Page 48 of The Lies We Tell

“Tessa gave me an international thread to tug for her mother. If I can bring Sienna in to help with the search, it’ll go a lot faster.”

“Let’s do that then. Do you have the files—”

“For the Spanish deal, yes. And Callum called about the—”

“Belgian sale. I know. He texted me. I also want to follow up with Schmidt about—”

“Braun,” Maeve finished. “Already on it.”

“And you have the documents I asked for?”

Maeve set her tablet on the desk outside Matteo’s office and leaned over it to open the top drawer. Pulling out a thick sealed packet, she handed it to him.

“Perfect, thank you. Tessa?”

He motioned toward his office, and Tessa looked between them one more time before stepping into it.

“You and Maeve must be very close,” she said when the door closed behind her. “Finishing each other’s sentences.”

Expecting Matteo to round the desk, she jumped when he moved behind her and spoke low in her ear, his breath tickling her cheek.

“You’re not jealous, are you, piccola?”

“Of course not,” she lied, ignoring that pinching sensation in her chest as it galloped back to life. “Everyone mentions Maeve all the time. It’s nice to finally put a face with a name. But I don’t understand why I’m here.”

“I would have come home to collect you, but this was more efficient.”

She swallowed hard as he moved in front of her and unsealed the packet in his hands, sliding things out. Maybe he knew she’d been communicating with her father all this time. She shuddered to think how he might be planning to punish her if that was true. Though she couldn’t imagine Maeve would have been so friendly if Tessa were truly in trouble.

“We’re going to Paris.”

She stomped out the white-hot flare of jealousy and disappointment. “I’m pretty sure you could have just texted me that you and Maeve were going to Paris.”

The next few days would be an exercise in not torturing herself with images of what the hell Maeve and Matteo would be doing together in Paris. Hell, what they probably did every spare moment at the office. Maeve was very pretty. And they were so in tune…

“Not me and Maeve. Me and you.”

“What?” Tessa blinked up at him. “Why are you taking me to Paris?”

He shuffled through a stack of what looked like passports until finding the one he wanted and handing it to her. “Because I have business to attend to there, and I want to take you with me.”

“Why?” She took the passport from him and flipped it open to a picture of her face and an unfamiliar name. Tessa Santoro.

“I need a woman on my arm, and I don’t want to leave you here alone after what happened.”

Her head snapped up, something softening inside her at the look on his face. This was the danger of getting too close.

“I’m not very good at business stuff. You should take Maeve.”

Grinning, Matteo slipped on his vest and then his jacket, buttoning both. “You are jealous.”

“I’m not!” She squirmed under his direct, teasing gaze. “Besides, I don’t have anything to wear.”

“I had our favorite clerk from that boutique you like send a dress over for you. It’s all arranged.”

Her cheeks heated at the memory of the looks they’d gotten from the clerk ringing them up when she emerged from the dressing room.

“When are we leaving?”

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