When She Fell for the Billionaire(20)

How could she explain it without sounding silly? Luca’s scowl was getting darker by the second. “I just didn’t want to leave without finishing our food,” she said in a very small voice.

Luca’s confused gaze dropped to the table where the virtually untouched dishes lay then lifted back to hers. “I got the impression that you were not very hungry.”

“I’m not.”

He frowned.

“It’s just a thing.” She should just have kept her mouth shut. “Never mind. Let’s go.” She motioned for him to rise, but Luca’s commanding tone arrested her.

“Not without you telling me about this ‘thing.’” His voice brooked no argument. “This ‘thing’ that’s already delayed me from getting what I really want right now.”

Heat flared low in her belly at his words, but he was waiting for an explanation. Sabrina should’ve just let it go, but years of conditioning had ingrained this habit deeply in her psyche.

“I can’t leave the table without finishing my food.” His frown was still in place, so she had to explain further. “My grandmother raised me by herself. When I was growing up, money was scarce. I was a picky eater. Whenever I refused to eat what was on the table, she told me to think about all the other people in the world who had nothing to eat. She never let me leave the table until I had eaten every morsel of food on my plate.” She glanced at him, but his expression was unreadable. “So now I think I’ve got a bit of a guilt complex about it.”

Sabrina had never told anyone about it. Not even Chase. She had been ashamed when she’d realized she had inadvertently added to her grandmother’s burdens by being a picky eater when they were just barely managing to scrape by.

“We can leave now that I’ve told you my ‘thing.’” She was getting uncomfortable with the way Luca was staring at her, as if he was trying to figure her out.

He didn’t say anything, but he beckoned to the waiter. He spoke to the young man in rapid Italian. The waiter dipped his head in assent and quickly disappeared, following whatever order Luca had said.

“Did you ask him for the bill?”

“The bill will be charged to my account,” he said smoothly. “I just asked the waiter to put all the food in a take-out container. We’ll take it back to my room.”

“A doggy bag?” Sabrina said past the sudden lump in her throat. Luca humoring her odd quirk made her inexplicably feel like crying. Oh for Christ’s sake, girl, it’s just leftover food, not a marriage proposal.

He must have glimpsed something on her face because he suddenly looked uncomfortable. Then in a blink of an eye, it was gone and he was back to sophisticated and self-assured Italian billionaire mode once more.

A small smile ghosted on his lips. “It is very convenient, si. We will not need room service to interrupt us. After I’m done with you, strega, it’s a guarantee you’ll be very hungry.”

It was a good thing she was still seated or her legs might have collapsed at the devil’s glint in his eyes. All Sabrina could manage was a very weak nod.





Chapter 5





Luca would sooner be dead than be caught carrying a doggy bag.

But here he was, striding to the elevator which was to take them to his suite, a hand cupping her elbow, the other grasping the handle of the paper bag which contained their leftover meal. He would never hear the end of it from Chiara if word got around. He blasted a scowl at the general direction of a CCTV camera, just in case anyone got it in their head to try and spread word about him lugging around take-out on a date, like it was some fucking domesticated scene. Some of the staff in the hotel had been around when he and his brothers caused havoc with the Konstantinos boys. Luca didn’t have anything against taking out food. What he was against was how it emitted a long term-relationship vibe. Not after Eleni. He wasn’t doing long-term anytime soon.

It was all for the sake of getting inside this woman’s panties. It was not because of the vulnerability in her eyes he had glimpsed when she had been talking about her "thing."

Which should be very easy in theory because she did say earlier at the beach that he was panty-dropping handsome. He would hold her to dropping her underwear for him as soon as they got to his suite.

By the looks of her though, Luca would have quite a time peeling it off her. Her back was ramrod straight. She stared ahead and refused to talk. Luca thought she looked like a queen going to the guillotine instead of one anticipating losing her mind in his bed with pleasure. She was probably just embarrassed about her revelation during lunch. She had looked so torn and pained. Luca wondered if her experience with poverty early on had made her seek security in the arms of men who could provide for her financially. He was just baffled no one had married her yet. She was so heartstoppingly beautiful and sexy. The thought of her being wife to a dirty old man like Theodorou curdled the meager content of his stomach.