Page 19 of Undeniable

“What are you doing here?” Giovanni asks tersely, finally prying his eyes off of Daniel to look at me.

“Uh, dancing?” I say, confused by his rough tone.

His eyes flick to Daniel dismissively before they come back to mine. “I didn’t know that you had a boyfriend.”

“Oh, I don’t. He is just a friend,” I quickly correct.

There, two birds one stone. Daniel knows I am not interested, and Giovanni knows that I am mostdefinitelyavailable. You know, just in case. How pathetic am I?

I look to see a disappointed look cross Daniel’s face before he gives a small smile and nods. Giovanni’s shoulders relax slightly before he nods.

“I need to speak with you.”

Without waiting for my permission, his large hand engulfs my wrist and drags me away from a confused Daniel and towards a side hallway. The familiar tingles spread up my arm from his touch and I can’t help but sink into it, blindly following him wherever he wants to go. Just as long as he keeps touching me.

We step past a set of doors that says employees only before he turns to me, never releasing his hold on my wrist.

“What’s up?” I ask, partly confused and partly excited that he drug me back to a secluded area.

His jaw ticks several times as he seems to be working through his thoughts. It seems that he wasn’t prepared to explain why he essentially ripped me out of the arms of another man and took me into the back.

“I will have to work late on Monday. May not be back till midnight or so. Is that okay?”

My heart sinks slightly that he just wanted to talk to me about work. Of course, he did. I am his employee. What else would he have to say to me? This is probably the most he has said to me in weeks honestly. I need to let my little crush go. He has made it extremely clear that he is not interested in me like that, wish I could convince my racing heart of that.

I nod and screw on a fake smile. “Sure. Whatever you need.”

He nods as his eyes burrow deep into mine. His thumb starts softly tracing over my pulse in my wrist and I am sure he can feel how hard it is pounding right now just from the small contact. I am not even sure if he realizes he is doing it. He seems to be almost doing it absentmindedly, like he can’t help it. Again, probably just another case of wishful thinking.

After a few seconds of silence, he takes a step towards me until our bodies brush against each other. My legs shake slightly in anticipation. He is so big and imposing but there is something about him that makes me feel incredibly safe in his presence. Like with the flick of his wrist, he could make anything happen and any problem disappear.I wish.

His head dips slightly till he is at eye level with me, his intense gaze leaving me breathless. The hand that is hanging by his side reaches up and brushes a piece of hair off of my face before he tucks the piece behind my ear, just like the first day that I met him. My reaction is the same this time as well, my insides have turned to total jelly.

“Don’t ever let anyone touch you like that again,” he says roughly.

Surprise rises in me as I cock my head to the side. “Why?”

The hand that was resting on the piece of hair he tucked traces a slow path along my jawline until it reaches my chin, tipping it up slightly. His face inches in just a little closer until we are only a hairs width away. I close my eyes in reaction and wait for him to make the final move, to finally feel his lips on mine. To finally know what it would be like to be kissed by Giovanni Cordova.

His breath skates across my lips as he speaks which causes a rack of chills to spread down my spine.

“Because I will kill the next person that does.”

My eyes fly open at that. Instead of seeing him hovering above my lips, I see an empty stock room. I turn around quickly to see his retreating back as he storms down the hallway and out a side exit. My heart is thumping so erratically I would think that I was going into cardiac arrest if I didn’t know that this is just how my body reacts to him.

I didn’t see the look on his face when he said those words, but I heard the promise in his voice. It was a deadly one, a serious one that only confirms what I originally suspected. Giovanni is not a man to be messed with.

I stumble out of the back, dazed as I look around for Becca, Todd or Daniel. Almost immediately, I see Daniel leaning against the wall with a concerned look. When he spots me, he hurries over and places his hands on my arms.

“Are you okay?” He asks.

“Yeah, I am fine. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine. What did he want?” He asks, his brows knitted together seriously.

“Just to talk about work. I am his nanny.”

Now, Daniel’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline and he seems to relax a bit. “You are? I didn’t know he had a kid.”

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