“Just a monthly brush-up on city operations.”
Another server enters just then, carrying a silver tray with a pen and notepad.He stops beside me and offers them like I’d asked for them.
Bewildered, I accept the items and glance over at Stefano.“What’s this for?”
“You’re here to be quiet and draft the meeting minutes.”
Of course I am.Which means I won’t be eating.“You couldn’t have told me this earlier so I could at least eat something first?”
“You’re filling in for Gio.He never eats during lunch meetings.”
“Well, I’m not Gio, I’mRaya.And Raya doesn’t function well when she skips lunch.”
He just blinks at me.
And I resist the very real, very strong urge to pick up the butter knife and bury it in his smug, unbothered eye.Let’s see how he looks then.
As irritation prickles beneath my skin, I decide maybe it’s better this way.If he pushes me all the way to despising him, it’ll be easier.Easier to walk away.Easier to bury the foolish, ill-placed infatuation that’s the only thing tethering me here in the first place.
“How are you even so sure I know how to take meeting minutes?”
“Lucky guess.”
“I don’t know if everyone’s just been too afraid to tell you this,” I say, leveling a look at him, “but you’re an asshole.”
Angling toward me, he props an elbow on the table, the other arm curling around the back of my chair like he owns it…and me.His lips tip into the faintest smile, eyes glinting with intrigue.
“Oh, butyouare not afraid, are you, little liar?I wonder…why is that?Where does your confidence come from?What are you so sure about?”
Shit.This man.This son of a demon.
Every encounter with him feels like toeing a line drawn in gasoline, and he’s the one holding the match.And now I’m certain he aggravates me on purpose.To crack me.To drag me out of myself.To see me unravel.To prove himself right about me.
The clever brute.
Hard as it is right now, I clamp my mouth shut.Physically bite down on the words I want to spit at him.
He stares me down like I’m prey, but I hold steady.I refuse to be baited into a reaction I’ll regret.Or worse, a truth I can’t take back.
A part of me is always exposed when he’s near.The veil slips whether I want it to or not.But he won’t be getting an admission from me.Not today.He’ll have to dig deeper.Cut sharper.Come harder.
A throat clears, slicing through the thick tension, and our standoff breaks.
We both glance toward the doorway.
A long-legged redhead stands inside the frame, dressed to the nines like the Princess of Wales, gloved hands and all, as if we aren’t in the desert.
Lucy Rainford.
The city’s well-loved mayor.Who I’m convinced was voted in purely because she’s a head-turning bombshell knockout who looks like she belongs on a runway instead of behind a government desk.
Clearly, democracy is horny.
Suddenly I’m feeling weirdly grateful for that unplanned detour to Wendy’s boutique, or I’d be slinking under the table right now in the face of the mayor’s glamorous, gloved-up flawlessness.
“Am I interrupting something?”she asks, her silver eyes darting between us, sharp with curiosity.
“Good afternoon, Lucy.”Stefano rises smoothly, and goes to greet her with a kiss on the cheek.“You’re breathtakingly stunning.As always.”
