Amanda
"Amanda, wait," I heard him call after me as I quickly rushed to the elevator desperate just to make it in time before he caught up to me.
I pressed the button frantically hoping for it to open as I heard his heavy footsteps but clearly I had not taken enough time to come up with an escape plan. What was I thinking coming in hot and heavy without thinking things through?
Seeing Marco in person again after so many years was enough to completely destroy me. Pictures on the internet did not do him the amount of justice he deserved. He was devilishly handsome in a way that could have weakened you completely if you did not have your wits about you.
His green eyes were piercing when they met mine. I remembered them. There was no way to ever forget them but it felt as if they had gotten more intense over the years. More cunning. More sinister.
His deeply tanned olive skin enhanced the features of his angular face. Anyone would think he was the muse to Michelangelo's most famous artwork. The body of David and a face so perfect I was surprised no one had tried to sculpt his before.
He had grown out his hair over the years that the chocolate darkly coloured hair now reached to his shoulder blades. It enhanced his thick yet angular eyebrows that were slightly kept but still kept wild that it made him look manlier.
Age had done him wonders, the lines of his face were deeper, his lips a perfect cupid bow and an intensity to him that I found it hard to look away.
"Amanda," he appeared in the hallway and with his long strong legs hurriedly walked to me just as the elevator doors opened. Before I could slip in he wrapped his chunky strong arm around me and pulled me away from the threshold just as I was mid step and whirled me around that his large body acted as a barrier.
His touch on me burned through the thin silk blouse I wore and embedded on my skin as a quiet gasp left me. He held me the same. Just like when I was young and he and Edward would throw me into the pool as I tried to run away.
It felt different somehow.
Extremely different.
"Don't touch me," I snapped as I slapped his arm away from me then took a few steps back to put some distance between us. He was the same height as Edward, I knew he was but he felt bigger.
I could not help but wonder what a man had to do to have a body like that when my brother lived and breathed in the gym.
"I'm sorry," he rushed out as he ran his fingers through his hair then lightly gripped it. "You caught me off guard."
I pulled the strap of my handbag higher up my arm and made sure it was firmly set on my shoulder before fixing my blouse up hoping not too much cleavage had peaked out. I knew Edward told me to be as bland as possible but there was no way in the world I would compromise my style for the red blooded hot Italian in front of me.
I did not miss the way his eyes scanned me when I entered his office. As if he was seeing me for the very first time and by his reaction I was pretty sure he was. The last time he saw me my curves were just growing in, I was sure I had blown past his expectations.
Yet Marco had the reputation for going for skinny, tall and definitely blonde models. Girls who reached below his waist and filled out size ten jeans were not his usual style. Whatever was in his eyes when he saw me just moments prior was not attraction. Probably just shock.
"Just like how you forgot to pick me up," I rolled my eyes, "And don't come up with a lame excuse. Anyone with a phone reception is fully aware of what you were up to last night. Edward should teach you discretion. I didn't know you were the type to ruin happy marriages."
"An affair is a two way street," he lowly growled, "Don't speak to me like I took advantage of her."
"With your face, I did not think she had much of a choice but to say yes," I smacked my lips together before I straightened my spine ready to make a much more sophisticated retreat.
"You look different."
I knew it was just three words. Three words someone would say to anyone after not seeing them for a decade but for some reason it cut through my defences easier than my baby fork would through cake. Something erupted in my stomach not by just what he said but how he said it.
His thick Italian accent had the same effect on me when I saw butter on a hot croissant. It nearly unravelled me. I had heard Edward use the same tone to any woman he was attracted to and gagged each time. For me, to be at the receiving end of such a statement flustered me. I was not used to that kind of male attention.
But then again, a man stranded in a desert without food would think an aubergine was his favorite if he came across it but would not even bat an eye at it during a buffet. Marco was just aubergen in my story.
It was not every day you met a man that looked like him.
"Age does that to people," I glared before I walked around him in the elevator and pressed the button again.
"I'm sorry okay, I- I didn't think it would be a problem."
"You're already the mentor of the century," I scowled before I stepped into the elevator and pressed for the ground floor. Yet to my surprise just before the doors could close Marco slipped in with a helpless grin.
"How about we catch breakfast? Do you still like your confetti pancakes?"
I scoffed, "I'm not twelve anymore."