“Matteo is fine.”
No one could have missed the jealousy in his tone.No one.Sam blinked.
“Are you in pain?” he asked, tilting his chin at her foot.
“It’s just a hairline fracture,” she said, clumsily wiggling her foot.
That he’d ask her that of all the hundred things he could’ve said…her heart felt like a fragile piece of glass. Liable to shatter at one wrong word. And because she would hate him to reach the wrong conclusion, she elaborated. “This…teen kid was driving a moped and almost crashed into a delivery vehicle. I tried to get him out of his way, right outside. I ended up twisting my foot and falling,” she finished slowly.
He didn’t nod at her explanation. His gaze didn’t relent, as if his intensity had been dialed to the max. “Pack a bag. We’ll go to my hotel suite.” He rubbed a hand over his temple. “Do you need help?”
Her mom’s outraged gasp punctured the silence. God, she couldn’t give them a moment, could she? And what was Alessandro doing, ordering her around, in front of her parents?
Despite it all, Sam was tempted. Beyond tempted to simply follow him.
He could have said they’d go to the end of earth or a different dimension or a parallel universe and she’d still have followed him. If he’d asked for a few more weeks, or days or even one last night for closure…she’d be all in. Again. She’d put aside embarrassment, her self-respect, her pain—everything if he’d just kiss her one more time. If he’d hold her. If he’d make love to her. She was that desperate for him.
But if she did go, she wasn’t sure she could break away again. The thought of his rejection was the slap of common sense she needed.
“I have an early morning class, and it’s my turn to make dinner tonight,” she said, uncaring that it sounded like an excuse. It wasn’t.
He came toward her. A strange dizziness came over her as he took the bag of groceries in one hand, grabbed her waist with the other and simply lifted her and carried her to the kitchen.
Sam breathed him in like an addict.
“I will help with dinner. We can eat and then go. I’ll make sure you get to class on time in the morning.”
Sam simply nodded instead of telling him she was not going anywhere with him.
To his credit, he did help her in the kitchen. But her heart couldn’t simply settle down in his proximity.
Since she’d lost the salad, she heated up leftover rice and used the vegetables he’d chopped to make fried rice.
Her parents watched from the living room as if two aliens had taken over the kitchen.
Sam set the table while Alessandro scrambled the eggs until they were golden and fluffy and just…perfect like everything he did. It was such a domestic yet extraordinary moment that she didn’t know what to think.
“I didn’t know you could cook,” Sam said, when the four of them settled down around the table.
“You don’t know a lot of things about me,” he said, a soft twinkle in his eyes. “You ran away before I could tell you.” The last part was a whisper just for her ears.
“I didn’t run away,” Sam retorted.
He didn’t argue back, but the tight set of his jaw said more than enough.
If the fried rice was too spicy for him, he didn’t let on. He ate two helpings as if it was the most delicious dish he’d ever tried, and a fierce kind of joy stabbed through Sam’s middle.
Mom stayed quiet, but Dad and Alessandro chatted about computers and business and the Ricci branch in California without an ounce of awkwardness.
Soon they’d piled up all the dishes around the sink and she’d cleaned the dining table. Her heart started rabbiting in her chest.
“I’ll see to these,” Dad said, gesturing to the dirty dishes while Mom filled the kettle and turned it on. Sam didn’t know what to do with herself. Or the sudden tremors that seemed to overtake her at the thought of him leaving.
Alessandro thanked her parents for their hospitality and did it with such genuine regard that even her mom cracked a smile. Then he turned to her. “Ready to go?”
Sam followed him into the living room so that they could have some privacy. Not so much that she’d lose the little sense of self-preservation that was holding her back. “I’m…exhausted, to be honest. It’s been a long week.”
He crowded her until their chests grazed. “I can see that,tesoro. You can just sleep. We don’t have to talk.” His knuckles traced the dark shadows under her eyes. “I just…need to hold you.”
