She had to be fucking kidding me. I was so tempted to let her have a piece of my mind, but even though Kelly wasn’t my boss she was still my superior. I couldn’t just let loose on her without serious consequences.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t have my revenge.
We ordered our coffee and I made sure to whip around too fast as I grabbed mine and spun away from the counter—and then I ‘accidentally’ spilled my coffee on Kelly’s dress.
“Oh my God!” I blurted out, grabbing napkins. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you were right behind me.”
Kelly let out a little shriek as the coffee got on her, and then leveled a huge glare at me. “Watch where you’re going,” she snapped.
“Hey, hey, it was an accident,” Furio’s assistant said. She’d been walking ahead of us to snag a place in line so I wasn’t sure if she’d heard what Kelly had said to me earlier but either way I was glad that she had bought my ruse and was defending me.
Kelly glared at her too, but then took a deep breath and visibly reined herself in. “You’re right,” she said sweetly. “It was an accident.”
“You should run back to the hotel and change,” Furio’s assistant said. “Don’t worry, we’ll need to wait in line to order Cassidy another coffee anyway.”
Kelly looked like she wanted to fume, but she just nodded curtly and exited the café.
Furio’s assistant—Sonia was her name—sighed and looked over at me. “I don’t blame you for wanting her out of your hair. That was rude of her.”
“So, you did hear what she said earlier?”
“I did, and I wouldn’t worry about whatever she’s got going on. It’s just jealousy. Furio likes to flirt, it’s not a big deal.” Sonia winked at me. “Let’s get you your coffee.”
I didn’t know how to tell her that I wasn’t really all that worried about Kelly. I was more worried about Raff, and Furio’s flirting testing him.
And what I might let myself do if Raff decided to try kissing me again.
11
Raff
Something had to be done about this fucking Furio nonsense.
If my assistant was anyone besides Cass, it would be something easily taken care of. I would pull Furio aside and politely explain that while I didn’t want to cramp his style, I didn’t feel comfortable with my assistant being flirted with by our client. Furio was in a position of power and my assistant might feel like she had to say yes to him, or we could lose out on this business deal and I would never want anyone to feel coerced.
However, this was Cass. And I didn’t trust myself with Furio. I didn’t trust myself not to growl at him, not to get possessive and alpha and savage. I wasn’t just concerned as Cass’ boss, after all. I was envious. Jealous. Possessive. And I didn’t trust myself to not let that slip out if I tried to talk to him.
But something had to be done because if I had to spend one more minute watching this guy get up in Cass’ space, trying to get her alone, trying to get her to agree to go on a tour of the city with him, I was going to do something I regretted. Cass was clearly not interested in him. I knew what she looked like when she wanted to be with someone, how she acted—because she had been like that with me last night.
God, I wanted to have that with her again.
More than that. Here Furio was talking about trying to take Cass on a tour of the city and that was what I would’ve offered to her if I wasn’t her boss. As great as sex was (and oh fuck, it was great with Cass), I also wanted to spend time with her. I wanted to be with her.
I had to do something about this, clearly. Both for Cass’ sake getting her away from Furio, and for my own sake so I didn’t go insane, and, well. So that I could see about possibly asking Cass about our situation. If I could get her to change her mind.
Hmm.
I’d noticed that Kelly didn’t seem too happy that this handsome Italian client was paying attention to Cass and not to her. Kelly was usually the only woman when we dealt with clients, since until I’d gotten Cass, it had only been Kelly and I with them. Women clients would sometimes hit on me, men clients would sometimes hit on Kelly, it was just how it panned out. But now Cass was getting attention that Kelly was used to having, and Furio was a lot more handsome and charming than most of our other clients to boot.
Surely, I could turn this to my advantage.
While Kelly and Cass got coffee, I said I had to make a phone call to check on things at the office back home, and did some research on a good restaurant nearby. I found one, made a reservation, and then found a few completely different restaurants and made a list.
When Kelly came back with Cass, I sent her the list on her phone and then made my move. “Furio, since this is going so well, why don’t we continue to work on this project this evening? Kelly is the person who does our roadmap mockups—if you can do a dinner meeting with her tonight, she can interview you to get some more information about your timing plans and we can get to work even faster on the expansions.”
“Oh, that would be an excellent idea,” Kelly said quickly, smiling.
Hey, was she wearing a different dress than before? Odd.
“I would love to be able to get more details from you,” Kelly went on, looking at Furio. “Of course, if you’re not too busy. I know that Italians believe in a good work-life balance, I wouldn’t want to intrude on your relaxation time. But time is of the essence here in making our move.”
Furio looked like he might argue, and glanced over at Cass. I realized I was clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth, and I made myself stop.
Cass realized Furio was staring at her and she yawned, stretching. “Oh goodness, I’m sorry! I didn’t realize I was still jetlagged. I think it would be great if Kelly had a meeting with you. She’s amazing and does great work. You won’t be disappointed.”
Cass smiled at Kelly encouragingly. Kelly looked like she was preening, a lion shaking out her mane. Kelly had every right to be proud of her skill and experience. It wasn’t her fault that up until now Furio had been ignoring her because he found Cass more attractive. That was all on Furio and his blatant favoritism for no damn good reason.
“But I should really get back to the hotel and get some sleep,” Cass continued. “Thank you so much for letting me come along on this, it was very educational.”
That seemed to satisfy Furio at last, and he smiled at Kelly. “Very well, that would be helpful. I want to get things up and running as soon as possible.”
“Of course you do,” Kelly said smoothly. “We’ll meet back here at seven?”
They made their arrangements and then the three of us went back to the hotel, Kelly practically swanning off to her hotel room with her excitement. Cass and I took a separate elevator and Cass slumped back against the elevator wall in relief.
“Thank you,” she said, earnestly. “I didn’t know how to get him to back off without being rude. And you and Kelly outrank me, I’m not the person he should be going to with advice.”
“Hopefully now he’ll get the message you’re off limits,” I told her.
“I’m off limits because I want to be,” Cass replied, arching an eyebrow at me. “Not because of anyone else.”
I raised an eyebrow right back at her, and Cass flushed. Ha. She could pretend all she wanted that she wasn’t affected but I knew better. “I’m going to go into my hotel room and change. Are you actually tired?”
As much as I wanted to have the chance to show her how compatible we were and that I should be given a chance, I wasn’t going to force her to stay up late if she actually was tired.
Cass shook her head and laughed. “Hell no. Clever of you though to think of that dinner thing with Kelly. She’s foaming at the mouth for a chance to show off her skills for him. And it gets him off my back, finally.”
“So you’d want to go to dinner?” I said as we stepped off the elevator. I glanced around to make sure that Kelly wasn’t there and kept my voice low. “I got a reservation at an excellent restaurant.”
&nbs
p; “I shouldn’t. Raff…”
“Consider it a work dinner,” I replied. “Just like Kelly and Furio are doing.”
“As if Kelly’s going to keep it just to work,” Cass pointed out, her voice low and teasing.
I had to stifle a laugh. “C’mon, Cass, you deserve to relax and enjoy this trip. And not with Furio. All expenses will be put on the company card. And you need to polish how you’ll be on dinners like this. I know Furio’s treating it as an opportunity for a date but you won’t be an assistant forever and you will have to know how to wine and dine a client.”
Cass relaxed and nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Let me get ready.”
I headed back to my room and immediately hopped in the shower before changing into a suit. My blood was buzzing with excitement. I was going to be on a date with Cass. Sure, we could couch it as a business meeting, but I was going to show her a good time. I would show her all the reasons that we should be together.
12
Cass
Raff looked nothing short of dashing in his dark green suit when he picked me up at my hotel room door, and I had to admit to myself that it was going to be hard to keep my hands off him. Knowing how good he made me feel and knowing that I could still be brought to ecstasy by him, and with his outfit… and his charm…
Yeah, it was going to be a difficult night. But I had to stay strong.
I could see why this restaurant had such great reviews. It was small and intimate and we had a lovely table by the window so that we could people watch as the sun set and the street went dark.
Over to the side was the pasta station where they made the pasta fresh every day, right by the window so that customers could see them making it as they walked by. I could literally see the chefs making our dishes before they were brought to our table, piping hot and fresh.
Everything was delicious. I ordered the pasta carbonara, and I found it was not only different from when I ordered it at an Italian place back home, but that it was stunning. I finally understood what all those foodies and bloggers were talking about when they said they had a ‘foodgasm’.
I told Raff as much. He grinned. “I know it’s probably ‘basic’ of me but I love Italian food. I’m glad I was able to find this place.”
“You didn’t have to pull out all the stops, we could’ve found a little hole-in-the-wall place.” There were plenty of the kind around the city. It was Rome, after all.
Raff shook his head. “I wanted to give you only the best. This is your first international trip, after all.”
I grinned at him and could feel my face heating up. “Well, thank you.”
Raff winked at me. “So, be honest with me. I’m better company than Furio, right?”
He struck a pose, imitating Furio’s posture, and I laughed. “Don’t make fun of the poor man, it’s not his fault he can’t take a hint.”
“Hey, if he’s going to waste all of his time flirting with someone when he should be focusing on building his brand, he deserves to be poked at a little.”
“Do you think he’s flirting with Kelly right now?”
“Oh, definitely. I mean, he prefers you, who wouldn’t.” Raff’s slow smile told me that he was thinking about how he preferred me, too. “But whether Kelly likes him or not, she’ll be glad for the opportunity to get him alone as a client so that she can show off her stuff. He’s been ignoring her in favor of you and me, and Kelly’s just as good as I am in a lot of ways. She deserves to have some attention on her as well.”
Kelly didn’t seem to me to be someone who deserved such loyalty from her coworker, but then, maybe Raff hadn’t seen her less than favorable behavior. Either way I thought that it was great that he was being generous about her skills and complimenting her. He seemed to respect her.
That was part of why it was so damn hard to resist him. If Raff was handsome but an asshole would’ve been so much easier to ignore—but he wasn’t. He was kind and respectful.
What the hell was I supposed to do with that? How could I possibly resist that?
“It’s kind of you to make sure that you’re not the only one who gets the attention and that everyone on your team gets their due.”
Raff looked pleased that I was complimenting him. “Would you like to order dessert?”
I shouldn’t, but… I’d been having just enough wine to make me a little tipsy, and it’s making me feel loose and relaxed. And dessert did sound like a great idea. I was sure that it would be just as delicious as everything else in this restaurant.
“Sure, why not?” I replied.
The wine pairings were absolutely delicious, and I was definitely drinking more than I usually did. Not enough to make me full-out drunk. I wasn’t quite that stupid. But it was definitely enough to make me not so… uh… wound tight as before.
“This wasn’t about work, was it?” I asked, grinning at him over our plates as we dug in.
Raff gave me a rakish grin that showed he wasn’t sorry at all for his behavior. “Nope. I just wanted the chance to get to spend some time alone with you. In a romantic setting.” He leaned in. “I got a taste of you, Cass, you really think I’d be satisfied just with that?”
I shivered with heat as he stared at me. I hated to admit it, but he really was turning me on with this delicious dinner and the naked heat in his eyes.
“Would you like to take a walk?” he suggested.
I had to admit, that was a good idea. I should probably take a walk to get rid of the tipsiness I was feeling. Although, I should probably take it on my own…
But Raff was smiling at me and there was something fond about it. Not just the heat but the softness. Both of it mingled was getting to me. Or maybe that was just the wine.
“Sure,” I said, smiling.
Raff offered me his arm after he paid the bill, and I accepted it. He seemed to know exactly where we were going—or rather, where he wanted us to go. I had no idea whatsoever. While I knew about a lot of the famous spots in Rome, that didn’t mean that I knew how to get to them or what streets to take.
At first, we walked in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, though. It was actually really nice, just to feel him with me, his calm, warm presence there beside me. I felt safe and like I could just take in the city by his side.
I had no doubt that if I’d been with Furio, he would’ve been talking the entire time. And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I was sure that he knew a lot about the city given that he’d grown up here and perhaps for someone else it would be fascinating and fun to have their own personal tour guide.
But I enjoyed the silence and getting to just take it all in on my own. And I appreciated that Raff seemed to understand that.
At last, we seemed to reach the place that Raff was thinking of when starting on this walk—the Piazza Navona.
It was beautiful at night, with the lights strategically placed to light up the massive fountain of the four rivers with its statues and architecture. There were plenty of other tourists there too, groups of young Italian teenagers hanging out, and some young lovers. Well, perhaps it was generous of me to call them young. After all, I was only in my mid-twenties. Raff and I weren’t exactly old.
But we weren’t lovers, either, I told myself fiercely. This wasn’t like that. I couldn’t let it be like that.
Raff smiled at the fountain. “I know it’s not quite as big or flashy as some of the other sights here, but unfortunately we won’t have the free time to spend at most of those. I figured this was a lovely place that you could get to see while you were here.”
“Thank you. I know this is a work trip and that comes first but… I’ve always loved the idea of travel. Getting to come here and not see anything at all would be… a letdown.”
“And unfair. There’s no reason you can’t have some leisure and play to go along with your work.” Raff led me closer to the fountain.
I was truly filled with gratitude. He had taken the positive part of what Furio was trying to do—giving me the chance to see
some of Rome—and making that happen without the negative aspects (Furio’s flirting).
For a moment we just stood there, staring at it. The obelisk rose high up into the air, backlit by the installed lights. A small plaque explained how the statue was made for the Pope and was designed to represent the four rivers of the areas where Catholicism had spread.
“It’s beautiful,” I admitted at last.
“Yeah.”
Raff’s voice was oddly soft. I looked over at him—and saw that he wasn’t looking at the fountain at all.
He was looking at me.
My breath caught in my throat. Raff was staring at me like… like I was something breathtaking.
Part of me was sure that it was just the moment, getting caught up in things, swept away by the whole ‘when in Rome’ thing. But the rest of me thought ‘fuck it’ and didn’t care. I was too in love with the way that Raff was staring at me. The way that I’d hoped he would stare at me when I was twenty-one and in love with him, praying for reciprocation.
Raff leaned in, his hands moving to my waist as he gently pulled me into his chest. My hands fell against his firm shoulders, feeling like I had to hold on or I’d float away.
He kissed me softly, slowly, like he wanted to savor it. It was the kind of first kiss I’d always imagined us having. Not that I was upset with how our night had gone four years ago (it was the morning after that fucking soured me) but we hadn’t really gotten that sweet romantic first kiss, had we? We’d been tipsy and fallen into my bedroom together, and then last night we’d been angry and kissing passionately.
This, though. This was what I’d dreamed about when I’d been younger. I had never admitted it, of course. I didn’t want to be labeled a sap. But of course, I wanted something romantic. I wanted a connection like that.
And now I was getting it.
I honestly felt like I was going to hear a violin quartet pick up at some point as Raff wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed me. I held on tightly, sinking into the moment. I couldn’t resist. For a minute, an hour, a day, I had no idea how long we kissed, everything faded. There was nothing in the world except for the two of us.
Dating My Brother's Best Friend Page 7
