“Mr. Moretti, I’m here for our meeting.”
Luca looked up and grinned. Pushing his office chair back to stand, he ran into Nicki’s toes.
“Ouch! Luca!”
With a word of apology, he grabbed Nicki’s shoulders to steady her but then hurried around the desk to meet me at the door.
“Sasha, what a pleasant surprise. I forgot we were meeting today.”
Wrapping me up in a tight hug, he kissed my lips with a passion that was entirely inappropriate for the office. He tasted like coffee and peppermints. When he pulled away, his smile made me laugh.
Using my thumb, I tried to wipe away the lipstick smeared on his lips. “I hope you’re not greeting every contractor this way.”
Luca’s hands skimmed down to my ass and squeezed. “Only the sexy redheads I live with.”
Patting his chest, I took a step back. “Good.”
Behind Luca, Nicki rubbed her foot while watching us with a bit of frown. “Hey Nicki, how are you?”
“I’m doing well. Thank you, Sasha.” She stared at Luca’s back. “Luca, I’m going to head back to my office unless you need me for this meeting.”
Luca turned and smiled at Nicki while lacing his fingers with mine. “You can go. Thanks for your help on past projects, but I think going forward, Sasha and I got it.”
Nicki dropped her foot to the floor and nodded. Without another word, she left the office.
Once we were alone, Luca shut his office door and turned the lock.
“Nicki used to help with the designs?” Walking over to the desk, I sat in one of the visitor’s chairs.
Luca settled down in his chair. “Yeah, she has a good eye and kept the designers on track.”
“Gotcha.” Reaching into my bag, I pulled out my plans. Luca worked to clear space by pushing other folders and what looked like proposals to the side. As I handed him my papers, a logo in a pile Luca made jumped out at me. Jones Design.
I dropped my folders before Luca had a hold of them, the papers falling out onto his desk. “Damn it, Sash.”
“What the hell is this?” Grabbing the nicely bounded proposal, I noticed the address listed on the cover was that of the condominium.
Luca swallowed hard.“A proposal.”
My fingers tightened around the pages, creating a crease. “And why do you still have it? Once you awarded SA the contract, why would you hold on to another company’s plans? Are you comparing my work?”
Luca shook his head, his face inafull-on panic. “No, not at all. Dad had Nicki drop it off on Monday. He wanted me to look over it one more time before all the ordering was finalized. I swear I wasn’t—”
“Then why the fuck is it still on your desk four days later?”Red seeped into my vision.
He looked down at his desk.
“Holy shit, you were going to compare the plans!” I dropped the packet like it burned me. It was one thing for people to judge me personally, but to judge my professionalism was something I couldn’t stomach. I needed to get out of Luca’s office and lick my wounds. Spinning toward the exit, I moved as fast as my stilettos would allow.
Quickly, Luca jumped up and got in between me and the door, his shaking hands gripping my shoulders to hold me still. “Sasha! I was just going to review it as a favor to dad. I had no intention of making comparisons.”
“Question. For your other vendors, once you award a contract, do you review the other proposals?” I jammed my fingertip into his pec.
Wincing, he shook his head no. I stepped back out of his hold and intoa fullwarrior princess stance.
“And so why, a month after giving SA Designs the job, are you reviewing anothercompanies’proposal?”
“My Dad—”