Love in the City, an erotic romance novel (27 page)

“Is there any reason she’d have a grudge against you?” Anabelle asked. She’d explore some leading questions and see how he’d answer.

He looked surprised. “She’s my sister-in-law.”

“What about your brother?”

“Anabelle, seriously, these are quite the allegations you’re making.” He slapped his hands against his lap.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have said anything if I wasn’t fairly certain it was Portia talking in the bathroom that night. Can you tell me a little more about her?”

He regarded her for a moment, feeling a little defensive about the pointed questions and insinuations about his family.

She watched him carefully. She could tell he was growing increasingly uncomfortable.

“Well, she and Nikolas have been married about four years now. He met her at the annual museum gala. They seemed to hit it off right away. She hung out with our family a bit. He proposed six months later. She expressed an interest in our business. She had finance and economics degrees and graduated top of her class, so we gave her a job. She’s been working for Tsar ever since, heading up our financial services sector.”

“She seemed quite friendly with you the night of the ball. I got a really cold feeling from her.” Anabelle wanted to say this next part as delicately as she could. “Did you and she ever…?”

“What? No! She’s with my brother.” He was clearly offended.

“I mean before that. She seems quite…flirtatious, very touchy-feely with you.”

He sighed. “It doesn’t mean anything. She’s just like that.”

“And that doesn’t bother you or your brother?”

Giorgio paused, feeling some buried emotions coming to the surface. “He did once say something to me, but that was a long time ago.”

“What was it?”

He looked at Anabelle. He resented the fact that this old issue was now being brought up again. He stared at the empty beer bottle as he spoke. “He had seen her with me, she was being…like you say…flirty. He’d gotten a bad vibe from it. I didn’t do anything, of course, but I guess she was crossing the line a bit. I blamed it on the wine she’d been drinking. She likes to imbibe. A lot. Still does. Anyway, he said that in their early days of dating, she used to ask lots of questions about me. He initially thought it was just her trying to get to know what his family was about, but he said the questions were only ever about me personally.”

“What kind of questions?”

He leaned back on the couch, avoiding eye contact with her. “Was I dating anyone? Had I ever been married or engaged? What did I like in a woman? Favorite things to do on a date. My job. Things like that.”

“Really?” Anabelle said. “I can kind of understand his discomfort.”

“Well yeah, but then she claimed it was because she wanted to maybe set me up with friends of hers. We believed her.”

“Did that ever happen?”

He thought for a moment. “Actually no. I hadn’t really thought about it. Except for her friend that pestered me to be on the Top 10 Bachelor list, but that wasn’t Portia’s doing directly. Besides,” he said, shaking his head, “it wasn’t just personal relationship stuff she was curious about. She wanted to know a lot about my role in Tsar, why I had a more senior position in the company than Nikolas did. What the plans were for our future advancement in the company.”

“And you didn’t find that…odd?”

He sighed. “We chalked it up to her wanting to get involved in the business…you know getting the lay of the land. It wasn’t long after they were engaged that she asked about coming on board. Nikolas was happy she wanted to be involved, to be closer to him.”

“And since then, has she continued on that line of questioning?”

“Well, she naturally asks a lot of questions. She’s part of the company, it’s her job to stay in the loop.”

“And she’s ambitious?”

He looked at her sideways. “Ambition doesn’t make a person bad, you know.”

“Of course not, but it can be misdirected.”

He didn’t respond at first. “She did want Nikolas and I to share the lead of the company after our father passed away, rather than have me as CEO and him as Senior VP. We’re only three years apart in age. She thought it would make more sense not to have such a big burden on my shoulders all at once, since our father died prematurely.”

“But that didn’t happen, obviously.”

“No, in practical and legal terms, it wasn’t going to work. I assured both her and Nikolas that we’d still work in very much a partnership.”

“Did that satisfy them?”

“Nikolas seemed to be okay with it, he understood that it made business sense. He wasn’t really after that role anyway. Portia took a little longer to come around.”

“So, she resented it?”

Giorgio started to feel uncomfortable with the line of questioning. “Not to any horrible degree, but things were frosty for awhile. She’d make little comments. Criticize my early decisions. But again, that was a long time ago. Things have been better since then. Portia seemed to let it all go eventually. She’s smart. She does add value to the business.”

Anabelle considered what he said. If it wasn’t obvious to him, it sure seemed obvious to her that Portia had designs on grabbing power in the family business one way or another. “Are you planning on making some kind of announcement soon?”

“Yes, that’s all part of a new strategy we’re embarking on, including the ad campaign. We have a press release going out tomorrow.”

Anabelle felt like he was purposely blocking the implications that Portia might be behind things. She’d give things a minute to settle down. “Can I get you something else to drink?”

“Water would be great, thanks,” he said, his face still etched in a frown.

She got up to get them both a glass of water as Giorgio headed to the bathroom. She was sitting on the s
ofa waiting for him when he got out.

He didn’t make eye contact as he sat back down, a little further from her than before. “Thanks for the water,” he said, then took a long drink.

She nodded. “Listen, I don’t mean to belabor this or anything, but what did Portia want to talk to you about when she came and found us together on the terrace at the ball?”

Giorgio visibly bristled at the question. “Just business stuff. That’s all.” His voice was curt. “Nothing funny, if that’s where you’re going.”

“I’m not. But…the person I overheard,” she purposely avoided mentioning Portia’s name again, “said she just confirmed that an announcement was forthcoming. And you had just spoken to her.”

He didn’t answer. He was deep in thought.

Anabelle decided to be patient.

“I still can’t believe that it was Portia you heard talking that night,” he said, clasping his hands together. “These accusations have been stressful, she’s been really understanding. She’s even tried to help me brainstorm countermeasures. She’s said she knows there’s n
o truth to those accusations.”

“I don’t believe there is either,” Anabelle said, placing a hand on his forearm. “I trust in your integrity.”

“Just not in that of my sister-in-law,” he sniped.

She withdrew her hand. “I’m just trying to help.”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

She tried to ignore the biting comment, but it upset her. “No
, you didn’t. But I also didn’t ask to overhear that conversation in the bathroom. Nor did I ask for her to be texting you non-stop while we were in the hotel room. She beckons and you disappear for hours. Even out of bed with me.”

He put his hands up to his face. “We went over that. I thought it was resolved. I said I was sorry. What are you implying now?”

“Just that she’s pretty insistent when she wants your undivided attention.”

He dropped his hands and let out a long sigh. He didn’t like having all this dredged up. He had faced so many questions, innuendo, and insinuations from all kinds of people when Portia had first arrived on the scene. It had taken over a year for that nonsense to settle down and it hadn’t been a pleasant time of his life. He thought he had finally gotten past it for good.

“Look, I think it’s just how Portia comes off, you know,” he said. “How people perceive her. She’s incredibly bossy. Even with Nikolas. Very bull-headed. Which can be helpful actually, in business situations. Plus as I said, she’s been really supportive to me during this mess.”

Anabelle thought back to that day when they were having lunch. Portia did seem to be comforting him. She wanted to know what that conversation was about without letting on that she was there.

“How so?” Anabelle asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. “In the usual way, she asks questions, she listens, she offers advice.”

“Are you two close?”

He furrowed his brow. “Just as family. Nothing else. I told you already.”

Anabelle pressed on. “Do you spend a lot of time together? Just the two of you?”

“Anabelle, I really don’t like this line of questioning.”

“It’s not a horrible question,” she stated, feeling defensive.

“It’s implying certain things,” he said, looking at her pointedly.

She bit her lip. She wanted him to just be truthful and upfront with her. “Do you go out together, for drinks or meals without Nikolas?”

“That wouldn’t be a crime,” he snapped.

“You know, you’re getting really testy about this. It makes me wonder why.”

He stood up. “Why? Maybe because you’re insinuating things about me, my family…”

Anabelle also stood, crossing her arms. “No, just Portia.” She looked at him directly, challenging him to respond.

“Look, I know you took a lot of things the wrong way the night of the ball,” he said, “but you’re letting your imagination run away with you. I keep answering the same type of questions over and over again about her.”

His defensiveness was sending off red flags for her. “I told you, I overheard her talking in the bathroom.”

“You said you thought it might be her, you weren’t certain. There were hundreds of people there that night and you had only just met her. It could have been anyone.”

“Why are you finding this so hard to accept?”

He shook his head, his expression was incredulous.

“Answer my earlier question. Do you two go out alone together?”

“Anabelle, stop this.”

She was getting upset. “Why? Just answer the question!”

He waved his hands. “I’m leaving. I’ve had enough of this
interrogation. Talk to me when you’ve got something else to say.” He made for the door.

“I saw you two together.” The words came tumbling out before she could stop them.

He turned back around. “What are you talking about? Is this about the ball again, because…”

“At the restaurant in your building. The two of you looked like you were having a cozy, intimate lunch there recently.”

“You were spying on me?”

“No, of course not.
It was a last minute thing. I had come to surprise you with coffee from Coffee Haven on my lunch hour, but I decided to look around your building a little before I did. It’s quite something.”

“And then what?” he asked, growing suspicious.

“Why didn’t you just tell me about it?”

“Why should I? It was just lunch with someone I work with. Someone I’m related to. It wasn’t important.”

“You two looked awfully close, the way she was touching you.”

He crossed his arms. “That sounds an awful lot like spying to me.”

“Why are you so secretive about her?”

“I’m not…”

“You are! That was the same night you canceled our movie date and then took off on a business trip for two days. Just like you ditched me in a hotel room because of her.”

He looked offended. “I told you why I had to do that. Business problems I had to deal with.”

“Sure,” she said. “It was just a coincidence that was the day you had lunch with her.”

“We were talking about what was happening with the business. Nikolas was in a meeting.”

“Did she go on the trip with you?”

“No!”

“Why not?”

“Anabelle, stop! This is ridiculous. Portia’s not out to get me in any kind of way, not romantically and not in business.”

“Of course she is! It’s obvious! She’s probably trying one angle to get to the other. You won’t even listen to what I’ve been trying to tell you tonight!”

He put his hands out. “Anabelle. I’ve heard every word you’ve said. This is my family you’re talking about. You don’t know them. I get that yo
u don’t like Portia. I get it.”

“It’s not just that. I don’t think you can trust her. I sure don’t!”

He shook his head. “I’m going to leave now. You need to cool down.” He grabbed his suit jacket.

“Me?” she said, her voice rising. “You just put up walls wherever your precious Portia is concerned.” Her anger was overwhelming her filter.

“I’ve heard enough,” he snapped. “I don’t need to be insulted. You obviously don’t trust me, so I’m going. We both need to get some perspective.” He quickly left, slamming the door behind him.