by Jan Moran
Sighing, he watched the two dance around one another for the better part of the morning. What would Bruno have thought of this, Antonio wondered. After decades of partnership, their children were meandering down a similar road to the one they themselves had taken. Alessia and Luca, however, would be partners in a romantic sense as much as a business one.
Forming a bond much harder to break.
Chapter 13
How could she do this to him?
Did Alessia even know how crazy she was driving him with her mere existence? Luca couldn’t help but be in a constant state of frustrated arousal whenever she was in his presence.
It was as if their kiss in the hallway had lit a fuse that was slowly burning toward an explosive conclusion. The question was: When would it go off? Alessia seemed to be under the impression that the tension between them would die down in time, but it was pretty evident to Luca that that wasn’t the case. They’d gone from being under the shadow of sexual desire into the deepest depths of it.
And it was torture.
Not only that, but Luca found himself watching Alessia in other ways—ways that had very little to do with sexual attraction and everything to do with the woman herself.
She was, without a doubt, one of the most efficient, hard-working people he had ever met. Luca had built his career around finding people willing to go the distance for him. Alessia threw the entirety of herself into her job at the winery in a way that was both admirable and inspiring in its intensity. No issue was above or beneath her, and she treated everyone who came to her, be it a busboy or the accountant, with the same level of respect.
Luca wondered if even her father realized the vast amount of work that Alessia took on, and not only took on, but handled with relative ease. It was as if she’d been made for the position she currently filled, which Luca thought should rationally only increase the guilt he felt for not selling to her as she wanted.
Instead, he found himself more intrigued by the integrity of her character.
Though she might be exasperated at leading him around the property day after day, she did her job with grace. She did not contrive facts or figures, nor did she lie to him, even though he knew she could have. Alessia, he knew, was desperate enough to resort to anything to get him to sign over what his father had left him.
But there was no trickery.
While he watched her prepare for one of the winery’s biggest functions, a charity fundraiser attended by a number of the winery’s wealthy area patrons, he couldn’t help but wonder what she would do if he decided not to sell. Would she hate him? Refuse to speak to him for the rest of her days, despite his holding a fifty-percent share in the business she loved?
He honestly couldn’t say. Alessia was so hot and cold; one moment, he’d think she was on the cusp of allowing him to kiss her again, and the next, he was sure she was thinking about slapping the living daylights out of him. He was used to getting the women he wanted, and quickly, and found this a dangerous limbo. He’d quickly accepted that Alessia was like no woman he’d ever known, but he had no idea what it would take to finally win her into his bed.
Bruno must be looking down on him and laughing. Luca wouldn’t be surprised if the older man had brought him here just to cause him misery. It wouldn’t be out of character for him. Though he knew there was no way that his father, wherever he was, could know what he was going through, it helped Luca to blame his father for the torture he currently endured.
His mother, of course, only added fuel to that particular fire. He’d spoken to her twice since he arrived in California, and both times, she’d tried to convince him to sell and return home. He was wasting his time there, she swore. Wasting his time searching for the legacy of a man who had never cared anything for him.
She might be right.
But Luca wasn’t willing to give up on finding out why Bruno had left him his entire estate until he had some sort of solid proof, something that told him whether his father had wanted to cause him pain or perhaps to atone, in some strange way, for the affection he’d never afforded his son in life.
These and other thoughts swirled around Luca’s head as the day of the charity benefit approached. The closer the date, the more Alessia shortened the amount of time they spent together in favor of the preparations. By the time he’d been at the winery for three weeks, she was completely absorbed in her duties for the function.
* * *
Candles were lit along walkways, and as night fell on the evening of the event, the entire property took on an almost fairy tale look. The gardens were decked out in tiny white lights and summer finery, while the hotel’s main hall and dining room were decorated in silver and purple hues.
Luca would have been content to watch the proceedings from his room. He had a good view of the courtyard, where the vineyard’s moneyed patrons were arriving in their limousines and Mercedes.
However, a brisk knock on his door an hour before dinner was to take place changed all that. A hotel employee—a red-haired young woman who giggled at the very sight of him before extending him an embossed envelope—stammered something about Antonio Costa wishing to extend an invitation to join the evening’s events before racing off.
For a moment, Luca merely stared down at the invitation. It was impressive, printed in hues of cream and gold. This, he knew, was Alessia’s night. With the tension crackling between them, it would be inappropriate of him to attend and distract her.
On the other hand, if he stayed out of sight, perhaps he could watch her do what she did best, and he did so enjoy watching Alessia do just about anything.
He made a split-second decision and changed into his tux before writing out a generous check. Luca took care with his appearance, slicking his hair back and selecting a tie before eying himself critically in the mirror. He appeared every inch a gentleman.
* * *
The dining room was packed with wealthy Californians clad in their finest formal wear: gowns, tuxedos and jewelry that he knew cost a small fortune. He wove his way through the crowd, making small talk where he could, and was surprised to find that a few in attendance recognized him. Several owned companies he’d dealt with in the past and were eager to talk business, but Luca had only one goal.
He handed over his check to the accountant in charge of the function’s financial matters, then wandered around until he found the person he’d been looking for. His stomach twisted into knots and fresh arousal slammed through his gut.
She was an absolute vision—clad in a strapless confection of black lace that perfectly set off the tanned hue of her skin. The cut of the garment accentuated her every curve without slipping into immodesty, and she’d drawn her hair up into an elaborate twist, her natural features artfully enhanced with makeup.
She greeted the attendees of the benefit as they entered, shaking hands and delivering air kisses as if she’d been born into high society. Which, Luca had to remind herself, she had, in a way. Alessia was an essential pillar of the Costa and Ferrari Empire; she had to be worth quite a bit, he realized; he'd simply never realized. He’d simply never even contemplated the notion because Alessia Costa didn’t act like the spoiled daughter of a wine mogul. Quite the contrary. She was humble, intelligent, thoughtful, and generous.
Carefully, Luca shadowed her throughout the night.
She ran the event with no small amount of self-confidence, remaining, for the most part, by her father’s side. Antonio looked surprisingly regal in his tuxedo, though Luca wasn’t used to seeing the man without a cigar clamped in his teeth or a snifter of brandy in his hand. The pair of them wove their way around the dining room, greeting their guests, until dinner was served.
The food was, of course, decadent. If Luca kept eating the way he did at the vineyard, he was going to gain weight by the time he left in spite of his daily runs. The chef, Flavia, was the eighth wonder of the world, and for the function, she had provided a four-course meal that left no doubt in any of the guests’ minds about what the
ir two hundred dollars per plate had bought them.
By the end of the night, when it was time for Alessia to give the farewell speech, Luca was glad he’d come. He had managed to escape Alessia’s and Antonio’s notice all night, affording him the privilege of seeing, once more, the woman he’d met when he first arrived in the winery.
Without him around, she was relaxed, chatty even. Her enjoyment showed on her face as she mingled with her guests and laughed with her father. For once, she didn’t appear worried or wary, and she wasn’t tense from holding herself back. She was radiant.
“I would like to thank all of you for your continued patronage.” Alessia spoke into the microphone, a pair of diamond studs glittering in her ears as she gazed out over the crowd. “As you all know, this will be the sixth year that we have organized this benefit for the Autism Research Center, and I’m proud to announce that this year, we’ve raised over six hundred thousand dollars.”
There was a roar of enthusiastic applause, which Luca found himself joining with a grin he couldn’t suppress.
“It always touches my heart to see all of you here, willing to come out and humor my father and me as well as give back to the autistic community. I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming, and present you all with a bottle of our Merlot as a sign of my unending gratitude.” She smiled as another round of applause filled the room.
Just then, Alessia’s eyes found Luca’s in the crowd, and for a fraction of a second, they locked. Luca stiffened slightly as she gazed down at him from the podium. Her smile faltered for an instant before she nodded at her guests and her father and stepped off the podium.
She was immediately swamped by a crowd of people wishing to offer her their congratulations on the success of the event. All Luca, saw, however, was how Alessia reached for two glasses of champagne, downing them one after the other in an effort to calm her nerves.
Nerves he had caused.
Luca didn’t know whether to be pleased or upset with himself. This wasn’t what he had intended. He knew that his participation in the night’s events was over.
As he slipped quietly from the dining room and headed back up to his room, he let his mind wander. Had his father, he wondered, ever been part of events like that? Had he raised money for charitable causes? Had he traipsed through the vineyards in his bare feet and tasted the fruits of his harvest? Luca let himself into his room and stripped off his tie and suit jacket, trying to answer questions without sufficient information.
What had so connected his father with this place? Had it just been business? Money? If so, why will it to Luca? Bruno knew very well the disdain his son had for the money he’d tried to send, so why risk giving him his prized possession? Luca simply didn’t understand it, and he was beginning to think he never would.
Instead of wallowing in his frustration, Luca turned his mind back to Alessia. Alessia in that black dress he wanted to strip off her. It was an image he wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon. He regretted throwing her off-balance, but he couldn’t deny that seeing the strength of her reaction to his presence had given him a strange satisfaction. It was nice to know that he had the same effect on her that she did on him.
Chapter 14
Alessia wanted nothing more than to go straight to bed. It had been an extremely long day. As always when she hadn’t dressed up for a while, she’d forgotten how stilettos devastated her feet. It was easy to put such pain aside, however, when she reflected on how much money was raised for their cause. The Autism Research Center would be receiving a sizeable check by the end of the week, and it was all due to the generosity of the vineyard’s patrons.
She padded down the long hotel hallway in her bare feet, removing the pins from her hair as she went and dropping them into the toe of her shoe. Her hair cascaded down her back, and Alessia breathed a sigh of relief. As much as she loved getting dressed up, it would be a relief to get into her pajamas. She would, perhaps, indulge herself, and sleep in tomorrow. The benefit had been the culmination of weeks of preparation, and she was sure her father would approve of a bit of R&R.
Something else to look forward to: the renovations to her cottage would be completed next week. After staying in the hotel for nearly fourteen days, she would have her solitude back. And she would be far from Luca Ferrari.
She paused for a moment outside his door, wondering if Luca was in his room. The last place she’d expected to see him was at the charity. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought to invite him; she just wasn’t sure if it was an atmosphere he would be comfortable in.
Obviously, he’d had no issues. He’d blended into the crowd as if he belonged, so much so that she hadn’t noticed him until the end of the night.
And notice him she had. He had filled out his tux nicely, standing a head or so taller than the group of people he’d been behind. The instant she saw him, her stomach had flip-flopped, and everything else ceased to exist the moment their eyes locked. Eyes that had tortured her for the better part of the past month.
There was an intense attraction between them so heated, it sometimes bordered on discomfort. There were times Alessia found herself wondering why he didn’t just seduce her in the basest of ways. She knew he could. Their little interlude in this very corridor a week ago had proven that. He could make her forget her good intentions and why being with him wasn’t a good idea, abandoning it all in favor of raw passion.
It had occurred to her more than once that that might be a viable solution to their problem. Just give in to their desire, rather than continue the way they were, dancing around one another and waiting to see who cracked first.
Luca, Alessia had realized, wasn’t as bad as she had at first believed him to be. If he were, he would have long ago taken advantage of the attraction between them and had his way with her. But he hadn’t.
He was waiting for something. Her submission, her permission? She wasn’t sure. All she knew was that when it came to the vineyard and her family legacy, she would never wave the white flag.
But for herself…
Alessia had almost forgotten what it was like to be with a man who really wanted her. Men usually humored her until it became clear that she preferred work to their company, and then they stopped pretending.
Luca, it seemed, was completely different. The more she worked, the more he wanted to follow her, the more questions he asked, and the more intrigued he became. It was nice to meet a man so different from the ones she usually attracted. In fact, it was interesting as hell.
Now, at two a.m., she stared at his door, wondering if he was inside and what he was doing. Was he on his computer, working away at the empire he was slowly building. Reading one of the books she so often saw him carrying out into the gardens? Or asleep, his face relaxed against the pillow as he dozed?
She was suddenly assaulted by images of waking up next to Luca, running her hand over his stubble, him pulling her into his arms as her body slid against his. The idea was enough to make her shudder, and she hurried away from his door, turning towards her own.
Alessia swiped her key, but wasn’t admitted. She tried five times, each more frustrating than the last, until she groaned, defeated. She’d been planning on working out the kinks in the keycard system for a while now but had been too busy with the charity to get around to it. And she'd left her phone in the room, rather than have to carry a handbag to the benefit. Now she'd have to go back down to the front desk and use their phone to call the night custodian, wait for him to show up with his universal key, and walk all the way back up to her room, all told a thirty-minute process she didn't want to tackle in her exhausted state.
Or…
Alessia’s eyes slid back to the door next to hers.
She could see if Luca was willing to let her use his phone. She would just be in and out of his room, and it would save her a long and exhausting trip. At least, that was what Alessia tried to tell herself, her heart beginning to hammer in her chest. Taking a deep breath, she turned from her
own door and knocked gently on her neighbor’s.
She had to admit that part of her was hoping he wouldn’t answer. She let that part keep hoping; it kept her from fussing over how tight a rein she’d have to keep on her emotions from the moment he appeared. No such luck. Half a minute after she knocked on the door, it swung open, revealing a bare-chested Luca in all his glory. For a moment, Alessia stared at the column of muscle before her, trying to remember what it was she had come to ask him.
“Alessia?” His voice was husky from sleep, his short hair standing on end. “What is it? What’s going on?”
“I’m… sorry to wake you,” she finally managed. “I just wanted to use your phone, if I could.” She held up her keycard. “My card doesn’t work, and I need to call the night custodian.”
“Oh.” He yawned, stretching his body as Alessia swallowed. “Come on in then.” He stepped back to make room for her to pass.
Alessia steeled herself before stepping into his room. It was surprisingly neat, his luggage piled in one corner and a computer on his bedside table. There wasn’t a stitch of clothing on the floor, and the bed was neater than any Alessia had ever woken from. It was evident that Luca was, indeed, different from any man she’d ever met.
She hurried for the phone, picking it up to dial the night clerk before thoughts of Luca stretched out on the mattress consumed her. The phone rang five, six, seven times before going to voicemail, and Alessia frowned. It figured that Stanley would pick now, of all times, not to answer his phone. Sighing, she hung up, then dialed again.