He said no more than that. And he watched, fascinated, as a deep, bright color shot back into her cheeks.
“That’s why you came to New York.” Her gaze was wider now, and slicked with something he couldn’t quite identify. “You weren’t a random stranger at the bar, a beautiful escape from the worst weekend of my life. You were there because of that article.” She swallowed as if it hurt. “Was this your plan all along? To…to…punishme for what I said to my…”
She couldn’t say it, but she didn’t have to say it. He was appalled all the same.
He shook his head, emphatically. “I came to confront you and had no intention of doing anything more than that.”
“But you did.” Her green gaze never left his face. “You did far more than that.”
Once again, Antonluca felt the stirrings of his temper that, apparently, only she could produce in him.
“By all means,” he gritted out. “Let’s interrogate what happened between us that night, but we must not forget that the reason I was there in the first place was because you, the manager of my restaurant, disparaged my food. If there is a more perfect example of biting the hand that feeds, I do not know what it is.”
“I had a conversation with a friend,” Hannah said, as if she had wanted to say this for a long time. As if the words were coming of their own accord. “A friend I’d had many private conversations with before. It never occurred to me in a million years that she would take that conversation andpublishit.” Her eyes were accusing again, but not, he thought, aimed at him this time. “She betrayed me. And I expected to get fired, of course. I’m not justifying what I said, or pretending that you didn’t have every right to be furious.”
“I thank you,cara, for your permission.”
She glared at him and that bone-dry tone of his, and all he could think about was that he had messed up her lip gloss. He wanted to mess it up even further.
Which did not exactly make it easy to access the fury he had felt when he’d flown across the planet to upbraid her three years ago.
“I take full responsibility for the indiscretion,” she said then, in a cool sort of way that managed to lodge itself directly under his skin. “That is what I told everyone involved back then. And would have told you, too, had you mustered up the courage to tell me who you were.”
“It was not a matter of courage,” he retorted. “It was self-preservation.”
“Yes, of course. Because a famous billionaire needs protection from a no-name restaurant worker. That’s how the world works.”
“Hannah.” And even from between his teeth, he liked her name in his mouth. “I did not take advantage of you. I expected to sit down at a table and have a discussion with you. Probably not a pleasant one. I did not anticipate what happened.”
And Antonluca knew that she remembered it. He could see it. He knew that she’d been as shocked as he was that a simple brush of hands could change everything so profoundly, but it had.
It had changedhim,and he hated it.
“It seems as if you found an excellent way to take revenge on me,” she replied, her green eyes dark. “I suppose I should congratulate you.”
He moved in closer then, and ran his thumb over her lips. Those full, sensual lips that he craved another taste of, even now.
“Be honest,” he said in a low voice that he could hardly credit as his own. “Did anything that happened that night feel like revenge to you?”
Hannah flushed and took a step back. She crossed her arms, looking very much as if she was gathering herself. He took that as a compliment, for that would not be required if she wasn’t as off balanced by this he was.
Not that he intended to let her know that.
“I suppose none of this matters,” she said after what felt like a very, very long moment. “You didn’t expect to see me, nor I you. But the fact remains, we will need to work together.” She inclined her head. “I understand that the hotel is now yours. And as certainly as there can only be one La Paloma, things will surely change under your leadership. I hope you find me flexible, committed, and excited to dig in.”
It was that armor again, Antonluca thought. He did not care for it.
But by the same token, her head was clearly cooler than his. Or she was better at pretending. He reminded himself, as he always did in business situations, that he had the upper hand.
Because most people in business did not come from backgrounds like his. He had read Hannah’s résumé when he’d flown back from Japan and he never forgot the things he read. He knew that she’d had a pleasantly middle-class life, had gone to university, and while she might not have grown up as privileged as some, she had certainly had advantages that he had not.
It was a superpower, he sometimes thought. He saw through people in ways that others couldn’t, because his very survival—and that of his siblings—had depended on him being able to read people in an instant.
It was one of the reasons the magnificent Paloma herself liked him so much. He always told the truth, like it or not.
“Do you believe that we can have an appropriate working relationship?” he asked her, drawing his own armor close.
She frowned at him. “I have never had anything but appropriate working relationships before. I don’t think that I have a problem.”
