“How long do we have?” I whisper.
“Until someone gets Fonte out the door.” Matteo glances back the way we came. “Not long.”
Even though this isn’t Dominic’s main house, there might still be an office somewhere. Actually, everyone expects he wouldn’t keep anything of importance here, which means he just might have done it. I look up for cameras, but there aren’t any here. All the guards have moved to protect Dominic, so they’re not around.
Matteo and I head down the hallway, away from the noise, trying doors as we go. One’s a closet, one’s a dark spare room, and another a bathroom.
When I open the door near the end of the hallway, I see a big shelf and a desk.
“In here,” I breathe, and Matteo and I slip inside and pull the door almost shut.
I flick on the lamp on the desk with my knuckle. Papers are stacked and scattered everywhere. Fuck. This is a mess, and the door’s unlocked, so it probably isn’t anything important. Or that’s exactly what Dominic wants us to think. Besides, a guard would’ve probably been in front of the door, but he went to deal with Fonte.
“You check the shelves,” I whisper. “I’ve got the desk.”
I flip through some papers. Receipts, a property listing, a page in a language I can’t read... But then I find a folder with a list of names and numbers that look like they’re in some kind of code. Right. Dominic thought about everything. He can leave it all in the open because no one can read it except for him.
I dig my phone out of my purse. “Look!” I hiss.
Matteo comes over. “Huh. Could be something about shipments.”
“Yeah.” I snap photos as fast as I can, turning the pages carefully so I don’t shuffle them out of order.
“Faster,” Matteo says, his eyes on the door.
“I’m going as fast as I can.” Just as I say the last word, the sound of footsteps coming closer makes me gasp.
My eyes go up to Matteo’s. There’s nowhere to hide. The desk’s too small to fit behind, the closet’s on the far wall, and there’s no time to make it anywhere before that door opens.
The footsteps stop right outside. I grab the front of Matteo’s shirt and pull him into me and press my mouth to his, because it’s the only thing left that might work. He goes still for half a second, and then his arm comes around my waist and he kisses me back.
The door swings open. I keep my eyes shut and let one hand slide up into Matteo’s hair, holding on as if we’ve forgotten where we are.
“Whoa,” a man says. “Hey! You shouldn’t be in here.”
I lean back a little and press my face into Matteo’s shoulder, as if I’m embarrassed to be caught.
“We just wanted a moment alone,” Matteo says, a little breathless, and damn, he’s good at this. “Got carried away. We’ll head back. Sorry.”
The guard laughs. He waits in the doorway, so we don’t have a choice. Matteo’s arm comes around me as we head past the guard into the hallway. I’m pretty sure my face is flushed, so yep, this is extra believable.
As we make it back to the party, we see two men steering Fonte toward the front door. Dominic’s talking with someone else, all charm again, as if the whole thing never happened.
Matteo’s arm is still around me, my lips still tingling from our kiss, and I fight the urge to touch them.
I should be thinking about the photos and about how to figure out what Dominic’s code language means. Or if it’s evenreal. I mean, he could’ve just left something random to fool people, or maybe not.
But all I can think about is Matteo’s lips on mine.
No. I can’t afford to want him or lower my guard around him. He’s dangerous, even though he doesn’t seem like it. I can’t let myself get distracted.
Chapter 14
MATTEO
MARCO TELLS ME AMALIAwants me in her office, and I head up there with no real idea what to expect. We haven’t talked much since we got back from Dominic’s. Not about anything that matters anyway, and the kiss is still on my mind.
It wasn’t supposed to mean anything. She grabbed me because someone was about to open the door, and it was the only thing that would get us out of the mess, so I kissed her back and it worked. But I liked it more than I should have, and now I don’t know how I’m supposed to act around her, so I just push the door open and try to look like a man who hasn’t thought about it once.
