“I have to meet with the director first thing on Monday,” I add.
She nods. “I have to be back in LA for a meeting on Monday also.”
“What meeting?” I ask.
“I landed another client,” Emma answers, sounding proud. “She sent back the signed contact and paid her deposit. So I guess I officially have two clients now. She’s a divorced mom who has a new house she needs to set up. She’s in a women’s support group, so if I do well, she said she’d recommend me to all her divorced friends. I could have a very lucrative niche, considering the state of marriages in LA,” she adds wryly.
“That’s great. You deserve it, Em. And I’m not at all surprised. You were an incredible assistant. And you’re going to be an even more incredible business owner.”
“I must have been a pretty good assistant. Because you offered me an insane amount to stay,” she teases.
I struggle to find the right words. “That wasn’t only because you were amazing at Excel and keeping my calendar organized. I sucked at showing you, but you were never just an assistant. I may not have been a great friend, but you are the person I trust the most in the world, which is why I couldn’t imagine losing you. And I’m well aware of the cliché. That I paid someone to hang around me. But in my defense, it was normal in my world. Except for my grandparents, the only people who stayed in my life consistently were people I paid or who wanted fame or favors. So when you quit, I thought if I offered enough, I could somehow get you to stay.” I give a dark laugh. “It’s my luck that you were the one person who couldn’t be bought.”
She sits up and stares at me, eyes wide. “You are more than enough, just because of who you are, not because of money or favors,” she says, her voice fierce, sincere.
I place my hands on either side of her face and kiss the top of her hair, closing my eyes. I memorize it all, the gardenia scent of her, the warmth, the softness.
“We don’t have much time. So we should probably make the most of it.” She kisses my neck.
She works down my body, worshiping me with brushes of her lips and tongue until she reaches the juncture of my thighs.
I suck in my breath when she takes me fully into her wet mouth without preamble. Her tongue draws circles on my dick as I moan, muttering an oath. And then she draws me in and out in slow, rhythmic drags.
Not able to take any more, I flip her. “I need to be inside you.Now.But first, there’s my rule.”
“Rule?” she asks, breathless, distracted as my mouth captures her breast.
“I thought you had a better memory,” I chide. “Emma comes first, remember?”
She groans when I tease a hand down her body and lightly bite her nipple.
“Rules are so lovely,” she says on a shaky exhale.
CHAPTER 38
Emma
I stareat Sebastian from across the château’s large, old-fashioned library, feeling wildly, hopelessly infatuated with the intoxicating man who made love to me all night and twice this morning.
When I was organizing Caitlin’s house today, I couldn’t help but wince every time I bent down or moved wrong. The grin she tried to hide told me she suspected why my muscles were so sore.
Sebastian met with Mancini while I worked with Caitlin, and then we met back in our room to get ready. We tried out the bathtub together. And I discovered Sebastian can be surprisingly attentive to details when he wants to be.
Dinner, a smaller table set up on the patio, was torture. My pretend fiancé was seated next to me, so he spent the entire meal making sure I knew just how much he loved my dress, which was blue and matched my new necklace. It was also very short. He spent the dinner with his hand on my thigh, dangerously close to my panties.
Okay. He briefly had his handmore thandangerously close during the cheese and Pinot Noir pairing. And maybe during coffee. Luckily, this was all under the tablecloth.
To distract myself from counting the minutes until we can politely decamp from after-dinner drinks in the library, I wander the room, gazing at the framed images that fill the walls. There are movie posters from Mancini’s many films and a wide variety of photos, from set stills, smiling candids with famous people, and family pictures spanning decades.
Strong arms surround me, and lips kiss my neck.
“I can’t concentrate. When can we leave?” “Sebastian murmurs.
I groan. “It’s too small a group tonight. We can’t just leave without being noticed,” I say under my breath, glancing at the couples chatting across the room. “I’ve been calculating. I think in twenty-eight minutes we can safely leave without offending.”
“You might be mixing me up with someone who cares about offending.”
“Well, I do. I like the Mancinis and don’t want to be rude. Especially since we ran off last night.”
