Page 44 of Sparring Partners
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Luca looked at the email again. God alone knew how many times he’d read it, dissected it, picked it apart, forensically examined every word, syllable, letter.
The phone call had come first. He’d been on his own, the door to his office having closed just seconds before when the last of his management team had left. He’d listened, asked a few questions. His palms had grown sweaty and his heart rate had climbed when the smooth voiced woman on the other end of the line had outlined — in the broadest terms — what the package would be. The fine details, she’d said, would be ironed out later. There was room for negotiation. A lot of room. For the right candidate. The opportunity, she said, would be career defining.
He read it again — really, how many times was that, now? The woman’s words echoed in his head.Career. Defining. And she was right. It was everything he’d been working towards, the chance of a lifetime. His heart rate picked up, just as it had when he’d taken the call almost two days before. But his heart wasn’t thumping with excitement and what could be. Luca rubbed his stomach and willed the nausea away. Not sick with excitement but sick with indecision. And a decision would have to be made soon. They’d agreed to talk again. He swallowed. At 8.00am tomorrow morning. The woman had pushed for an earlier appointment to speak, but he’d pushed back and she’d demurred — an indication, perhaps, of how right a candidate he was.
“Why now? Why did this have to happennow?” He put his mobile down and walked over to the window and gazed out over the hotel grounds.
It was another beautiful day, the leaves only just beginning to turn red and gold. Autumn was coming, in a blaze of colour, to The New House Spa Hotel, to Love’s Harbour, and to the rich farmland all around. Resting his head against the cool glass he closed his eyes. He’d been —was— happy here. Leaving London and coming to run Alex’s stunning hotel had been one of the best things he’d done in a career that had been full of good things. He’d fitted into the local community, had been welcomed. In so many ways, it would be a wrench to leave. His stomach tightened again. A wrench to leave, and who he’d be leaving behind.
Adrian. Brooding, blunt, complex Adrian Hardy. Often rude, more often arrogant, always so bloody cocksure. A man he should have kept his distance from, a man whom from the very start it had been impossible for him to do so.
A man who’d made him feel alive again. A man who’d lit a fire in his heart where all there had been was cold ash. A man who made him long for the working day to be over so they could be together again. And a man who’d made him moan darkly as he’d been taken apart, before being pieced back together again.
A man he was beginning to?—
Luca’s eyes snapped open. Care for. It was too soon to think anything more. He’d plunged in too fast and too deep with Bruno, and had paid the price.
Turning away from the window, his gaze landed on his phone. The decision he made would change the course of his life. And he had less than twenty-four hours to make it.
* * *
“Sorry? What was that?”
Luca turned to Adrian, next to him on the sofa. Adrian’s head was tilted, his brows slightly raised as he waited for an answer to a question Luca hadn’t heard.
“I asked you which one you wanted to watch.” Adrian nodded to the large plasma screen TV.
“Oh…”
In the cottage, private and tucked away from the eyes of staff and guests alike, dinner had been eaten. Now, drinks sat ready on the coffee table, and a film was waiting to be watched. An easy, cozy, relaxed evening after long, long days for the both of them. But Luca felt as far from easy, cozy and relaxed as it was possible to be. He’d been tense and wound up all day, just like he’d been since the call he’d taken yesterday morning.
Adrian turned the TV off. “You’ve been quiet and distracted all evening. Are you going to tell me what’s up?”
Luca looked away, unable to hold Adrian’s intense, uncompromising gaze.Just tell him, just spit it out… but the words felt like weights that were too heavy for him to lift. Swallowing, he willed himself to answer, to tell Adrian what he needed to know.
“I received a call. Yesterday morning,” Luca began slowly. “Out of the blue. Just a few weeks ago, it would have been everything I wanted, ticked every box…” He glanced up at Adrian, who sat statue still, watching intently. “The call was from a head hunter who deals with top end appointments. Senior management levels in the hospitality industry, all over the world.” He stopped, and licked lips that felt like strips of dried out leather. “There’s an opening that’s come up they think I’d be perfect for. And I would be, I know it. It’s an incredible opportunity, and it’d take my career to the next level and beyond.”
Adrian’s expression didn’t change as he waited for Luca to continue. Silence bore down on them, heavy and thick, and Luca waded in, slow and sluggish.
“They want me to apply for the position. From what I can tell it’d just be a formality,” he added.
Adrian raised one eyebrow and leant back against the sofa cushions. “And you’re considering it?”
“Yes.” The word tore at his throat. “I haven’t made a decision yet, but yes, I am. Because I have to. You do see that, don’t you?
Adrian said nothing and all Luca could hear was the blood rushing through his veins and the erratic thud of his heart.
When Adrian spoke, it was slow and considered, each and every word carefully weighed. “You said being here was never a permanent option for you.”
“I know I did.” But it could be, it could be if he let it.
“And now you have the offer of a lifetime. Isn’t it what you’ve been chasing?”
“Yes. If—if I follow this up.” Luca rubbed his hands down his face. He felt tired, suddenly, the decision he had to make pressing down on him. “I’ve loved being here, more than you could ever know…”
“But?” Adrian prompted when Luca trailed off.
