, then leaning back just far enough to admire it. He shifted his head in a small nod of approval.
‘Are you ready?’
Could she ever be? ‘Where are we going?’
‘You’ll see.’
As they approached the doors of the foyer the concierge swished them open and they stepped into the balmy night air, the smell of the sea wrapping around them, so she inhaled deeply, without thinking, the romance of that aroma sweeping her away. She was too distracted to notice the bike at first, too overwhelmed by the way he looked in a navy-blue suit, but when he began to unpin her hair, pulling to loosen it, she gasped at the intimacy and how, on some level, she’d simply known he would do that.
