I couldn’t help but wonder, as I finished doing my makeup and Tabby chattered on about where he might take me for dinner, if maybe that boy I’d fallen in love with was still in there. If maybe I didn’t have reason to hope.
I shook myself. No, Gina. Don’t get your hopes up. I’d gotten my hopes up every day with him in high school and he had always failed me. Ten years might have passed, but I needed to wait to see if he’d changed before I started letting the butterflies in my stomach carry me away.
The doorbell rang when he said it would. Okay, so he was punctual. That didn’t mean anything.
When I opened the door, I was surprised to see that he wasn’t in a suit. Instead, Vincent was in a pair of dark, soft-looking jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket.
I couldn’t stop a smile from stealing over my face. “Now you look more like the guy I remember.”
Vincent shrugged. “I have to wear suits for work. I like to think I look good in them.” He winked at me. “But don’t worry, I’m still the same leather jacket guy once I get out of the office.”
I didn’t know whether to admit how sexy he looked in that outfit or say something sarcastic about how I hoped he wasn’t the same high school jerk once he was out of the office. I wanted to keep him at a distance, but I also wanted to give in to my desire to tease, to let him put his arm around me, to fall into those old habits.
“Where are we going?” I asked instead, expecting to be told the name of some fancy restaurant on the Upper East Side.
Vincent just winked at me. “You’ll see.”
He led me down to the street, where I didn’t know whether to laugh or sigh. Of course, he still owned a motorcycle.
“She’s beautiful,” I admitted. Everything I knew about motorcycles I had learned from him.
“I got her a couple years ago,” Vincent said. “I didn’t get another one after that crash senior year.”
I remembered that crash. We’d had a screaming match over it. I wondered if he still had the scars on his leg. It had been a lucky break that he hadn’t mangled that leg or worse.
“...but I figured that enough time had passed and it was time to get back on the metal horse,” Vincent finished with a smile.
He handed me a spare helmet and I was surprised to see him put one on. He’d never worn a helmet before.
“Where are we going?” I asked again.
“I told you!” Vincent said, revving the engine. I couldn’t deny the rush I felt when the motorcycle roared to life between my legs. “You’ll see!”
I held on tightly as we zipped through the streets. It took me longer than it should have to realize we were heading for Central Park. I was caught up in the moment, the cool night air on my face and the warmth of Vincent’s back pressed to my chest, remembering how much I loved the feeling when we were younger.
He slowed down and parked, and then helped me off the motorcycle. My mind raced. What could be in Central Park? A fancy new restaurant? A concert?
Vincent held out his hand. I hesitated, unsure. I wanted to take his hand. It scared me how much I wanted to act like a couple with him. But I didn’t want to give him too much too soon. I didn’t want him to think that he had me when he still had so much to prove.
But… this was a date, and I missed that feeling of security that I’d always gotten when I held his hand. So, I reached out and took it.
Vincent squeezed my hand and tugged me along, smiling mysteriously. This felt more like the guy I had known, the one who always knew how to surprise me.
We walked along the path through the semi-darkness until we reached a picnic area. I would’ve thought that there would still be people around, but the area was deserted and the picnic tables were covered in candles.
One of them, towards the center, had a tablecloth with food laid out on it. There was even a little pot of African violets—my favorite flowers—in the center.
He’d learned my favorite flowers and had given them to me on our one-year anniversary back in high school. I hadn’t thought that he would remember.
Vincent let go of my hand and spread his arm out, sweeping it over the view. “Do you like it?” he asked, sounding a little nervous.
I wouldn’t have thought that Vincent could be nervous about anything. He always seemed so sure about everything. Even after ten years, he seemed like he just knew I’d come back to him, knew that he could earn a second chance.
For the first time, though, I saw that confident mask slip. He had done all of this for me—and I couldn’t deny how romantic it looked. It wasn’t something ostentatious or fancy, designed to impress any woman. He’d done something that would have meaning only for me. Something that required his hard work.
“Did you do all of this yourself?” I asked, just to be sure.
“I asked my friend Darien to pick up the food,” Vincent admitted. “And to keep an eye out so the candles didn’t go out. But I set it up myself.”
A friend instead of an assistant. That was good. “I love it,” I said. “It’s… it’s like something you might do in high school.”
“That was my idea,” Vincent explained, leading me over to the table. “I wanted it to be something… something that I should have done more of when I had you. I should have appreciated you more.”
My curiosity got the better of me and I couldn’t help but continue asking questions. “You never really did anything like this while we were dating,” I told him. “Why now? It can’t be just because you want to apologize to me.”
Vincent sat down across from me. “Because. I told you. I want a second chance with you.”
“But why? Is it so that you can feel better? Is it because you think this is something I need?”
“Because I never fell out of love with you,” Vincent confessed, his voice low and rough.
My mouth nearly fell open.
I supposed that I ought to have expected it, given how he had been behaving, but I had been disappointed by him so many times during the years we dated that I hadn’t truly let myself come to that conclusion. Maybe Tabby had been right.
Vincent cleared his throat and passed me some food. It was Indian, my favorite type of food besides Italian—but Vincent knew that after growing up with my grandmother’s Italian food, I was notoriously picky about it. “You don’t have to say anything. I know that it might take you a while to… I’m not expecting you to have pined for me all this time.”
“You apparently pined over me.”
“But you were nothing but amazing. I nearly got you arrested, what, three times? And dumped you. So slightly different experiences here.”
I laughed in spite of myself. I couldn’t say that I was ready to give him my heart yet. But this was definitely a hell of a start.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s say I gave you that second chance. How would this evening go? How would… any of it go? You’re a CEO. I’m your client. Give me the pitch.”
“You always knew how to challenge me,” Vincent replied with a smile. “This evening? I just thought we’d have dinner. Have fun blowing out all the candles and realizing just how ridiculous it was to light as many of them as I did. Worry about starting a forest fire with them. Take you home and drop you off, if that was what you wanted. Take you back to my place, if that was what you wanted instead. Maybe just drive around on my motorcycle for a bit the way we used to, see the city at night.
“As for the rest… I’m busy, a lot.” Vincent pulled a face. “And I know you probably are, too. But I’d want to make time for you.”
“And I’m not going to get the cops banging on my door asking where you are because you’ve pulled a Ponzi and you’ve run off to Tahiti or something without me?” I asked, half teasing, but half serious. I didn’t think that Vincent was running a scheme, exactly, but I didn’t want to end up with someone who was going to bring me trouble. I clearly had enough of that already with the mafia business.
I still didn’t know how that was going to be resolved. In
fact, I was a little scared to find out.
But Vincent looked at me, soft and certain, like I was the only thing that mattered. He’d looked at me like that before, in the beginning. I’d hated how that look had faded away over time. Now, it was back and I felt stupid for it, but I wanted it to stay. I wanted to find a way to make it stay this time around.
But I was terrified that it would fade again and I’d be left, heartbroken, in exactly the same place as I’d been ten years ago.
“No.” Vincent smiled, but shook his head. “I’m on the up and up.”
“Says the guy riding a motorcycle and wearing a leather jacket.”
“Gotta keep up the aesthetics, right?” Vincent winked at me. I couldn’t stop my stomach from giving a little flip. God, he was handsome. And now that I knew what it felt like to have that adult body inside me, touching me, what he looked like now with age and experience… it was hard not to let my thoughts drift in that dangerous direction.
Vincent’s smile faded a little and he grew serious again. “You don’t have to decide anything right now. We can go as slow as you want. But I want to be honest with you about what I want and what I’m looking for, because I didn’t even know what I wanted last time and now I do and I owe it to you to tell you up front what I’m thinking.”
“That’s… rather mature of you.” I didn’t mean for it to come out as condescending, but that’s probably how it sounded, judging by the crooked smile that Vincent shot me.
“Like I said.” He shrugged. “I never fell out of love with you. I want the chance to try again and win you over the way that I should have. I can’t help but think what it would have been like for me if I’d had you by my side while I built the company. While I made things happen.”
I shook my head at that. “You can’t think like that. You needed to grow and change on your own, I think. I couldn’t have done everything for you. It was important that you do this on your own. My being there would have been nice, but I don’t know if it would have made you into the person that you are today.”
“If the person I am today is the kind of person you’d like to date, then I guess it’s worth it,” Vincent replied.
I couldn’t tell where this new, honest Vincent had come from. Somewhere in those ten years apart, I supposed. But I found that I liked him already, quite a lot more than I should have if I wanted to keep up this hard-to-get routine.
But words were just words, I reminded myself. His honesty was a good thing. I appreciated it. But it wasn’t the same as actually doing what he promised.
“We can go slow,” I told him. If he started pulling his old shit again, I would back out and be gone. But until then… I could see where it led.
If I could just ignore the frantic beating of my heart and maintain some common sense, I’d be fine.
8
Gina
It was only the next morning when Gabriele came into the shelter again.
I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes. If you asked me, it really said something about a guy that he couldn’t take no for an answer. If you had to threaten a girl to get her to date you, that said a hell of a lot about your personality.
In my opinion, anyway.
But there was no denying that I was a little scared of him. My thoughts were all jumbled up about Vincent and the last thing I needed was this guy coming in and making my life even more of a mess.
“Ah, Gina.” Gabriele smiled at me. “You’re looking beautiful, as always.”
I did my best to offer him my usual customer smile, but it wasn’t working. It felt like my face was stretched too thin. “Rent is due at the end of the month, we were told.”
Gabriele shook his head at me, like I was an amusing little animal. I clenched my hands behind my back. I wanted to punch him.
The thought came, unbidden, that Vincent would never look at me like that, never behave like that. That he would show me more respect me than this guy was.
That he had, in fact, already shown me more respect than this guy had.
I tried to shove that thought away. This was definitely not the time to be thinking about some other person. Not when I had a very dangerous man looking at me like I was his lunch.
“I’m here to see you,” Gabriele went on. “I was hoping that I could take you to this lovely new restaurant that just opened a couple of blocks away. Wonderful Italian food.”
“And, let me guess, owned by your family.”
I saw a flash of anger in his eyes before he smoothed it over. “That has nothing to do with how good the food is.”
“I’m not going to date someone where I have to double check what restaurants I go to in case I’ll get shot for walking into the wrong one,” I replied. “I’m not interested in being a mafia wife.”
Gabriele’s eyes grew dark and his jaw clenched. “I would be careful just who you turn down. Do you know what kind of power I have?”
Other than the power to be an asshole? I thought but didn’t say out loud. I wanted to stand up to him, but I didn’t want to be entirely stupid, either.
He took a step closer to me and I willed myself to stay still, not to back away. I hated that I could smell him, that he was within arm’s reach, but if I backed away, I’d show how scared I was and like hell was I doing that.
“It’s so very easy to find out about your family, Miss Gina,” he breathed, his voice soft and slithering like a snake’s. “Or would I even have to track down your family? I’m sure your boss depends very heavily upon this shelter. It would be devastating, would it not, for her to see something happen to it. You’re close, aren’t you? I’m sure she’d forgive you if that happened. Or if something were to happen directly to her.”
“Word of advice,” I said, trying to keep the shaking rage out of my voice. “If you want a woman to get with you, threatening her friend and place of work isn’t the way to do it.”
Gabriele shook his head at me again. “You have spunk. I’ll give you that. But you should be careful. I will be back. Perhaps your answer will have changed by then.” He paused. “Your answer should have changed by then.”
I met his gaze, refusing to cower before him. I tightened my legs so that they wouldn’t shake. Gabriele stared at me for a moment longer and then turned, sweeping out the door.
I gripped the counter and tried not to panic, my breath coming fast and shallow. Maybe I should go out with him? If only to protect Maria and the shelter. How many animals would be hurt if Gabriele did something to it? How many people would suffer from the loss of a job? And Maria herself, she had kids, a husband. I couldn’t put them in danger.
But I also couldn’t let myself give in to this asshole. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I became his girlfriend.
What was I supposed to do?
I did know one thing that I could do. I wasn’t sure that I should… I still wasn’t sure that I could trust him…
But even if I couldn’t trust him with my heart, I knew I could trust Vincent with my life. He hadn’t been involved with the mafia back in the day—or, at least, he’d better not have been, because if he had, he’d been lying up the ass to me—but he must know something. He must have heard something with all the people he used to run with. I could talk to him about this, couldn’t I?
And did I really have a choice?
I sat down, putting my head between my legs for a moment to breathe. I could handle this. I could call Vin and tell him what had happened, and he’d know what to do. I wouldn’t tell Maria—no reason to worry her unnecessarily. It was all going to be fine.
I pulled out my cell phone, checked to make sure that Maria wasn’t going to come through the door from the back and overhear, and dialled Vin’s number.
“Hey,” I greeted him. “Want to pick me up for lunch?”
9
Vincent
I didn’t expect Gina to call me the next day. In fact, I hadn’t expected her to call me at all, really. Even after last night and how well it had gone, I sensed tha
t she was still holding herself back from me.
I understood. It would take more than one date and some sex to get her to fully commit to the idea of the two of us. I wouldn’t have been so worried about it if it wasn’t for the whole mob thing. That set me on edge, made me want to keep her close, keep her safe.
The moment she called me, I wanted to drop everything, walk right out of the office, and go to her. But that wouldn’t help either of us. One of the things I’d learned in the intervening ten years, while building my company, was patience.
Not to mention, I had a feeling that if I did just drop everything, I’d get a hell of a lecture from her for it.
“Gina, hi.”
“Hey.” Her voice took on that tone of false cheer that it used to when I’d gotten in a fight again and she was worried for me and didn’t want me to see it. “Want to pick me up for lunch?”
“Sure.” Something was wrong. I glanced at my schedule for the day, mentally rearranging it. “What time would be best?”
We settled the whole thing and hung up, perfectly civil and calm. But I heard the undercurrent in her voice. I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and never let her go.
It felt like time dragged. I bided my time until I could leave and see Gina. I wanted to cancel everything, and I was pretty sure my employees could sense it.
“Something is definitely up,” Darien told me, leaning against the doorframe. “What’s going on with you? You’re never distracted or bad-tempered like this.”
I glared at him, but I should have known that wouldn’t intimidate him. Darien just walked further into the office, grinning. “It’s a girl, isn’t it? I knew there’d be a day you finally went ass over teakettle for someone.”
“Thanks.”
“Who is she?” Darien grinned like Christmas and his birthday had come at the same time.
I didn’t think I could get away with lying to him. Darien had known me for years now, all through the mess college had been. He knew me too well.
Take Me Home_A Billionaire Protector Romance Page 5
