AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Marco grinned. So sexy and charming, her insides leapt. “Did he?”
“Is it true?”
Marco stood, reached across for Portia’s plate, carrying it with his own into the kitchen. Portia followed, her interest more than piqued.
“Marco?”
“Yes.” He scraped the plates into the bin then stacked them in the dishwasher. “It’s true.”
“Wow.” She sat down, resting her chin in her palm.
“It’s just how my brain works,” he said with a shrug. As in,no big deal.
“How did you…did they…?”
“It was just obvious I was a bit different to my brothers,” he said casually. Not bragging, just matter-of-factly. For Portia’s part, having worked with Dante, whom regularly wowed her with his focus, intelligence and work ethic, she could only imagine the ways in which Marco must have distinguished himself as a child. “I hit all the milestones early. Spoke young, read young, could memorise things I’d only seen or heard once. At first my parents thought it was funny. But when I started school, it became apparent it was going to become a problem.”
“How so?”
“I was bored, which for a young boy, meant I became, well, naughty,” he said with another sexy, disarming grin. Something shifted in the centre of her chest. “They talked about putting me up a grade, but that didn’t help, so they put me up again. I became socially isolated. I was still just a kid, but my brain was processing stuff well above my age.”
“So what happened?”
“In the end, they pulled me out of school.” He moved to the coffee machine and inserted a pod, hitting the button so the noise began to hum in her apartment. “I had a tutor, who stretched me however I wanted to be stretched, and after school, I played with my brothers and cousins.”
Portia’s heart shifted with a tangle of emotions. “That must have been hard.”
“Not really. I didn’t like the other kids. I found their games childish and boring. My brothers always played whatever I wanted, even when the rules I came up with were incredibly complex.” He laughed ruefully. “But I also liked soccer, and running, and skiing, and we did a lot of this. I was lucky.”
“So there’s a flipside to being so intelligent?”
“I suppose it’s just required making some adjustments in my life. I still like to be challenged. Beyond what the company can offer, there are other problems I enjoy solving.”
“Like what?”
“Like,” he handed the coffee over to Portia then set about making one for himself. “I’ve spent the last month working on a report for an international foundation about medical supply distribution throughout developing nations.”
Portia furrowed her brow.
“Many issues come into play, from transport logistics to refrigeration of certain vaccines to deployment of medical staff to gaining informed consent in local languages. They asked me to do a zoomed-out overview of the problems and see if there were any ways distribution could be streamlined. It’s a knotty, multi-layered problem.”
“It stretched you,” she murmured.
“Yes. And I can feel the value in the work.”
Her heart shifted again, almost painfully, thudding against her ribs. More admiration warmed her body. So he wasn’t just a good-time playboy. Beneath the surface, there was so much more to Marco. The recognition sparked an alarm bell in the back of her mind.
“And sleeping with so many women? Is that something to do with your genius?”
“I like sex,” he said with raised brows, earning a small smile from Portia. “But sometimes I wonder if it’s the reason I’m not interested in committing. I get bored easily. I need to be challenged, and after a few dates, the challenge is no longer there.”
Portia’s heart thumped harder. Danger seemed all around her now. “I wasn’t a challenge,” she pointed out.
“Do you have any idea how long I’ve looked at you and wondered? How long I’ve fantasised about you? Believe me, I waited and waiting was a challenge.”
Her stomach twisted.
“I know it must seem shallow to someone like you, but Iamcareful to be honest with anyone in my life. I have no interest in creating an expectation of a relationship.”
