‘What are you talking about? We aren’t going to Sicily.” She put her hands on her hips and gave him her best glower.
‘I have a job. di Adamo is counting on me.”
Adamo Jewelers will be closed until the auction.”
Her heart contracted with pain at what that would mean.
‘No. That will ruin his business. He’II lose everything.”
‘This will not happen.”
‘Says you?” she challenged him.
‘Si. I say. I have worked things out with your boss. My company will finish installing the new security system while the store is closed as well as seeing to some necessary structural and wiring changes in his building.”
‘He can’t afford that.” She should know. She did the books and di Adamo was hanging on by a financial thread.
‘I have taken care of it.”
If Salvatore had worked around her boss’s pride to the extent that di Adamo allowed him to do these things, then he had been ten times more politic with him than he’d ever been with her.
‘What about the crown jewels?” whey will be transported to an undisclosed location for storage until the auction.”
‘I suppose your company is supplying security for the auction now as weII.”
Not that she really minded. She hadn’t known how she was going to handle security for the prestigious guest list much less the jewels. It was just his high-handed way of handling things that got to her.
‘I don’t understand why I have to go to Sicily, then. I’m not at risk if the jewels aren’t in my keeping.”
‘And how are would-be thieves to know that you and di Adamo no longer have access to the jewels?”
They couldn’t exactly put out an ad in the paper. She bit her lip and stared out the window, then looked back at Salvatore.
‘I guess I just assumed that if they knew we had them, they’d know when we didn’t ”
‘The world is not such a simple place amore.”
Something snapped inside her at the use of that endearment.
‘you know I’ve put up with you calling me sweet and darling. I don’t like it-” and her heart called her a liar ‘but I tolerate it. They’re just words to an Italian man. I know that, but don’t you ever call me love. Got it? Love has nothing to do with our relationship.”
She wasn’t going to fool herself into believing love prompted his protectiveness or concern for her. Sicilian guilt and obligation to a family friend mixed with a lot of red-hot desire were the extent of his feelings toward her and she’d do well to remember that.
His expression could have been set in cement. you are saying you no longer love me. I know this.”
‘And you don’t love me so let’s not play games.”
‘I was not aware I was playing any game.”
‘Then stop using endearments would you?”
‘You are dear to me.”
‘l’m your guilty burden you mean.”
Another layer of cement poured over his expression.
‘Did last night feel like guilt?” She couldn’t deal with what it had felt like. She had to deal with reality. ‘l-ast night was about two people overcome by lust to the extent that they both forgot birth control.”