Curious.
“Excuse me, ladies.” His voice was so deep and husky, it instantly made Grace’s knees tremble. “Perhaps you can help me. I’m looking for a book on wedding etiquette.”
Grace watched the excitement leave Carla’s face as soon as the man mentioned a wedding. The other woman’s unsubtle gaze then moved to the man’s left hand in search of a ring. He wasn’t wearing one, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t engaged and the one about to be married. In fact, with his looks, the likelihood of that being the case was extremely high.
Carla sighed her disappointment. “I have to go back to manning the till, but I’m sure our manager will be only too happy to help you find the appropriate book.”
Grace watched incredulously as Carla walked away and left her alone with the man who Grace already knew had ignited the deepest spark of sexual interest inside her she’d ever felt toward any man. A man who not only looked like a Greek god but also exuded an insidious and arousing scent of male musk mixed seductively with lemons and sandalwood.
“Was it something I said?” he mused. “Grace?” the man prompted softly when she didn’t respond to his first comment.
Her eyes flew wide in surprise at his use of her first name.
“It’s written on your staff name badge, alongside the fact you’re the manager,” he explained.
Of course it was. It was the reason all the staff wore them. “Carla really did have to get back to the till,” she said, excusing her colleague’s abrupt departure, not exactly truthfully when there was no one waiting to purchase a book. “Wedding etiquette, I think you said?” she prompted briskly.
“That’s right.”
“From what angle?”
“Sorry?”
“We have several good books on wedding etiquette, some more specific than others,” Grace explained as she led the way to the appropriate section of the bookstore. “Ones that concentrate on the duties of the father of the bride, mother of the bride, the best man, bridesmaids. And the groom,” she added belatedly.
He grimaced. “None of those things applies to me. My sister is getting married next week, and I’m giving her away.”
Not the bridegroom, then. Carla was going to regret not hanging around a bit longer.
Grace shrugged. “Father of the bride is probably the closest we have to that.”
Matteo wasn’t absolutely sure he liked this young woman thinking of him in such an antiquated role. Admittedly, he was probably ten or twelve years older than the midtwenties she appeared to be, but he certainly wasn’t feeling in the least fatherly toward her.
In fact, this woman was the reason he had ventured farther into the bookstore at all, after initially only ducking into the doorway out of the remorseless rain.
He didn’t even need a book on wedding etiquette. He’d looked up online what he needed to know. But saying he needed a book on the subject was the first thing Matteo had thought of as being a valid reason for speaking to this woman.
Normally, he wouldn’t have been anywhere near this bookstore, but having just left a business meeting in a building nearby with Gregori Markovic and Nikolai Volkov, he had stepped outside to discover his car, along with his two bodyguards, was nowhere to be seen.
Antonio and Luca hadn’t been at all happy with Matteo meeting alone with the Russians in the first place. But Matteo had decided it would be a show of his trust in his new allies. The meeting had gone well and would pave the way for another meeting next week after Leonardo Brunelli had arrived in London.
Matteo had expected his car to be waiting outside for him, but Antonio had texted him to let him know the police had moved them along for parking illegally and the car was currently circling the block on its way back to him. Matteo had told the other man his location, but considering the heavy traffic and the weather conditions, he thought they might be a while.
Which was when he had looked up from his mobile phone and become totally mesmerized by the red-haired woman he could see working at the back of the store.
Maybe five or six inches over five feet tall, her slenderness in a fitted black stretch top and flowing calf-length floral skirt added to her ethereal beauty. Her skin was the color and smoothness of ivory, her eyes a deep emerald green fringed with long dark lashes. Her features were so delicately lovely, she almost didn’t appear real. Those bottomless green eyes, a small nose, defined cheekbones, her top lip fuller than the bottom one—denoted a passionate nature, Matteo seemed to recall having read somewhere? Her chin was small and pointed, her neck so slender, Matteo thought he might be able to encircle it with one hand and pretend to hold her down while he—
Hell, no!
This was not the time for him to be so affected by a woman, he was thinking of ways to fuck her before he’d even spoken a word to her.
Except…
Matteo hadn’t been able to stop himself from walking farther into the store and approaching her. Almost as if he was being pulled toward her by an invisible piece of string.
Being led there by his dick was probably a more apt description of what was happening, Matteo acknowledged self-disgustedly. His cock had engorged the moment he looked at this woman’s beautiful face and willowy curves, and now that he’d spoken to her, listened to the husky quality of her voice, it didn’t feel as if his erection was going down any time soon.
Watching her as she walked in front of him to the other side of the store, unable to look away from the side-to-side swaying of her hips and bottom, had only made his cock
