THE FOLLOWING MONDAY MORNING, Eleanora walked into the main room of the penthouse with her suitcase. Their race to the limo after their walk to Times Square had made her giddy and happy and that was wrong. Nothing was going to happen between them and she needed to let all that sink in.
Plus, Marco avoided her so much over the weekend that they weren’t discussing their issues. She had a new hotel that was running okay without her, but she wanted to see that for herself. On top of that, she had a new perspective on her life to think through. She’d made a suggestion about creating a position in the company for her and she was positive that was what had made Marco quiet.
Lots had happened and they needed time apart to let some of it to settle. They needed to decide what was best for each of them individually before they started discussions on how to handle the parts of their lives that would have to mesh.
“I’m going back to Rome for a week. We’re not making much progress here. A little time apart to sort all this out will probably do us some good.”
He glanced at her over the rim of his coffee cup, and she braced herself for an argument. But he said, “Okay. See you Friday?”
She had to school her face to keep her surprise from showing. He was such a bossy guy she couldn’t believe he was letting her leave when he’d said she would be staying until they figured out their situation—
Except, she was the manager of his newest hotel. The businessman in him was probably glad she was taking real in-person time to do her job.
“How about next Monday? I’ll fly out of Rome Monday morning and get here Monday morning your time.”
“Sounds good.”
She smiled as she wheeled her suitcase to the elevator, but an unexpected loneliness filled her as she got off in the lobby. On the ride to the airport, she told herself she was crazy. She didn’t belong here. She wasn’t sure where she belonged but setting up all the Grand York’s European hotels still felt like something she should be doing.
It took her two days in Italy to get accustomed to the time change. Coupling pregnancy exhaustion with jet lag, she was barely coherent. But when she went to her Grand York Hotel on Thursday morning, she saw the whispering and strange glances from her staff. Tiredness had kept her from seeing it on Tuesday or Wednesday, but that morning she saw it all clearly.
She hadn’t forgotten Sheila had overheard her and Marco talking about a pregnancy. She knew the whole staff had seen them dancing and having fun at the grand opening. She couldn’t tell if they’d put two and two together yet. But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t time to tell her staff she was the person who was pregnant. And it might never be time to tell them Marco was her baby’s father. That could end up being none of their business. Especially if she moved on to the Paris hotel.
More than that, though, she didn’t know how involved Marco wanted to be with their baby. She didn’t know if he would want staff to know he’d fathered a child with an employee. She wasn’t the kind of person to be secretive, but she did recognize this pregnancy came with some issues for him and suddenly saw that might be why he hadn’t yet figured out what he wanted to do or how he wanted to handle everything.
A little more understanding of Marco’s hesitation, she showed up at the corporate office for Grand York the following Monday ready to talk. But she didn’t even see Marco until it was time to go home. It could have struck her as odd, except everything about their situation was odd.
Unfortunately, when he came looking for her after six that night, when it was time to go home, her heart skipped a beat.
She didn’t want to have missed him, but she had. She missed how sexy he looked with the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up to his elbows. She missed his smile. His voice. How he loved his job, his family’s company.
Damn it. She pretty much loved everything about him.
His suit coat in one hand, he unrolled the sleeves of his shirt with the other. “Hey! Timothy told me you were back!”
Her unruly heart stuttered. She knew how wrong it was to have missed him, but she had.
“Ready to go home?”
She nodded and rose as he retrieved her coat and helped her into it. After he shrugged into his suit coat, he grabbed the handle of her rolling suitcase and walked with her to the elevator.
“How was Rome?”
“Great.” She considered telling him about the weird looks and whispers but decided all that was irrelevant. Gossip was gossip. But it did point out that they needed to make some decisions. “I’m not sure if I should be proud or upset that everything runs so smoothly without me.”
He shrugged as they stepped into the elevator. “A place that runs well without the leader usually means the leader has taught her staff well.”
“I hope.”
After they’d settle into the back seat of the limo, he asked a few more questions about the Rome hotel. He got specific, but luckily she’d studied the financials so much the week before she’d all but memorized them.
The questions continued as they rode up the elevator to the penthouse. The car stopped. The doors opened.
He stepped out, rolling her case. She stayed right behind him so that she could grab her luggage when he released it and head back to the bedroom to change out of clothes she felt like she’d been wearing forever.
“One more thing.” He let go of the case. But instead of stepping to the right or left, he turned to her and suddenly they were face-to-face, six inches apart.
Their gazes caught. All the feelings she’d had when he walked into her office tumbled through her. How much she’d missed him. How handsome he was. How great he looked and smelled—and felt. She knew all that because they’d been intimate. And now they were pretending it hadn’t happened.
“Oops! Sorry!” He jumped back as if touching her would burn him. “Let me get your bag back to your room, then we’ll order dinner.”
His phone buzzed. He grabbed it from his jacket pocket. He said, “Give me a second,” before he clicked to answer. “Marco Pearson.”
He paused, listening, then winced. “I’m so sorry. I totally forgot about you. But I’m available to talk now.” He walked around the kitchen island, opened a drawer and pulled out three take-out menus. “Hold on a sec.”
Putting his call on hold, he handed the menus to Eleanora. “Order whatever you want and add something with chicken for me. Then ring Arnie to let him know it’s coming.”
She nodded but she wasn’t even sure he’d seen. He reconnected his call, grabbed the handle of her bag and started down the hall again.
Sunrise and Sunset watched her as she glanced at the menus, then phoned in an order. As if waiting for her to finish, they wrapped around her ankles and meowed their happiness to see her.
She gave each a handful of treats and laughed as they gobbled them down. “You just like me because I feed you—”
Which was exactly what Marco had said her first night in the penthouse when they reacted so crazy happy to see Wisdom.
She frowned. Marco might not have come to see her until it was time to leave the office for the day, but he’d been chatty, asking questions about the hotel. He hadn’t gotten quiet until they’d come here, and he’d almost bumped into her when he turned around to ask a question.
Maybe he’d missed her too?
She told herself not to think like that. Those thoughts were counterproductive to them having a good discussion about their child. And they needed to talk about her pregnancy, the baby, visitation, custody, everything.
Walking back to her room, she put thoughts of Marco out of her head. The door to his office was closed, meaning his call was important. She changed her clothes and went out to the main room to play with the cats again.
After a week of hearing the constant chatter from her Rome employees, the penthouse was too quiet. Worse, she didn’t want to think about Marco, not her attraction or his odd reaction to almost bumping into her. So, she took the happy-to-see-her cats for a walk. In the lobby, she told Arnie to hang on to her food when it arrived and she headed outside, two happy cats on their leashes.
New York City typically burst with life and energy. But in Marco’s exclusive residential corner, all that seemed far away, as trees lost leaves and the air became a little colder every day. Thanksgiving was now a little less than two weeks away. She’d soon be telling her parents she was pregnant.
Relief hit her. That end of the secrecy would be over. Then all she’d have to worry about was the people she and Marco worked with. Because those choices affected him more than her, she’d decided they’d share whatever he wanted to be shared and nothing more.
When she returned from her walk with the cats, Marco was still behind the closed door of his office. Not wanting to disturb him, she texted that their food had arrived, but he never came out. She ate and put his food in the refrigerator, then went to her room.
Rolling out of bed the next morning in the silent penthouse, she almost let discomfort overwhelm her. Instead, she counted her blessings that her pregnancy hadn’t made her sick, dressed for a day at work and went to the kitchen, where Marco sat at the center island reading his phone.
Without looking up, Marco said, “I bought bagels.” He pointed at a bag sitting on the kitchen island.
It was the most words he’d spoken to her that weren’t about work. Actually, those were the only words he’d spoken that weren’t about work.
She told herself not to question his withdrawal because she realized the stress of their pregnancy impacted him differently from how it impacted her, but something about it felt weird. Normally when he was worried about anything, business or personal, he’d seek her advice. Worse, she was only here, in his city and his penthouse, so they could discuss how to handle her pregnancy. His withdrawal didn’t make any sense.
She decided to tease him and see if that didn’t get him back to normal. “You mean you ordered bagels.”
“Nope. Couldn’t sleep. Got out of bed and found an all-night bagel shop.”
Recognizing this was her opening, she took a bagel from the container, popped it in the toaster and leaned against the countertop as she waited for it to brown. “Why couldn’t you sleep?”
He peered up at her. His gaze went from her head to her feet so quickly she wouldn’t have noticed it if she had been doing anything other than wait for her bagel to toast.
“I was thinking about things.”
She didn’t think the look was sexual. He was a man of his word. Though he’d slipped when he’d kissed her, he’d promised that wouldn’t happen again. So there’d be nothing sexual between them. Not even looks.
“Thinking about things like work?”
“Like baby names and good schools.”
She perked up, thrilled he was ready to start discussing their child. “What did you come up with?”
“So far not much.”
“Is that what you’re searching on your phone?”
“No, I’m texting Chiara.”
Even better. Eleanora liked his sister. If he was moody or unhappy, his sister could always cheer him up. “How is she?”
“She’s great.” He rose from his seat. Wearing gray trousers and a white shirt, he’d obviously dressed for work.
Her mouth watered. It was ridiculous to be attracted to a guy who didn’t want her, and maybe even a little odd to be so turned on by a guy in a suit, but she was. She agreed with everything he’d said about not wanting to be in a relationship, but this morning, he just looked yummy. She knew increased sex drive was a side effect of being pregnant—but she’d never needed a reason to find Marco attractive.
She pulled in a breath. Told herself to stop thinking of him that way. Then she wondered why. If she really had decided to stop looking for a once-in-a-lifetime love, then what did it matter if she fantasized a little?
“Did you tell her about the baby?”
“No.” He grabbed his phone and walked back to his room.
Well, that was abrupt.
The toaster signaled that her bagel was done. She got cream cheese and slathered it all over the warm bread. She took a bite, let it settle on her taste buds deliciously and groaned with happiness.
When he came out, she was finished eating and licking cream cheese from her fingers. He caught her and she winced. “It’s just so darned good. Everything tastes better since I got pregnant.”
He smiled woodenly.
“Oh, come on. I’ve got to be able to talk about the weirdness of pregnancy with you. You’re the only one who knows. Plus, weeks have gone by since I told you we were going to have a baby and we’ve decided nothing. I think it’s time we started talking about things.”
“That’s why I was thinking about baby names this morning.” He pulled his suit coat off the back of his chair by the island and slid into it. “We’ll hit it hard when we get home from work tonight.”
Again, his voice was flat, almost as if he were discussing new dish towels for the restaurant kitchen. She should have been confused, but he looked so damned good in that suit that her hormones sat up and wanted to say, “Hey, sailor.” And the only way to battle that back was to keep her focus on their conversation.
“Honestly, I think baby names is a great place to start. It will ground us to the reality of having a child, so things won’t be so abstract.”
“Okay. We’ll do that tonight.”
His continued coolness made her frown. But she reminded herself that pregnancy hormones could be to blame for her being so nitpicky about his moods too. “Okay.”
“I’m taking the limo. I’ll send Sam back for you.”
She shrugged. “Okay.”
He left on the elevator, and she watched until the door closed behind him. Thinking about how good he’d looked that morning, she sighed dreamily, then cursed herself. For heaven’s sake. They’d made the decision not to form a romance. She had to stop noticing everything about him and halfway swooning over him.
She walked back to her room, reapplied her lipstick and waited for Sam to call to let her know he had returned from taking Marco.
This time when she frowned it wasn’t from emotion. Technically, she was ready for work. All he had to do was look at her to see that. But he hadn’t even suggested she get her coat and ride with him.
As if he didn’t want her in his car?
That was stupid.
He rode home with her that night, negating her odd feeling that he was avoiding her. When they arrived at the penthouse, he ordered Chinese food for dinner, and she went back to her bedroom to change into something more comfortable.
She slid into black yoga pants and reached for a big T-shirt but in the last second changed her mind and grabbed a tank top. She pulled it over her head, then smoothed it over her still-slim torso. Not that she wanted to look sexy for him—well, maybe a little. It didn’t seem fair that while she was fighting hormones, he was going on business as usual.
His eyebrows rose when she sidled up to the center island in the kitchen, but he said nothing. Arnie the doorman called to say their food had arrived and he would bring it up.
As Marco set down his phone, Eleanora smiled at him. Just the thought of getting food had subdued her hormones and if that wasn’t a reason to smile, she didn’t know what was.
He sucked in a breath and turned on his heel to face the elevator when the bell rang announcing its arrival.
Arnie stepped out. Looking past Marco, he said, “Evening, Eleanora.”
“Evening, Arnie.”
Marco took the containers. “Thanks.”
Arnie said, “Any time,” got back in the elevator and left.
She sniffed the air. “Oh, that smells great!”
Marco glanced at her. The joy on her pretty face was enough to tempt a man, but as she sniffed, her chest puffed out, the little tank top expanded, showing off her breasts—which he knew were as soft as heaven.
He turned to the cupboards. “Let’s get plates.”
“Too late. I opened the orange chicken and took a piece.”
He peered at her over his shoulder. “You’re getting a plate anyway.”
She licked her fingers clean of the orange sauce. He turned back to the cupboard and squeezed his eyes shut. She was killing him.
They ate in silence, which he had decided was the best way to deal with his voice that grew husky or wanted to squeak every time he looked at her.
Or she laughed.
Or she licked her fingers.
Or she just sat there breathing.
He’d thought the time away from each other while she was in Rome would ease his attraction. Instead, memories of the softness of her skin on the inside of her thighs, the scent of her shampoo, the silkiness of her hair sliding through his fingers wafted into his brain. Rather than his attraction diminishing, he’d begun remembering even more detail than he had the day after their night together.
He strode around her to get out of the kitchen. “There’s a game on tonight. I think I’ll watch.”
She finished stacking her dishes in the dishwasher and stood in between the kitchen and living areas, as if confused.
He said nothing. He didn’t want to encourage her to sit beside him. Being apart hadn’t helped his feelings and he really needed some space.
“Okay. I’ll go read.”
He didn’t look at her. “Good night.”
She left for her bedroom, but her scent stayed. He cursed it. Then he remembered he’d told her they’d discuss baby names. That was his salvation. No matter how big the potential that they would hit some roadblocks when they tried to figure out how people who lived on two continents raised a child, at least that would get his mind off the fact that he’d like nothing better than to fall into bed with her.
The next morning Marco found her at the kitchen island eating a bagel. Busying himself getting a cup of coffee, he said, “I was thinking we should name our baby Joshua if he’s a boy.”
She perked up. Wearing a sweater over black wool pants, she should simply look professional. But he saw only a bundle of softness as her scent drifted to him.
“Aw. Your dad’s name, which is very sweet, but if we name our baby after your dad my dad might feel slighted.”
He winced. “Never thought of that.”
“Did you come up with a girl’s name?”
As he’d hoped, delving into a real discussion corralled his attraction. Leaning against the counter, with a cup of coffee warming his fingers, he said, “How about Margarita?”
“You want to name your child after a drink with tequila?”
“It’s also a very pretty name.”
“Margarite is. But Margarita is a drink that makes people act crazy. Imagine the teasing she’ll get in high school.” She rose from her seat. “I’m going to get my stuff. We can ride to work together this morning.”
He smiled and nodded, but when she was out of sight he groaned. Not only had she stopped the names discussion, but he was doing a terrible job of maintaining distance between them. Luckily, talking about baby names had kept his mind off a million things he’d like to do with her.
Tonight, if they stalled on baby names, he’d bring up custody and visitation. It might start an argument but maybe that would be a good thing? Maybe he wouldn’t be so attracted to her if he remembered there were some serious decisions that could potentially make them adversaries.
Feeling more in control, he rode with her to the office. They parted ways in the reception area. He spent the next hour preparing for a meeting with his vice presidents, then spent the meeting focused on reports and discussions.
When the meeting could have ended, he sat back in his chair. “I have some new business. Eleanora approached me with an idea and I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
His vice presidents looked at him expectantly.
“After her experiences with the Rome hotel, she suggested that we might want to consider having her take over the Paris hotel at the same point where she joined the Rome team.”
Sally Jenkins frowned. “She’s not happy in Rome?”
“No. She loves it. But I think she likes the process of planning and building and setting everything up for a grand opening.”
This time everybody frowned.
Bob Marin shifted on his chair. “It sounds like she’s suggesting we create a new position.”
“You have to admit it has merit.”
Sally inclined her head, saying, “Maybe.”
His oldest vice president, Orville Santangelo, said, “She would ultimately become an expert at finishing the developmental phase and setting up the hotel for a grand opening.”
“I think that’s her motivation.” Marco began to gather his things. “Okay. Meeting’s adjourned. We’ll finish this discussion later. I told you today because I want you all to think about it. We’ll all spend a week considering the ins and outs and what works and what doesn’t and then we’ll talk again next week.”
Sally said, “I’m happy to consider it but, honestly, Marco, Eleanora isn’t the person for the job.”
“She might not know construction,” Marco quickly said, defending her. “But she’s not looking at the building from a construction standpoint when she suggests changing something in the plans. She’ll be looking at it from a hotel manager’s vantage point to make things run more smoothly or efficiently. The construction team will take it from there.”
Sally sighed and leaned back on her chair. “Marco, that’s not the problem. You know she’s pregnant, right?”
Marco froze but recovered quickly. He had to. He was Eleanora’s only advocate. “Yes. We’re friends. She tells me things.”
Sally said, “The point where she’d join the Paris team would dovetail with her having a nine-month-old child.”
“Are you suggesting we discriminate against her because she’ll soon be a mother?”
“No. I’m saying we don’t know how her pregnancy will turn out.”
“With a baby?”
“Don’t be obtuse, Marco. Not all pregnancies go smoothly. Not all children are born healthy.”
He fell to his seat. His entire team stared at him. He and Eleanora were friends. Sally had risked angering him and they all knew it. What they didn’t know was that he was her baby’s father and suggesting something might be wrong with his child froze his chest, sent fear tumbling through him.
He rose clumsily, so eager to leave that he could barely gather his things. “Okay. Let’s consider her idea generically. If it works, then she will be considered as the first person to hold the position.”
“Marco,” Sally said patiently. “I know you want to avoid a lawsuit, but you have to be realistic. There are a million reasons we can say she didn’t fit the position. We’re not stuck with her because she came up with the idea.”
“No. I suppose we’re not. But I like to think our company is fair. So she will be considered to be the first one to hold the position.”
The room fell silent as he headed for the door. He caught the knob but shook his head and faced his executive board again.
He almost told them he was the baby’s father but knew that would come with tons of trouble. Not the least of which might be an accusation of partiality to Eleanora. Not only that, but if he told them, the news would get back to his dad and he wanted to tell his dad himself.
He couldn’t believe he was just recognizing these things now and suddenly realized how much he was on the outside looking in with this pregnancy. Not only was he not involved enough to consider all angles, to consider that things might go wrong, but he was letting Eleanora down.
For all the searching he’d done on raising a child, becoming a parent, he’d only hit the tip of the iceberg when it came to pregnancy.