He stepped closer, making sure she knew he was there. “Yes?” she finally said.
“You a-going to be in Italy long?” he asked. It didn’t come out self-assured like he’d expected, his voice cracked and tremored. What the hell? He cleared his throat and took a step back as his face flushed with humiliation. He’d never had trouble talking to a woman before. What was wrong with him?
Joan didn’t seem to notice or care about his crisis of confidence, nor did she bother to answer his question. She continued to remove her makeup.
Angry voices erupted behind them, causing both of them to turn around.
“I don’t care if it costs you money, these pictures are shit. You need to reshoot them.” An elegantly dressed black woman was standing behind the monitors, jabbing her fingers at them while shouting at both the photographer and the creative director.
Antonio wondered if the woman was related to Joan, then immediately dismissed the idea. No one could think that the pictures Joan just shot could be anything but perfection. The woman continued her ranting, her voice rising now to a scream.
Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the spectacle.
The woman must not have gotten what she wanted, because she let out a yelp of frustration and stormed off, shoving a wardrobe assistant backward into one of the lights as she swept past him.
The creative director made a flying leap and caught the light before it crashed to the ground.
“Jesus!” cursed the photographer.
“Holy shit,” Antonio said, unable to suppress a smile as the unexpected entertainment ended. There was a buzz of similar comments in the room as everyone spoke about what they’d just witnessed.
“Who the hell was that nightmarish woman?” Antonio asked Joan, hoping she’d start talking to him now that there was something to talk about.
“That nightmare woman is my mother,” she said dryly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to call her that.”
“Don’t apologize for speaking the truth.”
Antonio gave her a curious look. Were they finally connecting?
“Yep, that’s my dear mama, all right. I swear, she pulls shit like this at every shoot. I’m royally sick of it.”
“I’m so sorry,” Antonio said, not sure what else to say, but, Joan had gone back to ignoring him. She’d finished removing her eye makeup and now she was using two fingers to apply cold cream to her face. She worked the cleanser into her skin in small, practiced semi-circles. He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she worked.
She took tissues and wiped away the cream, one section of her face at a time, leaving flawless, clean honey brown skin. She glowed.
He cleared his throat, but it was as if he wasn’t there. Antonio wasn’t used to being ignored and dismissed by a woman. He didn’t need this crap. Why should he chase after some stuck-up model when there were thousands of young women dreaming of a chance to be with him?
But, for some reason, he couldn’t walk away from Joan Edwards.
He persisted. “Are you going to answer my question, or not?”
“What question?”
His body stiffened. She was treating him like he didn’t matter, deliberately. He was about to walk away and forget about dealing with her when he noticed that she’d stopped working on her skin care and was looking at him.
Her eyes were twinkling, and her lip twitched as if she was thinking of smiling at him. His posture relaxed and he felt his own mouth curl into a smirk. So, she was going to play that game? His confidence was back when he spoke. “I asked, when are you planning on leaving Milan?”
“Oh, we’re supposed to leave first thing in the morning,” she said.
“So you’ll be at the after party?”
“Oh no, heaven forbid. She’d never let me go to one of those dreadful things.” Joan nodded in the direction of the green room, where her mother was slumped dejectedly in a chair.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Antonio said and meant it.
“Not really, I don’t care about those stupid parties. I do care that she’s not letting me have a tour of the city.”
“She’s not letting you see Milan?”
“Nope.”
She was pouting so prettily that Antonio wanted to kiss her, but he restrained himself. There was something fragile about her, he didn’t want to break her.
“Oh, that’s too bad. If you have more time, perhaps this afternoon, I would love to show you around. Would you like that?”
Joan focused her wide, almond shaped eyes on his, shrewd, and calculating. It made his skin tingle just knowing she was giving him her full attention. Then she smiled, and Antonio thought his heart would explode. Wow.
“My mother wants to take me to some booooring fashion houses this afternoon, to meet with some designers,” she said. “but, I’d much rather do something else. So, yes. Let’s go.”
Antonio was elated, but also a little surprised.
“What, now? Don’t you want to ask her first?” Antonio asked, nervously indicating her mother who was on her phone now, raising her complaint to some higher authority.
“Look, I’m going to ditch her and all these people and check out this town, whether you tag along or not. Your choi
ce.”
Antonio ran a hand through his hair, unsure what to make of this woman. She was walking into a model room, removing her bikini top as she slipped through the half-open door.
His jaw dropped open as she stopped and slipped off her bikini bottoms. He caught a glimpse of her perfect, naked ass before she disappeared behind a corner.
He was breathing hard, practically gulping, when Rebecca came up to him.
“Antonio, you going to the after party?” she asked hopefully.
Rebecca had changed into her street clothes, but she hadn’t removed any of her makeup. Antonio smiled distractedly. He wasn’t sure. He’d intended to go to the after party – it would be something to tell the guys on his team – but he’d much rather spend time with Joan.
He wasn’t sure that he should, he admitted to himself. She had to be too young for him, and that mother of hers was scary.
“Well?” Rebecca pressed.
He walked her over to a table where there were refreshments, hoping to distract her with a snack. She wasn’t interested, her eyes and body were focused on him. She was clearly over eighteen and had the hots for him, no doubt about that. Wouldn’t he be better off going to that party and then taking Rebecca back to her hotel room?
“Yeah, sure,” Antonio said distractedly as he glanced back at the model room, hoping to see Joan come out.
“That’s fabulous, we’re going to have soooo much fun,” she gushed as she hung on his arm and gave him her googly eyes again.
Joan took that moment to come out of the room and Antonio’s heart skipped a beat. She looked like a high school kid in her torn jeans and leather jacket. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she stopped and stared at him, smirking as Rebecca continued to hang on his arm.
Rebecca saw who he was watching and her face grew tight, but Antonio didn’t care. He extracted her arm from his. “Listen, Rebecca. Something’s come up. See you around.”
“You’re not going to the after party?”
“I didn’t say that,” Antonio shouted over his shoulder. He didn’t want to ruin his chances with Rebecca, in case things with Joan didn’t pan out.