Because Of Love

He leaned in closer. “I mean stay employed.”

Talia’s fist clenched tighter, not to hold on to determination anymore but to hold back her temper. The old fat, she thought as she forced her lips into a tight smile. Without another word, she turned around and marched out of the office, careful not to bang the door behind her.

“Ohff,” she exhaled as she shook her fists in front of her. She turned her head to look back at the door. Were they even really considering her project? Probably not. Just as she’d thought, DeLuca was her best bet to getting the go ahead on her project. But that thing, that moment…Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

Forget whatever that was, Talia, Focus on the end goal.

Fueled with new determination, Talia marched to DeLuca’s office with her own agenda in mind. Screw the old fats, they could find someone else to spy on DeLuca. She came to a stop in front of the door, raised her hand to knock and froze, all the courage she had mustered abandoning her. On the way she’d been so determined, now just a door away she was chickening out. She still couldn’t get those few seconds of their handshake out of her head, nor shake the feeling off her hand. She was just going to acknowledge it and work her way to getting over it. Something happened, something unexpected and sincerely a little frightening. She’d never had that instant reaction to a man’s touch before. A shot of pure lust had run right through her.

Had he noticed? she wondered, worrying about her trembling lower lip. The image of his knowing half smile popped into her head and she flinched with mortification. Yup, he definitely noticed. That smile, how his grip tightened around her hand, and that hand! A little rough to the touch-unexpected for a silver spoon-olive and large just like the rest of him. Standing right in front of him, two arms away from him, he was so tall! She was glad she wore her three and a half inch heels, otherwise her neck would have hurt leaning back any further to look him in the face.

When she’d seen him walk towards her, she’d done a little fangirl squeal on the inside; her heart had hitched a little as the warm feeling of attraction filled her. Innocent, normal reaction. He looked good wet and in nothing but a towel, but that navy blue pinstripe jacket and matching tie over his black shirt, and pants paired with some expensive looking shoes, with his hair slicked back, was an absolute heart stopper. She still couldn’t decide which of the two was her favorite look.

She brought her raised hand to her cheek and slapped it three times. That was how the innocent normal reaction turned into lustful embarrassment. Focus! She needed to get her head on straight, now that it had been made clear that her job was on the line.

If you want to stay employed, Mr. Perez’s words rang in her head and she grumbled, stomping her foot on the ground. What in the world were they so worried about that they needed her spying on DeLuca’s every move? Talia hoped that if there was something to be afraid about, it wouldn’t end with mass layoffs. She loved her job.

Quickly, before she really turned chicken, she rapped on the door with her knuckles and with baited breath, waited for a response. Judging by his morning attitude, she wouldn’t be shocked if he yelled ‘go away’ instead of ‘come in’.

“Come in,” his muffled voice called out, to her relief-or distress. This was just turning into one of those days.

Talia reached for the door handle; before pushing it down, she took a fortifying breath. She took a quick step in, “Signore DeLuca how-what in the…”

Before she could get the phrase ‘how may I help you’ completely out, her stunned eyes fixed on the pile of paperwork on his desk before moving to the two columns of boxes on the two guest seats. She followed the few on the floor to the coffee table and couch where Enzo was situated. What was going on? How in the world had this happened? He hadn’t even been here an hour!

“How-” she began again, wanting to ask how the well-organized office she’d left the day before when she clocked out, now resembled the archive room on the fifth floor. To think of the time she spent meticulously arranging everything in this room.

“How-”

“You can start by closing the door.”

“Huh?” She looked up from the boxes on the floor to DeLuca and her traitorous heart leaped in her chest.

DeLuca was seated behind the desk, his jacket off, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The tie was gone and the three top buttons of his shirt were undone with the frameless glasses riding on the bridge of his nose. Forget look one and two, this look, she was naming three, was a deal closer.

“Vicino. Il. Porta.”

Close the door, he repeated pointedly in Italian, and she instantly came awake at his forceful tone. Quickly she back stepped and shut the door before approaching the desk again.

“What’s going on?” she asked no one in particular. But since DeLuca had his eyes fixed on her, she was hoping he would answer.

“An audit,” Enzo responded instead.

She turned to him with raised brows and repeated, “An audit?”

He nodded, looking a bit irate, but she really made his brows pinch when she asked, “Why?”

“Perché vuoi sapere?”

That came from DeLuca and she turned to meet his blank face, masked further by the glasses. Why did she want to know? Honestly, she didn’t really care, but when it came up and clearly why she was sent here in such a hurry, she would like to have some sort of an answer. But what was she to say? ‘I want to know because I need to make a report’?

“Honestly… this isn’t what I thought you’d be doing on day one.” What she really wanted to know was what those files were? How and when had he gotten access to them?

It must have been Enzo, she thought, trying not to look directly at him. After his morning wake up call the day before, she hadn’t heard a peep from him until that morning when she called to tell him she was on her way to pick up DeLuca. Impressive and yet scary, what a sly fox he’d turned out to be. Must be a DeLuca assistant requirement, being resourceful.

“Cosa pensavi avrei fatto?” DeLuca asked and Talia wondered why he was suddenly speaking to her in Italian.

In English, she responded, “Well, for starters, your itinerary says your day is full with department status report presentations. But,” she looked down at the boxes again then at the open files before him on the desk, “it looks like you prefer getting your information first hand.”

He smirked, leaned back into his executive seat, elbows on the armrests and fingers weaved together. “We’ll do that tomorrow,” he said.

She nodded. “Okay.” She pulled out her phone from her pants pocket and pulled up the schedule for the day. “I’ll notify all the departments-”

“No you won’t.”

She looked up. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll let you know when they’ll be notified. For now, tell them today’s meeting is cancelled.”

For someone who liked order and structure, the answer just didn’t sit well with her. This spontaneous way of his was giving her a mild headache.

“Okay,” she started, sliding her phone back into her pocket. “What would you like help with?”

He leaned forward, his forearms shifting to the desk. “Niente. You can go back-what exactly do you do here?”

Chest out, chin lifting a notch high she answered, “I’m an IR officer.”

He nodded. “That’s why you speak Italian.”

“Si,” she answered, suddenly wondering why he’d started speaking to her in English again.

“So why are you my assistant?”

She turned her head slightly with a sigh, raised her hand and scratched the protruding neck muscle there with her index finger. She’d been wondering about that for the past forty hours. It wasn’t like she was the only one who spoke fluent Italian and she wasn’t exactly complacent with the suits either, unlike most employees.

Heck if I know. She rolled her tongue in her mouth, looked up at the ceiling and huffed another sigh. She was no PA, just someone with a lot more to lose.

“Scusi?”

Immediately she looked at him and met DeLuca’s gaze and amused smile. She smiled back, lowering her hand to her side before her lower lip dropped and her eyes widened as a thought struck her. She didn’t. She couldn’t have. Had she said that out loud? That always tended to happen when she was frustrated, thankfully there hadn’t been any repercussions yet. There was always a first time to everything.

Recover now! Fixing her expression, and with a strained polite smile, she said, “The executives believe I have the skill sets to assist you.” Quoting Mr. Perez word for word.

From his slow suggestive nod, she got the impression he didn’t believe that either.

“In other words, you speak Italian,” he stated with a raised brow, and that feeling of entrapment she’d had on the yacht the first time they met when he asked her if she spoke Italian filled her again. “You’re excused,” he dismissed her, going back to the documents before him.

With a prompt, “Good day,” Talia quickly turned on her heels and made her escape. The door barely closed behind her before she half ran out of the executive wing to the IR side of the office floor. The man was unsettling in both action and speech. His blank expressions and cryptic words just gave her the hibbie jibbies. Her obvious attraction to him was the worst.

“What exactly did he have planned for tomorrow?” she asked herself, slowing her steps as she approached her desk.