CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER FIVE
C HARLOTTE WAS STUNN ED . Paralysed in the moment. Watching Enzo.
One heartbeat.
Two heartbeats.
And then she was moving. Rushing away. She wrenched the door open, not even hearing when it hit the wall. And then she was running. Down one passage and then another. Damn this house! Why couldn’t she remember her way?
In her mind she saw Enzo yank himself away, a look of sudden realisation on his face. The same shock she was feeling now. They had almost kissed. Again. How could she have let this happen? She had been so adamant that she would keep her distance after what had happened on the terrace, but when he drew closer it was as if every thought had disappeared. Every reason that they shouldn’t kiss dissolved away into nothing. His presence burned through it all, leaving all her resistance nothing more than smoke on a breeze.
Her heart was still beating fast. Maybe it was panic, maybe it was because she was fleeing, but mostly it was because he had been so close. The way he looked at her, as if he saw her—the real her. Charlotte , and not her invented persona. And she wanted him. She wanted him to pull her into his arms and kiss her.
Why now? Why was she so attracted to Enzo? It must be this place. He had said she was safe here, but it was far more dangerous than anyone could have realised. It brought out his human side. It showed her his scars. No one was more surprised than her at how deeply it cut to see him hurt. But she couldn’t be around him right now. She couldn’t even blame the drink, because she had barely sipped at the grappa. This chemistry was all them, and it made her want to wail. How could life be so cruel? To have never been with a man, and then to have someone so close that she could never truly have. All because of her father and the groom he’d tried to force on her, a groom who couldn’t be even a fraction of the man that Enzo was.
There was safety in Enzo’s shadow, but Charlotte had to deny herself the man because the light shone far too brightly on him. That attention would be the end for her.
She paid no attention to where she went, hurriedly running down the stairs, looking over her shoulder as though she could see through the walls into Enzo’s office. Her foot hit the landing, and her body slammed into another.
Soft arms came around her, steadying them both.
‘Dio!’ Isabella exclaimed. ‘Celeste! Are you all right?’
‘I’m sorry, I—I wasn’t watching where I was going.’ Charlotte had to fight to keep the panicked sob building in her throat from escaping. That would only draw questions from Isabella, and the less she said the better.
‘I was just going to Leoncino to give him this, but since you are here, you can take it.’
Charlotte swallowed hard, trying to control every impulse to flee, to run from this house, from Perlano, from Enzo. But where would she go? Travelling privately with him was one thing, but the moment she set foot in an airport, it wouldn’t be long before she was found.
‘Sure.’ She accepted the cream envelope. The stationery was very clearly expensive, and Enzo’s name was printed on the front in a highly stylised script. ‘Do you know who it’s from?’
‘A messenger brought it.’
Charlotte turned to go, but Isabella stopped her.
‘Are you certain that you are okay?’
Charlotte forced a smile and hoped it didn’t look as brittle as it felt. ‘Yeah, I am.’
Envelope in hand, she glanced up the stairs. Instead of going back, she turned on her heel and walked outside. She needed a moment. Just to collect herself.
Fanning herself with the letter, she found herself walking to the fountain. Water had always soothed her soul, so she decided to sit on the edge and enjoy the cool mist that rose up around it. It was such a glorious day. The early afternoon sun was high in the startlingly blue sky, casting barely any shadow. Charlotte wanted to rail at all of it. It should be dull and oppressively grey to match how she felt.
The surroundings were so beautiful that it was hard to picture a world outside it. But there was one. A cruel world that forced Charlotte into hiding. That stole the possibility of passion or companionship.
This fountain, the maze...it was such a beautiful love letter. How she wished she could have that kind of love in her life, but fate had other plans. Instead, she had to hide from an arranged marriage to an atrocious man and face a growing attraction to her untouchable boss.
Charlotte pushed off the fountain, moving away from the flow of the water she so enjoyed, to walk through the maze. She never liked the idea of getting deliberately misled; if the maze were taller, she doubted she would have gone in at all. But right now she would have liked tall walls to hide behind. The privacy would have given her a chance to pull her own walls back up, to rebuild the barrier between her and Enzo. So unlike his great-great-grandparents. With her low walls, no matter where the contessa wandered, her husband would have been able to see her. To reach her. Charlotte would never have that, with anyone.
From where she stood, she could see a small portion of the wrought-iron gates at the bottom of the long driveway and felt a part of her reach for them. Her instinct screamed at her to run. To escape this attraction before it became a bigger problem in her life. But when she looked at the envelope, she knew she couldn’t.
Regardless of what happened between them, she had a job to do. It was the only point in her life that gave her any fulfilment at all.
‘You can do this, Charlotte,’ she said to herself. After all, she had escaped without anyone’s help. She had set up this new life for herself, and she had got the job at De Luca and Co. on her own. If she had to face an attraction to Enzo every day, she would do it. If she ran, there was no guarantee she would find an opportunity like this again. Through him, she could leave a mark.
So, inhaling deeply, she swallowed the ever-present urge to flee and walked back into the house. She would just need to be careful. All she had to do was try to stay away from Enzo as much as possible. With her own office and her own room, that shouldn’t be too hard.
He’s your boss. There’s no Enzo. It’s Mr De Luca to you.
The door was still open, and Enzo was standing at the window with his hands clasped behind his back. From his profile, she could see a frown on his face.
Charlotte regretted the almost-kiss even more now, because it would have only added one more weight onto the shoulders of a man who already bore so much.
Act like nothing ever happened. An Oscar-winning performance. Understand?
‘Mr De Luca,’ she said clearly. She almost faltered when he turned at the sound of her voice and the frown slipped off his face to be replaced by something softer. She could have almost sworn that he was about to move closer to her but stopped when she ploughed on. ‘This arrived for you.’ She kept so much space between them that she had to fully extend her arm to hand the envelope to him.
He looked at her for a fraction of a second. Not moving. Assessing. And then he reached for the envelope, stepping back once he had it in hand. Granting the request for space that must be clearly legible in her body language.
‘What is it?’ She was relieved that his tone was back to business as usual. Relieved...and hurt.
‘I don’t know. Isabella said it arrived by messenger.’
Charlotte watched his hands work to open the envelope and had to look away. There was no way his hands were making her feel things.
‘It’s an invitation,’ he announced.
That got her attention. She watched as his eyes skimmed over the card.
‘To a ball in Milan. This is perfect.’
Yes, it was, because now Enzo would be away for a few days, and she would have the time to recalibrate. It was exactly what she needed. So why did she feel disappointed that he would be leaving?
‘I’ll go make the arrangements for your travel.’ Before Enzo could say anything else, Charlotte was fleeing, her heart twisting as she put space between them.
Enzo watched her rush out of his office, but he wasn’t going to let her hide from him again. So he followed her.
She must have run all the way because he found her seated behind her borrowed desk, trying to behave like the quiet, efficient PA when he knew it was a facade. He had seen the fire in her when he almost kissed her.
He was in a rage after seeing the lawyers, but Celeste had stepped in and pulled him out of his own head. She had reminded him who he was. He couldn’t understand why a woman that strong was trying to hide or why, after he had seen under that mask, she was trying to pretend like he hadn’t.
And it rankled that she was doing everything she could to avoid acknowledging their almost-kiss, avoid him. They needed to talk.
He sat opposite her, the table between them. ‘You will arrange for our travel. We will first visit the vineyard in Piemonte, then attend the ball together. Book rooms for us, we’ll leave in the morning.’
Celeste tensed.
‘What’s wrong?’ He could hear his frustration leak into his tone.
‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she replied, without taking her eyes off her screen.
Enzo reached over and pushed the lid of her computer down, keeping his hand on the device to prevent her from hiding behind it.
‘Do you mind? I’m trying to work,’ she snapped, then blinked as if the response caught her off guard.
Good.
He wanted to see more of that feistiness. He could see she tried to suppress it.
‘I do mind. Is this about what happened in the office?’ There had been two mistakes there. At least he had the sense to stop himself before he kissed Celeste. She was his employee, and he could have kicked himself for his behaviour. The second mistake was almost going to her when she had walked back into his office. She kept testing his control. Enzo would not pursue her, but it bothered him that she wasn’t being her honest self with him now. He wanted her to talk about it. At least then he would know whether she was just as affected as he was. He would have her deliberate honesty, not just her body’s reaction to him.
‘I don’t know what you are talking about, Mr De Luca.’
That got under his skin.
‘So we’re back to that? What happened to Enzo?’ He realised then that he liked her using his name, the natural way it fell from her lips. ‘In that case, Ms Park, I asked you a question.’
But she didn’t answer. He watched her watch him. As if he could see her mind at work, he knew instinctively she was looking for an excuse.
‘Well?’
‘Yes. It’s about that.’
Lie!
He had seen the way her eyes dipped to his mouth before she answered.
‘I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to go together and blur the line of our professional relationship.’
Another lie.
They were stacking up now, and it grated on his nerves. He’d had enough of people lying to him, hiding things from him, deceiving him. The woman he had loved, his brother and now his mother.
It seemed like he was simply destined to keep learning that people weren’t trustworthy. Maybe it was something about him that made the people around him behave that way.
His response to Celeste—however ill-advised—was honest. The woman on the terrace was honest. The woman in his office who wanted to be kissed as much as he wanted to kiss her was honest. There was very little in the world as honest as the natural attraction that seemed to be building between them.
And even though their attraction was a terrible idea and an impossibility to act on, at least Enzo could trust it and acknowledge it while remaining committed to keeping the boundaries of the work relationship in place. Now Celeste reminded him why he shouldn’t trust her either. She was hiding things from him. Lying to him.
Enzo removed his hand from her laptop and sat back in his chair. ‘Don’t worry, Ms Park...’ He saw her lips press into a thin line. Clearly, she didn’t like it when he called her that. He was only returning the favour. ‘You have nothing to be concerned about. I only wish for you to attend as my PA.’ He noticed the frown on her face, but she said nothing, so he pushed on. ‘This is an event to rub shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the world. There are relationships to be forged. De Luca and Co. needs to be represented. That’s all you are there for. Nothing more.’ Which was the truth. Whether she realised it or not, Celeste was popular amongst his clients. Nearly every one of them had remarked on her efficiency, her intelligence. More than a few had approached him with offers to poach her with something in return for him, and he had turned them down every time. Taking her to the ball could benefit him and the company greatly.
She looked out the French doors, and he wondered what she was thinking now. He had to fold his arms across his chest to stop himself from snatching those glasses off her face and forcing her to look at him.
Her throat bobbed before she could respond again.
‘I have nothing to wear,’ she objected.
Of all her excuses so far, this one was the most insulting. To think that he would drop her in a sea of sharks without any preparation annoyed him more than it should.
After all, it was a reasonable thing to fret about. Except, of course, he would ensure that his date was properly attired.
He always had when it was Gia on his arm, and she revelled in the attention—in the fine silks and jewellery and his giant diamond on her finger. But then it was the diamond she’d wanted, not him. She’d made that perfectly clear.
Celeste was different, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t make the same effort for her. All these worthless excuses to get out of being in his company! Couldn’t she see that going together would be for her benefit as much as his? She was the best PA he’d ever had, and he wanted to reward that. He had already decided she would earn a significant performance bonus, and attending the ball should have been a treat. Enzo was also certain that if she dressed up and immersed herself in some glamour for a night, maybe she could find her confidence. Be that woman he had seen on the terrace. He was trying to help her.
‘I will take care of it. Any other concerns, Ms Park?’
Now he was taunting her, but he wanted a reaction. A peek behind the curtain. He wanted to crack through the wall she had erected. He wanted his Celeste back.
Yours?
When had he started thinking of her as his? He didn’t hate the thought. She was his PA. But that wasn’t a good enough explanation for how this felt. He felt possessive over the pieces she had shown him.
And now that he was looking, really looking, she was showing him another.
‘I don’t want to go!’ she snapped.
‘Then, tell the truth,’ he nearly growled at her. ‘Be honest with me, and I might consider it.’
‘I don’t want to end up in the socials,’ she said, and this time he believed her. He believed the pleading in her eyes. The desperation in her voice that cut through him. ‘You have to know who you are, Enzo...’
Finally, she was saying his name again, and the sound of it made him relax a fraction. But also, now he was listening because this wasn’t just the mask speaking, it was the woman beneath.
‘Your name is everywhere. On every social media app, on every news website, in every business and financial publication. There isn’t a business in the world that hasn’t heard of or had some connection to De Luca and Co. Your wines are in millions of homes. I know it’s only your public persona that you allow out into the media, but people still know who you are. This trip has been one of the few where you haven’t had to deal with press. So far, I’ve done a great job of keeping out of it, but if I attend with you, that will be the end of my privacy. Everywhere I go it will be violated. I don’t want that. I don’t want the attention.’
Enzo was dumbstruck. He had no idea she had felt this way. Of course he didn’t—why would he? He and Celeste never really talked like they had on this trip. And he got it. This life wasn’t for everyone. He had been born into it. Raised in it. The people in his circle accepted it. Gia...well, Gia had relished the attention. For an ordinary person it would be daunting. Was that why Celeste tried to hide?
But she was so strong beneath her mask, so beautiful—she could thrive in the limelight. Why was she so desperate to avoid it? What had happened to her? She had mentioned a jealous sister... Could that be the reason for her shyness?
He had to help her out of her shell.
‘Please, Enzo. I like my quiet life.’
He uncrossed his arms and leaned towards her, gentling his voice to reassure her. ‘Celeste, I will ensure that you don’t end up splashed across the media. This event is very exclusive. There are no pictures allowed in the ballroom, and I personally know the host. I will make sure you remain anonymous to the world. You have my word.’
He would keep his promise, but he would also make sure that a woman as beautiful as Celeste who deserved to shine in the spotlight could find her true self. Her honest self.
‘So, is there a problem?’ he asked, but now it was a dare. Challenging her to step into herself.
He saw defiance in those coal eyes. Fire. Satisfaction curled through him at the sight.
Holding his gaze, Celeste replied, ‘Not at all, sir.’