She woke up to sunlight coming through the curtains and the distant smell of coffee and for approximately five seconds she was just a person waking up in a comfortable bed in a warm room and everything was fine.
Then she remembered where the hell she was.
She sat up and pushed her hair back from her face before looking around the room, at the unfamiliar walls, the unfamiliar light and the dress she had fallen asleep in before taking a long slow breath.
"Okay." She exhaled slowly.
She got up, washed her face, brushed her teeth with the still-packaged toothbrush, and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror for a moment. She looked like what she was, a woman who had not planned to spend the night here. Her makeup was mostly gone and her hair was a disaster, she was still in four thousand euros worth of dress that had not been designed for sleeping in.
She found a pin on the bathroom counter, someone else's probably, and used it to pull her hair back.
She took one more breath.
And went to find Alessandro DeLuca.
She found him in a room off the main hallway that turned out to be a study, large and dark-walled with floor to ceiling bookshelves and a desk that looked like it had been making important decisions for decades. He was sitting behind it with a coffee mug and a folder open in front of him, he looked up when she appeared in the doorway with the expression of someone who had been expecting her but wasn't necessarily pleased about the timing.
"You could have knocked" he said.
"The door was open Mr Mafia" Elena said, stepping inside anyway.
He looked at her for a moment, at the ruined hair and party dress and the expression on her face that he already knew was not particularly friendly, then he closed the folder and leaned back in his chair.
"Sit down" he said.
"I'm fine standing."
His jaw ticked slightly but he didn't push it, just picked up his coffee and looked at her with that steady unbothered gaze that she was already learning to find deeply irritating "Sera will bring breakfast—"
"I don't want breakfast" Elena said, "I want to know what I'm doing here please. You said we'd talk this morning so let's talk. What exactly does staying here look like."
He studied her for a moment like he was deciding how much to give her and then he set his coffee down and folded his hands on the desk.
"You have full access to my house" he said, "the kitchen, the library, the garden but The east wing is off limits."
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
Elena blinked in irritation. "that's your reason."
"That's my reason you stubborn cat."
She pressed her lips together "okay. What else."
"You don't leave the property without telling me first" he said, "and you don't leave alone. Ever."
"So I'm a prisoner?"
"You're a guest."
"Guests can leave whenever they want" she said, "so let's not pretend this is something it isn't."
He raised his brows "you can leave" he said, "when the situation has been handled."
"And when will that be?"
"When I decide it is."
Elena laughed and pressed her fingers to her forehead for a second because she genuinely could not decide if this man was serious or if this was some kind of elaborate joke the universe was playing on her, "okay" she said, "so I have access to most of the house, I can't leave alone, I can't go to the east wing for reasons that apparently don't require explanation, and I have to wait until you personally decide that my life can resume. Is that everything?"
"No" he said.
She looked at him and scoffed, "of course it isn't."
"Your phone" he said, "I need the passcode."
The room went very quiet.
Elena stared at him "absolutely not."
"It's not a request—"
"I don't care what it is" she said, "you are not getting my passcode. That is my phone and not yours, those are my conversations, my emails, my—"
"I need to make sure you're not contacting anyone about what you saw" he cut her off, completely calm, like he was asking for something totally reasonable, like this was just a normal thing people asked each other.
"I already told you I wouldn't say anything so please let me go—"
"And I already told you—" he wanted to scold but she cut him off.
"That words don't mean anything in your world, yes, I remember, you've said it twice now" she crossed her arms "the answer is still no."
He looked at her for a long moment and she held his gaze and refused to be the first one to look away, which took more effort than she would have liked to admit because Alessandro DeLuca had a way of looking at people that made you feel like he was reading you.
"Fine" he said finally.
She blinked in surprise. "fine? You'll let me go?"
"Fine" he repeated, picking his coffee back up, "keep your passcode. But you're staying in this house."
Elena stood there for a second not entirely sure what to do with that because she had prepared herself for a fight and the fight hadn't happened and now she was just standing in his study with her arms crossed and nowhere to direct the energy. Ugh!
"What's the catch?" she asked.
The corner of his mouth curved up, just barely "there's no catch princess."
"There's always a catch with you."
"You've known me for less than twelve hours" he said, "you don't know what there always is with me."
That was annoyingly fair and she hated it.
She uncrossed her arms "I want my things from home" she said, moving on, "my clothes, my laptop, my books. If I'm going to be here I need my things."
"I'll send someone today."
"I'll write a list." She said looking away in annoyance.
"Fine." He accepted willingly.
"And I want to call my father myself. Not have one of your people call him, me, personally."
"Also fine. No one's stopping you from calling anyone, you have a damn phone but sweetheart, you better not call the police because if you do, I promise I'll kill you which I do not want to because you're so pretty, just know the police works for me!"
She narrowed her eyes at him slightly because he was agreeing too easily and adding threats and it was making her suspicious "I want to be able to go outside. In the garden, whenever I want, without having to ask permission first."
"The garden is part of the property Miss." he said sarcastically, "I already said you have access to it."
"I just wanted to make sure that was actually true and not one of those things that sounds true but comes with seventeen conditions."
He looked at her "are you always like this."
"Like what?!"
"Like this" he said, gesturing vaguely in her direction.
Elena raised an eyebrow "you're going to have to be more specific."
He held her gaze for a moment and just sighed, he was tired of arguing with this woman.
"Sit down Elena" he said, "let Sera bring breakfast. You haven't eaten."
"You don't know that."
"You were at a party last night, you don't eat at parties, you stand near the walls and hold drinks you don't finish" he said, "sit down."
Elena opened her mouth and then closed it again. How the heck did he know she didn't eat at parties?
She pulled out the chair across from his desk and sat down.
Not because he told her to, she told herself very firmly, but because she was actually hungry as her stomach had been growling since she woke up and the smell of coffee had been following her and she was not going to win every battle today, she needed to choose which ones mattered the most right now.
That was all.
Sera appeared in the doorway a moment later with a tray like she had been waiting just outside, which she probably had been, and set it on the desk between them, coffee, bread and other dishes, they smelled incredible, and Elena hated how good they looked.
She picked up the coffee first.
Alessandro watched her over the rim of his own cup and said nothing.
She was in Alessandro DeLuca's house, drinking his coffee, in last night's dress, fighting about passcodes at eight in the morning, wow! Typical!
Two days ago her biggest problem had been deciding whether to go to Sofia's cousin's gallery opening but now… her problems were over the top!
She took a long sip of coffee.
It was, infuriatingly, the best coffee she had ever had in her life.
But I mean, She was not going to tell him that.