Lessons Learned

traveling. She looked as though she could head a three-hour business meeting without a whimper. But then she arched her back, closing her eyes briefly as she stretched her shoulders. He wanted to take care of her.
    “Juliet, there’s no need for two rooms.”
    She shifted her shoulder bag and signed her name. “Carlo, don’t start. Arrangements have already been made.”
    “But it’s absurd. You’ll be staying in my suite, so the extra room is simply extra.”
    The desk clerk stood at a discreet distance and listened to every word.
    Juliet pulled her credit card out of her wallet and set it down on the counter with a snap. Carlo noted, with some amusement, that she no longer looked the least bit tired. He wanted to make love with her for hours.
    “You’ll need the imprint on this for my incidentals,” she told the clerk calmly enough. “All Mr. Franconi’s charges will be picked up.”
    Carlo pushed his form toward the clerk then leaned on the counter. “Juliet, won’t you feel foolish running back and forth across the hall? It’s ridiculous, even for a publisher, to pay for a bed that won’t be slept in.”
    With her jaw clenched, she picked up her credit card again. “I’ll tell you what’s ridiculous,” she said under her breath. “It’s ridiculous for you to be standing here deliberately embarrassing me.”
    “You have rooms 1102 and 1108.” The clerk pushed the keys toward them. “I’m afraid they’re just down the hall from each other rather than across.”
    “That’s fine.” Juliet turned to find the bellman had their luggage packed on the cart and his ears open. Without a word, she strode toward the bank of elevators.
    Strolling along beside her, Carlo noted that the cashier had a stunning smile. “Juliet, I find it odd that you’d be embarrassed over something so simple.”
    “I don’t think it’s simple.” She jabbed the up button on the elevator.
    “Forgive me.” Carlo put his tongue in his cheek. “It’s only that I recall you specifically saying you wanted our relationship to be simple.”
    “Don’t tell me what I said. What I said has nothing to do with what I meant.”
    “Of course not,” he murmured and waited for her to step inside the car.
    Seeing the look on Juliet’s face, the bellman began to worry about his tip. He put on a hospitality-plus smile. “So, you in Chicago long?”
    “Two days,” Carlo said genially enough.
    “You can see a lot in a couple of days. You’ll want to get down to the lake—”
    “We’re here on business,” Juliet interrupted. “Only business.”
    “Yes, ma’am.” With a smile, the bellman pushed his cart into the hall. “1108’s the first stop.”
    “That’s mine.” Juliet dug out her wallet again and pulled outbills as the bellman unlocked her door. “Those two bags,” she pointed out then turned to Carlo. “We’ll meet Dave Lockwell in the bar for drinks at 10:00. You can do as you like until then.”
    “I have some ideas on that,” he began but Juliet moved past him. After stuffing the bills in the bellman’s hand, she shut the door with a quick click.
     
    Thirty minutes, to Carlo’s thinking, was long enough for anyone to cool down. Juliet’s stiff-backed attitude toward their room situation had caused him more exasperation than annoyance. But then, he expected to be exasperated by women. On one hand, he found her reaction rather sweet and naive. Did she really think the fact that they were lovers would make the desk clerk or a bellman blink twice?
    The fact that she did, and probably always would, was just another aspect of her nature that appealed to him. In whatever she did, Juliet Trent would always remain proper. Simmering passion beneath a tidy, clean-lined business suit. Carlo found her irresistible.
    He’d known so many kinds of women—the bright young ingenue greedy to her fingertips, the wealthy aristocrat bored both by wealth and tradition, the successful career woman who both looked for and was wary of marriage. He’d known so many—the happy, the secure, the desperate and seeking, the fulfilled and the grasping. Juliet Trent with the cool green eyes and quiet voice left him uncertain as to what pigeonhole she’d fit into. It seemed she had all and none of the feminine qualities he understood. The only thing he was certain of was that he wanted her to fit, somehow, into his life.
    The best way, the only way, he knew to accomplish that was to distract her with charm until she was