Sweet on You (15 page)

Jason sat at the counter, looking less like a buttoned-up British gentlemen with his shirt collar undone and his tailored jacket off. He had a glass of wine and a large plate of pasta in front of him and stared at Daniela like he was utterly besotted.

Possessiveness flared through Nico, sharp and rigid. Shoving his hands in his pockets to keep from punching his bastard employee, he entered the kitchen.

"There you are," Daniela exclaimed, beaming at him. Her smile slowly faded as she studied his face. "Is something wrong, Nico?"

He glanced at Jason and then back at her. "I didn't realize we were entertaining tonight."

Jason picked up his wine glass. "I stopped by to drop off some paperwork for you. Imagine my surprise when I found a world-famous chef cloistered away in your suite."

He heard the curiosity and accusation in Jason's voice. "It's none of your damn business who I
cloister
in my apartment."

Daniela made a mocking sound.

Facing her, he glared at her.

She tried to look subdued but the humor was more than evident in her eyes as she sauntered up to him. "Hard day, baby?"

"Yes, damn it."

Rubbing his chest soothingly, she bit her lip, either to keep from laughing or to torture him with her sexiness. "Let me pour you a glass of wine and fetch your slippers."

Jason snorted as he shoveled a forkful of pasta into his mouth.

Shooting a dark look at his interfering minion, he shook his head. "I want whiskey."

"Why don't you sit down and I'll get you some?" She kissed his cheek and winked at Jason as she padded out of the kitchen.

Glaring at his right-hand man, the person who supposedly had his back, Nico joined him at the counter.

The man was seemingly unaffected, eating his food with an enthusiasm his British reserve didn't normally allow him to display. "You're full of surprises, Nico," he said after swallowing a bite. "You didn't tell me you'd hired an in-house chef."

"I haven't."

"The only other conclusion I can draw is that you're shacking up with a woman."

He glared. "You're a bastard sometimes, you know that?"

Dabbing a napkin to his mouth, Jason pushed back from the counter and put his coat back on. "I left the paperwork on the waterfront project in China on your desk. Perhaps when you take a break from playing house, you can look over them."

"Get out, Lethem."

Jason just smirked as he tugged down his cuffs. "Don't bollocks this up, Nico. She's the best thing that's ever happened to you, and that's notwithstanding her scrumptious cake."

Daniela came back into the kitchen, tumbler in hand, frowning when she saw Jason standing. "Are you leaving?"

"Yes, love. The pasta was divine, thank you again." He chastely kissed her cheek. "I will demand your chocolate cake next time."

She smiled in pleasure. "Come by any time."

"Not if you value your life," Nico threatened, taking the glass from her hand and downing a healthy dose.

Daniela shot him a look. "He doesn't mean it."

"Yes, I do."

Jason took her hand and clasped it in both of his. "Nico and I have an understanding, love."

"Understand that I'm going to break your arm if you don't let her go," he growled.

Jason chuckled and lifted her knuckles to his lips, clearly taunting him. But before he could drag her away from his henchman, Jason released her. "Try not to miss me too terribly tonight," he said as he strutted off.

Waiting until she heard the elevator close, Daniela turned to him, hands on her hips. "What was that about?"

"You tell me." He scowled. "I came home to find you half naked, flirting with my employee."

She looked down at myself. "What are you talking about? I'm fully dressed."

"You're wearing my shirt without a bra."

"But I'm wearing pants, which is more than I had on an hour before Jason arrived."

Something inside him roared at the idea of another man seeing what was only his. Not wanting to examine that emotion, he picked her up by the waist, hefted her on top of the counter, and leaned his head against her chest.

She stroked his hair. "Poor baby, feeling cranky."

"You're subverting my employees."

"Just one, and he was already a fan." She kissed the top of his head. "Don't worry. I have a thing for the boss."

"Do you?" he murmured, relaxing for the first time all day.

"Apparently I like overbearing men."

He kissed her skin at the open vee of the shirt. "Lucky for me." And he meant it.

Chapter Twenty-one

Daniela held up one of the scones from the Mandarin Oriental's tea service and made a face at it. "It's good, but it's not nearly as good as yours, Eve."

Blushing prettily, Eve tucked her hair behind her ear. "That's sweet of you to say."

"It's true." Lola stretched toward the tower. "But the cucumber cream cheese sandwiches are divine."

"The whole teatime experience is divine." Eve looked around the suite. "We're on top of the world here."

"It was the least I could do to thank you for helping me." She wasn't sure she wanted Marley to report back to Tony on her, so she'd asked Eve and Lola to bring over some of her things. Not that she'd needed a lot—the Mandarin Oriental was amazingly obliging in fetching whatever she'd needed. Except underwear, but she suspected Nico was behind that oversight.

"You haven't told us
why
we're ensconced in the ritziest room in one of the most expensive hotels in the country much less San Francisco, eating little crustless sandwiches and sipping tea." Lola lifted her cup. "We've been patient, but that's only because you had food waiting for us. You'll have anarchy on your hands soon."

Daniela smiled. She
had
been cryptic when she'd called them and invited them over to Nico's suite for tea, but she hadn't wanted to get into it over the phone. "I was restless, so I thought I'd invite my friends over for tea."

"Please excuse me," Lola said, reaching for a truffle, "but, delicately put, that's bullshit. Since when did you start hanging out at the Mandarin Oriental instead of your own mausoleum?"

"Mausoleum?" Eve asked with an amused lift of her eyebrow.

Lola shrugged. "I've got a way with words."

"Right now, the mausoleum is housing my brother, and since he's not my favorite person, I decided to come stay here." She paused. "In Nico's place."

Lola sat up, alert. "Nico? Is that the guy you're seeing? He
lives
here?"

"Is he around?" Eve whispered, craning her neck.

"He's in the study working." She'd interrupted him to tell him she'd invited a couple friends over, and that she was ordering tea if he wanted any. He'd replied that he only wanted her. She smiled wickedly, remembering when he'd shown her how much.

Lola nudged Eve. "Look at the expression on her face. I had that expression when I first started getting it on with Sam."

"You still get that expression when you talk about Sam."

"What can I say? My man is a god in bed."

"So is Nico," Daniela said with a wink.

The women stared at her and then burst into raucous laughter.

"So tell us about him," Eve insisted, pouring more tea for them all. "How long have you been seeing him?"

"Not that long." It seemed like a whirlwind, like she just met him yesterday
and
had known him forever. "But we've been seeing each other—"

"Otherwise known as 'getting it on,'" Lola interjected.

"—pretty regularly." She picked up a shortbread and dunked it in the earl grey. "So when my brother arrived unannounced, it seemed natural to crash here for the duration."

"Natural?" Lola eyed her in disbelief. "Natural is staying with a girlfriend, or someone's empty apartment. Natural isn't shacking up with a man you just met. Not unless you're really into him."

Daniela shook her head. "It's not like that. I'm just taking a timeout."

"Beauty took a timeout in the beast's castle," Lola pointed out, "and look how that turned out."

"Nico isn't a beast." She pursed her lips in thought. "Usually."

Eve put a hand on her arm. "Daniela, in her own creative way, Lola's trying to say that it seems serious with your guy if you're living with him."

"Can we really call me staying in his suite while my brother lays siege on my house 'living with him?'"

"
Yes
," both her friends said.

She grinned sheepishly. "I guess this is where I confess he cleared out part of his closet so I could hang my clothes."

"What does he do that he lives in a hotel?" Eve asked. "Does he travel a lot?"

"He's in real estate." She shrugged. "He hasn't traveled since we met."

"That means he likes you," Lola declared. "A man would have to be a fool to leave when he just met a woman he liked, without securing her affections or taking her with. If this guy—what's his name?"

"Nico." Saying it was like letting chocolate melt on your tongue.

"If Nico is as successful as this suite suggests, he's no fool." Lola leaned forward, her blue eyes wide with excitement. "The question is, how much do you like him. A lot, if this is your sanctuary."

Eve lifted her teacup to her lips. "You obviously feel comfortable and safe around him."

"I really—"

Just that moment, she heard the door to his office open and then the light sound of his bare feet on the hardwood floors.

They fell silent, all three of them turning toward the hallway right as Nico stepped into the room. He wore jeans with an untucked shirt open at the collar, and his hair was rumpled like he'd run his hands through it in frustration.

He was gorgeous. Daniela wanted to go up to him and tear his shirt off.

She glanced at Lola and Eve. Her friends gawked at him. She knew they understood what she saw in him.

They turned to her, and then they all burst into laughter.

Nico's brow furrowed as he moved to her side and ran a possessive hand down the length of her hair. "That's not the usual reaction I get when I walk into a room."

Daniela lifted her face. "There's a first time for everything. Nico, these are my friends Eve and Lola."

"Ladies." He smiled at her friends and then dropped a kiss on her lips. "I'll leave so you can continue to discuss me."

Something warmed in the pit of her stomach as she watched him leave, something that didn't have anything to do with carnal pleasure and everything to do with affection. She'd only been here a couple days, but she wasn't ready to go home. Even if Tony went back to New York, she'd stay here.

"You do like him," Eve said softly, a twinkle in her eyes. "You're visually eating him up like he's a chocolate croissant."

She turned to them. "How do you know if you're in love? How did you guys know with your men?"

Lola and Eve both shrugged, but it was Lola who said, "It's different for everyone. But, really, Daniela, the answer's inside you if you're honest with yourself."

She looked inward, wondering. If Nonna were here, she'd tell her to make
zabaglione
and stir in thoughts of him—if it came out sweet, it meant she was in love. If it curdled, he wasn't right for her.

But Lola was right—she didn't need to make
zabaglione
to know. The answer was there in every beat of her heart.

Nico stood in his bathroom. His once-tidy counter was covered in mysterious feminine things. There was enough makeup piled there to stock a department store. When Daniela had said she called her assistant and asked her to deliver "a few things" she'd need while she stayed with him, he hadn't expected this.

Oddly, he hadn't minded either. It was... not bad, actually. The noise and the clutter of having someone else around was actually nice.

He picked up the random fluff of underwear from the floor. Red: his favorite color.

He smiled at it. No, it wasn't bad having Daniela there—at all.

He'd never pictured himself living with anyone, much less someone like Daniela. Jason was right: Nico would never have picked someone like her because she was too messy.

She made him too messy.

The stillness from the other room informed him the women were gone. He tossed the panties in the laundry hamper and walked out into the living room. He stood in the entryway, watching Daniela clean up the detritus from her impromptu tea party. He'd liked seeing her with her friends, even if they'd burst into girlish giggles the moment he'd walked into the room.

It made him wonder what she told them about him.

"If you know what's good for you, you'd help me carry this into the kitchen," she said without turning around.

Grinning, he slipped behind her and gripped her around the waist.

"That's not helping," she murmured.

But he could hear the smile in her voice, and he nuzzled her neck. "It's helping me a lot."

Laughing, she set the things back on the table and turned in his arms. She circled his neck with her arms and kissed him.

It never got old. Every touch, kiss, embrace was new and different. Exciting. "Remind me to give Jason a bonus."

"What?"

"Nothing." He smiled. "Did you have a good time with your friends?"

"Yes." She smiled happily. "I love them. I haven't had female friends since I graduated from high school. Culinary arts are so competitive, and I worked so much, and Tony was my best friend, anyway..."

Her voice trailed off, some of the brightness fading from her expression.

It surprised him how much he didn't like seeing her light dimmed. He touched the corner of her mouth with his thumb. "But now you have me, and those women, who were frightening, by the way."

She laughed, like he meant her to. "How were they frightening?"

"They looked like they were hungry and I was the main course." He pretended to shudder.

Laughing more, she pushed his shoulder. "You loved it. And they didn't look at you that way. They're both happily taken with studs of their own."