The Italian Billionaire’s Nubian Queen

Brianna backed off. “All right, sorry. He’s hot and rich and interested, and you’re single. I mean… You do have that rose quartz in your bra, don’t you?”

Alyssa had gotten used to the poking.

“Do you think it’s to blame? Should I go and fish it out?”

“Do you think Naomi is a witch?”

“Of course not!”

“Then I think you’re safe from everything except some chafing. I… Oh, okay, I see him. He’s over there, brooding. Wow, he really keeps people away from him, doesn’t he?”

“He’s scary. Now do you see why I didn’t want to take a walk with him?”

“What else happened?” asked Brianna, too shrewd for her own good.

“Nothing! What else might happen?”

“Alyssa…”

“Fine,” sulked Aly. “I told him that I have to get back to my friends and if he didn’t glower so much maybe he’d have a few friends to get back to, too.”

Brianna gaped.

“You didn’t.”

“I did. Well, he kissed my hand. That was entirely unnecessary. He absolutely did not have to kiss my hand. So yes, I did, and he deserved it.”

Alyssa crossed her arms and glared at Brianna mutinously.

 “Well, you sure showed him. He doesn’t have to worry about friends though, he’s surrounded by people now. Wait, is that Lana?”

“Lana?”

Alyssa craned her neck to try and get a good look.

“Why do you care, Aly? You told him off.”

“But he obviously doesn’t know how to make friends. He doesn’t deserve to have Lana’s claws sink into him. Maybe I should go over there and…”

“And?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then stay here and drink your wine—here, Howie’s come back successful in his mission, unlike you, Aly. It’s no big deal, right?”

“Right,” agreed Alyssa, and she tried to pay attention to her friends as they spent the rest of the evening together. People came and went, and Alyssa met more and more people, introduced by Naomi and Howie. Her discomfort melted away, and she managed to have a good time, after all. But she was aware of him all evening.

Was he going to stay for the whole weekend? The whole event? She hoped not! Didn’t he have more important things to do? Wasn’t he an important kind of man?

“Are you sure you’re all right?” asked Naomi as they finally walked back to their cabin, under the starlight.

“Sure, of course. Just a little tired.”

“It’s been a long day. But it’s something more, isn’t it?”

“No, nothing, I promise. I need to check in to make sure everything’s fine at the shop.”

“Didn’t you call Diane three times already?”

“I did, but…”

“Then let her do her job. And Chantelle said she’d be there if Diane needs any help, too, right?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“There’s nothing to but about, then. Tell me what it is.”

“Nothing. It’s nothing,” insisted Alyssa, and said good night, glad to go inside.

So what if some brooding Italian winemaker had asked her—no, ordered her—to go for a walk? She hadn’t gone, and it was done. He hadn’t noticed her since then. It didn’t matter.

“All right, you can tell me tomorrow. Meet for breakfast?”

Alyssa said yes enthusiastically, and was honestly glad that Brianna wasn’t in much of a mood to talk. Without distractions, Adam was foremost in her mind again. Alyssa left her to it, though it felt mean to do so, and decided to use that incredible bath tub.

She meant to congratulate herself on everything she’d achieved that day. She tried out the complimentary bath salts, lit the candles, brought flowers in there, and settled down in the bubbly water. Once she was in, though…

He rose up like a specter.

He didn’t just rise up. He loomed.

He walked out of the fog, a long coat billowing around him. His hair was longer than she’d thought it was. His eyes gleamed green, as if they could see her soul, see how much she wanted him. She sighed as he got closer, his eyes on her. He was powerful. She could see that. He was strong, and he held power in his hands. He had her under his power. She didn’t mind.

“Walk with me.”

This time she didn’t refuse. She didn’t think she could have. Something outside her was pulling her in, drawing deeper as he took her hand and drew beside him to walk along a cliff, until they reached the edge and he stepped off. He didn’t fall. They stepped onto clouds, walked along with calm blue waters under them, until it started getting choppy, the wind picked up, the clouds under their feet became grey and lightning flashed, thunder roared. She turned to him and he pulled her close, and it didn’t matter that a storm raged on around them. None of that mattered because she was in his arms. She looked up at him and everything faded, even as sharp spears of lightning flashed beside them.

Alyssa turned her face up to his for the kiss that she knew would be far more violent than the storm, than the sea, than anything around them. She waited for the moment when their lips would meet for the first time, because she knew it would be a promise. A promise witnessed by the gods and goddesses, the kind of promise that could not be broken. She was ready. She was willing. She was eager.

She was drowning.

Alyssa sat up, gasping and coughing.

“Fu*k! Fu*king hell!”

She had fallen asleep in the damn bath! Her hair, that she’d clipped up on top of her head so carefully, was soaking wet and coming loose in strands down her back. Water streamed down her dark skin, suddenly far colder than she remembered it being.

How long had she been in there?

Tired. She was just tired and sleepy. She hadn’t had much of a chance to relax, really. She’d been too excited to sleep the night before, and now she needed to get some sleep. Except now she’d gotten her hair all wet and she needed to wash it and dry it and set it, and that would take forever. The candles had gone out, the bubbles had long since fizzled, and the water was so cold that she was beginning to shiver.

“Damn that man. And damn me for letting him get under my skin like that.”

Grumbling, she gave in and decided to wash her hair if she had to, after all, and went to work trying to get it back under some kind of control. She was nearly done, about half an hour later, when Brianna finally knocked on the door.