Chapter 3 One Night Only

The morning looked like the start of a different life.

Aria sat at the back of a sleek black car, the garish horizon of the city merging color and chaos past the tinted panes. Hardly having slept, she chewed on thoughts of questions she could not ask, and answers she was unsure about wanting.

Niccolo Moretti.

Finally, she had a name for the man who had broken her will and was now pulling the strings for her next paycheck.

What are you doing, Aria?

She should have walked out, told him to shove his job offer upwards, and left him standing there in that glass palace of power and arrogance.

Only she hadn't done so.

She'd accepted the job offer. She sat in his office, signed the contract, and left with tremulous fingers and a spinning head.

And now she was in the car racing toward her first day working for a man she couldn't forget.

The driver was a taciturn man in a black suit. He parked outside the skyscraper. Aria stepped out in navy pencil skirt, crisp white blouse, and heels borrowed from her roommate. Her hair was drawn back in a sleek ponytail. Her lipstick was matte red: bold, but so controlled.

Fake it till you make it, she told herself.

Inside the building, the receptionist gave her a polite nod. "Mr. Moretti said you would be arriving. Take the elevator. He's waiting."

Of course he was.

Entering his office, he was not seated at his desk. He leaned back against the window and sipped espresso as if he had all the time in the world. Sunlight billowed behind him and made him look like a silhouette formed of danger.

His eyes were slow in lifting from whatever he was perusing, and when they did, they traveled down her body with a measured intensity he seemed no way inclined to apologize for.

Aria squared her shoulders. "Do you always eye your employees like that?"

"I eye the things I own," he replied smoothly, plonking the empty cup down. "But you are right. You are not mine. Not anymore."

Her stomach twisted. "Was I?"

He smiled. "For one night, you were."

The brief stutter in her pulse made her curse under her breath. She absolutely hated that he still had the power to affect her with just the one sentence.

"I'm not here for that," she shot back.

"Of course not . . . You're here for the job. Shall I show you to your desk?"

He walked her through a sleek corridor to a minimally furnished workspace just outside his office. Her desk faced a wall of glass with a city view. A brand-new laptop, phone, and nameplate sat ready.

"Your job is to manage my schedule, answer calls, and organize files," he said. "You'll be present during some delicate meetings for the hearing of things most don't get to hear."

Her brows went up. "Like what?"

He raked her over with a slow look. "Things that never leave this floor."

"Is that your way of warning me off?"

"No," he said. "This is my way to keep you safe."

The words impacted her. She couldn't tell whether he meant it as a threat or a protection-or both.

The first half of the day came and went in a blur.

Meetings, paperwork, phone calls, names that rolled off her tongue like Spanish drunk with too much tequila. Niccolo floated in like an impalpable shadow through it all: always poised, always in control. Aria kept her head down and worked hard, refusing to let him see how badly her hands were shaking every time he walked past.

By twelve noon, she was running on empty.

To have a breath and drink some desperately needed coffee, she stepped into the break room. As she poured steaming liquid, someone coughed just behind her.

She turned-looking into the deep set, cold, pale blue eyes of a man who could have been an ad for Calvin Klein or a contender in a mafia war at the same time.

"I'm Luca," he said with a faint smirk. "I'm second-in-command. Or glorified babysitter, depending on the day."

Aria blinked. "Nice to meet you. I'm Aria"

"Oh, I know who you are."

The way he said it made her stomach knot. There was no judgment in his voice-only interest.

He leaned against the counter. "Most assistants don't get personally hired by the boss. Or show up on their first day in a car from his private fleet."

Aria crossed her arms. "Is there a point to this conversation?"

Luca smiled wryly. "Just wondering how long you're going to last."

Before she could respond, Niccolo's voice sliced through the air like a knife. "She'll last as long as I say."

Aria turned to find him standing ominously in the doorway, unreadable expression intact.

Luca raised his hands and casually sauntered out, chuckling to himself.

Aria set her cup down with a sharp clang. "Do you always stalk your employees during coffee breaks?"

"Only the interesting ones."

She brushed past him, only to have him gently catch her wrist, stopping her in the hallway.

"Do you regret it?" he asked, in a low voice.

Her breath hitched. "What?"

"That night."

Her heart was pounding hard. She could lie. She should lie.

But she said, "No. But I do regret walking into this office the next day and realizing it wasn't just one night."

He released her. But not before she felt the burning intensity of his gaze.

As she walked back to her desk, one thing rang clear in her mind: it wasn't over.

Not even close.