“What an annoying man,” Sienna muttered under her breath.
She took off her broken high heels and tossed them carelessly into the corner of the room. The relief was incredible when the soles of her feet finally touched the soft carpet. She walked over to the bed, sat down on the left side, and tested its softness. It was incredibly comfortable. Far too comfortable for a situation this insane.
Sienna stared at her ruined dress. She needed a change of clothes, but her small suitcase contained only a few emergency items she had grabbed at random when she fled the villa in Lake Como.
Ten minutes later, the bathroom door opened. Warm steam billowed out, carrying the intensely masculine scent of sandalwood and bergamot soap. Mateo emerged wearing only black dress pants and a plain dark-gray T-shirt. His wet dark hair was combed back with his fingers.
Sienna froze for half a second. The man was arrogant, all right, but she had to admit his physique looked like that of a model who had just walked off the runway.
Mateo noticed her stare. He raised one eyebrow. “The bathroom’s free. Your turn.”
Sienna immediately straightened, trying to hide her embarrassment. “Don’t even think about peeking!”
“Believe me, Miss,” Mateo said as he walked toward his side of the bed, “I have far too many legal problems right now to add accusations of spying on a strange woman.”
Sienna snorted, grabbed her small suitcase, and stepped into the bathroom. She locked the door tightly, turned on the warm water, and let it pour over her entire body. The exhaustion, fear, and emotions she had held in ever since fleeing Lake Como suddenly spilled out with the running water.
After finishing her shower and drying off, Sienna realized she had a new problem. The only change of clothes she had brought in her suitcase was a thin casual dress completely unsuitable for the chilly air-conditioning in the room. There was no T-shirt, no long pants.
“Great job, Sienna,” she whispered to herself in front of the mirror.
Hesitantly, Sienna opened the bathroom door a crack and peeked outside. Mateo was sitting on the right edge of the bed, staring at his glowing laptop screen with a deep furrow between his brows.
“Um... Mateo?” Sienna called softly.
Mateo didn’t look away from his laptop. “What?”
“Could... could I borrow one of your T-shirts? My suitcase doesn’t have anything decent to sleep in.”
Mateo’s fingers stopped typing over the keyboard. He turned toward the bathroom door, which was open only slightly. “A shirt?”
“Just a plain T-shirt. Anything loose. I promise I’ll wash it tomorrow,” Sienna said, her voice sounding slightly hesitant. It was a rare glimpse of uncertainty from the woman since the moment they had met.
Mateo let out a short sigh. He stood, walked over to his bag, and took out one of his plain black T-shirts. He approached the bathroom door and held it out without looking inside.
“Here. Take it,” Mateo said curtly.
Sienna quickly reached for the shirt. “Thank you.”
The door closed again. A few minutes later, Sienna emerged from the bathroom. Mateo’s black T-shirt hung off her smaller frame. It reached halfway down her thighs, and the sleeves had to be rolled up twice.
Mateo, who was turning off his laptop, glanced over and fell silent for a moment. Sienna looked completely different now from the woman in the luxurious dress who had thrown a fit in the lobby earlier. She looked much smaller, fragile, and... innocent.
“The pillow wall’s still intact, right?” Sienna asked as she slowly approached the bed, trying to ease the awkward tension that had suddenly thickened between them.
“It is,” Mateo replied tersely. He switched off the room’s main light using the smart switch near the table, leaving only the dim, warm-yellow glow of the bedside lamp in the corner. “Sleep on your side, and don’t make a sound.”
Mateo climbed onto the right side of the bed, pulled the thick blanket up to his chest, and turned his back to the pillow wall.
Sienna bit her lower lip. She turned off her own bedside lamp, then slowly climbed onto the left side of the bed. The mattress was so soft that her body seemed to sink into it. The hotel sheets’ fresh scent mingled faintly with the soap Mateo had used, creating a strange sense of warmth.
Silence crept through the penthouse suite. The only sound was the patter of rain striking the windows outside.
Sienna lay on her side, staring at the pile of pillows separating them. Her heart was still beating a little too fast. She had never imagined she would find herself in a situation like this. Sleeping in the same bed as a strange man she had met only two hours earlier.
“Mateo?” Sienna whispered softly toward the pillow fortress.
There was no answer from the other side.
“I know you’re not asleep,” Sienna continued, her voice barely louder than a breath of wind. “Thank you... for the shirt.”
Silence lingered for a moment. Sienna thought Mateo was truly ignoring her, until the man’s deep voice came from behind the pillows.
“Go to sleep, Sienna.”
Sienna smiled faintly. She closed her eyes, feeling the overwhelming exhaustion begin to pull her consciousness under. For the first time in the past twenty-four hours, she felt safe enough.
Just as Sienna’s eyes began to close completely and her breathing grew more even, a loud chiming sound from the suite’s front door startled them both.
BZZZT. BZZZT.
It wasn’t the room’s doorbell. It was the sound of the hotel door’s electronic lock system being forced to connect with a master card or an emergency programming device.
The indicator light near the room’s doorknob suddenly blinked from red to green.
Mateo’s eyes flew wide open. In one swift movement, he threw off his blanket, crossed the pillow wall, and pinned Sienna to the bed while covering her mouth with his large, warm palm.
Sienna stared up at him in shock, about to scream, but Mateo’s gray eyes above her radiated unmistakable danger.
The Penthouse Suite’s doorknob turned slowly, and the thick wooden door began to push inward.