Chapter 7

**Lily**

I see Noah’s eyes twinkle and his face light up when I join him again. His hand is back on the small of my back immediately when I am back within his reach. “Took you long enough.”, he whispered in my ear. I look up at him to decide whether he was mad at me or simply joking. “Did you taste the food already?”, he asked. When I shake my head, he signals to a waitress to come over to us. It truly looks amazing! I pick one and try to taste all the flavors put in the small finger food on my tongue. I groan at the taste and close my eyes to enjoy it. I feel Noah’s hand on my back gripping tighter and when I open my eyes, I see his brown eyes have darkened. “That good, huh?”, he asked with a husky voice. I nodded grinning and decided to ignore all the signs of desire that I saw in front of me.

“Noah, good to see you here.”, an older gentleman says, shaking Noah’s hand. “Lily, please meet Nero Bruno. He and his family have been clients with the bank as long as I can remember.”, Noah introduced, and I shake his hand. I mutter a “pleased to meet you.” “Nero, please meet Lily, one of our most esteemed employees.”, Noah says, and Nero acknowledges me with a nod of his head. Somewhere I feel a pang of relief after Noah introduces me as an employee.

After the introduction, Nero starts talking to Noah, without even trying to include me in the conversation. I close myself off of their talking and look around on the prowl for more food. I spot a platter close by, and my reaction to a new bite is the same. The food is too good to be true.

“I love women who can appreciate good food.”, I hear in my ear and turn around fast in surprise. I shriek when the man is closer than I expected him to be. He clasps his hands around my forearms to steady me, and he laughs at my clumsiness. “Lily, right?”, he asks and looks inquisitively at my face to make sure he is right. I nod. “I’m Tommaso. We briefly met in your office?” I smile, but in truth I’m lost for words being so close to this handsome man. “Hello” was all I managed to squeeze out of my vocal cords. His kind brown eyes light up and I could see a playful twinkle in it. “Cat got your tongue?”, he said to get a rise out of me. I closed my eyes briefly to try to shake off the spell he had me under. “I remember.”, I said as calmly as I could, but I couldn’t hide a slight tremor in my voice. “Good, I wasn’t sure I had introduced myself that day. I was in a hurry to get to Noah.”, he said with a hint of sarcasm. “I’m sorry about that. And I am glad to run into you here.”, he says slipping his hand down my arms to my hands, his eyes genuine.

Tommaso let go of one hand and dragged me onto the dance floor. “Let’s dance!”, he said with a big boyish smile on his face. I could only laugh at him, as he twirled me around before pulling me closer to him. Tommaso was a very good dancer, but above all I enjoyed dancing with him. I was also very aware of his hands on my body the entire time, and I was trying to make up my mind on which of these handsome men that were paying attention to me I was most attracted to. I came up undecided, so I decided to just enjoy every second of it!

Laughing, both of us came off the dance floor. Tommaso left my side for a few seconds to get two glasses of champagne. In those seconds my eyes searched out Noah in the crowd. He was still talking to that sexist dinosaur, so he was not paying attention to me. I took the glass from Tommaso and jokingly toasted with him. “Thank you for the dance.”, I said to him. “The pleasure is all mine.”, Tommaso said, kissing the back of my hand.

“So, what is the deal between you and Noah?”, he asked, suddenly turning very serious and looking at me with his full attention. I burned under his stare. “Oh, straightforward, are we?”, I try to joke my way out of this topic. I struggle to look him in the eye. “Yes, I am. I would like to know what my chances are to dating you, Bellissima.”

Here is that word again, but it doesn’t feel fake when he is using it. His moods do change rapidly, from joyful to serious to a smooth talker. “Noah asked me to join him tonight. He is my boss…”, I trail off. “Do you want it to be more between the two of you?”, he probed for more information. I don’t really want to answer his question because I don’t know the answer. Noah was comfortable, and his attention awoke something in me that had been dormant for a long time. Tommaso’s touch made me feel warm and nice inside. “Let me rephrase,” Tommaso whispered in my ear, while resting his hands on my hips. “If I would kiss you right now, would you kiss me back?”

I stared into his eyes. His eyes were truly intoxicating and for sure he had me under his spell.

“Here you are.”, I heard Noah say. His voice sounded more distant than he was because I felt him put his arm over my shoulders as if he was marking his territory. Tommaso narrowed his eyes at Noah, but after a blink his glance was gone. “Noah.”, he acknowledged him with a nod. “Thank you for keeping me company, Lily.”, he said to me and again kissed the back of my hand.

“I’m sorry about Nero.”, Noah said. I simply shrugged. “Tommaso was kind enough to keep me company.”, I answered. “I bet he did.”, Noah muttered under his breath, but I still heard him. I noticed him unclench his fists at that point. “I’m sorry to do this to you, but there is one more person I need to talk to. Will you be okay for a bit?”, Noah asked all of a sudden, and walked to a lady in the corner of the room without waiting for my response. I was confused, first he interrupted me with Tommaso to mark his territory and now he left me alone again.

I shrugged to make myself believe I didn’t care and decided to find some more food to take my mind off his erratic behavior. I also tried looking for Tommaso, but I cannot find him anymore.

Lost in my thoughts I cross the room towards a waiter with food, when again someone grabs my hand and drags me onto the dance floor. I stumbled a bit and fell against a chest. I put my hands to this chest to steady myself and get me onto my both feet again. I feel his hands burning through my dress on my hips. My hands feel this well sculpted muscled chest and I curse under my breath. How many handsome men can I take more! I feel myself blush and I get flustered. His hands on my hips move to my bare back. His touch is warm, and I feel sparks going through my body. Every sense of longing and desire in my body is wide awake now, and I try to bite back a moan because of how good his touch feels.

I heard a faint grin, and I looked up to see his face. I find myself staring into amused and familiar blue eyes again. I am in shock and suddenly hate my traitorous body. “Asshole.”, I manage to spit out.