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We still booked two hotel rooms but obviously we’re sharing his.
Our first time in a bed was… I’ll never recover. I don’t like to think about it because of how sweet it was and how attentive he was, and the way we lay together afterwards for hours just talking and playfighting and teasing each other endlessly.
It’ll be one of those memories that I’ll cherish forever.
I know he feels the same.
Our final night we go for dinner and then dancing, then go back to the hotel for more of the same. There’s just nothing boring or undesirable about this man. Every single time I try to find something about him that I might not like, I end up liking him more.
“Don’t go to Seattle,” he begs on a whisper as I lie curled around his body, my head under his chin. “Please. Let me figure it out. We’ve had no time together at all.”
“There’s nothing to figure out,” I whisper back, circling his nipple with the tip of my finger. Little does he know I’m counting the circles and I’m on circle eighteen. Anything to distract myself from this unpleasant conversation. He often stops my nervous tics when he knows they’re happening and for the most part my tics around him are at the lowest they’ve been in a long time, but that doesn’t mean they’re gone forever. “Your place is with your wife. You can’t have us both. One of us is bound to get hurt. I don’t want that mess for you, Elizabeth, or Maria.”
“You’re so much stronger than I am. I’m a coward.”
“No, you’re just… conflicted. I get it. That’s why I’m making the decision for you.”
“Le parole non possono descrivere il mio amore per te.”
“What did you say?”
He kisses my temple. “Words cannot describe my love for you.”
I smile and close my eyes, stopping the circling at thirty-six. “Tell me a story in Italian. I love to hear you speak it.”
“Qualsiasi cosa a tu desideria.” He proceeds to talk, and I listen until I physically can’t stay awake any longer.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
He takes care of me.
I exit the plane after a two-hour flight and stretch as I wait for my suitcase. Beyond the gate where I’m supposed to be greeted, I’m surprised to find Robert waiting for me with a sign that reads:
“Best one-nighter ever”
I laugh as I approach the executive recruiter for WhyTech and close friend of Ezra’s. He looks great in dark jeans and a light pink button up.
“Is that sign for me?”
“No, it’s just a coincidence that we’re both here at the same time,” he jests, looking over my head for somebody else.
I smack his arm and squeak when he hugs me, lifting me off the floor.
“You smell so good,” he tells me, nuzzling my neck.
“Would you stop?” I admonish but I’m still grinning.
He puts me down and wags his brows at me. “Happy to see me?”
“Not as happy as you are to see me it seems,” I joke, taking the sign from him and hitting him in the groin with it. He feigns injury and links an arm around my neck. I tense at the contact but don’t push him away. “Why are you here?”
“I’m recruiting you, showing you all the reasons why you should come to Seattle and take the job.”
“I thought this was an interview?”
“It was… until you got three different offers of employment from three different CEOs and executives looking for office managers.”
“Umm… what?”
He rolls his shoulders. “You’re good at what you do, I pimped you out, they all want you, baby. But Mr. Watanabe is desperate for an excellent PA and office manager, his firm is wealthy, and he wants you more than the rest because he asked me to convince you as a personal favor.”
I blink at him. “He asked you?”
“Yep, because recruiting is what I do and I’m the one who recommended you to begin with.” He squeezes my shoulder and grabs my suitcase with his other hand. “Also, I live here, so I know Seattle and all the best places to go.”
“I’ve never done office management before.”
“That’s essentially what you did for Conti,” he points out. “You took over that entire floor and we all know it. That’s why people stopped going to him and started coming to you. He had more time to do his actual job because of you.”
“Aww.” I pat his chest. “Such a shining review.”
“You can give me the ten bucks for that later. Now come on. Let me help you fall in love with this incredible city and show you your apartment.”
“My apartment?”
“I have one on hold for you if you say yes.” He gives me a squeeze. “I told you I’d sort you out.”
“You certainly did.”
His smiling hazel eyes hold mine for a beat before he releases me and motions for me to step on an escalator that takes us down a level.
