Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife (The Harder They Fall, #2)(72)
“Not joking.” He flipped the page of his drawing pad, holding it up for me to see the sketch. I recognized myself immediately, and my heart stuttered. He really had been drawing me. “It’s not my best work.”
My eyes rounded. “You drew me. No one’s ever drawn me.”
“Shame,” he muttered. “You’re art in motion. You deserve to be committed to canvas for eternity.”
“Luca…” My heart had traveled up to my throat. How did this man manage to keep surprising me?
“Tell me about the business you’re starting with Miles.”
My mouth fell open at the abrupt change of subject. “What?”
He tapped the eraser of his pencil on his pad. “Weston mentioned you poaching his employees. Imagine being me, having no earthly idea what he was talking about. I sit in this studio at night, trying to capture your image. I spend an hour a day inside you. But I don’t know you.”
“You want to?”
“Of course I do. I’m sorry if I never made that clear.”
I rubbed my lips together, vulnerable under his close scrutiny. “It’s not like I’ve been exactly open with you about what Miles and I are planning. Part of me still can’t believe we’re really doing this. If he weren’t involved in it with me, I’m sure I would have given up on it already.”
“Weston said he’s enthusiastic.”
“He is.” I put my Kindle down and leaned my elbows on my knees. “We’re going to start a business consulting company. New businesses will come to us, and we’ll build plans for their launch. We’ll also rework current businesses that need help.”
I told him everything Miles and I had discussed. The spaces we’d looked at for our offices. The budget we’d worked out. Miles’s monetary contribution. Our roles in the company. Luca listened to me intently, nodding along as I spoke.
He asked me questions, not as a challenge, but as if he truly wanted to know more. And as I explained in deeper detail, I gained confidence in the direction Miles and I were going.
“It’s a big risk,” I said.
“And commitment.” He set his drawing pad aside and crossed the room to sit beside me.
“Yes. A bigger commitment than I’ve ever made.” I almost said except for marrying you, but that wasn’t true. We had an expiration date. Running a business wouldn’t.
“It means you’ll be staying in Denver.”
I nodded. “Well, we could really work with businesses anywhere, but…yeah. Our home base will definitely be here, and at least in the beginning, our focus will be here too.”
He reached over and picked up a lock of my hair, absently running it between his fingers. “No more bouncing around jobs.”
“I don’t think I’ll be bored. We’ll constantly be doing something new.”
“Do you know when you’ll be launching?”
“We haven’t decided yet. We want to make sure we’re truly ready before we begin. Although Kenji told me he’d be our first client, so…”
He huffed, “Kenji,” then muttered something about his stupid tattoos. I had to stifle my grin at his territorialism—not jealousy.
“Tell me you’ll be charging Kenji.”
My mouth fell open. “Of course I will. Why would you think I wouldn’t?”
“Have you ever charged any of the friends you’ve helped in the past?”
“Well, no, but—”
“Did Kenji pay you to work at his pop-up?”
“I kept my tips.”
He gave my hair a gentle tug. “I won’t allow you to sacrifice yourself any longer, Saoirse. I know that’s your whole vibe, but—”
“What are you talking about? That’s not my vibe.”
The look he leveled me with said get real. “The first time I met you, you’d purposely spilled your drink on yourself to allow a woman who wasn’t even your friend to be the center of attention. Don’t tell me it’s not your vibe.”
“I wouldn’t call it a vibe…” But he wasn’t wrong. “Anyway, you’re lucky I’m the way I am since you’re benefiting from it.”
His chest made a rumbling sound. “I hope you’ve found it’s worth it.”
“The orgasms more than make up for having you as a ball and chain.”
This time, the tug was less than gentle. “I’m serious, Saoirse. Recognize your worth. You have valuable knowledge Kenji and the rest of the people have taken advantage of when they should be paying for it.”
“And they will. That’s why Miles is my partner. He’ll be the one to discuss money since I’m apparently incapable of it.”
“You’re capable of anything.”
I sucked in a sharp gasp. The confidence in his low tone settled in my chest.
Luca believed in me.
He really, truly believed in me.
“I’m terrified, Luca.”
“You have no reason to be.”
“I don’t?” I sputtered a laugh. “I have been thinking about doing something like this for years. And now that I am, I wonder who the hell I think I am to have the audacity to believe I can. I can’t even imagine telling my mother about any of this. I can almost hear her reaction now.”