‘I just want to say at this point,’ Raffaele murmured soothingly, ‘how glad I am that you finally got it together to tell me how you feel about buying those trinkets for my ex-girlfriends. I admit that sermonizing about my relationships is out of bounds, but buying presents? Definitely good of you to remind me that that’s not in your remit.’
‘Not exactlytrinkets, Raffaele.’
Raffaele shrugged. ‘They are to me,’ he said kindly. ‘Or maybe a better way of putting it is… I may not commit to permanent relationships, but when they’re over, it’s my way of thanking the women for the time they’ve spent with me and the enjoyment they’ve brought to my life.’
‘That’s very noble,’ Erin said politely, and Raffaele grinned.
‘I’ve never been callednoblebefore but I’m more than happy to run with that. But now, moving on to other things…’
‘Yes!’
Back to work, Erin thought with relief. Relating to her boss like this was out of her comfort zone and she was keen to return to where she was more sure-footed. Even if it made sense to build a more three-dimensional relationship with him, this was an early stage and she would need time to get used to the subtle shift in their relationship.
Gradually.
She could feed him small sound bites on a day-to-day basis, always with the proviso that she didn’t have to confide any more than she felt was necessary, however much his curiosity might have been piqued.
A Pandora’s box hadn’t been opened. Far from it.
She felt much better after this bracing internal pep talk. ‘Do you want me to prioritise the emails that came in at the end of last week? I know you’ve scanned them all, but there are quite a few I can handle and dispatch myself. You can sign them off by the time I’m ready to leave this evening.’
Raffaele looked at Erin from under his lashes for a few seconds in thoughtful silence.
She looked exactly the same as she did most days, bar slight variations in colour schemes. Neat skirt, grey, neat short-sleeved shirt, pink with fine white stripes, neat black flats, hair glossy and tucked behind her ears, secured on either side with tortoiseshell clips, and yet the more he looked, the more intensely pretty she seemed. Those delicate features and the huge hazel eyes that were so good at revealing nothing whatsoever. Or had been, until two days ago. That change had been very satisfying indeed.
Outside it was a balmy summer day but where everyone else her age might have turned up the volume on colour, dusted off the cobwebs and brought out the flowered dresses, Erin was as background as she always strove to be except…
She wasn’t really background at all, was she?
Raffaele felt the kick of curiosity about her again, this time a little harder. An internal alarm rang distantly, but it was easy to ignore. He was well practised when it came to self-control. This intense curiosity might jar a little because it was out of the ordinary but when it came to women, he was immune to being thrown off course.
He waved aside her enthusiastically professional response. ‘Sure. Of course I’ll sign off all those emails and by the way, much appreciation for your diligence on the weekend.’
‘Is there something more important that you’d like me to do? Before I finish up what I started working on on Friday?’ she asked.
‘Now that you mention it…’
‘Yes?’
‘Remember my little drinks party on Saturday?’ It was a provocative introduction to what he wanted to say, and Raffaele was amused at the way she unconsciously stiffened.
Yep, she certainly remembered it and he knew why—it was the first time she’d opened up to him about anything. It had made him realise, with surprise just how work oriented their conversations always were and just how cleverly she had always avoided mentioning anything significant about herself.
Her reticence, he now thought with a certain amount of admiration, was a refreshing change from women who were always keen to tell him anything he wanted to know about themselves.
He decided on the spot that a closed book could be a lot more alluring.
Her cheeks were pink and she’d lowered her eyes and was twiddling her fingers on her lap.
‘Remember I mentioned a conversation I had with Archer?’ He rescued her from her discomfort and saw her breathe a sigh of relief.
‘I can’t remember who Archer was, I’m afraid.’
‘Tall guy…grey hair and a lot of it…some might call it a mane…much younger wife with enough jewellery to open a store.’
Erin smiled and Raffaele realised how much he liked to see her smile. They were a rare sight, and lit up her face in a way that was infectious.
‘She did jangle quite a bit. The upside of which was that you always had fair warning of her approach. Sorry, very catty remark.’
