Hearts on Fire: Romance Multi-Author Box Set Anthology

by Violet Vaughn

  7

  Sleep didn’t come easily. She must have dozed off in the early hours of the next day, she guessed; hours after Riley had left her. He’d strummed her body so finely, had made her believe there was the promise of more before he’d walked away and left her so abruptly. It had taken her hours to climb back down from the natural high he’d given her.

  It was going to be difficult to shake a man like that out of her system and it was only her sense of pride that prevented her from seeking him out in his suite. Now that it was morning, she looked back on their evening and could see the logic of his reasoning, even though disappointment had weighed her down last night.

  In her mind she’d imagined an alternative ending to their night—which had been so far from what she had envisioned when she had first dressed for dinner. By the time he’d kissed her the first time in the elevator, she’d thought of waking up beside him, instead of alone like now. He’d taken every ounce of reserve from her and wrested control of it so that all she wanted, all she could think about even now, the next day, the day after, what it would have been like to have spent the night with him.

  She would have taken it too.

  One night.

  Just to be with him.

  Tired as she was, she dragged herself out of bed, sad already that she would be leaving the hotel today. She had breakfast by the poolside hoping that she might see Riley again but there was no sign of him. She tried to prolong her breakfast by ordering a cup of coffee, all the while looking around for signs of his blond hair and his familiar face but he never appeared.

  She’d half expected he might show up especially when he knew she was leaving today. The only answer she could think of was that he was doing the decent thing. If their kiss had affected him half as much as it had affected her, then she knew why he’d not come to see her off.

  Instead, she was left with memories from last night but it was no good to be rekindling those when all they did was heat up her body, leaving her in no mood to deal with the things she had to do today.

  As she packed her belongings and got ready to check out, the thought came to her to call the front desk and ask to speak to him at least. She didn’t know his last name but if she asked for the man in one of the suites on the top floor, she was certain they would be able to trace him. After all, he’d managed to find her room among the many. She reconsidered her desperate idea and let herself believe that the idea of calling him to say goodbye was a sound one.

  She closed her eyes and swallowed. She could not do this. It was a bad idea. She had no time for men or relationships and she didn’t want to get hurt again.

  This was nothing like the last situation with Nico. Riley’s kisses and his touch told her he wanted her.

  No. She talked herself out of looking for him. What would he think if she turned up at his door looking desperate?

  And so it was with a heavy heart that she checked out of the Villa Costanza and climbed into the waiting taxi, even though her heart and mind were still with Riley.

  As they were even when she got on the ferry. She changed trains at Milan, each moment taking her further and further away from Bellagio, the Villa Costanza and him.

  The days she’d spent with her friends were all but forgotten and the only memories she took away were of the hours she’d spent with Riley. As the train sped through fields of green, she felt guilty for being so consumed by a man she barely knew. This thing that some of her friends often spoke about, the way some of them talked of love and lust and sexual attraction—the things she’d never experienced as deeply before with a man she barely knew, had finally happened to her.

  When her phone rang, she didn’t rush to answer it, knowing that Riley didn’t have her number and she wasn’t in the mood to speak to anyone else.

  “Now you pick up?” It was Leo, and he sounded anxious.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Didn’t you get my voicemails? My emails?”

  “No,” she answered. She’d been so consumed by getting ready for dinner last night, then having dinner with Riley that she’d forgotten to check anything.

  “Why?”

  “The guy from d’Este has been trying to contact you.”

  “Massari?”

  She heard the pause in Leo’s voice, as though he’d been about to say something but had held back. “He can’t meet with you this afternoon.”

  “Why not?” she sat up quickly. The whole point of staying another night and leaving now was so that she could meet with Dino Massari. His company, d’Este, manufactured cribs and their products looked great in the catalogue. She was hoping to get a good look at them in person and if satisfied, she was angling for a good deal on pricing.

  “If you’d checked your emails and answered the phone, you’d know.”

  She scratched her forehead in irritation. She’d had other things, better things to do last night.

  “The cribs aren’t ready and you’ll be wasting your time if you go there today.”

  She put a hand to her mouth to stifle the gush of anger slithered up her throat. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  “I tried to. How come you’ve not checked your emails or phone?”

  “I was busy,” she said quickly, wiping her hand over her face. She could have stayed at the Villa Costanza for longer. She might even have run into Riley again but now there would be no point in returning now that she was already on the train to Verona.

  If she’d known she had another day to spend with Riley…where would things have ended up?

  “This is annoying,” she said finally.

  “Are you on the train now?”

  “I’m on my way back to Montova.”

  What a wasted opportunity.

  “Mr. Massari apologized and said he would let us know as soon as the cribs are ready.”

  “Why the delay? I thought they manufactured them at their factory?”

  “They do but they’ve had a fault in their machinery and fixing that has taken longer than they hoped.”

  She pinched the area between her eyebrows. This was the second time d’Este had let her down. Could she trust this company to deliver on time when they hadn’t so far?

  “We can discuss it when you get back,” Leo informed her.

  “I should be there by three,” she told him.

  8

  Leo was busy with customers when Andrea turned up at the warehouse later that same afternoon. Memories of Riley’s lips and his fingers on her skin vanished the moment she walked through the door. The familiar sound of the bell that tinkled as soon as the door was opened announced new arrivals, just as it announced hers.

  She made her way to her office at the back and had barely taken off her jacket when Leo appeared in the doorway.

  “Ciao,” he said, nodding his head at her.

  “Ciao.”

  “It’s good to have you back. You look rested,” he commented. She felt a peculiar sense of relief at hearing his voice. Leo made her smile and she realized, having been away, how nice it was to come back to a workplace that wasn’t empty. Having Leo around to talk to would distract her from thinking too much about the Villa Costanza.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t say it feels all that great to be back.” She slid into her chair and ran her hands through her heavy hair.

  “You came straight from the train station?” He noted her luggage in the corner.

  She nodded.

  “You didn’t have to rush back, Andrea. You could have taken it easy.”

  “I have been taking it easy,” she assured him. “Did I mess up your days with the start-up?”

  “No,” he said. “I’m pretty flexible with the guys.” He spent the other two days of the week with a start-up company formed by a couple of ambitious newly graduated students who were developing online games. Leo had invested in them the same way he’d invested in her business.

  He eased into his chair across the large desk from her. She’d had to buy another desk simil
ar to hers and joined them both together so that they had their own work space. It meant the office was more cramped and it also pushed Leo closer to the wall behind him.

  The large hanging shelves on the wall behind him looked shaky and she was worried they might land on his head. She made a mental note to take them down.

  “How was the decadent celebration?”

  One of the best, she thought, breaking out into a smile. “It was very relaxing.” Instantly her mind was away, conjuring up an image of Riley on his sun-lounger.

  “That’s it?” Leo asked, rubbing his hands together. She stared at the dimple on his chin. The more she stared at his face the more she was reminded of how different it was from the one that had imprinted itself on her mind. Leo’s hair and eyes were dark, his skin olive, like that of most Italian men. He didn’t have Nico’s bone structure or striking good looks and yet there was undeniably something quietly attractive about him. It slipped in slowly, like the taste of dark melted chocolate.

  After her encounter with Riley, though, she had a feeling she was done with Italian men and their dark looks for a good while.

  “You want specifics?” she asked, as her laptop screen flickered to life.

  He nodded his head. “You look relaxed. More than I’ve ever seen you look relaxed. I want to know what you did so I can try it.”

  She almost laughed at his suggestion, knowing if she did indeed look any different, it was more to do with the way Riley had made her feel, than anything else.

  “We had facials and a Turkish bath, an algae wrap and we sat in a Himalayan salt room.”

  “A what?” asked Leo, wrinkling his nose.

  “We went into a Himalayan salt room where we sat and breathed in salt infused air.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Well, it’s supposed to invigorate your cells and being in that environment is meant to help you produce more red blood cells. It also helps improve your heart and kidney functions and it gets rid of toxins from your bodies, and it helps remove fat cells.”

  “You don’t have any fat cells.”

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “It was very relaxing,” she said, ignoring his comment.

  “It sounds like you just read out a biology text book to me.”

  “You should try it if you ever get the chance.”

  “You women enjoy doing that stuff?”

  She gazed up at the ceiling and considered his words. “We thrive on it,” she replied, and hit a few keys on the keyboard. “It’s a great way to spend time together. Except for the algae wrap. We’re in separate treatment rooms for that.”

  “I’ve seen pictures of women with that goo on in women’s magazines.”

  “Should I be worried that you are reading women’s magazines or should I pretend I didn’t hear you say that?” She narrowed her eyes. “Was there something Dominic didn’t tell me about you?”

  “Your brother knows about my ex-wife. Therefore he knows I was once married, as do you. Dominic can definitely vouch for me. But seriously, do they spread that algae everywhere?”

  She smiled in return and said nothing, preferring to keep him wondering. If she mentioned she’d left her underwear on, it would give him an image of her in her underwear and she preferred not to do that.

  They were business partners and she liked that she felt so comfortable around him. But talking about underwear with a business partner was something she wasn’t going to wade into.

  “I can’t understand why someone like you would need all those treatments.” She waited for him to explain but he was busy typing away on his keyboard.

  “It’s what girls do.”

  “I get that. And some girls don’t need them.” He told her.

  She frowned, felt the creases on her forehead as he looked up from his screen.

  Had he paid her a compliment?

  She liked Leo because he was so easy to be around. There was none of that intense, brooding feeling around him; even Nico had moments where she hadn’t been able to fathom him. But Leo was easy going and this, as well as his business knowledge and interest in her business, had made her consider the possibility of working with him.

  She slumped back into her chair. “I wish d’Este would get their act together,” she said, changing the topic altogether. “We need a good secondary crib supplier.”

  “I’m beginning to think that perhaps we should continue our search for others. We can’t become dependent on one or two suppliers. Not if their products give us a large stream of income. It would take one bad batch from them, or a delay of some sort and we’d be in trouble and a business like Ava’s would be hit.”

  “You’re right. We should still continue our search.”

  “I’ve compiled a list of manufacturers. Dino Massari has a factory in Milan which manufactures children’s nursery furniture. He recommended we take a look.”

  “Let’s see him come up with the cribs first.”

  “What will you do about d’Este?”

  “I’m going to leave it a while. Let Dino Massari chase me for a change,” she said.

  “Who were you talking to when I called?” Leo asked, matter of factly.

  “When?” She glanced up at him but he was busy staring at his screen.

  “At the hotel, yesterday. You mentioned someone was at the door. Riley?”

  She felt her pulse jump at the mention of his name. “Riley,” she repeated, letting his name swirl around her tongue. Saying his name out loud had her skin springing up with goose bumps all over.

  “He was someone I met…”

  “At the hotel?” the way he asked her, grabbed her attention.

  A long and awkward silence followed, until Leo asked her, “Are you going to give him another chance?”

  “I don’t think so,” she replied, and ran her fingers through her hair. “We never exchanged numbers.”

  “I meant Massari.”

  She tilted her head, then pretended to read an email. “One more chance. I want to see the goods first and if he doesn’t get in touch soon, then I will call him. Unfortunately, Ava loves the look of his products.”

  “That reminds me,” said Leo. “She called this morning to say that the new shipment, the one which will get to Denver next week—she expects it to be sold out. She wants to place a larger order this week, probably for one hundred cribs. She’ll call you later to discuss it.”

  This was Andrea’s main worry. If this supplier went bust or there was some problem with delivery, it would cause a bottleneck in the supply chain and have an impact on Ava’s business.

  “I think you’d better give me the list of new suppliers now.”

  “I’ll email it to you.”

  She wasn't sure whether she detected a hint of iciness in his voice. It wasn’t so much what he said as the way he said it.

  “Thanks for getting on it.” She knew Ava watched her orders and shipments like a hawk. How that woman had time to juggle so many balls, she didn’t know, but as long as things were looking up for Ava, it meant business was also looking up for Andrea.

  “I’m going out to grab a coffee,” said Leo, getting up. He slipped away from his desk without so much as asking her, like he usually did, whether she wanted something.

  With the office to herself, Andrea was relieved to have some peace and quiet. She didn’t know what was up with Leo all of a sudden. She was already having a hard time settling back into the reality of her return to work.

  Her chance encounter with Riley had given her many happy memories to savor but it was now time to get back to the real world. In time she would forget she had ever met him and it would be better that way.

  She wondered whether it was too late in the day to go to the Casa Adriana, the hotel run by her dear friend Nico. But it was Ava, his fiancée she wanted to talk to the most. She hungered for female company and as she glanced at her watch, remembered that her car was at home. It would make more sense to go home, unpack, unwind and get ready for another work
week.

  She would visit Ava later in the week.

  9

  As the week passed, it wasn’t such a problem—trying to forget Riley while she was at work.

  She was distracted enough so that memories of him were kept at bay. But in the evenings, returning to her small apartment alone was much harder. For it was then that she would miss him the most.

  How was it, Andrea wondered, that she could miss someone she had barely spent a complete day with?

  In the few hours they had shared he had given her a taste of the kind of romance she now hungered for. She’d tasted him, his kisses, his smell, the very essence of him and she wanted more of him.

  But ever a realist, she convinced herself that she was suffering from a severe form of holiday blues and that it would soon pass. But at the same time she was desperate to talk to Ava. She knew that a woman’s listening ear would help her to get through the frustration that poked at her. A casual conversation with Ava might help her to get the man out of her system. Ava would understand—after all, her friend had been through her own roller coaster romance with Nico.

  And so it was towards the end of the day as the week drew to a close that Andrea walked with a determined step into the marbled lobby of the Casa Adriana.

  As soon as she entered she saw Nico and Gina talking on the sofas at the side of the entrance doors. Glancing ahead she noted a new face at the reception desk and then wandered over to Nico.

  “I should be interviewing, because we need to have a team in place quickly. But finding the right people is hard.” She heard him say.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” said Andrea, and interrupted them anyway.

  Nico looked up at her, his forehead lined.

  “Andrea,” he said warmly, and his eyes softened.

  “Don’t get up,” she said, putting out her hand to prevent further disruption. “You look busy. I only wanted to say ‘hi’.”

  “It’s always good to see you,” replied Nico, and got up anyway. He kissed her on both cheeks.