Page 5 of Secret Match
Caro stepped back with her hand on her heart. “Kiwi, do you know Gio Morgan?”
“We met in Paris.” Kiwi couldn’t quite look at her coworker.
Caro kept nodding her head like she was trying to understand something as she asked, “In Paris?”
Right. He reached out and took Kiwi’s warm hand to kiss the knuckles, her skin like silk. “We had an unforgettable night. It’s nice to see you again, Kiwi.”
“Washington.” She took her hand back and stared at him with those almond-shaped eyes of hers as she corrected him. “My name is Kiwi Washington.”
One of the sexiest women he’d ever met, and also one of the most talented designers. “A lovely name for a lovely person.”
Caro stepped in between them and for one second he lost sight of his goddess but then Caro opened the conference door and scuttled out. “I’ll leave you two alone and go get Victoria. Kiwi, show him the coffee machine?”
Kiwi shot her friend a warning glare but then said, “This way.”
Interesting. Her hips sashayed but it was hidden under the long purple sweater stylized with a crocheted hem. His fingers itched to pull the sweater off, but he didn’t dare touch her. She was not giving him a warm welcome.
She opened the side door and showed a breakroom with a coffee machine and a refrigerator. His nose turned at the idea of American coffee. He reached for her hand before she offered him a choice of plastic pods. “Could we go get coffee after my meeting?”
She took her hand back but her painted pink lip quivered as she shook her head. “I don’t drink coffee anymore.”
Her softness intrigued him. He leaned closer and inhaled the earthy rose scent of her. This couldn’t be the last time he ever saw her. He straightened. “Then how about lunch?”
“I don’t know.” She crossed her arms again.
Women didn’t usually tell him no, until recently, and he’d have to work harder to get Kiwi to say yes again. He massaged Kiwi’s arms to get her to relax as he said, “You are the most magnetic woman I’ve ever met.”
Her long, thick black lashes fluttered. “Magnetic?”
If he wasn’t here for business, he’d kiss her and whisk her out of this office—but he had to focus on why he was in this building in the first place. He swallowed and held his kiss in check though he whispered, “You’re always on my mind.”
Kiwi patted her stomach and nodded as the conference door opened and a blonde who must be his half-sister let herself in.
Kiwi quickly took a napkin and scribbled on it with a pen she found on the counter. She handed him the napkin and said fast, “Okay, we can get lunch. We should actually. Text me at this number when you’re done with Victoria.”
And she called her boss by her first name. Good. It meant Victoria must respect her. Victoria spoke to a few of her associates near the door so they had a few seconds left.
He put her number in his suit pocket near his heart as he said, “I have a reason to live today.”
A genuine smile grew on her face like she’d just really seenhimas her eyebrows lifted. “Were you going to die?”
He whispered in her ear, wanting instead to kiss her again but he simply said, “Yes, because you weren’t near me.”
She hugged him and then let go as she sauntered toward the side door while she said, “Okay. You’re still the same, I see. I’ll meet you soon.”
His gaze stayed on her until she left the glass door and the four associates with Victoria also filed out, leaving him and his half-sister alone.
The door swung closed and he turned his full attention toward the blonde, blue-eyed woman who stood at the front of the table, her hand outstretched in greeting. “Gio Morgan, it’s nice to meet you in person, finally.”
His sister looked like a pretty version of their father. He shook her hand and said, “Likewise, Victoria. Our father told us you had died.”
She motioned for him to sit beside her. They both sat, and he pulled his chair next to her. They were family, even if they’d never met. She didn’t open the file under her palm but instead leaned closer with her hand on her cheek. “Why didn’t your family come to the funeral then?”
Ah. Yes, he’d seen her return to life on his computer screen. He’d watched the funeral proceedings online in his office with the door closed and saw how Victoria Morgan had filed in and walked over to their father’s casket like she needed to see for herself that the man was dead.
Gio, for his part, had refused to care that much if his father was alive or dead. “After our mother’s accident and how my… our father, never came home after that for weeks at a time, most of us wanted nothing to do with him.”
Victoria sat back and opened her folder. “Is it true you knew our grandfather?”
