“I’m sorry, sir, ma’am,” the front-desk clerk said hesitantly. “But if the two of you can’t decide who’s taking this room within the next minute, I’ll have no choice but to give it to another guest waiting on the priority list.”
Mateo stared out the window, watching the reporters gradually move closer to the lobby doors. Sienna glanced outside too and spotted two burly men she recognized all too well. Her ex-fiancé’s men had just stepped through the hotel’s revolving doors.
Sienna’s breath caught. She looked at Mateo, then at the front-desk clerk.
“We’ll both take the room!” Sienna blurted out firmly.
Mateo frowned and turned sharply toward Sienna. “What do you mean, ‘both of us’?”
Sienna grabbed the sleeve of Mateo’s wet trench coat and tugged him a little closer so no one else could hear her.
“Listen, Arrogant Man,” Sienna whispered threateningly. “There’s media outside that seems to be chasing you. And there are two scary men at the entrance looking for me. If we keep arguing here like children, we’ll both be caught in less than two minutes.”
Mateo narrowed his eyes, weighing Sienna’s words. “And?”
“We split the cost of the room. We go upstairs right now, or I’ll scream at the top of my lungs in this lobby that you’re Mateo Sterling and you’re trying to bribe the front-desk clerk!” Sienna threatened recklessly, blurting out the name she had caught a glimpse of on the man’s passport.
Mateo’s eyes turned cold. A dangerous flash appeared in them for a second before he finally let out a harsh breath.
“Twenty seconds,” Mateo muttered to the clerk. “Give me the key.”
The clerk quickly processed the credit card and handed over a gold key card. Mateo snatched it, then, without saying a word, grabbed Sienna by the wrist and dragged her small suitcase toward the private elevator at the end of the corridor.
They moved quickly, avoiding the eyes of the people in the lobby. The elevator doors opened, they stepped inside, and Mateo immediately pressed the top-floor button. The Executive Penthouse Suite.
The elevator suddenly fell completely silent. The only sounds were the soft hum of the machinery carrying them upward and their still-ragged breathing. Sienna leaned against the elevator’s glass wall, trying to calm her racing heart, while Mateo stood rigidly in front of her, staring straight at the elevator doors.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened on the top floor. The corridor up there was eerily quiet. Mateo walked ahead of Sienna, found the door to Suite 801, and tapped the gold key card against the reader.
The door’s sensor light turned green. The handle gave a soft click as Mateo pushed it open.
Sienna slipped inside first, overcome with relief the moment the thick wooden door shut firmly behind them. The room was enormous and luxurious, with warm lighting and a beautiful view of rain-soaked Milan beyond the expansive glass windows.
But Sienna’s relief lasted only three seconds.
Her eyes swept across the entire open-concept space. There was only one main sitting area in the center of the room.
“Wait a second,” Sienna said slowly, her eyes widening at the sight before her.
Mateo, who had just taken off his trench coat, stopped as well. He looked in the same direction as Sienna.
In the middle of the magnificent suite stood an enormous bed. A king-size bed with crisp white sheets and a pile of soft pillows. There was no second bed, no partition door, and the sofa in the corner was nothing more than a tiny, backless lounge seat.
There was only one bed in the room!
Sienna slowly turned toward Mateo, while he was also staring at her with an expression that was completely impossible to read.