“Do you like working here?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded.
I tilted my head to the side. “I suppose you couldn’t really say no, could you.”
He laughed softly. “No, but I truly do.”
“Hmmm.”
“Ma’am…have we met before?” he asked.
Without hesitation, I shook my head and lied. “No.”
Ethan returned, giving him the phone. “Go to the wharf tonight, but be discrete. The police presence is increasing.”
“Yes sir,” he replied, nodding to me before taking his leave. Rising from my chair, I placed my hand on Gigi’s face. She’d fallen back asleep in his arms.
“Greyson.”
“Tomorrow,” Ethan said.
“Fine. Hopefully, it has a much better start than today.”
“One day at a time,” he reminded me. “We need to talk…privately.”
I waved my hand out so he could lead the way. “After you, Boss.”
I handed him the wine glasses and the bottle when we entered his—well, our—bedroom, and he glanced down at it as if he didn’t know what to do.
“I went through the trouble of getting the wine. The least you can do is pour it.”
“I am more concerned with how you could possibly be having more wine at this hour after drinking half a bottle last night.”
I did not like his expression—the smug and amused look. “First of all, I am Italian; we drink wine whenever the fuck we want to drink wine. Secondly, this barely has any alcohol; it is basically red water.”
His eyebrow rose before he took the bottle from my hand, reading the label. “So, you are arguing that 9.5% is barely alcohol and is water?”
I frowned at his tone. “Okay, water is a bit of a stretch, but honestly, anything under 10% is grape juice.”
“9.5%—”
“Shut up and give me my bottle back; obviously, you do not deserve it! That’s what I get for trying share with you, asshole,” I snapped, trying to reach for it.
He shifted his arm farther from my reach.
“Really?” I snappe
d with my hand on my hips.
His lips turned up in a smile he rarely showed to anyone else. “I guess I will allow it as you had a rough day.”
“You’ll allow it?” I gasped, baffled. “I see. You must have hit your head somewhere in the midst of this morning chaos—”
“Shh, you’ll wake her,” he cut me off, nodding to Gigi, who was now in bed. “I would love to stay and watch over her, too, but we have a lot of work to do and discuss.”
“I’ll be taking this,” I said, snatching my wine before stepping into my walk-in closet.
The moment I stepped inside, the lights turned on. I stepped onto the Italian hardwood, looking around at all the bags, heels, and clothes I’d purchased. It was so big there was even a staircase in the corner to reach more of my gowns. Flipping the light switch on the side of the wall, the floor in front of me shifted instead of any other lights turning on. The floorboards went down creating a staircase, just like I’d designed it.