Chapter 3
OLIVIA
I was the last to arrive at dinner. The men were seated at the long table, and all heads turned my way when I appeared. I’d let my hair down from the braid and pushed a wavy lock behind an ear.
Both Giovanni and Nathan seemed to notice me at the same time. Giovanni’s face broke out into a smile, while Nathan clenched his jaw and tore his gaze away. Why was he acting like he was angry with me?
He sat beside Giovanni, but the rest of my flight crew were at the other end of the table, as if they weren’t allowed to mingle with our boss. He waved me over, and I chose once again not to be rude.
“Buonasera,” I said when the men were on their feet. I slipped into the empty seat beside him, the men sat, and my gaze settled on Giovanni.
“Buonasera,” he echoed back.
He turned and glanced at Nathan, uttering something. Whatever was said made his translating bodyguard choke on his drink. Discussion ensued, and occasionally the dark, intense eyes would glance my direction.
“What are you talking about? I recognized some of those words.” Words like Americano.
“It’s nothing.” Nathan didn’t even disguise the lie.
“I’m supposed to believe that?”
His gaze trapped mine. “No, but it’s better than the alternative, trust me.”
“Tell me.”
He shook his head. “I’ll tell you later.” It looked like the instant it was out, he wanted it back.
My heart fluttered and skipped. What did that mean? “Later?”
His eyes narrowed when Giovanni spat out a long sentence, and the thin Italian lips turned up in a seductive smile.
“Mr. Abramo—”
“Gio,” Giovanni corrected him, a scolding tone.
“. . . wants to know if you’re seeing someone.”
What? I kept my gaze fixed on Nathan, studying the American beside our employer. I wondered if he’d translate my words literally.
“Would it stop him if I were?” Sleeping with Giovanni Abramo would be like jumping out at fifteen thousand feet without a parachute.
Maybe the same could be said of Nathan.
His eyes were empty. “No, it won’t stop him, but it might slow him down.”
I turned to Giovanni. “Si.”
I hoped it wasn’t obvious it was a lie. I’d become quite a good liar in the last decade, but the man to his right didn’t look easily fooled.
I knew what a liar looked like, and, like the chameleon, I could spot another of my kind hidden in the bush.
Giovanni’s questions were tedious, but I had fun giving purposefully cryptic answers. And I also enjoyed Nathan’s reaction to them. Once the entrees were done and the Italian had two glasses of wine in him, he looked ready to strike.
“He says you’re the best-looking pilot his family has ever had.”
I gave a tight, polite smile. “Grazie.”
Giovanni’s next sentence made Nathan pause, and since it had been delivered with lust and a seductive smirk, I could wager a guess as to what it was. Before Nathan could spit out the translation, Phillip appeared.
“There’s a phone call for Mr. Abramo.”
He was annoyed but climbed from his seat and followed Phillip, leaving me to examine Nathan.
“What did he say?”
“That you’re very beautiful.”
The sound of the dinner around us faded.
I’d been asking about the earlier discussion, not the last slimy thing Giovanni had said.
Another woman might have assumed this compliment came from the smooth Italian, but I knew from whom the words really came.
I hadn’t heard the phrase molto bella, so I understood that Nathan had cleaned up the sleaze.
“Thank you,” I said.
The unexpected flattery got to me much more than it should have. He shifted uneasily in his seat as his gaze went to the main lodge.
“Now’s your window of opportunity to escape,” he said. “You should go.”
And from whom, exactly, was he telling me to escape? I was fascinated by this man, but I had zero desire to continue with Giovanni, and that trumped everything else. My chair squealed across the floor when I stood.
“Good night,” I said.
He wouldn’t even look at me. “Go.”
My fascination with him deflated at his commanding tone. When I tried to head out of the main lodge, one of the staff members stopped me. It was dark, and I’d have to wait for the armed escort. Every second I remained gave Giovanni more time to return and resume his goal of getting me into his bed.
There was a quiet sigh right behind and above me. Was he a ninja? How had I not heard him?
“I’m armed. I can take you.”
Nathan said it like it was the last thing he wanted to do, and my annoyance grew. Why offer if he didn’t want to?
“Fine,” I said, stepping off.
He walked beside me, his gaze scanning our path like we were surrounded by enemies, but there was nothing but gnarled bushes and long grass.
We’d only just made it away from the lodge lights when I considered a different destination. I wasn’t tired. Wasn’t ready to go to bed. There was so much of this beautiful country around me that I hadn’t yet seen.
I could sleep later.
“Where are you going?” he demanded when I followed the trail that led past my cabin and down the hill. A single lantern burned on a wooden patio jutting out over the river, and my footsteps creaked on the floorboards.
“Will you tell me what Gio said when I sat down?”
He raked a hand through his hair, and his eyes hardened as he considered whether to tell me the truth. “He was guessing what you’d be like in bed.”
“Oh, yeah?” I grinned. “What was the verdict? Frigid bitch or bossy control-freak?”
He looked irritated and didn’t seem to find that amusing. Maybe he didn’t have a sense of humor.
Or perhaps I’d guessed a little too closely.
“Can I finish walking you back to your room?” It was a question but sounded more like an order.
“Nope. I want to know what he thought.”
He put his hands on his hips, taking a large stance that showed off his impressive and intimidating stature. His face soured. “Giovanni suspects frigid.”
My eyebrow lifted as I tugged the corner of my mouth into a smirk. “He would be wrong.”
“I figured you lean more toward the control freak.”
So, the tall, handsome American had considered what sex would be like with me. Tingling warmth crept over my skin. “You,” I said softly, “would not be wrong.”
There was no outward reaction, other than a slight lift of his shoulders on a breath. I leaned against the railing, looking at the inky water gently flowing beneath us. The breeze picked up, and I shivered.
“Olivia,” he said, his tone stronger. It was nice to hear my name on his voice.
“I’m in Africa. I can hear hippos over there in the grass. Can you just give me a minute to appreciate all this before locking me in my room?”
He frowned. “There may be hippos over there, but God knows what else.”
“You’re armed.”
His eyes were blacker than the water below us. “I’d prefer not to have to use it.”
And that, I could tell, was the truth. “Have you before?”
The handsome and emotionless face that peered down at me didn’t change. “My job can get dangerous.”
Not an actual yes, but enough of one, and I shivered again.
“Are you cold?”
Not really, but I didn’t want him to know that his words were the cause. “Yes.”
In the lamplight, I watched his hands close on the zipper of his jacket and ease it down. I wasn’t concerned about the holstered gun that came into view. It was his pending action that made me breathless.
“No, thank you—”
But he ignored me and closed the distance between us, draping the soft fleece, warm from his skin, over my shoulders. “If we’re going to be eaten by a lion out here, at least you won’t die cold.”
He didn’t step away, and I had nowhere to go. My back was against the porch railing. And even if I could get away from him, I wouldn’t.
Holy hell, the man was enticing. Did he realize how risky it was for him to stand so close? I slipped my arms into the oversized jacket that smelled like pine and detergent and zipped it up.
Was that necessary?
The fleece was a barrier between our bodies. Again, the thought of his rough hands on me flooded me with heat. Since my head was already tilted up to meet his gaze, I let it go further to the night sky above and gasped.
“What is it?”
“The stars.” I’d been an Army brat, moving around before my father retired in Detroit, but the sky looked the same from all the different places I’d lived in the States.
But now, a million stars dotted the black, shining in brilliance. The beauty of it halted my brain.
“When I was younger,” I said, “during the summer, my brothers and I would go out into the road in front of our house. We’d lie on the warm pavement and make up fake constellations, then convince our younger brother they were real.”
Why the hell was I thinking of the memory, and more surprising, why had I told him about it?
He had no comment, and I refocused on the diamonds sparkling overhead.
“Anyway,” I said quickly to cover my embarrassment, “I’ve never seen it like that.”
“It looks that way without the ambient light of the cities.”
“It’s gorgeous.”
“Yeah.” There was an uneven quality about his voice that drew my attention.
He wasn’t looking up. His intense gaze was cast down on me, and for the second time this evening, it drained all the air from my lungs. Lust burned through my body, and I wanted this intimidating man I knew almost nothing about to set his mouth on mine.
His expression said that was exactly what he was thinking about doing.
But he didn’t. Instead, the gaze hardened into something that looked very much like aggravation.
What the hell was his deal?
“Have I done something to upset you?”
“No,” he replied. “But I need you to get to your cabin so I can go back to doing my job.”
“Oh.” Had I been reading him wrong? “Wait a minute. You told me to leave at dinner, which is probably going to piss Giovanni off. You want to hurry back to that?”
“Maybe I like pissing him off.”
“If that’s true, then spending another minute out here won’t hurt.”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “Do I need to remind you that I have a gun?”
His hollow threat was borderline cute. “Oh, so you do have a sense of humor.”
“What makes you think I’m joking?” He gave me a sharp, intimidating look.
With the jacket off, I could see the full, thick biceps and toned form he had hidden beneath his t-shirt. He was totally lying. All his gaze did was send indecent thoughts flying into my brain faster than a jet engine. Damn, what was this man doing to me?
“You can’t threaten me after you gave me your jacket and manhandled Giovanni when he tried to cop a feel.”
“That was—” He stopped himself, looked like he wanted to try again, maybe a different angle. “I can’t afford to waste time on distractions.”
“Excuse me?”
“I find you incredibly distracting.” He said it like the words burned his mouth.
He’d just accused me of doing something, but I didn’t understand what. “Why?”
The muscles in his face tensed. “You’re a smart girl, figure it out.”
He blinked, and the mask on his face drained away. Holy shit. There was unadulterated lust painted on his face.
But abruptly, he reined in the emotion, pivoted, and took off, forcing me to follow.
His stride was long, and I had to take two steps for every one of his.
I wasn’t completely out of breath, but when we reached the side of the cabin, he shoved me aggressively against a wall, my back slamming into it.
“Be quiet,” Nathan hissed in my ear. “Giovanni and the other translator are heading this way.”
His large hands were gone from my body, but he was much too close. I could feel his warm breath on my face, and his gaze was locked on mine. There was nothing to do but be still and quiet.
And wait.
I wanted to point out that he, once again, was trying to save me from Giovanni’s advances, which was sweet—but unnecessary. I could handle whiny, sleazy Giovanni.
Nathan’s head turned to the sound of knocking on the door, and I didn’t like that I was no longer his focus. I liked the way he looked at me, even when he was pissed off or distracted.
There were Italian words around the corner that I didn’t concern myself with. The man in front of me was a threatening presence, sure, but he was also a man with a hard body and shocking face that I was drawn to.
Because I liked flirting with danger, and maybe because I liked seeing him off-balance, I put a hand on his warm chest and felt his steady heartbeat through the thin fabric of his shirt. No reaction.
The idea of keeping my personal life separate from business died, burned up in the fire of my lust. I gripped his chin, pulling his face to me, rose onto my toes, and claimed his mouth with mine.
He did nothing.
He didn’t turn his head away to stop my kiss, but his focus was only on the men around the corner.
It made me more aggressive. I slid a hand up to curl around his neck and bend his head down to deepen our kiss, which he allowed but didn’t respond to.
My mouth drifted to his neck, tracing a line across the stubble of his jaw.
Every second I continued to kiss him, and he ignored me, made me angrier.
When I cupped his face with both hands, he caught me by the wrists and forced me to stop.
His whisper was frustrated. “I’ll give you what you want, just wait a second.”
Footsteps gradually grew quiet around the corner, signaling the men were gone.
“What I want?”
His focused gaze returned to me. “My attention.”
Even in the darkness, I could see everything. What I’d done was play with fire, and now he was going to burn me into ash.