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  She took off her clothes, entered the shower cabin and was soon covered in soothing, hot water.

  As she let it run down her face, another word to describe her week came to mind: flirtatious. Yes, she had spent all week working, meeting people and preparing the posts to put online –under Hillary’s supervision and unfortunately after Mr. Jenkins comments and red marked, ruthless corrections.

  But she had also spent a whole week with Christopher. Flirting with Christopher. Another thing to be grateful for! Flirting!

  Despite her better judgment, despite her stubbornness in trying to be as professional as possible, it was very hard for her to keep Christopher at arm’s length.

  He was such a smooth talker and such an incredible person. He was always in a good mood, always ready to enjoy life and ready to surprise her with his intense observations.

  “You seem stressed. Would you like to de-stress with me?” he had said to her at some point the other day. Isabella must have given him a dirty look, because he quickly added “I meant in the gym.” A wide smile spread on his lips.

  “Hello, have we met? I only do fork lifting and coffee sipping, remember?” she grinned at him, as she turned to face Christopher. They were side by side, whispering to each other during a briefing with team leader Mr. Johnson -who Isabella had still to meet properly but surprisingly enough –with him being her boss number one- seemed way less intimidating than Mr. Jenkins.

  “You also said you like swimming, that’s exercise.”

  “Yeah…” she began but Christopher cut in.

  “Come on” he touched her arm and hinted at the door with his stare “Let’s go. You look like you could use some time off”

  Then, he gave her the slyest glance she had ever seen – head low, eyes looking up at her and a slight crocked smile on his lips.

  Isabella’s eyes widened, as she took a look around. Nobody was looking at them, they were at the far back of the room and everyone else seemed very concentrated.

  Which was exactly what they should have been doing, too. Listening to Mr. Johnson’s words of encouragement for the championship that was about to begin.

  They should have been focusing on work.

  “The briefing is over anyway” he whispered in her ear.

  “How do you know?” she whispered back cautiously.

  Before he could say anything back, Mr. Johnson made his conclusions and wished them a pleasant evening and a safe trip to Valencia, where he would be heading too at some point that week.

  Without saying anything else, Christopher took her arm and they were the first to head out of the room. They went down the stairs, into the big exercise room.

  “Take this” he said handing her a pair of boxing gloves. Isabella laughed at the sight of them.

  “What do you want me to do with these?” she asked.

  “I want you to wear them on your head. What do you think?” he teased and gave her another cheeky look.

  “Ha, ha” she put on the gloves as Christopher took out a boxing sack.

  “Think about work, a stressful situation and hit the sack as hard as you can. Kicks are allowed too. Only on the sack, Miss Bresciani. Don’t even think about hitting me” he moved around the sack to go stand right behind her.

  “If you want you can get comfortable and remove clothing”

  “I am quite comfortable in my outfit, thank you very much.” Isabella smiled to the side, but decided it would be a good idea to kick her heels off.

  Just hearing the words ‘remove clothing’ come from Christopher’s lips, made shivers run down her spine.

  She eyed him to the side and saw that he was staring at her, watching her every move. Isabella tied her hair behind her neck and looked at the sack, her head tilted to the side. This could be fun.

  For the next half an hour all they did was laugh and say things that had upset them, people that had pissed them off over the past few days – Mr. Jenkins’ name might have come up a few times- and Isabella kicked and punched the sack away.

  Then they had sat on a bench -Isabella had been short-breathed and probably looking like a stray dog with her hair out of her ponytail -talking and doing what they seemed to do quite well together: flirt.

  “You have the sexiest dimple when you laugh” he had said to her at some point.

  She had shrugged it off, trying to be kind and professional, despite her red cheeks. After all she knew better than to be flattered by his words.

  She had watched him all week, surrounded by fans and women, flirting and being all smiles. It was just the way he was, being sexy and a smooth talker was just his thing.

  Besides, Isabella kept reminding herself – and the butterflies she felt in her stomach every time he spoke to her - that they would be working together for at least a year.

  Flirting was wrong. But so incredibly fun with him.

  Just thinking about flirting with Christopher, made her cheeks go up in flames again. Isabella was brought back to reality by the itchy feeling of hot water.

  It felt good, it felt incredibly relaxing, as if the warm drizzle was actually peeling off all the stress and the tiredness off her skin.

  For twenty minutes all she thought about was getting cleaned, before she heard her phone ring.

  She was out of the shower cabin in a second. It could be Hillary, maybe she forgot to tell me something. Isabella grabbed her towel and leaped towards the bed, where her phone was buzzing frantically. It was her sister calling.

  “Hey!!!!! Ciao! I was about to call you” she said, really glad to be speaking to Emilia.

  “Ciao!!! Mom has been asking about you nonstop. I showed her the pictures you posted on the net earlier. Tell me about the hotel, the dinners you mentioned, your first week. DETAILS!” she screamed excited.

  For the next half an hour, they spoke about Isabella’s first impressions, who she had met at the parties, her first interviews and meetings. Noah and Christopher also came up a few times.

  “What are they like? Are they as gorgeous in real life?” Emilia asked. “Why are drivers so good looking? Must be a requisite for them” she mumbled more to herself than to her sister.

  “They are very different. Noah likes to keep to himself, Christopher on the other hand is very outgoing” Isabella replied and smiled to herself thinking about how silly she had been on the track, tricking him like that when they were cycling around the circuit.

  She didn’t mention it to her sister. Emilia was too busy updating her with the latest gossip of their hometown and telling her all about this guy she had met at University. Isabella wanted to speak to her mother and brother, but they weren’t home.

  “They went to buy groceries. They’ll call you back. So, what are you up to tonight?” Emilia inquired.

  “I’m just going to lay low” Isabella collapsed on her bed, letting her long wet hair rest on the bed cover. “There’s this other dinner thing, it’s not really necessary for me to go. I’ll just hang out here and relax. My plane for Valencia leaves at six am tomorrow. And I really need to rest.”

  Emilia went silent for a few seconds.

  “Hey, are you there?” Isabella wondered.

  “You mean, you are in this fancy hotel, surrounded by gorgeous, famous people and you are not going to the dinner?” she sounded disappointed.

  Isabella rolled her eyes. It wasn’t even a dinner, it was a happy hour thing, in this other hotel with another sponsor and it was already going on. It felt such a hassle to get dressed, wear heels and get her behind to the event.

  Especially after that long hot shower, all she really wanted was comfort food and a movie to watch. Hillary wasn’t even going, just drivers, MB managers. So why bother?

  She was going to be game for the real thing. Right now she wanted to chill and maybe check out the pictures she had taken of Christopher and Noah that week.

  Chapter 5

  Christopher circled the crowded room, hoping that his eyes would meet a certain’ honey brown set.


  He had been standing near the windows for an hour now, talking to people, friends, managers and all he longed for was to get a chance to see her. Isabella wasn’t there, just as Hillary wasn’t but he hadn’t noticed her absence until someone had pointed it out to him.

  Since he had set eyes on her that first evening, when they attended the same dinner party a week ago, Christopher couldn’t stop thinking about her. It had been years since he had met someone like her, not only beautiful and charming but also witty and smart. And so sexy.

  Not that he hadn’t had his share of hot girlfriends, but usually the passion had ended as fast as it had started. This time he could feel he was really interested. Partially because he never missed someone like he missed her presence in that moment.

  It just felt like something wasn’t right without that smile of hers, those witty remarks and that killer ass.

  He lowered his stare and thought that he was being pathetic. What was wrong with him? They had known each other for what, a week?

  He smiled at the thought of her in the white dress she had worn the first night and sipped his drink looking around again, hoping that she would be in line with the people entering the room.

  In the crowd he spotted Noah, his face severe as always, trying to avoid journalists as much as possible. He checked his watch. Only half an hour left to this long cocktail hour event.

  So he made an excuse – he was tired, he needed a good night sleep- and said goodnight to Noah and the rest of the team and friends there, and headed towards the door.

  “What are you doing? I can feel you are not listening to me” her sister said, after Isabella’s long pause. Emilia was telling her what the town had been saying about her and her new job.

  “I’m sorry, you are right I am a little distracted“ Isabella admitted. Of course she was, she was checking out the pictures she had taken and Christopher was such a big distraction.

  A sinful distraction. The picture she had taken of him on his bike was heart throbbing. He looked dead gorgeous and incredibly sexy, with his smile to the side, his messy hair.

  You could imagine his arm muscles under the fitted jacket. His smile reached his eyes and made them gleam. Isabella’s eyes lingered around the small wrinkle to the side of his right eye and the dimples on the side of his mouth.

  “Send me some of the pictures, please” Emilia begged, when Isabella confessed her distraction. She agreed but told her not to show anyone and not to put it on any social network.

  “I’m going to use these for the blog that we are doing” she explained, pretending she was all business and was not looking at the pictures for entertainment.

  While she sent her the files – pictures of Christopher, Noah and the training facilities - she looked at the one she was going to keep for herself, the one she wasn’t going to share with anyone: she had taken it unexpectedly, in the corridor after the interview.

  He wasn’t smiling in that one, he was genuinely laughing and looking at her with that stare of his, like he thought she was extraordinary- extraordinarily beautiful, with that sexy gleam in his eyes that bothered her so much.

  There was a knock and Isabella stood up from the bed in an instant. She told her sister to wait and went towards the door, with her shower towel still wrapped around her damp skin.

  “Yes?” she said and peaked in the spy-hole.

  Her heart stopped when she saw Christopher, wearing jeans and a dark green button up shirt that matched his green/gray eyes, standing on the other side, hands in his pockets.

  “It’s Christopher” he said looking down at his shoes.

  “Just a minute” SHIT! She rushed to her bed and told her sister she had to go.

  “What? Why?” she demanded on the other side of the phone. Not now, not when they were doing some catching up.

  “I’ll speak to you later”

  Isabella didn’t wait for her sister to reply. She tossed her phone on the bed and went to her wardrobe. She was panicking! Quickly, she put on underwear and the first thing that caught her eye: pink t-shirt and grey shorts.

  She rushed to the door and checked her hair in the mirror before opening it. Her hair was a complete mess: wet, wavy and resembled an old mop. SHIT! She tied them up in a quick ponytail, letting her long bangs down.

  “Ciao” she said and smiled at him. Although his visit came totally unexpected, she couldn’t help but be pleased to see him.

  She looked down and realized that she was barefoot. SLOB! “What are you doing here? I thought there was this dinner thing tonight at the Worcestershire Hotel.”

  “I was. Why weren’t you there?” he asked quite rightly.

  “I was a little tired and It got late. Hillary said it wasn’t necessary for us to go so… so I thought it was better to just skip it” Isabella blushed, a little embarrassed.

  Suddenly, her thinking didn’t seem right. Maybe her presence was needed. Maybe Noah and Christopher needed her. Maybe Hillary had gone in the end. But no, she would have called her up if she had, right?

  “You didn’t miss anything…may I come in?” he asked, but he sounded a little unsure. Isabella blinked a little, Christopher Taylor unsure of something? Incredible. He always seemed in control, always in the right place, always cool.

  She blinked again “Of course, sorry. Come in, I was just taking a shower and packing.”

  “Yes, I can see that.” And he took a strand of her long wet bangs that was going over her right eye and put it behind her ear. Isabella gasped a little at his touch.

  “Are you okay?” he asked walking around her room.

  “Yes, I’m fine. I was just tired.”

  But right now you are giving me palpitations, Isabella thought. “ I was going to order some room service. Would you like to join me?” she asked out of courtesy, although it scared her a little bit to be in such a small environment with that gorgeous man. She couldn’t help but stare at him, while her heart throbbed.

  “No, thank you. I’ll be going home soon. I need to get some rest, too. I was just wondering if you were okay. I didn’t want you to be sick after cycling in the cold with me, working out in the gym the other day…a bit too much exercise for a fork lifter” He smiled to the side.

  Isabella smiled back awkwardly.

  It was so nice of him to check on her. He just felt guilty for making you exercise with him, he’s just checking on a work partner, she repeated to herself like a mantra. No need to get excited over nothing.

  “Well, thanks for checking on me. It was a little too much for me but I guess I’ll have to get used to it, being around athletes is hard work” she teased back to cover up her embarrassment.

  “Were you working?” he pointed at the laptop on her bed. Say no, say no.

  “I was just selecting the pictures I took this week… for the website” she walked towards her computer, trying to figure out how to kick herself for not being able to lie.

  “Workaholic already, uh?” he teased.

  “Well, Mr. Jenkins is going to be hard to impress, so I better get a move on” she meant every word, expect she would have chosen a more appropriate name for Mr. Jenkins, but decided to be nice and avoid insulting nickname. For now.

  “May I?’” he alluded to the pictures and to the blog entry she had been working on.

  Isabella nodded and swallowed hard. Knowing that Christopher would be checking her work, made her a little uneasy. Was it because she feared his opinion, because he might not find her so extraordinary after all?

  They both sat next to each other on the bed, looking at her snapshots. Her skin was in flames. She was sitting on a bed, next to Christopher on her first week on the job.

  It wasn’t a very promising start. Or maybe it was, depending on one’s point of view.

  Isabella was trying to control her excitement, trying desperately to slow down her heartbeat, while Christopher was enjoying every minute of their closeness.

  “These two are the ones I decided to put on the website, providing your m
anager and my boss approve” she showed him the one on the bike and one she had taken in the gym, a close up. Dead gorgeous close up.

  This trying to sound professional thing wasn’t working very well for her, she hoped her voice wouldn’t give her in.

  “You are really good” he said and he didn’t sound surprised. It was as if now he had proof before his eyes of her talent as a writer and photographer.

  “Thank you. I try to follow my instincts” she said and they looked at each other. What were they, inches away? She could smell his tangy perfume and he could smell the soap on her skin.

  “I like the idea of following ones instincts” he kept his eyes on hers as he spoke. Without a single doubt, Isabella knew exactly where this was going, what Christopher meant.

  If they were to follow their instincts, where would that lead them?

  “Well, I only follow my instincts when it comes to work” Isabella lowered her gaze and pretended to look back at her screen, his stare so intense she couldn’t hold it any longer. She felt naked under his eyes, like he was trying to understand as much as possible of her.

  And they were telling each other more, than what they were actually saying.

  He wanted her to know he was attracted to her.

  She wanted him to know she wasn’t going to jump into anything, without thinking it through.

  “I’m sure Mr. Jenkins and Hillary will like them. Even though left is my best side” he pointed to the one on the bicycle. “So really, I should take the credit for it”

  He smiled to the side, his eyes on hers. What a player he was.

  “I’ll tell you what: I’ll shout you a drink if he accepts them without second thoughts. But If he has something to say about them, I get to tell everyone how I won on the track that day” To Isabella’s surprise, she was really good at playing this game. She was really getting the hang of all the flirting.

  It was like a relief from having to deal with all the sexual tension between them.

  “Done. Although in my defense I’ll say I was easily distracted by a beautiful scenery”

  Of course, Christopher was referring to when Isabella had stood up to peddle faster, when she had showed him her ‘best side’. My behind.