by Virna DePaul
“Rose…it’s been a long time. You look…” He’d seen nothing but those glass-green eyes and that perfect bow of a mouth at first, but now, as he searched her face and took stock, he realized she looked like she’d crawled out of the sewer. A sick feeling rolled through him. “Holy shit, have you been mugged?”
She winced, and twin flags of scarlet stamped her cheeks. “Hey, Gio! Nope. No mugging,” she replied with a tight smile, “but that’s probably in the cards for my walk home given how things are going today.”
He shook his head, still in shock, unable to believe she was standing before him. Finally, he gathered his composure. “Can I get you something? A towel or—” he broke off before offering the use of his office shower. He’d already spent the past decade and a half trying to forget about her. Knowing she’d been in his shower would pretty much obliterate any progress he’d made.
Even now, an image of her under the spray, rubbing soap all over that silky skin, made his cock swell.
“Thanks, but no,” Rose said. “I shouldn’t have even come. I don’t want to bother you so I’ll just head back down the way I came and get out of your hair.”
He stared at her in surprise. “You came here to see me?”
“Not intentionally. I mean, I did come intentionally, but I hadn’t planned to come. I just wound up near the building, saw your name and thought I’d stop by. There was something I wanted to ask you, but you were clearly on your way out so truly, forget I even came.”
Her bottom lip trembled and he realized with a start that she was shivering. “I wasn’t going anywhere important and you’re here already and clearly freezing in this air conditioning all wet. Let’s go into my office where it’s a little warmer at least and we can talk in private.”
Not about to take no for an answer and far more curious than he wanted to be, he took Rose’s hand, noting that once again she didn’t resist his touch, then led her from the elevator down the corridor.
“How have you been?” he managed to say, struggling to seem unaffected by her sudden appearance. “Other than today, of course,” he added.
She was wearing some oversized glasses and yeah, she was kind of a mess, but underneath all that, she was the same Rose. Clear, smooth skin. Pert nose with a smattering of freckles. And those copper waves, tumbling over her shoulders. He could still remember how they looked when her head was thrown back and she was crying out his name—
“Why are we stopping?” Rose asked, clearly nonplussed.
He cleared his throat and gestured to his office, not even aware that, lost in his memories, he’d come to a complete halt. “This is me right here.”
He led her in and gestured to the seat in front of his desk as he made his way to the bathroom.
“Make yourself comfortable. Can I get you a coffee?” he called as he rifled through the selection of towels and pulled out two of the softest. “My assistant had to leave early today and I can’t work the machine well enough to make the fancy ones, but I can definitely brew something up.”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass. I don’t want to take up too much of your time.”
“Take all the time you need.” He handed her the towels and then took his seat behind his desk as she laid one towel on her chair before sitting and swiped haphazardly at her face and hair with the other.
“This really was a total whim and this isn’t how I usually do this, but now that I’m here…” her husky voice trailed off as she let the towel drop to her side. “Do you remember my brother Michael?”
“Of course.” How could he forget? Rose and Michael had been close, so he’d seen him quite a bit when he and Rose were dating. When he’d found out that Michael had killed himself a few years back, he’d almost reached out to Rose, but she’d made it pretty clear she wanted a clean break.
“He, um, he passed away five years ago after he took his own life.” The pain rolled off her like waves of sadness but all he could do was nod. She lifted her chin and met his gaze. “Anyway, after that, I started a charity organization in his name. Michael’s Way. It’s a non-profit that helps educate families about mental health issues affecting the young people they love and it provides help and services to those who can’t afford them.”
“That seems like a really great cause. I commend you for doing that. I’m sure he would be very proud of your efforts,” Gio said. “Your parents as well.”
He was very familiar with Rose’s efforts and pretty much everything else about her since he’d done his fair share of social media stalking, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. The last thing he wanted to do was to let her know how much he’d wondered about her over the years when she clearly hadn’t given him a passing thought.
“Thank you. Anyway, I work at St. Mary’s psychiatric hospital and one of our generous benefactors has agreed to match up to $100,000 in donations to Michael’s Way. I’ve taken a short sabbatical from work in order to secure those funds.” Her throat worked as she swallowed hard. “I was hoping you’d consider donating. It’s one hundred percent tax deductible and really is for a—”
But he didn’t need to hear more and cut her off with a wave of his hand.
“You don’t need to pitch me on the idea. I liked Michael very much and think this is a very worthy cause. I’ll donate.”
She frowned slightly, something like disbelief flashing in her eyes but before he could think too hard on it, her lips tipped into a sudden smile that stole his breath. “Wow, okay. I…thanks so much. Whatever you can give, I really appreciate it.”
He opened his desk drawer and pulled out his checkbook.
“Do you—do you make many charitable donations?” she asked.
“I try to help where I can. Every year we hold a fundraising gala. There’s one coming up in a few weeks for lung cancer research and—” Before he could continue, his office phone rang.
“Sorry, can you give me just a moment?”
She nodded and wet her lips with the tip of her tongue in a motion that nearly dragged a groan out of him.
Ridiculous. It had been far too long for him to still feel this way. Raw need flowed through him like lava and he wound up answering the phone with a snarl.
“Esposito.”
“I know you said you’d call me back, but your aunt and I need to go out. Can you talk now?” Nana’s voice was like a bucket of cold water to his nether regions and he scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Hey, Nan. I’m actually with someone right now, so can I—”
“A man or a woman?” she demanded.
“What?”
“Are you with a man or a woman? Maybe they want to come to your sister’s wedding with you? If it’s a man, I won’t judge. Love is love, but you really should bring someone. Or not,” she continued. “Maybe even better if you don’t. A couple of the bridesmaids are pretty stacked. Do you know what that means, Gio? Michelle says it means they have really nice bodies. You’d like that in a wife, wouldn’t you?”
Jesus, help him.
“Look, Nan, I already told you—”
But before he got the rest of his ‘I love you but you need to mind your own business’ speech out for the hundredth time, he found himself staring into Rose’s glass-green eyes.
It was a crazy idea. Absurd. After fifteen years, she’d only sought him out because she wanted a donation for her charity. He was going to write her a check and then… What? She was going to leave and he’d never see her again?
The tightening in his chest, something resembling panic, told him he couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t just let her disappear from his life again. After she’d broken up with him, it had taken a while, but eventually he’d taken her words at face value. She didn’t want him anymore. She wanted a different guy. His heart broken, his pride smarting, he’d let her go. Sure, he’d tried to talk to her afterward, but in the face of her resistance, he’d quickly walked away. And he’d always regretted it.
Throughout the years, however, it had pricked at him�
�how her words didn’t quite ring true. How he couldn't believe that the Rosie he’d loved so much, the same girl who had professed her love for him so often in return, had simply stopped wanting him. And how he’d been wrong not to fight for her.
It was probably too late for them now, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get some closure. Understand how things had gone wrong. And the only way he was going to get that was to spend time with Rose.
“You know what, Nana, let me call you back in twenty minutes. I won’t forget.”
He hung up the phone, leaned back in his chair, and met Rose’s questioning gaze. “Rose, what are you doing next week?”
“The whole week?” Rose stared back at him, brows furrowed. “Of the twenty-eighth? Nothing. Still fundraising probably, why?”
“I have a proposition for you. It would involve a week of your time. I’d like you to be my date to my sister’s destination wedding in Maine. And in exchange, I will make a sizeable donation to Michael’s Way.”
She paused, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly for so long, he wondered if she was having a stroke.
When she finally spoke, it was just two, simple words.
“How sizeable?”
He set his hands on the desk and shrugged. In for a penny…
“The whole thing. 100K.”
Chapter 2
One hundred thousand dollars.
Surely Gio was kidding?
But as Rose stared into his chocolaty brown eyes, they were dead serious.
Her stomach began to churn as she played his words over again in her head. Date. Destination wedding. A whole week?
Wait a damned second. Did he think—?
“Is this some sort of Pretty Woman fantasy or something?” she demanded, trying to stay cold and removed but her trembling voice giving away her outrage.
He blinked and cocked his head as he looked over her tattered, filthy clothing with perceptive eyes that seemed to miss nothing.
Her cheeks burned as she realized how ridiculous that had sounded given the fact that at the moment she looked like she’d barely managed to break out of a serial killer’s basement lair after six months in captivity.
And Gio? Damn him, Gio looked like a freaking movie star. His six foot plus frame had been leanly muscled in high school but had filled out in all the right places. Broad shoulders that looked like they could carry the weight of the world—or her up a couple flights of stairs to his bedroom, at the very least—led to a chest muscular enough to see even under that navy suit. His face looked like it was sculpted by Michelangelo himself, with a jawline sharp enough to cut glass, and firm lips that looked as if they would be just as at ease barking out a command to a platoon somewhere as they would be running over a woman’s bare shoulder…her shoulder.
But best of all were his hands. Strong, sun-kissed, and oh-so capable. She knew exactly how capable they were, and could still recall how they felt trailing over her hips, between her thighs.
In a word? He was perfect. A wet dream in a business suit. And here she was, sounding like a lunatic, accusing him of trying to sleep with her for a hundred grand. No wonder he was trying not to laugh.
“Okay, so maybe not Pretty Woman,” she conceded when she could finally choke some words out, “but what about that other one?” she said, twisting the soggy belt of her coat between her fingers, wishing the chair she was sitting in would swallow her whole. “That one with Demi Moore? Not that I’m Demi Moore either, but—”
“Indecent Proposal,” he said with a polite smile.
“Exactly! But, like, the bargain version because instead of a million, it’s a hundred thousand. And we’re not going on a yacht. Not that I’d be going even if we were, because I wouldn’t.”
She knew she was full on babbling right now, but only an act of God could stop her, because she was totally flummoxed.
Who just sat there and offered a person two times their yearly salary for a week-long date on a whim like that? It was sheer insanity.
But what was even more insane was the fact that she was even thinking about it.
“While I’m flattered you think I’d have to pay a woman six figures for sex, that’s actually not part of the deal I’m proposing,” he said, his eyes lighting with something that looked suspiciously like humor, which ramped her blush up to five-alarm hot. “This would be purely a business arrangement. As you might have been able to piece together from that phone call, my Nana is a…strong personality.”
“You actually mentioned that before, in high school. How she was rather…spunky.” Rose had looked forward to meeting Gio’s Nana Ginger someday, but that had never happened.
Gio nodded. “Well, I’ve been under relentless pressure from her to get married for the past five years, and she’s getting impatient to the point of desperation. I’ve been focusing on work. Helping my staff prepare for the big fundraising gala I mentioned. Dating has taken a back seat and well, even if it hadn’t…”
He blew out a sigh and ran a frustrated hand through his thick, black hair.
“If I show up with a real date for Michelle’s wedding, it will be a nightmare because my grandmother will have her thinking I’m going to marry her and make it all kinds of awkward. But, if I show up without a date at all, it will be just as bad. I’ll be forced to spend the whole weekend dodging even more awkward hookup attempts as she tries to fix me up with every woman in sight between the ages of 22 and 45. Even the poor waitresses and hotel staff aren’t safe from her meddling. I’ve been dreading this for months, and now the time has come and I’m literally between a rock and a hard place.”
Gio probably didn’t deserve her sympathy. After all, at least he still had a family. And one that loved him enough to meddle in his life and see him happy, to boot.
“Can’t you just talk to her? She obviously loves you very much. Just tell her you appreciate her but that her matchmaking is awkward for everyone and if she could skip it on this occasion—”
His bark of laughter stopped her short. She waited until he was finished before shooting back a pointed response.
“You just offered a near stranger $100k to go to your sister’s wedding with you so you don’t have to put your foot down with your dear old granny and my suggestion is the funny part?”
The laughter in his eyes died and was replaced by something else. Something that sent a shiver through her and made her nipples tighten beneath her blouse.
“Near strangers, are we, Rose? Not how I remember it.”
Oh, not nice. The lowest of blows, in fact. A memory of that firm mouth slanted over hers rushed through her mind and she pushed it away.
“It was nice seeing you, Gio. I always liked Michelle so please tell her congratulations on her marriage, but this was a mistake.” She shoved herself to her unsteady feet, ready to hightail it out of there and find the nearest wheel of cheese and glass of Chianti so she could eat and drink her feelings away.
“Rose, wait. I wasn’t laughing at you or your idea. Give me five minutes to explain, and, if you still say no, you can still leave with a check for ten grand. What do you say?”
Holy crap. Ten thousand dollars, no strings attached? He looked sincere. He also looked equal parts desperate and determined.
She blew out a sigh and retook her seat. Ten grand for Michael’s Way was a lot of money, and would make this her most profitable week of fundraising ever. If this day hadn’t done it yet, five more minutes probably wasn’t going to kill her.
“Go ahead.”
Gio tipped his head in a clipped nod of thanks before leaning back in his chair. “The reason I was laughing isn’t because your idea was funny. It makes perfect sense. But only because you’ve never met my grandmother. She’s a real firecracker. Which, most times, is amazing. Before my parents moved from the east coast to L.A, we got to spend a lot of time with her. She taught me and my sister everything growing up, from how to gut a fish and make a good marinara sauce to how to drive a stick-shift. Because she was such a
strong presence in our lives, she still feels like she needs to guide us. If I told you the lengths she’s gone to…”
“Let’s hear it.”
It wasn’t going to change her mind, but they had four and a half minutes to kill, and she found herself curious. Plus, if she was being honest, she didn’t want to leave Gio yet. He’d matured into a fascinating man and she couldn’t help but regret the way things had ended between them.
“Okay. So last summer, Nana decided she wanted to take up tennis,” he said. “I got her a pro at my golf club and after one lesson, she insisted I come play with them. I show up and not twenty minutes in does she fake a sore elbow so it ends up just being me and the tennis teacher playing alone as she makes suggestive remarks from the sidelines.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” she said with a shrug.
He let out a snort. “Easy for you to say. It was pretty fucking awkward for both of us considering he was a man and neither one of us is gay.”
It took a second for his words to sink in but when they did, a bubble of laughter worked its way out of her mouth.
“Yeah, right? I’m glad you think it’s funny, but I can assure you, he didn’t. He filed a complaint against her. Long story short, now she’s not allowed at the club anymore and there’s a picture of her at the main clubhouse in case she tries to sneak in. An eighty-year-old woman on Club Hibiscus’s most wanted list.”
“Wow, she really wants to get you married off, huh?”
“That’s an understatement. And now that she’s gotten Michelle paired up and squared away, it’s going to be ten times worse. I can’t…I just can’t. Will you come to Maine with me and pretend to be my girlfriend for a week? No sex. No strings attached. Please.”
She couldn’t deny it. His story about his grandmother had made her even more curious, but being with Gio Esposito for a week straight and having to pretend they were a couple again? Would his family even buy it?
She looked at Gio, perfectly perfect in his custom suit and cut-from-marble face and then glanced down at her filthy clothes and touched a hand to her frizzy, damp hair. Suddenly, she was transported right back to senior year of high school.
