She grabbed for the key ring, but he was already unlocking the door. Stepping back he ushered her inside, her keys still firmly in his hand.
She stepped just over the threshold and then put her hand out.
‘Give it to me.”
He ignored her outstretched hand and followed her inside forcing her to move backward or be in the unenviable position of touching him again.
‘lt’s a secured building, for goodness’ sake.”
‘A locked entryway is not secure. Particularly one with a lock as old and easy to pick as that One ” The whole building was old and she liked it. Her apartment had character and the rent was cheap.
She refused to live off of either of her parents and di Adamo could not afford to pay her what she was worth.
‘Stop showing off your security-guard skills and give me back my key. I’m hungry and tired. I want to get to my apartment make my dinner and go to bed.”
‘I am a security specialist not a guard.”
Not to mention being heir apparent to the whole company when his father decided to abdicate the throne.
‘Whatever.” She wasn’t going to ask for the key again.
It was a good thing she didn’t because it would have been wasting her breath. He started down the hall, his long-legged stride eating the distance to her apartment quickly.
When he stopped in front of her door she looked at him askance.
‘How did you know my number?” She had moved shortly after their breakup, unable to stand the memories the other apartment had elicited .
He rolled his dark brown eyes.
‘lt’s not that hard to find your address. In fact, give me fifteen seconds on a computer and I can find pretty much anyone’s. However in this case I simply asked your father.”
‘Oh.” She hadn’t told her father about her brief affair and its disastrous end.
He would have gone ballistic and she had not been emotionally prepared to deal with any more at the time .
‘You did not tell him about us,” Salvatore said, mirroring her thoughts.
She shrugged and watched with a feeling of inevitability as he unlocked the apartment door with the other key on the ring.
‘I didn’t tell him about the baby either.” She didn’t know why she admitted that.
‘Neither did I .”
‘I know ” Her father was ignorant of her pregnancy and miscarriage. Just as he was ignorant of what a rat his best friend’s son really was. Her mother didn’t know either. In fact, the only other person in the world who knew about the precious baby she had lost was this man. And she could hardly expect compassionate understanding from her worst enemy.
He pushed into her apartment and she had no choice but to follow.
‘This is nice ” She looked around at the smallish apartment, which was almost a bedsit. It had its own bathroom, but the main area doubled as her daily living space and her bedroom when she pulled the ancient trundle bed down from the wall.
‘lt’s bright like you.”
Like she used to be, maybe. She’d tried to make her home cheery and inviting with lots of yellow, white and rose-pink but the decor had done little to improve her sense of loss and loneliness. Even the sunlight currently filtering through the window of the kitchenette seemed muted by the emotions that weighted her insides.
‘Thank you,” she replied stiffly to his compliment when the silence had stretched on.
He made an impatient sound. ‘Change your clothes and I’ll take you to dinner.”
‘What is the matter with what I’m wearing?” she demanded, immediately on the defensive.