Opened Up

by Eva Moore

  “You looked like Sleeping Beauty resting in her tower.”

  “Sleeping Beauty, huh? So where’s my magical kiss?”

  He knew she was being flip and sarcastic, but desire made him stare at her lips and second-guess. Did she mean that? Had Sofia Valenti just asked him for a kiss? The silence between them stretched. The tension pulled between them, like a rubber band being cranked tighter and tighter until it twisted in on itself, drawing him in. He took a step closer so that they were inches apart. The heat coming off her skin, the smell of sinful coffee and chocolate on her less-than-steady exhale, the banked desire in her eyes—all combined to sink the last of his resistance.

  “As you wish.” When she didn’t back away, he threaded his greedy fingers through her golden hair, anchoring her where he needed her, and poured all of his desire into the kiss. This was no polite peck, no gentle exploration. This was a dam breaking beneath the weight of years of repressed attraction. This was a flood of greed, rushing to discover the plump texture of her lips, the rich and toasty taste of the mocha on her tongue, the melody of her sighs.

  Part of him hoped that the kiss would wake her up to the potential between them. The other part of him worried that he was screwing everything up. That was the part he muzzled when she moaned and sagged against him, her spine going limp. With one hand still in her hair, he wrapped the other around her waist to pull her in close, to give her the support of his body and permission to use it. If she felt how much she turned him on, even better. This kiss was quickly outpacing his imagination, and all he could think was more.

  When her hands speared into his hair and gripped tightly, he lost his own battle for balance and slid both hands down to her ass as he fell back against her desk, holding on for dear life. He kneaded her ass with his fingers, pulling her hips tight against his and helplessly tilting his pelvis forward.

  The pressure of her belly sliding against his cock was divine but short-lived, because she gasped, breaking the kiss. Sanity returned to her eyes as she stepped back from him and stumbled, falling into her chair. She couldn’t get away from him fast enough. Damn. He’d let his cock do the thinking and had fucked it all up. Time for damage control.

  “What was that?” She couldn’t even look him in the eye. Her gaze darted from his belt buckle to her desk to the door and back. He could read the panic and regret on her face.

  Shit. He needed to recover, and fast. Which tactic did he choose? Humor? Charm? Ignorance? Anything but the truth, which was she’d just ripped a healthy chunk of his heart out with her retreat. “Just your good morning kiss, princesa. Feeling more awake?”

  “I’m not the only one who woke up with that kiss.”

  She glanced at the tent in his jeans. A blush colored her cheeks, before she hid her lips behind the mocha. He’d never been jealous of a piece of plastic before, but watching her lips, still rosy and slick from his kisses, caressing the edge of the cup nearly sent him over the edge. He had to get some space between them so his big head could take over the thinking again.

  He backed away from her, despite every fiber of his being protesting, and sat in the chair across from her, putting the big wooden desk between them. He watched the concerns she wasn’t saying out loud cycle through her mind, as she shuffled and stacked papers together on her desk and fidgeted with the hem of her shirt. He couldn’t deny that it gave him a little buzz of pleasure to know he’d made her nervous. He could work with that.

  “We can’t do that again.” She still wasn’t looking at him.

  “Why not?” The question was out before he could think twice about whether he actually wanted to know the answer.

  “We work together. We have a lot of things happening right now, between the show, your proposal, my plans… I just don’t think it’s wise.”

  “How did your parents ever manage?” He could understand where she was coming from, but the pulsing in his lap had yet to subside and his frustration came out as sarcasm.

  “They aren’t managing very well right now, because this business got all twisted up in their marriage.”

  “We are not your parents.”

  “You’re the one who brought them up. I just think it would be smart not to rock the boat while everything else is already up in the air.”

  “One question—did you enjoy that kiss?”

  Her blush deepened, and though she didn’t speak, he caught the slight nod of her head.

  “So, this isn’t a no. It’s a not-right-now. I can work with that.”

  “No, no, no. This isn’t some challenge for you to work on. I need a truce.” She held up her hands as if she could stop the train of thought he was on.

  “A truce. Are we negotiating terms here, Sofia?”

  “Sure. I need your help making sure this pilot episode is a success, and your promise not to distract me with more of that.” She fluttered her hand in the direction of his lap, and he couldn’t suppress his grin.

  “I need your help convincing your dad about my proposal, and taking care of my crews in the contract. In return, I promise to keep all of this”—he fluttered his hands over his lap—“away from that.” He wiggled his fingers at her chest and earned a laugh.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Not good enough, Sofia. If I’m going to ignore the way I feel about you, I’m going to need a powerful motivation.”

  “Okay, deal.”

  “I also need a deadline. How long does this truce last?” Please don’t say forever…

  “Until things settle down. This…thing…between us, it took me by surprise. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the hell out of that kiss, just that I can’t handle anything else right now.”

  “Okay, Sofia. You have your truce. I’ll help you get this pilot to succeed, and you’ll help me convince your father that I deserve a chance to buy in. I’ll keep my hands to myself until you ask me not to.” He paused and leaned closer to her, gratified when her eyes focused on his lips. “Just know that every time I see you, I’ll be thinking of this kiss, waiting for the day I get to do it again.” He reached across the desk and offered his hand to shake on it. When she took it, warmth raced up his arm at her touch, and he couldn’t resist pulling her hand to his lips for a quick kiss to seal their bargain.

  With that, he stood and walked out the door. He’d call her later about the contract details. If he didn’t get some distance and quick, their truce wouldn’t last the next three minutes.

  Chapter 6

  Three weeks later

  “Sofia, I need your help.” Jake Ryland cornered her in her office and shut the door.

  “With what?” She slid her ever-present stack of papers to the side and gave him her full attention.

  “It’s your dad.”

  Leaning back in her chair, Sofia let out a sharp bark of a laugh. “If you think I’ve got any influence over that man, you’re crazy.”

  Jake dropped into the chair across from her desk and handed her his tablet. “This is the sizzle reel.”

  Sofia tapped the white triangle and saw their recent construction projects come to life on the screen. Punchy music overlaid the introduction shots of her parents, Frankie, and Enzo. It even showed a clip of her talking with Adrian. Damn, the camera loved him. He looked good enough to eat, and she let her mind wander down that pleasant path a moment.

  “Here it comes.” Jake drew her attention back to the opening scene. Her father stood at an angle with the Shahs in his office. Had he tweaked his back again? She’d never seen her father hold himself so still unless he was in pain.

  “Hello.” His voice was as flat as paint primer.

  “Hello.” The Shahs replied together, all smiles.

  “We will give you a great house under budget and on time. Great house. No problem.”

  Maybe he was in pain. This was certainly painful to watch. He was reciting the show pitch and stumbling over it. Dom Valenti, family patriarch and veteran contractor, was pale and shaky. He looked seconds from passing out.<
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  “Breathe, Dad,” Sofia muttered aloud.

  “I don’t think he did for that entire segment.” Jake braced his elbows on the desk and cupped his head in his hands. “What a mess!”

  When the shot shifted to her and Adrian joking, the sizzle reel found its sizzle again. Was the attraction between them that obvious to everyone else, or was she seeing more than she had before? The rest of the extended commercial looked fine, until Dom came on screen again.

  “And that’s why I think you should make Million-Dollar Starter Home a show. Thank you.” He sounded like the end of every bad third grade persuasive essay. He did not sound like the confident owner of his own construction firm who deserved to have millions invested in his show idea.

  “So he needs some coaching…” Sofia tried to minimize what was clearly a fiasco. If Dom couldn’t perform on camera, this show was going to tank. He was Valenti Brothers. This was his baby.

  “That was with coaching. Listen, Sofia, now that you’re doing most of the design work, I think it would be best for you to be the voice of the company. You seem comfortable on camera, and…”

  “And anyone would be better than that,” she said.

  “I was going to say, and it gives you a chance to showcase your brand. But yes, that too.”

  Sofia could see the potential. If she got bumped up to a major role, her designs would have to take center stage. Dom wouldn’t be able to dismiss them if they were key to the show. Plus, she’d be in a better position to negotiate what she wanted in the next contracts if the show got picked up.

  “Who’s going to tell Dad?”

  “Let me figure that out. But you’ll do it?”

  “I’ll do it.”

  “And here is your new kitchen!” Sofia forced enthusiasm into her voice. Why had she agreed to do this? Farha and Gautam Shah sat kitty-corner across the table from her at an awkward angle and oohed and ahhed for the third time as she walked them through the Virtual Design CAD rendering of their new space. Again. Apparently the lighting had been off in the first take, and her hair had looked funny in the second. No wonder, since she’d taken to tugging on it in frustration. Instead of her usual ponytail and basic eyes, they’d gone all out to make her “camera-ready.” She was ready to dunk her head in a bucket of cold water, but she clamped down on that urge and excitedly listed the kitchen’s design features one more time.

  They had hustled to reshoot all weekend, and the revamped sizzle reel had been sent off to studio execs. What she had been assured was a “bare-bones” crew had descended into her life bright and early Monday morning to begin filming the pilot. Two camera operators, two sound techs, one lighting engineer, three producers, three furiously scribbling assistants, and a gopher were crowded into the Shahs’ outdated dining room. Dom stood just off camera, attached to Jake’s elbow and scowling ever since he’d been told he wouldn’t be needed for this segment. The only person not in the room was the hair and makeup artist, Natalie, and that was only because her setup was out in the garage. Trina, one of the camera operators, had her large black camcorder up on her shoulder and moved with the grace of an acrobat while she captured their reactions around the framing of the still cameras. Sofia tried to act normal, but the lens zooming to focus on her face made her feel self-conscious. She felt her smile stiffening on her face. She could understand why her Dad had struggled. He was such an honest, straightforward guy. A great trait in a contractor, but not so much for a show where he needed to convincingly fake emotions several times in a row. She was much better at pretending to be happy, and even she was struggling here.

  “We’ll knock down this wall and extend the kitchen into this formal dining space, nearly doubling your cabinet space while opening up this whole side of the house. You’ll still have room for the large dining table you mentioned as well. Colorful reclaimed wood cabinets on the large island, midrange rustic for the rest, and a white countertop and backsplash to allow your colorful collection of serving dishes to pop. Antique copper farm sink and fixtures. Eclectic, homey, with splashes of color and fun.”

  This design had come together during her conversations with the couple who craved a mix of modern functionality and high-tech amenities, with personal touches from home and their travels. It looked nothing like the cookie-cutter fixes her dad usually slapped on a remodel. Sofia couldn’t be happier with the result.

  “Are you sure we can afford this? We only have a hundred thousand dollars to spend out of our home equity loan, and we haven’t even seen the master bedroom, bathrooms, or the nursery…” Gautam’s eyebrows furrowed in concern.

  Sofia hesitated a split-second before reassuring them.

  “Trust me. We’ll give you your dream house under budget and on time. That’s what Valenti Brothers are famous for.”

  Producer Jake Ryland’s head popped up at this, but Sofia held her smile firm and confident. True, she’d cut it close on the budget, and if there were any unforeseen complications, it might be difficult to deliver. But if that happened, she’d handle it. Especially with Adrian on her team.

  They’d managed to keep their hands and lips to themselves, but the truce was getting harder to maintain. Sofia spent as much time trying not to think about him as she did failing miserably. But she wasn’t ready to revoke it yet, because she was absolutely getting slammed by the production schedule on top of her regular workload. She needed him focused on the reno. She had no doubt that he would help her make this work. He had the skills and know-how, and she trusted his work implicitly. She just prayed that her strength held, because she was starting the most important project of her career, and she couldn’t afford to be distracted by pretty words and a pair of fine eyes. On that thought, she forced her attention back to the design in front of her.

  When she’d first met with the Shahs about fixing up their Cambrian bungalow, the consult had gone well. They had a clear design aesthetic and were eager to work with her. The walk-and-talk session through the house had been very productive. Gautam and Farha had both worked in tech in Silicon Valley for eight years and had been frugal with their stock awards, which put them in position to buy a nice three-bedroom fixer-upper in advance of the birth of their first child.

  They still seemed excited with her digital mock-ups in front of them, but the technical glitches of filming were wearing down everyone’s enthusiasm. It didn’t help that they were sitting at a prop table in the still-awful late seventies dining room complete with harvest gold sea-grass wallpaper, surrounded by people staring at them. She knew in post-production they would overlay the decor with her CAD designs for maximum impact, but right now it was just depressing.

  Farha was fading and rubbing her belly. When Jake yelled cut, Sofia rose to stretch and casually went to check the take. “How was that one?”

  “There’s no sparkle. We lost it after that first take.” Jake grimaced and rubbed his forehead.

  “I’ve got an idea.” Sofia said. “You can overlay to any room, right?”

  “Yeah, our graphics gal does it in post.”

  “And the lights in the rooms are already set for the stills, right?”

  “For the stills, sure, but not for people. What are you thinking?”

  “Can we have the walk-and-talk camera follow us into the back bedroom? I want to do the nursery reveal in there. Farha needs to get up and move, and I think you’ll get the sparkle you’re looking for.”

  “Hmm, it’s not a bad idea, Fi. Give me ten.”

  Sofia turned back to her clients with a satisfied smile. “Is she kicking?”

  “Like a champion footballer.” Farha winced and pressed on her rounded belly as if she could remove the tiny foot from its spot pressing into her ribcage. “We won’t have to worry about a scholarship.”

  Sofia couldn’t help the mushy grin that spread across her face. She’d always loved children and hadn’t quite given up hope that she’d have some of her own someday.

  “I’m sure all of this sitting isn’t helping. We’re go
ing to try something else for this next shot. I’m going to show you the design on my laptop in the room, so you can picture it in the space. They’ll do some cool graphics work later that will make it look magical, and most importantly it gets us up from this table.”

  Gautam laughed and rubbed a hand across his wife’s lower back. The way Farha leaned into his touch with relief came perilously close to pushing Sofia’s envy button.

  “Anything to stretch a little. I’m game.”

  “Okay, folks. Let’s head to the back bedroom. Trina will lead with the camera rig.” Jake rounded them up and expertly placed them where he wanted them.

  Sofia snagged her laptop and followed Trina. More setup. More fidgeting. More tedium. This was going to get real old, real quick. She hoped this was just beginning-of-production kinks getting worked out. If everything took this long, there was no way they’d stay on track. At Jake’s nod, Sofia opened her laptop and began again.

  “This is going to be the nursery. By the time you’re ready to bring your little girl home to this room, it will be completely transformed. I worked with the corals and neutrals you chose as the color scheme. Over here,” she gestured to the longest wall, “we’ll have this beautiful crib and the reading nook here in the corner with a comfortable rocker for bedtime stories. I can already picture you cuddled up with Goodnight Moon.”

  She could tell by the glowing look on her face that Farha was picturing the same thing. Sofia grinned in response. Nailed it.

  “The changing table and custom toy chest will go here under the window, and we’ll be swapping out this carpet for the darker hardwood you’ve chosen for the rest of the house…” She trailed off as Farha and Gautam looked back and forth from her laptop to the dirty white walls with tears welling in their eyes.