The Italian Billionaire’s Nubian Queen

Chapter 3

“You’re gorgeous.”

Alyssa looked up in surprise and just managed to keep herself from doing a double take.

“What?”

“You’re gorgeous. Take a walk with me.”

Alyssa blinked. She wasn’t sure she’d heard right.

“What?”

“I want you to take a walk with me,” he repeated.

“Thanks, but no thanks. This is a meet-and-greet, not a rendezvous.”

Alyssa turned back to the wine she’d just poured for herself and was about to walk back to her table, knowing very well that she was being rude, not caring all that much about it. Because hell, he was being rude, too. And creepy, to be quite honest.

Alyssa was rapidly changing her mind about Matteo Colombo. Sure, he was even hotter up close, but You’re gorgeous, take a walk with me? What kind of clueless idiot walked up to a woman and without even introducing himself, said something like that?

“Stop.”

Alyssa didn’t know why she stopped, but she did know that she was extremely pissed off that she had. Slowly, she turned around and skewered him with a Look. She had a patented Look. No man could stand up against it.

Correction.

No man except Matteo Colombo could stand up against it.

“Tell me who you are.”

Alyssa frowned and tapped the name tag clipped to the lapel of the jacket she’d shrugged on over her royal blue dress.

“Alyssa Benjamin. Pleased to meet you.”

She offered him her hand, expecting him to shake it, like normal people would. Instead, he took it in his, caressing it, and raised it to his lips. The soft, firm contact made her wonder if her insides had just liquefied. Her head spun.

Too much wine. She’d had too much wine. She didn’t usually have too much wine, because you can’t enjoy it if you’re really drunk. But now her head was spinning, and she felt as if her legs might give way. Those eyes, such a sharp green, burned into her own golden brown ones as if they could read her soul.

Then take her soul.

“The pleasure is all mine, Alyssa. I’m Matteo Colombo.”

“I… I know who you are.”

Her voice came out a lot higher and squeakier than it usually was. She needed to get a grip. She needed to get her hand out of his grip.

“Then take a walk with me.”

Alyssa pulled her hand out of his and drew herself up to her full 5’9”, which was usually tall enough to look any man in the eye when she had her heels on, but she still had to look up at Matteo. That annoyed her.

She made herself relax and then she laughed, a breezy chuckle of wry disbelief.

“Mr. Colombo, you don’t seem to know how to take no for an answer. I knew who you were when I saw you. I enjoy your wines. They’re some of the best I’ve ever had. I admire your nose. It’s the best I’ve ever heard of. I admire you. But when I said I wasn’t going to take a walk with you now, I did mean it. I’m with friends. And maybe if you didn’t glower at everybody around you, you’d have friends to spend the evening and enjoy your fine wines with, too.”

Alyssa turned around, relieved to find that her legs were working after all, and she walked off, not quite sure where all that had come from, and pretty sure it hadn’t been a good idea. He was Matteo Colombo. She’d just snapped at Matteo Colombo and possibly insulted him a bit.

Oh God, she had insulted him more than a bit. She’d pretty much said that he didn’t have friends because he glowered too much. Well, that was just great, then. Just great. She apparently liked to live dangerously and offend powerful men. As if it wasn’t enough that she had Lana out for her head locally, she had to go and annoy somebody who could have her head wherever she went.

Alyssa managed to get to her table and sat down with a thump.

“Aly? Where’s the wine? Aly, what’s wrong?”

She turned to Brianna, her eyes glassy, her smile fixed, her dress and blazer beginning to feel uncomfortably sticky under her arms and on her back.

“I… Ah, I…”

“Alyssa, what the hell is wrong?”

Alyssa winced. Bree had called her Alyssa and sworn. She needed to get a grip and tell her.

“I think I just pissed off Matteo Colombo. Don’t look!”

But Bree was already twisting her neck around.

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He was right there, where I was. He showed up and asked me —no, actually, told me to take a walk with him.”

“What?”

“Yeah. I said no. I don’t think he’s used to hearing the word.”

“You said no?”

Brianna sounded frankly puzzled.

“Well, of course I said no! You know what rich men are like.”

Brianna shrugged.

“I don’t, actually. How do you? How many rich men have you known?”

Alyssa sighed. So Brianna was in one of her devil’s advocate moods. Alyssa was not in the mood to indulge it, but still.

“Rich men are used to having their way. They’re used to breaking rules and getting away with it because if you have enough money, most rules don’t apply to you. No, don’t look at me like that, Bree. You know that’s true. You know that with enough money, you can get away with most things. That’s just what life is like. I don’t want to take a walk with the guy who probably owns everything here, not when he’s already shown that he doesn’t like being denied what he wants.”

Brianna paused.

“What a cynical world view to have, Aly! You can’t just assume the worst of people like that.”

Alyssa bit her tongue before retorting that Brianna had done the same about her own husband, and she should really have known better because she knew her husband. But she didn’t say it.

“I’m not required to trust people. I run a business, Bree. Most people do want to scam you because everybody wants to save a few bucks and make a few more bucks. I don’t even blame them, everybody wants to be in control. But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to just give anybody whatever they want, either. I’m sorry that disappoints you, but this isn’t about you. I just said no to a guy who wanted to take a walk with me, that’s all.”