Unexpected Attraction: Loved By You, #3

By Eva Winslow

October 1973

 

Anna Watts is putting as much distance as she can between herself and a ten-year relationship that ended in betrayal. She boards a flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong to start a new job, and a new life – putting the past behind her.

 

When the flight makes an illegal emergency landing in China and is grounded for a few days, Anna meets Alessio Conti as she works with him, her seatmate Laura Brooks, and co-pilot Charlie Winters, to help keep the other passengers calm. Her chance meeting with Alessio will change her life in ways she never expected.

 

Anna arrives in Hong Kong to the find the new job she was offered does not exist. Her only option is to take the next flight back to San Francisco and as she's getting ready to leave, she runs into Alessio again. When he hears about her situation, he hires her on the spot and as they work together, the attraction between them grows. The last thing Anna wants is to get involved in another relationship. The last thing Alessio wants is to get into a relationship at all.

 

Anna's past relationship still haunts her. Alessio enjoys a care-free lifestyle and has never considered a long-term relationship. As they continue to resist the unexpected attraction between them, something has to give. Fate brought them together twice. Was it just for friendship, or was it for something more?

 

Unexpected Attraction is the first book in Anna and Alessio's story. Don't miss the conclusion in Unexpected Desire!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eva Winslow
• Release date: Nov 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201121648

Book preview

UNEXPECTED ATTRACTION

Loved By You: Book 3

By

Eva Winslow

Table of Contents

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

COPYRIGHT

CHAPTER ONE

October 1973

The Furama Hotel was everything Anna had hoped it would be.

Gleaming marble floors, polished woods, indulgently hued baroque wallpaper—it was luxury personified, everything the brochures had promised. Set high along an ever-growing skyline of taller and larger buildings, the Furama’s thirty-three stories boasted a spa, gym, multiple Olympic sized swimming pools, office spaces, convention centers, and a revolving restaurant right at the top.

It was a place where anything and everything was possible. Anna had pulled up in her cab, exhausted and hungry and feeling disgusting, looked up at what was supposed to be her fresh start, and felt, for the first time in months, like things were going to be okay.

Supposed to be, being the operative phrase…

Now, she slumped heavily against the bar and sipped her whiskey, feeling uncomfortably at home in a place that was supposed to be a clean slate.

What am I going to do? she murmured into her glass.

Who was she even asking? The whiskey? Whiskey only ever had one answer for her: Everything is pointless and you’re a loser, so you might as well give up.

The bar’s pianist played slow, smooth, somber jazz notes that seemed to resonate in her very soul. The booze went down way too easily, numbing her throat and stomach and head until the softly lit sconces blurred and the buzz of surrounding conversation turned into a formless hum.

Two days. The British authorities in Hong Kong had given her two days to get out of the country. Turned out there was no job, and the man who head-hunted her had no authority to offer her one. And now Anna had forty-eight hours to figure out the answer to her question—or for the whiskey to figure it out for her, but that had never worked out well.

In forty-eight hours, she would be right back where she started: homeless, jobless, and futureless. To board a plane back home to a place she no longer considered such felt like some cosmic joke.

To board a plane full stop felt like a cosmic joke right now.

Anna shuddered, sense memories trying to pierce the veil of whiskey-numbness—a hot, cramped aircraft cabin filled with terrified people growing increasingly restless as an army closed in from all sides; the threat of being locked away in some Chinese prison for months on end; a man wielding an axe, trying to smash through layers of glass and steal.

She needed fresh air. And a cigarette. Kind of paradoxical, but whatever.

Anna slammed down the dregs of her drink, gestured the bartender to refill her, tossed some notes on the counter, and headed for the patio.

It was quiet outside, save a small group of chatting businessmen and a couple snuggled away in the corner whispering sweet nothings. Thankfully, nobody paid her any mind.

She pulled her cigarette case from her purse. It was silver, ornately carved in a vine-like pattern, and inscribed with her initials. A gift from her ex-fiancé, one which she kept out of sheer desperate necessity—to prove to herself that their relationship had existed, had meant something to him before he chose to discard her like old newspaper.

Inside, there were just four cigarettes left, each different in make and size.

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue," she muttered to herself, pulling out the Chesterfield Blue and placing it between her lips.

It felt appropriate, in a way. A woman outside of The Riptide bar gave her that cigarette. Anna had been freshly dumped, drunk, and crying, and some angel of a woman had comforted her like they were family. They had shared a smoke, and the woman had given Anna some valuable advice: Go home, sleep it off, reset. Tomorrow you can wake up and start a brand new life. She had called Anna a cab and given her the Chesterfield Blue for the road, but Anna had stashed it away in the case instead, taking those words to heart.

From that day on, she hadn’t intended to smoke any of them. They were… symbolic. Leaving San Francisco was meant to be a fresh start in every way imaginable. A new job and home and social circle, and all her old bad habits left stateside.

But here she was, whiskey in one hand and smoke in the other. No job, no home, and no-one.

Well, there was Laura, whose contact information Anna had stashed in her flight bag as they’d joyously left Kai Tak airport behind. But Laura was visiting family, and Anna couldn’t well bother her mere hours after parting ways. Hey, I know we barely know each other and just spent seventy hours trapped together like sardines in a can during a siege, but do you think I could come live with your family for a while?

Anna huffed a laugh to herself. It was both ridiculous and humiliating—two more habits she’d sworn to leave back in San Francisco. But was it more humiliating than slinking back there with her tail between her legs and falling on her parents’ charity again? More humiliating than her ex-fiancé and his brand new fiancé finding out she’d failed before she’d even started?

Everyone back home would feel so sorry for her—to her face, anyway, and then they’d snicker and make jokes behind her back. The past decade being Jack’s side piece, then girlfriend, then wife-to-be had left Anna with an… interesting social group, and every one of them had taken Jack’s side after his affair came out.

Anna talked too much; Anna was from Outer Mission and she wasn’t like us; Anna already knew he was a cheater so it’s her own fault. She couldn’t disagree with that last one, but still. She’d been nineteen and infatuated by this man ten years her senior, who had treated her like a queen and promised over and over that he’d already filed the divorce papers.

They—whoever they were—said love was blind. Anna had willingly put her hands over her eyes, her fingers in her ears, spun around ten times, and sung loudly at the top of her voice. Anything to avoid seeing what was right in front of her. Anything to avoid seeing that the man she loved, worked hard for, took care of, made excuses for had been an asshole from the very moment they’d met.

She took another swig of whiskey and a drag of her cigarette, tipping her head back against the rough concrete wall and exhaling a plume of smoke up to the clear night sky. From the outside, she probably looked like the picture of serenity.

On the inside, she wanted to scream.

Scream and throw her glass and upset this quiet little garden filled with romance and promise. For months, she’d been trying and mostly succeeding to hold it all together. For weeks, the promise of her new job at the Furama had been the bright, shining endpoint on the hopeless, broken road she’d found herself on.

Surviving Jack’s affair, him kicking her out of their home and their joint business, her family’s I told you so’s, and then two days at gunpoint on the runway at Shenzhen Bao, only to end up at rock bottom once again…

What was the point of continuing to hold on? What was she even holding onto?

Her eyes began to sting, but she very quickly blinked the tears away. She would not cry. She hadn’t since that night at The Riptide, and she wouldn’t now.

Anna?

Through the faint glow of the fairy lights strung through the trees, one of the businessmen had approached her. Tall, dark-haired, and wearing an impeccably tailored suit, her name rolled off his tongue in a rich, honeyed voice.

A familiar voice… American and Italian accents vying for dominance.

Alessio? she asked incredulously.

Alessio Conti, the investment banker she had just spent two days trapped with, in a plane cabin. He had stepped up to help the passengers just as she and Laura had, and the three of them had become quite the team, despite the strange circumstances.

I remember now, he chuckled, stepping closer. You said you were taking a job here.

Anna stuttered a laugh. She was, momentarily, speechless. She’d just been trying to stave off a well-earned nervous breakdown, so being confronted with this man she never thought she’d see again was quite the sucker punch.

Yeah, was all she could manage.

How are you doing? he asked softly.

Anna stuffed the cigarette in her mouth, hoping that only she could see her hands trembling. Not bad.

He nodded sympathetically. What happened was crazy, huh?

Yeah, she huffed. It really was.

Let me buy you another drink? We could reminisce.

That actually did make her laugh, the tiny swell of amusement breaking through the grip of tension on her body. About old times, huh?

Remember when that crazy guy was wielding an axe around? Alessio mused.

And Charlie told us we might spend six months in prison?

Alessio smiled, his already handsome face just elevated by it. Good times.

Anna couldn’t help but smile back. Can’t buy memories like that.

Another whiskey?

Go on, then, she drawled. If you insist.

"Smells like a Glen Grant. Alessio raised an eyebrow at her. You have fine taste."

She probably smelled like a Glen Grant, but she appreciated the sentiment coming from a man as well-heeled as Alessio. And then she hated herself even more for how pathetic that made her.

Jack used to tell her: Not bad for a hair stylist from Outer Mission. It made her feel… proud. God, she wanted to be sick.

Not really. She shrugged nonchalantly. Top shelf is way beyond my pay grade.

And yet…

Tonight I’m just drinking to being free, she said dryly.

Alessio grinned. Well, I’d also like to drink to that.

That’s the good thing about freedom—you can do whatever you want. She didn’t like how belligerent her tone had become, and she took a deep breath and smiled. I’d love to have a drink with you.

Right, he said slowly. I’ll be back in a moment.

Thankfully, that gave her some time to reel herself back in. There were worse ways to spend an already terrible evening than with an attractive gentleman. Anna could put aside her woes for a little while; try to make the best of a bad situation instead of wallowing in self-indulgent nonsense. It might even be just what she needed—a good looking distraction. A nice send-off.

Alessio returned with two glasses, gesturing for Anna to take a seat at one of the tables. She took the drink gratefully, noticing it was a double even more gratefully.

She smirked. Trying to get me drunk?

We’re drinking to being free, remember? Alessio said with a wink. Essere libero.

Anna held up her glass, trying to shape her mouth around the Italian. Essere libero.

To exploring the world, new job opportunities, and new friends, Alessio added.

One out of three wasn’t too bad, she supposed. It seemed that freedom was funny like that. She hadn’t traveled, changed jobs, or made new friends in almost ten years. Now that she was free to explore those choices, she had already failed at most of them.

But freedom to fail was still freedom; Anna wasn’t sure she liked freedom very much…

They toasted, clinking their glasses together, and actually did reminisce about the past few days.

You handled it all like a pro, Anna found herself gushing. I was close to losing my patience a bunch of times, but you were so calm.

I was in the US Marine Corp for four years, he told her. We saw worse.

Ah, that explains it, she mused. What made you join up?

Looking for something, I suppose, he said with a wistful smile. My father was a US soldier during World War Two, and my mother was part of the Italian resistance. A match made in Heaven, apparently.

Anna huffed. That’s really cool.

He actually died of a heart attack when I was young, so my mother and grandmother did their best to raise me in a rather… turbulent post-war Italy. My father’s family always told her she had a home with them in the States should she ever need it, and one day she took them up on the offer.

So you enlisted in memory of your father?

Alessio smiled softly. Yes. But after Vietnam, I was rather disillusioned with the whole thing. After that I did a bunch of jobs all over the world—marketing, hospitality, construction, climbed a few corporate ladders. My favorite was working in a vet.

"In a vet?" Anna asked.

Alessio raised an eyebrow, considered her for a moment, and then burst out laughing. "With animals."

Anna snorted, slapping her hand over her dumb mouth. "Oh my God. A veteran-ary."

He laughed harder, trailing off it an amused sigh. Maybe we should switch to water soon.

I think that might be a good idea.

Since we’re neighbors for the foreseeable future, we can always enjoy another drink another night. Maybe even… dinner?

Anna swallowed hard around the sudden lump in her throat. Her voice cracked when she replied, Yeah.

Hey, Alessio said, sliding his hand across the table and brushing his warm fingertips against her wrist. No pressure. Just two friends reminiscing, remember?

Tomorrow, she had to pack up whatever stuff she’d already unpacked. Tomorrow, she had to book a flight back to San Francisco and pay for it with her rapidly dwindling savings. Tomorrow, she had to face reality.

But tonight… tonight she could live in a fantasy.

I would love to have dinner with you sometime, she said softly—not one word a lie. In some other version of Anna’s life, she began work on Monday morning training the Furama spa employees western styling techniques to satisfy the international clientele. Maybe next Friday, she went out on a date with this quite lovely man, forgetting all about Jack and his lies and his cruelty. Maybe during the weekend, she met up with Laura and went sightseeing around Hong Kong, getting a feel for her new hometown.

In some other version of Anna’s life, she could’ve been so happy.

Tears stung her eyes again and once again, she stubbornly held them at bay.

You sound… sad about that, Alessio tried to joke, but it fell flat.

I’ve just had a little too much to drink, is all, she said quickly. I should probably head back up to my room and sleep it off.

Of course. Alessio looked concerned, and Anna felt terrible. She couldn’t even live in the fantasy for an evening; reality was just too close. I’ll walk you.

Thank you, but I’m fine. She stood up, Alessio’s fingers dragging against her arm where they’d been resting. She shivered and held the place where he’d touched her, wrapping her own fingers around herself like she could press that memory into her skin. I’ll see you around, neighbor.

Alessio stood, too, but Anna walked away before he could say another word.

She headed to the elevator, slumping against the wall as she rode up to her floor. Her stomach felt sour, her head groggy. It was like the tipsy good mood from before had imploded, expediting her inevitable hangover.

She already felt painfully sober as she entered her room, taking a longing look around at the fine bed linens and thick drapes and soft carpets. The kind of luxury she’d probably never be able to afford again.

The bed bounced under her weight as she flopped down onto it. Soft, springy, so comfortable. Was there no end to how amazing this place was?

Well, there was an end for Anna, a rapidly approaching tomorrow.

And she didn’t foresee herself getting much sleep tonight as she curled up on the perfect bed in her perfect room in this perfect new place and tried to hold onto those moments for as long as she could.

CHAPTER TWO

Thank you for the lovely evening, Alessio, Marita said.

Alessio stroked her dark hair back from her face and kissed her. The pleasure was all mine.

She laughed a dry little laugh and shook her head. I know, darling. The second I started talking about the Ma-Huang merger, your eyes lit up.

Alessio leaned against his doorframe and smiled. That was just a bonus.

Sure it was, she drawled.

It really was. After Anna had left in such a hurry last night, Alessio had found himself a bit despondent. Marita had come up to the bar beside him, deep in conversation with a colleague about a huge merger between two prominent Hong Kong companies. She was older than him by at least twenty years, beautiful and refined with a deep, husky voice and a filthy laugh. It had been a win-win situation, really.

Personally, I’ve never understood why more people don’t mix business and pleasure, Alessio said with a playful smirk.

Marita winked. I know I’ve always seen the benefits. Ciao, chico guapo. Good luck with your new endeavor.

He watched her hips as she swayed down the hall and to the elevator. There were worse ways to spend his first night in Hong Kong than meeting a lovely, willing lady and talking business over some less… professional pursuits.

But time was ticking on, and he’d wasted enough of it.

He had so much to do today. His new offices on the 3rd floor were filled with boxes that needed unpacking, machines that needed hooking up, paperwork that needed filing. He had four interviews with the more promising assistant candidates his boss had set up for him, and a stack of more than a dozen resumes to go through if they those didn’t work out.

Alessio was no stranger to setting up from scratch in a new place. He’d worked in multiple industries in multiple countries, and it always came with this kind of drudgery and grunt work before the real fun could begin.

Well, he’d had quite a bit of fun last night… but now he had to get serious.

He could do serious, contrary to what many people—including his boss, Sylvain—thought of him.

He showered, dressed, and headed downstairs to pick up something for breakfast—something portable he could take to his office. Another thing he was used to: meals on the run.

But as he stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby, something caught his eye.

Anna. Dressed in a flowing, polka-dot-patterned dress in a vibrant teal color, her strawberry blonde hair pinned away from her face and