Page 392 of Valentino

“Get dressed.” He kisses me quickly before collecting my clothes and passing them over.

“I’m a hot mess, I need to use the bathroom.”

He gives me a slow sexy smile as he opens his bathroom door, “Okay.”

Okay? I walk past him into the bathroom, and he closes the door behind me.

Oh….

He’s not coming in then?

I was dreaming of having round two in his shower. I’ve only fantasized about it every day for seven years.

I clean myself up and quickly dress and then I stare at my flushed reflection in the mirror and smile goofily.

“Oh, my fucking god,” I mouth to myself.

“I know,” I mouth back.

I walk back out into his office to see him completely dressed in his suit, looking completely calm and unaffected. “We should get back to the party.”

Oh…

“Okay.”

He pushes the hair back from my face as he stares down at me. “You were incredible.”

Were is all I hear.

He walks to his desk and takes a small, long black box with a black silk ribbon and passes it over to me. “Your Christmas present.”

I smile, “Thank you.” I go to undo the ribbon.

“Open it later, it’s a pen. Nothing exciting.”

“Oh,” I smile, feeling embarrassed. “I got you something, too.” I walk out to my desk and take out the oversized parcel.

He frowns as he looks down at it.

“Open it later, it’s a robe.” I shrug.

He smiles, “Thank you.”

It’s a robe with the letter G embroidered on it. The G is code for Grace so I can always be with him…. But I know he will think it’s for Gabriel because it’s all about him.

The gift that is sneaky but relevant.

He gestures to the elevator, “Let’s go.” He walks to the elevator seemingly unaffected. “I have to get back to the party.”

“Oh.”

He’s just going back to the party? What the hell?

That’s it?

I get into the elevator beside him, and we turn to face the doors. He straightens his tie and twists his neck as he stares straight ahead. My mind is racing a million miles per minute, what the hell is going on here? I glance over at him and rather than make eye contact with me, he looks down and fiddles with his cufflinks.

He's hard and cold.