Page 77 of When She Tempts (The Fallen)
Yesterday,after Giorgio told me he didn’t want to see me for the rest of the day, I took it to mean our lesson was canceled. I spent a few hours bouncing around my room, my body buzzing with adrenaline. I couldn’t believe the things I said to him. It felt like someone else had slid inside my body and started moving my mouth for me, spitting out bold, very un-Martina-like statements.
But it was working. I was getting through to him, and his struggle to keep himself from doing what he wants to do was addictive to watch. It filled me with a wicked sense of pleasure.
After a while, I got tired of pacing the floor of my bedroom and came down to the greenhouse. Polo was there. He seemed pleased to see me, and we worked together for a few hours during which he asked about my life back in Ibiza and shared funny stories about Allegra and Tommaso.
Today, he’s far quieter. I barely get a hello when I arrive, and when I ask him if I should finish the project I was working on yesterday, he responds with a grunt.
I eye him curiously. There’s a frown on his face, and his shoulders are slumped. Something must have happened.
An hour passes before I hear his voice. “Look over here,” Polo calls, gesturing for me to come over. “The magnolias are in bloom.”
I go over to his side and peer at the purple and blue flowers spilling out of a rectangular planter. “They’re beautiful. Can I cut some for my room?”
“Sure.” He walks over to a desk and extracts a pair of scissors from the drawer before handing them to me. “Here.”
As I look for the perfect stem, I glance at him. “You okay?”
His frown returns. “Yeah. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know. You just seem upset.”
He sniffs and looks down at the ground. “Nah, it’s nothing.”
Deciding not to push, I finish cutting the flowers. “You said something about planting more veggies the other day. Do you want to work on that today?”
“I won’t have time. I’ve got an errand to run.” He moves to the sink to wash his hands.
“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll just hang around until it’s time for Giorgio’s lesson.”
“He’s gone. Didn’t he tell you?”
I arch a brow. “Gone where?”
“Naples.”
“What for?”
Polo’s expression hardens. “He said he went to see his father, but who knows if he’s telling the truth. Getting anything out of him is like pulling teeth.”
The way he says it, his words short and clipped, makes it clear something happened between him and Giorgio. Did they get in an argument?
“Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“He said this afternoon, but it’s a long drive to Naples.” Polo wipes his hands on a towel and nods at the cut flowers. “You should put those in some water. I need to get to the nursery before it closes.”
I pick up the bouquet. “Where is that?”
“Near the closest town, and by town, I mean an intersection. It’s a fifteen-minute drive or so.”
“Can I come?” I ask, half-expecting him to say no. Giorgio doesn’t want me leaving the property, but this is so close, it barely counts. Plus, there’s nothing else to do, and I’m irritated he left without giving me a heads-up. We skipped our class yesterday, and now we’re skipping it again today? He could have said something. He knows how important the classes have become to me.
Polo tosses the towel on the table. “I shouldn’t—” He purses his lips. For a moment, he looks like he’s wrestling with something, but then he blows out a breath and says, “Fuck it. We won’t be going far. Go drop off your flowers, and I’ll take you.”
My eyes widen.Hell yes!“Okay, great.”
I meet Polo in the courtyard a few minutes later, and we get into his truck. The back of my mind prickles with knowledge that Giorgio might not be happy if he finds out about this, but given how close we’re going, we’ll be back before he returns.
“I looked you up, you know,” Polo says as he backs out of the gate. “Your brother is some big shot in Ibiza.”
