Page 12 of Royally Knocked Up (Princes of Passion #1)

ENZO

“ A ll right,” Enzo said to Hailey once the last of the event guests had disappeared to their rooms, once the staff had finished clearing the tables and putting away the food — tasks that Enzo had gleefully helped with, for once.

In the past, he had considered himself above such things, but today he had to admit that it had felt good to lend his hand to making sure this event went as it was supposed to.

This was his in a way nothing else had ever seemed to be, and he was proud of it and pleased with it.

“All right?” Hailey repeated.

“All right,” he said. “Now you have to come to Vista Grande with me.”

He could see that it was the last thing she’d expected to hear. She burst out laughing. “You’re still thinking about Vista Grande?”

“You did say that you would come with me at some point,” he reasoned. “And we’ve just accomplished something amazing. I want to take you out for drinks. Come on. Why not?”

She shook her head, smiling. “You’re incorrigible, do you know that? What do you suppose your father would say if he found out you were leaving La Fantasia to go out partying?”

“Oh, he isn’t going to find out.”

“He might. Wasn’t the problem in the first place that you got your picture taken? I know you’re not in the capital anymore, but that can still happen here. You’re still a very famous face.”

“I know a place where we might be able to get some privacy,” Enzo said.

“A place where we can buy a private VIP room, and no one but the servers will be able to come in. I guess they still might take pictures, but if they do, we’ll know exactly who’s responsible, and we’ll be able to take action against them, and they know that. ”

Hailey bit her lip, clearly thinking about it.

He’d gotten her to consider it. There had been a time when even that had felt impossible.

Tonight, nothing felt impossible. They had managed to pull off the film screening they had so ambitiously dreamed of. The resort was packed full of guests because of it. Enzo’s father would see the results of this — he would be forced to acknowledge that Enzo had succeeded at something.

“All right,” Hailey said. “Let’s go.”

“You mean it?”

“Sure I mean it.” She smiled. “If you’re willing to take the risk, that’s enough for me.” She hesitated. “Do I need to change?”

“What you’re wearing is fine, unless you want to change,” he said. “I’m going to go as I am, personally.”

She nodded. “I’ll just go put on a cocktail dress.”

“Well, if you’re changing then I will too,” he said. “Meet back in the lobby in ten?”

“Make it fifteen.”

“You’re on.”

Enzo waited in the lobby for a few moments while Hailey started back toward her room, mostly so they would be spared the awkwardness of walking together in the same direction after having agreed to separate and then reconvene.

Was it a date, what they were doing?

He had sensed Hailey trying to keep her distance, trying to maintain the bounds of professionalism between the two of them.

Enzo respected that. But this wasn’t a long-term job for him, and from the sounds of things, it wasn’t even a long-term job for her.

So what difference did it make if a few lines were crossed?

Maybe tonight was the night they would finally do a bit of crossing.

Hailey was out of sight now, so Enzo made his way to his own room.

He shed the clothes he had worn for the event and put on something ever so slightly more casual — nice pants and a silk shirt with an open collar that exposed his chest. He knew how good he looked in this shirt, how he drew the eyes of women when he went out in it.

He would be looked at tonight. That was something he enjoyed.

For some reason, though, he found himself only caring if one person looked at him.

He wondered if she would.

He checked his reflection in the mirror, grabbed a comb, and ran it through his hair to straighten himself up a little bit.

There, that was better. He didn’t look as if he had been working all day.

He looked much more like his old self — the version of himself who had rolled out of bed at two in the afternoon, spent a few hours working out or relaxing with a hearty meal, and then taken a shower and done the whole thing all over again.

He missed being this version of himself.

Whatever his father thought about it, he had enjoyed the life he was living.

And then he thought, would I even want to go to Vista Grande tonight if Hailey wasn’t coming with me?

Was it Vista Grande that was the attraction here, or was it just the prospect of spending time with her? If she’d told him no again, if she had insisted on staying at the resort…

Well, it wasn’t really even a question. He would have stayed here too. Of course he would. Like he would really go out and celebrate without her after their achievement as a team! There was no chance of it.

He gave the mirror his most charming smile.

Tonight, things would be different. Tonight they would let go of the professional personas that they had tried so hard to cling to up until now, and they would just be two people.

Two attractive people who liked the look of each other.

Two people who got along with one another better than they did with anybody else in the country — and, in Enzo’s case, probably anyone else in the world.

Was Hailey really the best friend he had ever had?

Maybe that was the line he should worry about crossing. Maybe he shouldn’t be worried about damaging a working relationship.

Maybe he should be worried about losing a friend.

The trouble — it became apparent almost immediately — was that she was thinking about the possibilities every bit as much as he was.

At least, he thought she was. Enzo was a modern man.

He knew that you shouldn’t and couldn’t make any assumptions about what a woman wanted based on the way she was dressed.

But it was impossible to ignore the way Hailey was dressed.

It was a black sheath that clung to every curve of her body.

The neckline was low, and the garment was held up by a pair of barely-there straps.

She’d brought a cardigan with her, but the moment they had entered the bar, she had taken that off and laid it on the seat beside her, and now all Enzo could think about when he looked at her was the sea of her smooth skin and his desire to touch it.

The dress was so tight that he felt more aware of her body than he would have if she was actually naked, as if he was looking at her from through a lens that obscured it slightly, as if he was fighting for his view of her.

She had to have known the effect that dress would have on him.

They’d had a bottle of champagne brought to their table. It was quiet enough here, in the VIP room, that they could carry on a conversation.

If he had been here with his friends — his other friends, his friends who weren’t Hailey — they wouldn’t have gone into this VIP room. They would have stayed out at the main bar. Where the action is , as Luca would have said.

But he and Hailey — they would create their own action, he thought.

The only question was, what form would it take?

Hailey poured champagne into each of their glasses and held hers up. “Cheers,” she said. “To our success today. What a great event.”

“It was, wasn’t it?” Enzo agreed. “I’m sure my father is going to be impressed by it — not that that’s my reason for wanting to do it, of course. But I have to say, it does add something.”

Hailey grinned. “I get it,” she said. “We all want to make our parents proud.”

He took a sip of his drink. “You know,” he said, “I’m really happy I met you, Hailey.

I never would’ve thought I’d be lucky enough to meet someone out here in the middle of nowhere who would come to mean so much to me.

But now… I think we’re going to have to stay in touch when you go back home after all this. I mean, if you don’t mind.”

“I’d be upset if you didn’t want to,” she assured him. “This has meant a lot to me, Enzo. Meeting you. Getting to know you. I don’t… I don’t get to make a lot of new friends in my line of work.”

“Really, you don’t?” He laughed. “I would have thought that as an events planner, you would meet people all the time.”

Color came into her cheeks. “Right,” she said. “Well, it’s not as easy as you think. I mean… it’s important to keep things…”

“Professional?”

“Right.”

“You don’t always have to do that.” He risked moving a little bit closer to her, reached out, and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“You don’t always have to separate yourself from the people you meet in the course of your work.

You don’t have to hold yourself apart for the sake of being professional. ”

She looked into his eyes, and Enzo knew that she understood exactly what he meant.

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “What if I do?”

“You don’t. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Hailey shook her head and said nothing, and Enzo had no idea what she was thinking. How badly he wanted to ask her!

But what if the answer wasn’t what he wanted to hear?

What if she’d put on that black dress because it made her feel beautiful, and not for his benefit at all? What if she wasn’t even thinking about what he might be feeling about her?

It wasn’t a question Enzo was accustomed to asking himself.

And if this had been any other situation with any other woman, he realized, he wouldn’t have been asking.

Because it wasn’t just the dress. It was the way she was looking at him, as if he was the only thing that mattered.

It was the way she was moving closer to him, even as he moved closer to her, so that the distance between their bodies had all but disappeared.

“I have no idea,” she murmured.

“Maybe we should find out.”

He allowed his thumb to trail along the curve of her jawline, holding her gaze.

She swallowed hard — so hard that he felt the way her muscles worked against his palm.

He wanted to put his hands all over her body, to feel every inch of her. He wanted to discover everything there was to know about her.

She took a deep breath — and once more, she pulled away from him.

He wasn’t imagining things. He knew it for certain now. He wasn’t indulging in wishful thinking. She did feel something for him. She was trying to resist it. That was what was happening here — she was holding herself back from what she felt for him, trying not to give in.

Was she the smart one of the two of them? Was she making the responsible choice here? Enzo knew that he wasn’t exactly known for responsible choices. No one would ever have pegged him as someone who did the sensible thing.

Then again, the sensible thing wasn’t always the right thing.

But Hailey was shaking her head. “We came here to celebrate,” she reminded him. “We came here to enjoy ourselves and toast the fact that our event went so well. That’s all we’re here for, and that’s all we’re going to do.”

“Hailey.”

She reached for the champagne, a gesture that put a lot of space between their bodies, and topped off her glass even though it was still almost full.

He was filled with a sudden certainty. She’s fighting this .

She was fighting every bit as hard as he had fought.

But as of tonight, Enzo Mancini was done fighting. He was done pretending to be someone he wasn’t.

The partying, the drinking, the wild living — he could leave all that behind. But he would always be a man who went for the things he wanted, and right now, what he wanted most of all was this beautiful, charismatic woman who was sitting three feet too far away from him.