Boss of the Year: A Belmont Billionaires Romance by Nicole French

Author:Nicole French [French, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Raglan Publishing
Published: 2025-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

24

NONNA’S BOLOGNESE

*Bacon is not the same thing as pancetta.

“Well.” Frankie’s voice remained carefully neutral as she observed the tension between Lucas and me. “This is cozy.” With a sharp glance that had always marked her as the most observant Zola sibling, she pulled out her keys, unlocked the front door, and handed them back to me. “Come up when you’re ready. Lucas, you are welcome to stay for dinner. That is, if my sister invites you.”

Ever polite, Lucas nodded in her direction, though he didn’t take his stormy gaze off me. “I appreciate that, thank you.”

“Marie.”

I glanced at my sister.

She didn’t say a word, but her thoughts were clear. Be careful.

Then she left.

Strain had brought out a few more of the lines around Lucas’s tornado-colored eyes, and his jaw was set like he was preparing for a fight. He looked good, if a bit tired.

But Lucas always looked good—better, somehow, every day I spent with him. He’d always been a handsome man, though a distant one. But now that I knew exactly what those broad hands felt like, both when caressing softly between my legs or carving handfuls of my thigh with abject need…Yeah, it was hard to see how I’d ever missed the animal magnetism that poured off him like steam.

I was mad about this morning, yes. But I was also more attracted to him than ever.

It was baffling.

I waited for him to say something, but his patience outlasted mine.

“You’re here,” I observed inanely, if only to disrupt the awkwardness.

“You left.”

“Did you expect me to just sit in the hotel room all day?”

He frowned. “I expected at least one response to the seven text messages I sent you. Or at bare minimum, a note. I gave you the same courtesy.”

“Oh, right. I forgot about the note.” I threw my hands in the air, scaring a few nearby pigeons.

“Marie—”

“I sent Robbie a text that I was taking the day,” I cut in. “It was all perfectly professional, especially since you gave me the day off and there was no reason for me to be there without a kitchen or food to work with.”

“That’s not the fucking point, Marie!” Lucas finally exploded, causing a couple exiting a townhouse across the street to stop and stare.

I waved weakly and gave a nod. “Good afternoon.”

Lucas didn’t even acknowledge their presence. “You were out there, in a strange city, not knowing hardly anyone or anywhere to go, and anything could have happened to you, and I had no idea where you were or when you were coming back, and⁠—”

He stopped, shoving his hands back into his pockets while he paced angrily in front of a row of boxwoods, looking like a trapped panther, although we were outside.

“So, that’s what this is about?” I asked. “That I wasn’t at your beck and call? I hate to break it to you, Lucas, but I’m not some servant⁠—”

“Actually, that’s exactly what you are.”

I reared as if I’d been slapped. “How dare you!”

He had the grace to look ashamed.

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