Next Stop: Love (10 page)

Unfortunately, though, it wasn’t easy to trick Luca, which was generally a positive quality, but one that I found extremely inconvenient just then. He stopped in his tracks, so I was forced to do the same. “And what did you really think?” His look was penetrating; nothing I said or did would escape his attention.

“Is that really important? I’m your assistant, and even if I did find it repulsive and wish I could break a bottle over that Phillip guy’s head, this is my job, and I have to deal with it, just like everyone else.”

“I don’t think you’re just like everyone else, Sophia,” he said in a strange tone. “Not at all. And surely you must have noticed by now that I don’t treat you like any old assistant, either.”

Oh no, don’t look at me like that!
My heart was pounding and my knees were going weak. Looking at me that way when he was that attractive simply wasn’t fair. Luca was certainly good at throwing people off. At the moment, I was having a hard time concentrating on what he was saying, because I was losing myself in his eyes, which seemed almost magical in the light of the streetlamp. I didn’t have captivating eyes like his, eyes that probably made other women swoon by the dozen. Mine were brown and completely ordinary.

“You mean because I’m allowed to drink alcohol? How generous, Mr. Marcs,” I scoffed, which destroyed the moment. I acted like I hadn’t understood what he was getting at, just like always, and started to walk away. He followed me, visibly dissatisfied—but that was perfectly fine with me. I didn’t want to feel any chemistry between us, and I certainly didn’t want him to think of me as anything more than his assistant. I wasn’t, and I never would be.

Dammit, I thought a moment later. I was doing it again. I was blocking all his attempts to get closer, even though I’d promised Lisa I wouldn’t. Man, I hadn’t thought it would be so hard to open myself up again, but apparently I was pretty rusty in that regard.

“Anyway, you don’t have to accompany me to night meetings anymore if you don’t want to,” he said.

I looked up at him. “But that’s part of my job.”

“No, it isn’t.” He smiled ruefully. “Or do you really believe I need someone to take notes for me while I sit around with a few guys over drinks? Maybe things would be different at a conference with thirty people, but this was pretty casual.”

I laughed indignantly. “So you’re saying that my presence tonight was entirely unnecessary?”

“Only unnecessary from a business perspective. What I’m trying to say is that, as far as I’m concerned, you could have just as well stayed home this evening. My father’s the one who makes the rules around here, but you don’t have to come along in the future if you don’t want to. My father thinks you assistants make so much money that you ought to be doing something in exchange. That’s why he schedules you in unnecessarily for these nighttime meetings. Total crap, if you ask me.”

And he wanted to go against his dad for me? “What would your father say?” I asked.

He laughed. “He’ll never know the difference. Unless you absolutely insist on coming with me, of course—then I’ll have to bring you,” he added with a wink.

I grinned. “Don’t take this personally, but I’d really rather not.”

“I thought so.” He nodded, smirking. “But you have to do one thing for me.”

I sighed. “I knew there was a catch.”

“Just a tiny one. Come out for a drink with me.”

I bit my lip. My first instinct was to turn him down immediately, but I was trying to change.

“It doesn’t have to be alcoholic,” he added, seeing my hesitation.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a moment. “Okay,” I said.

He seemed genuinely surprised that I had agreed so quickly, then cheerfully led me to the nearest bar.

“So, Sophia, tell me about yourself.” Luca leaned back in his chair and sipped his soda. It occurred to me that I’d never seen him drink alcohol.

“Not that there’s anything exciting to tell, but what exactly do you want to know?” I asked.

“Do you have siblings?”

“No.”

“Do you like going to the movies?”

“Not often.”

“Any plans for the future?”

“Getting my first paycheck,” I replied dryly. “What?” I said when he laughed.

Smirking, he shook his head. “I’m just trying to figure out what’s going on in your head. Normally I can read people pretty well, and it only takes me a few seconds to figure out who I’m dealing with, but you . . . You’re a mystery to me.”

“Oh yeah?” I said suspiciously. I’d considered myself an open book. “What makes you say that?” I inquired, taking a sip of my cocktail.

“Well, you agree to go running with me, but then you act standoffish. You let me invite you out for a drink, but then you hardly tell me anything about yourself. Most of the time you’re brooding about something, but I have no idea what. So I get the impression that you want to give it a shot, but you’re not sure,” he concluded.

“Give what a shot?” I asked and felt my mouth suddenly go dry. And he claimed he couldn’t read me? He had me all figured out.

“I dunno,” he said, regarding me thoughtfully.

I wanted to respond somehow, wanted to explain why I had such a hard time trusting people . . . But then I looked past him and froze. “Oh God, there’s Mary,” I whispered and scooted over so that his body blocked me from her view.

He stared at me as though he couldn’t believe I was actually hiding. “And what exactly is the problem?”

“That we’re here together, of course,” I said in a reproachful tone.

His expression turned to one of amusement. “Are you embarrassed to be seen with me or something?”

“Of course not, but you’re my boss, and I don’t want her spreading any rumors,” I said, making myself even smaller.

“I didn’t think you’re the kind of person who worries about what other people say,” he remarked, and something in his voice made me look up.

“I’m not.” When he merely raised his eyebrows skeptically—my actions weren’t exactly matching my words—I added, “Normally!”

Just at that moment, Mary spotted me and came strolling in our direction. I groaned and waited until she’d reached us. She’d left her girlfriend back at the bar, and judging by the smug look on her face, she had nothing but kind things to say, as usual. When she saw who was with me, though, her smirk faded.

“Mr. Marcs—I mean, Luca. What are you doing here?” She couldn’t have sounded any more crushed if she’d tried. She looked like her entire world was crumbling . . . which was exactly what I’d wanted to avoid. I could see the headlines already: “New Girl Pursues Senior Manager.”

“Sophia and I are just coming from a meeting. How was your day?” he inquired.

Her eyes flicked between him and me, as though she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Um . . . great . . . so . . . I’ve gotta go now,” she stammered and hurried off again. Man, I’d never seen her so tongue-tied.

I sipped my drink timidly and then looked over at Luca, who was watching me in amusement. “What’s so funny?” I wanted to know.

“Nothing,” he said, still grinning. “You just look like you wish the ground would open up and swallow you.”

“Because the whole company will have heard about this by tomorrow, and all kinds of weird rumors will start spreading about us . . . Of course, as the boss you won’t hear any of them!”

“Go out with me.” It was such an out-of-the-blue request that I choked on my drink. I could feel myself turning red, which had nothing to do with my near asphyxiation, and a smirking Luca leaned across the table to pat my back.

“Are you being serious?” I asked once I could breathe again.

“Deadly serious,” he said, taking a sip from his glass.

“Why?” I blurted out. I’d actually wanted to agree to go out with him, but then the question had popped into my head and escaped my lips.

Contrary to my expectations, he didn’t need long to formulate his answer. “Because I’ve wanted to get to know you better ever since we first met.”

“I kind of doubt that.” I laughed, but even as I said it, a warm, tingling sensation washed over me. Luca Marcs wanted to go out with me. With
me
! “You were the world’s biggest jerk,” I added, although I hardly sounded offended. I was long since over his behavior on the train, and anyway, I’d been pretty unpleasant myself.

“Only because I was in a bad mood that day.” He smiled apologetically. “My dad had called me back from vacation early, just because I’d sent him some goddamned statistics late, and I was really pissed off about it. And I’ll be honest with you: my last breakup wasn’t that long ago, so I’d had it with women. All my life, I’ve dated either successful or ambitious women, because my father thinks that I need to be with someone who is my equal in that regard. And then you came into my compartment. Another stuck-up businesswoman, I thought, exactly the type I’m so sick of. But then I realized pretty quickly that you were nothing like them. You didn’t even know how to button a jacket correctly. And suddenly I was more entertained than I had been in a long time . . . and I realized that I definitely had to get to know you.”

Wow. No man had ever spoken to me that openly and honestly in my entire life, and it surprised me that we’d been thinking along the same lines—because I was also sick of guys of the type that I’d assumed he was. Even my ex-boyfriend had never said such nice things to me. Then again, his approach was a bit off. “So what you’re saying is, you’re interested in me because I don’t know how to dress and I’m not a successful career woman?” My voice was equal parts amused and offended.

He bit his lip, which was indescribably seductive, and then grinned broadly. “Yeah, that’s exactly why.”

A SOMEWHAT DIFFERENT DATE

As expected, the rumor mill was in full swing the following day, and I had to endure both curious and disapproving looks.

“Well, look what you’ve done now,” Aileen whispered when I sat down at my desk.

“We just had a drink together,” I insisted, looking annoyed.

“I believe you, honey, but Mary’s been embellishing the story quite a bit. According to her, she caught you guys just as you were about to kiss,” she said.

I gaped at her. “You’re joking.”

“And when dear old Dad gets word of that, things could get uncomfortable pretty quickly. He’ll fire you if he gets wind that there might be something going on between you.”

“But we didn’t do anything,” I emphasized.

“He doesn’t know that.”

I looked around, and Mary was nowhere to be seen. “Where is she?” I growled. “I’ll rip her extensions out one by one!” It was obvious what she was trying to do. She wanted me out so that she would have a clear path to Luca again. She was in for a world of disappointment, though. I wasn’t going down that easily.

“Three guesses where she is now . . . Mr. Marcs’s office.”

My heart began to race. That goddamned bitch. “Can you hold the fort for a minute?” I asked, jumping up. “I’ll be right back.” She was
not
going to spread any rumors about me.

I’d never been up to the sixth floor, simply because I never had any reason to see the elder Marcs, who rarely received employees, anyway. If he was listening to Mary, though, he was sure to want a word with me as well.

I took the nearest elevator up to the sixth floor . . . And when the doors opened, Luca was standing right there. “If you’re here because of Mary, I’ve taken care of it,” he said, and then gently pushed me back when I tried to take a step forward.

“How did you know she’d come up here?” I asked in a trembling voice as he pressed me against the wall. The elevator doors closed, but the car didn’t move. I saw a key in the display panel.

“I didn’t, but immediately after she left his office, he called me up here, and I dispelled the rumors.”

“How?” I asked. He’d braced his hands against the wall on either side of me and moved in close enough that I could see the tiny yellow flecks in his eyes. Having him so near me completely took my breath away.

“I just told him that there was nothing going on between us.” He shrugged as though the answer was as simple as it was obvious. “Do you know that kissing you is all I’ve thought about today?” he went on in a low voice, brushing my cheek with his. I was about to pass out from sheer desire.

Somehow, though, I mustered up enough willpower to push him away. Or at least try to, because he didn’t actually move very far. “No fooling around before the first date,” I said, trying to sound stern, but my voice was shaking too much. The look in his eyes told me that he wanted to devour me then and there, but as long as I still had even a glimmer of self-control, I wasn’t going to let him. Just because I’d decided to finally open myself up again didn’t mean that I was going to jump into bed with the first guy who came along. Even if that guy was as easy on the eyes as Luca. And this was obviously neither the time nor the place. “Besides, your father monitors the elevators.”

“Who cares,” he murmured as he smoothed my hair back. When he lowered his mouth to my collarbone, my eyes actually rolled back in my head. The feeling of his soft lips on my clavicle was simply indescribable, and if he hadn’t suddenly wrapped his arms around me, I would have collapsed in a heap. Pushing him away was almost physically painful, but I had to be sensible.

“Luca! What if your father is watching?” I was appalled, but he only laughed at the fear in my voice.

“That’s just a cock-and-bull story we tell the newcomers to keep them from getting any dumb ideas,” he said, looking amused.

“Like lunging at their assistants?” I scolded him as I tried to push him farther away—without success. Fortunately, though, he pulled back of his own accord, removed the key, and sent the elevator down another story. Then he pressed his forehead against mine.

“You’re going to drive me out of my mind, you know that?” He sounded almost tortured when he said it. “Just don’t keep me waiting too long.” With that, he got out, and the doors closed to take me to the fourth floor. Waiting too long? What was that supposed to mean?

Utterly bewildered, I arrived on the fourth floor and wobbled over to my desk. What had just happened? I felt almost drunk; I could hardly feel my legs. Couldn’t he have waited until our date? How was I supposed to concentrate on work now?

I was just as keyed up as Mary was miserable. Not that I felt sorry for her—I mean, she’d stabbed me in the back—but it looked like Luca had had a serious word with her. He’d summoned her into his office with a stony expression, and I have to admit that I’d never seen him so enraged, let alone so serious. Normally he was the very definition of friendliness . . . and, apparently, an exceptionally good kisser. Well, we hadn’t actually kissed yet, but what he’d done to my neck gave me a pretty good idea of what he could do with his lips. I was completely useless for the rest of the day because all I could think about was how he’d pressed me against the elevator wall and awakened all the feelings, long presumed dead, in me. Goddammit, where was all of this heading?

After work, I went to the supermarket and bought fresh fruit and vegetables. I knew I had to eat something, but my stomach was full of butterflies, so there was no room for anything else. As a result, I was ravenous later in the evening. Oh man, I was like a teenager before her first date. I was completely overreacting and knew it, but it had been so long since I’d gone out with anyone that I’d pretty much forgotten how to do it. Before I knew it, there were just twenty minutes before Luca was due t
o arrive. I started flying around the apartment like a tornado. Lisa was at some kind of gaming convention, so she was spared the circus I was creating.

When, in my haste, I ran into a chair and knocked it over, I finally realized how I was acting. “Okay, chill out,” I chided myself. The way I was behaving was ridiculous. I was twenty-five years old, not sixteen, and this was a totally harmless date.
With the most attractive bachelor in the city!
added an excited voice in my head.

I heard a car horn honk three times and sprinted to the window, only to brake just before I reached it and ease the curtains open instead—I didn’t want to seem too nervous. God, I felt like I was in some Hollywood romantic comedy. I waved to Luca to let him know I’d be right down, then turned around again in a panic. Goddammit, I wasn’t even ready. I still hadn’t decided what shoes to wear, and I had to brush my pants and put on my teeth. Or was it the other way around? I hastened through the apartment—ignoring the admonishing looks from Khasi, who felt I was disturbing his beauty rest—and ran into the bathroom. Toothbrush still dangling from my mouth, I finally slipped into a pair of black skinny jeans and a dark top, then grabbed my favorite sneakers. I hoped Luca knew that high heels and short skirts had no place in my everyday closet—I only dressed like that for work. If not, he was about to be disappointed. But why pretend to be someone I wasn’t? He wanted a date with me, so he was going to get to know me, and I was more about function than fashion. I went without makeup, too, not because I didn’t wear it in my free time; I was simply too fidgety to put it on. I would have just smeared the mascara into my eyes, and they would have been all bloodshot when I met up with him. No, that wouldn’t have done anyone any favors.

Just a quick spray of perfume, then I walked out of the apartment and into the night. And there he stood. Perfectly dressed, with that wonderfully mussed hair. He’d swapped his corporate attire for dark, loose-fitting pants and a black sweater, alleviating my fear that he would show up in an elegant tuxedo. That would have made me feel pretty pathetic standing next to him. As it was, though, not much about him was businesslike, so he matched my casual outfit perfectly.

I was a little confused when he neither kissed my cheek nor gave me a compliment, the way he usually did. Maybe I should have dressed up a little more after all? Instead, he only smiled, laid a hand on my back, and led me to his car. It was chillier that night than I’d expected, and I started to wish I’d brought a jacket. On the other hand, one glance into his smoky-green eyes was enough to warm me up.

“Ever gone out for tacos in Berlin?” he asked, opening the passenger-side door of his Jeep. Because I hadn’t worn heels, I had no problem getting into his elevated car, and no short skirt meant no worries about unintentional exposure. Man, I loved comfy jeans and sneakers.

“Just the packaged ones from the grocery store,” I replied and buckled myself in.

The corners of his mouth twitched. “Then you’ll love Gonzales Tacos!” he exclaimed as he stepped on the gas.

The drive with Luca was pleasant, not nearly as awkward as I’d feared. I was nervous at first but relaxed quickly, thanks to him. He was funny and attentive and knew how to lighten things up . . . Basically, he was just easy to talk to. It was becoming clear to me that the nervous tension I’d felt between us over the past few weeks had all been in my head, because I’d been fighting so hard to keep myself from having feelings for him. But I couldn’t help it—I’d had feelings for him since our first meeting, although back then, the feelings had been closer to homicidal. Over time, though, I’d seen that he actually wasn’t such a bastard, and his compliments hadn’t left me completely cold. After all, here I was.

The Mexican place was in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, but the drive down there was worth it. When we walked in, I was shocked. I’d been expecting an elegant restaurant, or maybe a trendy gastropub, but this place was plain, almost run-down. The color of the paint on the walls had faded until it was hardly recognizable, and the jumbled assortment of bistro tables had their best years behind them. But the warm Mexican decor and the delicious smells hanging in the air made it incredibly cozy.

I wouldn’t have thought Luca would ever be caught dead in a place like this, but as far as I was concerned, he couldn’t have picked a better location for our first date. Out of a hundred possible points, this restaurant alone had already scored him ninety-nine. I was super enthusiastic, and even more so when I bit into the first taco. The freshly made guacamole, spicy ground beef, and crunchy shell were like a taste explosion in my mouth, so Luca was flabbergasted when I finished my fifth taco and still didn’t quit.

“I don’t care if you write me off as a glutton, I’m going to keep eating these things until I burst,” I told him as I started in on the next one. In response, he ordered another portion for himself, and we spent time enjoying our food in silence. I hadn’t thought I’d be able to eat in front of Luca with no inhibitions, but he radiated such calm as he ate that I just stopped worrying about it. Besides, with all the tacos he’d shoveled in, he had me beat, anyway. Eventually, I gave up and contented myself with watching him. It was unbelievable how much food the guy could pack in . . . and with a body like his, too.

I must have had that dreamy look on my face again, because when he finished eating, he asked, “What are you thinking about?”

I shrugged and took a gulp of soda. “I dunno. I just expected you to pull out all the stops, like show up in a tux and take me to the opera or something. But here we are, in this hole in the wall.”

He laughed, then grew serious. “Would you rather have gone to an upscale restaurant?”

“No, this is perfect. It just . . . doesn’t fit your image somehow.”

“Image? What kind of image do I have?” He sounded cautiously intrigued. I hesitated, knowing that this could very easily go in the wrong direction, and I didn’t want to spoil the mood. “Okay, now you’re really scaring me,” he said, half-joking, when I didn’t respond. “Sophia?”

“Well, the staff at work is just crazy about you. Everyone’s happy to see you come in, which is almost disturbing, since you’re the boss. But the women . . .”

“What?” he urged me, straightening up a little. Was it possible that he genuinely had no idea what I was getting at?

I shrugged helplessly. Why had I even brought this up? “There are just a lot of rumors about your having affairs with your assistants,” I finally managed to say. I’d been staring at my hands, and now, when I looked up at him, his gaze seared into me.

“And?” he asked.

“And nothing. There’s a lot of speculation, but nobody knows anything for sure. I just heard that the woman before me quit because of you.”

He bit the inside of his cheek, folded his arms across his chest, and glanced out the window—all pretty bad signs. Then he looked at me again. “That’s not really something I would necessarily talk about on the first date, but apparently I need to clear up a few misunderstandings.” He didn’t sound offended. “Laura, your predecessor, got her hopes up. I know I can’t prove it, and it’s easy to make claims after the fact, but if there’s one rule for the managers in our company, it’s ‘Don’t have affairs with your employees.’ ”

I knitted my brow. “Hard to believe, seeing as I’m sitting here with you now.” I smirked.