Page 71 of Matteo

She blinks, caught off guard. “I’m quite capable of getting an Uber,” she says automatically.

“I know.” I glance down the street once, then back at her. “I’m staying until it arrives.”

Her mouth twitches, and I wait for the rebuke, but it doesn't come.

She looks back at her phone, ignoring me. I'm okay with it. I don't need to have a conversation. I just need to know that she's okay.

We stand in silence as cars pass, and light shifts across the pavement.

Close enough that I can see the loose strands of hair she keeps tucking behind her ear. Close enough that it would be easy to close the distance between us.

But I manage to restrain myself.

“You don’t have to keep watch over me,” she says eventually, not looking up.

“I know.”

“I’m not fragile,” she insists, her voice firm but dropping lower.

I exhale once through my nose. Almost a laugh, but not quite. “I didn’t say you were.” I know she's tough. I have a sense of what she's gone through in her life, a tiny sense, but enough to tell me she's not a delicate flower. I admire her and still want to protect her, despite what she says.

She lifts her face, and looks at me again. The silence between us feels precariously thin and fragile. Neither of us moves.

Her Uber pulls up, and I step forward and open the door for her instinctively. She narrows her eyes at me, but her expression suddenly softens, and then she gets in. My heart sinks, because I was so sure she was going to say something.

Before she closes the door, she looks at me again, and I realize I still haven’t moved away.

Chapter 18

ELIZABETH

I have a meeting with the asshole today.

I rushed home from the bar early last night because I had to get away from him. Matteo made things so awkward. Everything was going fine at Sonny's engagement drinks. All the tech guys were there; guys I don't usually talk to apart from saying a quick hello and goodbye in the coffee room or when we're having lunch.

I was having a great time until Matteo turned up. At first, I was disappointed when he didn't show. We've been avoiding one another. I've been avoiding him, for sure. I couldn't bring myself to look at him for fear that he'd know I'd been thinking about him ever since that night at the wine bar when we had dinner together.

It wasn't dinner, dinner. It wasn't a date. He took pity on me because my stomach was rumbling.

But still ...

How that evening ended made me even more certain that he thinks about me in the way I think about him. I couldn't sleep. So much so that I needed my vibrator to get me off, because I was so slick and hot and horny for him by the time I got home.

But last night, when he showed up at the bar, hours later, I'd already had a few beers, and Joel was funny. He likes me, but I don't feel that way about him. He wasn’t in my face. He wasn’t bothering me. He's just expressive and loud, but I'm not worried about him.

When Matteo turned up, my body suddenly came to life. I'd been enjoying myself, but him being there added another dimension to my evening. I was so painfully aware of his presence. The sound of his voice cut through the noise of the bar. The scent of his cologne drifted my way. I found myself tracking his movements without meaning to, stealing glances whenever I thought he wasn't looking.

Even though we ended up sitting at the same table, a few chairs apart, our gazes kept locking.

Something has changed between us, and things have been weird ever since. Matteo has no idea I went home feeling like a cat in heat, so aroused that I had to take care of myself just to get some sleep.

I keep wondering if he feels the same, because something passes between us. Something invisible. A current that makes my heart race and every nerve ending come alive.

But when Joel joked about me working there full time after the audit, I wasn't prepared for Matteo's cold and cutting remark. It's like he hates me, and I didn't understand why. I don't know what I've done to upset him.

“Elizabeth,” he says, his voice so close behind me that it makes me jolt. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. How long has he been here?

We have a meeting.