“Yes…I’m going to take care of you, there are other ways to show affection outside of sex,” he explained, as his fingers massaged my scalp in a sensuous circular motion. When he was done I rinsed out my hair and he passed me the body wash.

“What? I don’t get a full body massage?” I asked, cocking my head to the side with a sardonic grin.

He threw his head back laughing. “If I did that I would have you pinned to the wall with my dick buried inside you in under thirty seconds.”

My nipples hardened at the delicious thought. Luc’s eyes dropped to my breasts, noticing the clear signs of my arousal. He growled, shook his head, and stepped out of the shower.

“Hey, we’re not done in here,” I called out with a light chuckle.

Luc just shook his head and wrapped a towel around his waist, giving me a nice view of his broad chest, that delicious tattoo, and an abdomen sculpted for an exercise magazine.

Chapter 19

Vicky

After I left Luc’s penthouse, I had gone back down to my apartment to change into one of the few conservative outfits I brought with me on this trip. The same pencil grey skirt with a simple black top and of course the Jimmy Choo’s. Luc wasn’t willing to cave into sex, but I could tear his walls down bit by bit.

When I got downstairs at nine a.m., Bryce had Derek, his driver, waiting for me. I had declined Luc’s offer to give me a ride. I didn’t need Bryce thinking there was something between us. At Tyson Towers I got onto the elevator with warm butterflies swimming in my stomach. A part of me worried that I was too anxious to see Luc again after we had only parted this morning. I knew something major was happening between us, and at this point I also knew that I couldn’t pull away from him, but those revelations didn’t ease my old anxieties about falling in love.

Walking up to the secretary’s desk, I paused and smiled. “Hi. Good morning.” I continued walking past her desk toward my new office. My office, shit it didn’t even seem real. New York felt more like a farfetched dream every passing day. Every aspect, including Bryce’s warm welcome, my new apartment, and Luc, were too good to be true.

My cell phone vibrated in my purse and I pulled it out to see a message from Bryce. I hadn’t heard from him since yesterday afternoon.

Vicky I would like to come by your office this afternoon, I will bring lunch with me.

In my mind I did a happy dance that he was making the effort to get to know me like he promised. I replied to his text,

Thanks that sounds great.

As I typed the last word with a silly grin on my face, Luc walked into my office with a questioning look. “That was Bryce, he is coming by my office for lunch today,” I explained.

“Good, I am happy for you, Vicky,” he said with the right side of his lip tugging up at the corner. “I wanted to let you know that I spoke to the party planner about Scott. I feel like I should have predicted that he would show up to a party to look for you. The party planner said he had a clean record and he apologizes. He asked if you wanted to press charges?” he asked watching me intently. Speaking of Scott caused my chest to constrict.

“What do you think?” I asked Luc.

“I don’t think you should press charges. By the sounds of it I don’t think he is mentally all there and if he goes to jail he can hold a vendetta against you. As it is he was stalking you, so he isn’t a person you want to upset. I think you should let me take care of him,” he explained and my jaw dropped. When he realized what he’d said he began to laugh really hard. I didn’t think I had ever heard a laugh come out of him. It was a beautiful sound.

“That’s not what I meant, Vicky. I am not going to kill the guy. Geez.” He shook his head.

“I’m sorry, you are ex-mafia. When you said take care of him that was the first thing that came to mind.” I raised my right brow and gave my head a little tilt like I was justified for thinking it.

“I’m not killing anybody but I will ensure your safety,” he reassured me.

“Okay then I trust you,” I replied.

Luc gives me a quick kiss on the lips. “Thank you. So for the car plant let me go over the plans with you and see what you can come up with, also as an intern you will need to spend time at the plant itself. Since Bryce has placed you under my authority, you can act as my assistant as well. It will be a good opportunity for you to learn the ropes. There is a company shuttle downstairs that can drive you to the plant. There is a schedule at the main desk. Bryce mentioned no special treatment,” Luc grinned, eyeing me hungrily as his eyes danced with amusement. His gaze caused warmth to rise in my chest and I knew it would be tough working beside him and controlling my body’s reaction to him. “So the main focus for the office work will be coming up with a formula for a battery that will have a long lasting lifetime without the need for regular recharge. Given the amount of recharge stations in most metropolitan cities around the world, this is the biggest challenge in our industry…” Luc went on to explain. I loved watching him explain the schematics and listening to how passionate he was about the project.

I now understood why Bryce had put him in charge. He’s brilliant and he had come up with some breakthroughs of his own with the structure and weight of the car. It made me think of the roller coaster I built back home when I was in high school. There were so many factors that had to be considered before we got it up and running. Luc finally headed back to his office and I buried myself in a computer programming site, trying to come up with solutions and researching different options. I hadn’t paid attention to the time until my phone rang that it was already three o’clock.

Bryce said he would come by for lunch but I didn’t know what time he considered lunchtime. Given who he was and how busy he was I didn’t want to hold it against him. He was kind enough to give me a place to stay and a job, even though I had no idea how much money I made and I was hoping to return his credit card to him.

My phone had been ringing off the hook when I finally checked it. “Hello,” I answered the phone hesitantly; I wasn’t sure who would be calling my office.

“Vicky,” a young male voice said through the phone. “My name is Brad Andrews, Bryce asked me to call you, he said he is running late. I’m his nephew.” The young man chuckled into the phone, probably because this was typical Bryce behavior ditching his long lost daughter for lunch. “If you don’t mind, I am right around the corner from Tyson, I ordered some lunch up to your office and I would like to come join you, what do you say cuz?” he asked with the same light hearted tone.

This guy, Brad, was my cousin, wow. Luc mentioned something briefly about him last night but I hadn’t given too much thought to the idea that I had extended family. Mama had a brother but they weren’t close and him and his wife had no children. My papa’s family was big but they lived back in Italy. With how expensive travel to Europe was we never really had an opportunity to engage our Italian roots.

“Sure Brad, that would be great,” I answered quietly.

“Okay, Vicky, be there in five,” he said and I could hear the phone disconnect. He hadn’t even said bye. I was beginning to understand that Bryce was really only dedicated to his job. He seemed regretful yesterday when he spoke of his other kids, but maybe he was too far gone to focus on anything else but his work and making Tyson successful, which it already was.

About ten minutes later, Luc’s secretary came knocking on my office door with a cart covered in food similar to the one Bryce had ordered yesterday. The truth was that I was famished after skipping breakfast. “The young Mr. Andrews will arrive shortly,” she said politely before closing the office door behind her. Brad was an Andrews but Bryce had mentioned that none of his children were working at Tyson. I wondered if Brad worked here. A few minutes later there was a light knock on the door, I got up to answer it but a young man, maybe about five years older than me, peeked his head in, “May I come in?” he asked with the manners of a gentleman.