Page 17 of The Lies We Tell

“I didn’t use you.” He slipped her phone into his pants pocket and reached into his jacket. “I wanted to kiss you. I wanted my hands on your ass and my tongue in your mouth. The phone being close enough to grab was merely a bonus I capitalized on.”

Tessa snorted and gave his shoulder a rough shove. “Yeah, right. Something tells me you don’t do anything without a ten-year plan and a to-do list.”

He frowned and took two steps back to put distance between them. The cool, indifferent mask he often wore fitted itself into place, and he held a slim black box out to her.

“What is that?”

“It’s a phone,” he replied, as if it was obvious. “Take it.”

She accepted the box and lifted the lid. It was so new it still had the sheer plastic protector over the screen. “Why did you take my phone if you were just going to give me another one?”

“Because this one”—he patted his pants pocket—“isn’t secure.” He indicated the box with his chin. “That one is. Your father can’t track you or listen in on your calls or whatever the hell he could be doing with this one. You’re welcome.”

Matteo turned for the door, pausing with his hand on the knob. “You’re not a prisoner here, Tessa. You’re free to wander and find something to do to amuse yourself. If you need anything, you only need to ask the staff.”

He didn’t give her a chance to respond, tugging open the door and disappearing through it before she could even form words. Slamming the lid back on the box, Tessa tossed it onto the middle of the bed and ran her fingertips over her lips.

She would not—could not—get too close to Matteo Bianchi. She was here for one thing. To find out what the hell had happened to her mother. And too much was at stake for her to get distracted.

Chapter Seven

Matteo stalked down the stairs and slammed out the side door, following the wide stone path around the corner of the house to the upper garage. He typed in the numeric code and shoved his hands deep in his pockets while he waited for the door to slowly climb the tracks.

He surveyed the cars he’d ordered delivered from the private garage where the Bianchi car collection was stored. His father had added to it in Matteo’s absence, but these were still his favorite. Well, these and the newest Ferrari Spider.

Each one was polished to a brilliant shine and kept in perfect working order. They were as beautiful today as they had been the day they rolled off the lot. Grabbing the keys for the Lamborghini out of the lockbox, he tore out of the driveway at a dizzying speed, quickly shifting to punch it on the straight stretch.

Go in, exchange her phone, get out. That was all he’d intended to do. One minute she’d opened her mouth to defy him, and the next, he fused his mouth to hers, desperate for a taste of her.

It wasn’t like him to lose control like that. He didn’t like that it was apparently so easy to do with Tessa Antonetti. He couldn’t afford a distraction. He didn’t want one. And yet every time she crossed his mind, it was damn near impossible to get her out again.

The more he saw of her, the more he wanted to see, the more he wanted to take her to a quiet room, lock the door, and not let her out again until they were both sweaty and sated. And those thoughts were precisely why he had committed to never being alone with her.

Except for today’s unavoidable errand. Swapping out her phone to ensure her father wasn’t spying on them through it had been a compromise Matteo made with Luca early this morning. He didn’t think Antonetti had those kinds of tech skills at his disposal, not with Drago dead. But anything was possible, and Matteo could agree it was better to be safe than sorry.

Antonetti hadn’t reached out about his missing daughter yet, but he wouldn’t be able to get to her at the house. Not physically, anyway. Which only left her devices. Now she had a new device that her father couldn’t get to. It was both good for the family and good for her.

The farther away she was from her father’s abuse, the better to Matteo’s mind. And now Luca could take a break from harping on him about how dangerous and stupid this all was. Besides, she wasn’t a prisoner. He’d let her leave anytime she wanted. And if he didn’t want that to be anytime soon, he wasn’t going to examine that too closely.

He pulled into the underground lot beneath his office building and got out just as his phone signaled. Crossing to the elevator, he swiped his access card against the pad and stepped in when the doors opened with a cheerful ding.

Don’t forget about my offer, Tessa’s message read.

He sent back a quick noncommittal reply and set his phone to silent. He really needed to purge her from his thoughts for a while. Work would help. It had always been a welcome distraction.

Reviving an empire on the brink of collapse was a time-consuming undertaking. Not to mention he still had so many irons in the fire across Europe. Maeve had been a huge help in monitoring the international dealings and holdings, but he’d lose her by the spring, and even though she’d already begun to talk of training her replacement, he didn’t want to think about it.

She glanced up from her desk stationed outside his office when she heard him approaching and smiled in her easy way. Nothing about his friendship with Maeve had ever been complicated. A nice change of pace when he was constantly faced with the tension between his family.

“You’re later than usual.”

Matteo pursed his lips and reached into his pocket for Tessa’s old phone. “Took a little more persuading than I anticipated to swap out her device.”

Maeve’s brow shot up. “I hope you were at least nice to her. Don’t look at me like that. You’re very gruff and unforgiving when you want to be.”

“I was very nice,” he muttered, passing the phone across the desk. “I want you to destroy this.”

“You want any information off it first?”

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