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Then he was spinning around, registering the sound as real and not in his head. He powered his laptop in time to watch dozens of messages flood his inbox, but it was his phone he reached for.
Massimo’s message that he’d returned to Sicily triggered both relief and irritation. At leastoneof them would be at home for Christmas.
One of them would visit his mother’s grave with her favourite flowers and to leave a box of Cuban cigars their father had been partial to at his tombstone. He wasn’t so sure Massimo would renew the vow Alessio made to their parents each time they visited their resting places, but he could only hope.
He sent a curt reply to Massimo, his mood on being stranded here not calm enough for him to deal with his brother over the phone just yet.
The next message was from the head of his top team promising a fuller report on Gigi Parker within twenty-four hours. His irritation mounting at the disorganisation he suddenly found himself surrounded with, he read the remaining messages, including the one from his American client.
Appeased this was something he could control and resolve, he dialled the client’s number, relaxing in his seat as it was answered on the first ring.
‘I’ve been trying to reach you for days,’ the harried CEO said. ‘Do you have a solution for me? The potential investors are threatening to call off the deal.’ The man sounded desperate to the point of pleading.
Alessio paused for a second, the solution he’d intended to provide drying up on his tongue. Instead, he found himself offering up the solution Gigi had suggested, a strange mix of alarm and pride surging through him when the man enthusiastically embraced it.
‘Yes. I’ll get my PR machine on it right away. I’ve already told my father what’s happened, and he’ll be on board with this. You’re a miracle worker, Montaldi.’ Relief heavily laced his laughter. ‘I’ve been getting ready to throw in the towel and risk tanking this deal, but not any more. I owe you big. Besides your fee, of course.’ He laughed again.
Alessio gripped the phone, gritted his teeth before he confessed, ‘You owe me nothing. It was a member of my team who came up with it.’
‘Well, whoever they are, I’m happy to meet them when this is all over, express my thanks in person and pass on that favour. They’re saving me and my family from a potential hostile takeover and being dragged through the tabloids.’
Pure, unadulterated jealousy jolted him, as alien as it was shocking. The idea that the woman currently trapped in the chalet with him could soon be free to accept accolades and gifts from men like this grateful CEO made a muscle throb at his temple.
Inferno, he wasn’t a caveman. He knew and worked with impressively clever and formidable women. Had bedded several, in fact.
And yet he couldn’t pinpoint what it was about Gigi that made him feel as if he wanted to delve ever deeper into her very soul and mind, while simultaneously devouring every inch of her delectable body.
Basta.
His body was reacting to a longer than usual absence of physical stimulation. As soon as he left this frozen hellscape, he would indulge until this hunger in him abated. A holiday gift to himself, perhaps.
But even as the thought formed, he was dismissing it in distaste. Just as he was begrudgingly accepting that the chalet wasn’t so bad. There was a certain...freedom from being suspended from the pressure to act. To fix.To avenge.
It would return soon enough, he knew.
But perhaps for now, he could justbe.
With her.
Alessio dragged frustrated hands down his face as the infernal hunger prowling within grew, demanding satisfaction. Demanding to see her.
‘Like I said, that won’t be necessary,’ he reiterated, noting that his voice was edged in cold steel.
Silence pulsed at the end of the line before the other man cleared his throat. ‘Sure, understood. I’ll be in touch to let you know how it goes.’
‘You do that.’ He hung up and realised his other fist was bunched.
Consciously unfurling his fingers, he rose again from his seat.
Alessio wasn’t sure why he felt the urge to inform Gigi that her solution had been well received, especially since he was still annoyed by how their interaction in the sauna had ended. And yet, he found himself mounting the stairs and heading down the hallway towards her room.
The sound of her low, agitated voice when he got close quickened his footsteps to her open bedroom door.
She’d obviously noted the internet connection was back because her phone was pressed to her ear, her fingers dragging through her long ash-blonde hair as she listened for a moment, oblivious to his presence.
The look on her face before she turned towards the window made him freeze in the doorway, the very strong urge to cross the room to her side and demand to know what was upsetting her shocking him into stillness.
Because these strong feelings he was experiencing around her? They needed to be killed.
