It felt as if for ever had passed before he returned to the here and now and when he arrived...
Sanity returned in a single beat.
He blinked then stared into Beth’s dazed eyes.
Sanity must have returned to her too for they broke apart at the same time.
Not a single word was spoken as they hurriedly straightened their clothing and smoothed their hair.
He welcomed the brief distraction.
Never in his life had he lost control like that.
Madness had taken him in its clutches.
Beth found it best to concentrate on keeping herself upright on legs that felt as if spaghetti had replaced the bones rather than dissect what had just exploded between them.
Alessio had never laid a finger on her outside the bedroom before. Not even a kiss to her cheek. There had been nothing, and now this...?
A loud knock on his office door almost had her jumping out of her skin.
Her eyes darted to his.
He held her gaze for a long moment before giving a tight smile. His throat moved before he said, ‘Work calls.’
His long legs carried him out of her office and into his own. She was grateful he closed the adjoining door behind him. It gave her the privacy she needed to sink onto her chair and attempt to control the ragged beats of her heart.
After dragging in enough lungsful of air to give oxygen to her dazed brain, she tried to think with a bit more coherence.
But her thoughts were all wrapped up in her husband and the wild emotions for him still racing through her entire being.
Alessio was a much better man than she could have dreamed. He could be ruthless. If he wanted something he would stop at nothing until he had it. But he could also be tender. He could be thoughtful. He listened.
He’d effectively blackmailed her into this life but her happiness mattered to him.
It had been a long time since her happiness had mattered to anyone.
* * *
The week that followed was busy for Beth. Not only did she have the party at the production facility to organise but it was Dom’s first birthday that weekend and she was arranging a party to celebrate that.
To think only two months ago she’d worried about affording even the most basic of presents for him and had fretted that he would be missing out with only herself there to blow out the candles of his cake. Alessio had assured her those of his cousins with small children would attend and that Dom would finally meet the children he would grow up with and one day run Palvetti with.
As she also had the other party to work on, Alessio had now moved her to another, larger office and given her the promised staff to assist her. It meant she no longer worked in the adjoining office to his which, she told herself, was a good thing.
The encounter, for want of a better word, between them on her desk on Monday...
She couldn’t rid herself of the images from it.
There had been no chance of a repeat. If anything, Alessio had gone to even greater lengths to keep a physical distance at work. He never came within arm’s reach of her, never intimated by word or deed that he thought of her intimately at all. Were it not for the fire they stoked beneath the sheets every night, she could easily believe he had no sexual feelings for her at all.
She wished she had his discipline. She supposed it was because sex and all the feelings that went with it were still so new to her, but she’d become utterly consumed by him. It was like a sickness had infected her.
When he walked into her office late Friday afternoon, she had to strain with all her might not to smile too widely.
‘How are you getting on?’ he asked.
‘Great!’ She might have to hide her enthusiasm at her husband’s presence in her office but she didn’t have to hide her enthusiasm for the party she was planning. ‘The guests you selected have all got back to me and are all able to attend. What do you think about these for the canapés?’ She clicked her computer for him to see the list.
He stood behind her to peer over her shoulder.
Beth crossed her legs in a futile attempt to nullify the heat that seeped through her and leaned forward so she didn’t give in to the temptation to lean her head back against his chest.
‘Citrus-cured sea bass on blinis with Ossetra caviar and crème fraiche,’ he read aloud, his breath hot in her hair. ‘Sounds good.’
She swallowed as the citrusy undertone of his cologne swirled into her senses. ‘The caterers will send samples of all the canapés so we can try them first and make any changes needed.’
A long, muscular arm reached over her desk, long fingers wrapping over her hand to take control of the mouse and scroll through the other canapé choices.
Her throat ran dry.
Then she realised the hand holding hers to control the mouse had stopped scrolling. She could no longer hear his breaths...
She turned her face and found emerald eyes fixed on her.
Then the dark lashes swept before her as his mouth closed in on...
‘I should have known I’d find you here.’
They jumped apart. Gina’s entrance to Beth’s office was as unexpected and as volatile as a grenade.
Not even casting a glance at Beth, she immediately addressed Alessio, who strode over to her, gabbling away in Italian at high speed.
Beth didn’t have the faintest idea what they were talking about and watched, torn between bemusement and outrage, as they conversed.
She knew perfectly well Gina was doing this deliberately. Shutting Beth out. She’d hardly acknowledged Beth all week.
After a minute of this high-speed chat, Gina put her hands on Alessio’s shoulders and kissed his cheeks. ‘Ciao, Alessio.’
‘Ciao, Gina.’
But when she reached the door she turned back to him and said in perfect English, ‘Did you get the information I sent to you about Quilton House?’
Alarm bells immediately clanged loudly in Beth’s head. She knew that name.
He nodded.
‘Places are taken very quickly. You need to get his name down now.’
As Gina sashayed out of his office, Alessio was aware of Beth, risen to her feet, staring at him, her face flushed.
‘Quilton House?’ she said slowly. ‘As in the boarding school?’
‘Yes. It’s where all Palvetti children go.’
‘You want to send Dom there?’
‘It’s one of the best schools in the world,’ Alessio told her calmly, although there was little in the way of calmness inside him.
If Gina hadn’t chosen that moment to barge into Beth’s office he would have kissed her.
As he knew all too well, one kiss from Beth was never enough. Her kisses were like a drug to him. One press of her lips to his and one taste of her sweet breath and he wanted more. He craved more.
‘The education there is second to none.’
‘I don’t want him to go to boarding school.’
‘All Palvetti children go to boarding school. It teaches them resilience and independence.’
‘He can learn that at a school in Milan. He’s hardly been here a month and you want to send him away?’
‘He won’t go for years, bella. I promise you, he will thrive there.’
‘I don’t care if he doesn’t have to go until he’s twenty-one, I don’t want him to go full-stop.’
‘I’m afraid the issue is not up for debate. Dom is a Palvetti and he will go to boarding school, as all our children do. You have ten years to get used to the idea.’
Alessio had no wish to be hard about it but Beth needed to learn resilience as much as Dom did. He’d made many allowances for the bond they shared, such as not requiring her to work weekends so she and Dom could spend time together, but he would have to start weaning them apart sooner rather than later othe
rwise the separation, when it came, would hit them both too hard.
Her face had drained of colour. She gazed at him with a loathing he hadn’t seen since he’d told her about the pre-nuptial agreement.
And then she moved, sweeping her arm across her desk to send the files and other bits and pieces she had on it flying in all directions.
‘I will never get used to the idea!’ She seethed. ‘This is exactly why your brother and Caroline made me his guardian. Domenico knew if you got your hands on him you would send him away, and he was right.’
‘It’s not a case of sending him away. It’s a matter of providing him with a world-class education at a school that will mould him into a fully rounded—’
‘That’s our job,’ she cried. ‘That’s what being a parent’s all about. A school won’t love him or nurture him. Your brother hated that boarding school. He always said it was the worst experience of his life.’
‘Yes, he hated Quilton House, which is why our parents transferred him to a different school of his choosing after only one year, one that had a different ethos and embraced the arts and creativity.’
There was a flicker of confusion on the angry face.
‘Did he forget to tell you that part?’ he asked scathingly. ‘Have you not yet realised my brother was prone to exaggeration? He was always selective in his truths.’
‘It doesn’t change that he hated boarding school.’
‘One child out of dozens of us hated it. Ask any of the rest of us—we all, every one of us, thrived there.’
‘Considering your family are a bunch of cold fish, that doesn’t fill me with any confidence.’
He gritted his teeth lest he started shouting too. To have his family described in such a way was a personal slight on him too. ‘It is an excellent school with excellent pastoral care. I accept Domenico was different to the rest of us, almost a hippy in his outlook, but that doesn’t mean his son will be. With my guidance—’
‘Your guidance?’ She had a look on her face that made Alessio glad she had nothing left on her desk. He was quite sure she would have thrown it at him.
‘Yes, bella. My guidance.’ Her scorn had him clinging to his temper by a whisker. ‘By the time Dom graduates from university, he will have all the tools he needs to take his place here in a role that suits and fulfils him. I’m sorry if this displeases you, but it is for his benefit, and not up for debate... Where are you going?’
Beth had grabbed her bag and stormed to the door.
‘I’m going home,’ she spat. ‘Sorry if it displeases you but, seeing as you’re planning to send my son away, I’m going to spend as much time with him as I can while I can.’
‘Beth...’
‘And this discussion isn’t over. Not by a long chalk.’
Beth slammed the door shut behind her and practically ran down the corridor. Too impatient to get out of this place and get home to Dom to wait for the lift, she hurled herself down the stairs.
The hateful man.
And how stupid was she?
The weeks spent sharing his bed and working by his side had made her forget that, at heart, her husband was a Palvetti to his core and had all the power in their marriage.
If he wanted to send Dom to boarding school, she had no idea how she was supposed to stop him. Super-glue herself to Dom the day he turned eleven?
Alessio would probably get around that obstacle by sending her with him.
CHAPTER TWELVE
BETH DIDN’T FEEL much calmer when Alessio returned home but the extra time she’d spent with Dom had soothed her fractious nerves a little.
But only a little.
All this talk of boarding school had reinforced how desperately she missed being with him.
If Dom wasn’t such an early riser she would only see him at weekends. The other senior Palvettis all worked weekends. They never switched off.
She understood why. They worked hard to secure the business for the next generation but it was too much. For Beth, it was too much.
There was no way she could cope with Dom being sent to boarding school.
If it came to it, she would move to England to be close to him, she vowed. If Alessio didn’t like it, then...
She blinked back tears. She didn’t want Dom, now snuggled on her lap, guzzling his evening bottle, to see her cry.
This was what she’d signed up for. She’d married Alessio knowing who he was and what he stood for. It was her own fault that she’d allowed her head to be turned by the joy she found in his love-making, and the great concessions he’d made to help her fit into his world and find fulfilment in it, and forgotten who he was at heart.
She hated that this extra time with Dom was spent thinking about Alessio.
And she hated that, when her husband put his head around the nursery door, her heart thumped.
Dom, however, was thrilled to see him, pushed the bottle from his mouth and held his arms out for a cuddle.
She noted the surprise on Alessio’s face and tried hard to hold on to her loathing when he strode over and took Dom from her.
He lifted the squealing child into the air and carried him around the room.
Dom’s delight at this...
How could Alessio even contemplate sending him away? Where did he keep his heart? Locked in a cage?
Soon, Alessio kissed Dom’s cheek and handed him back to Beth.
Dom immediately grabbed the half-drunk bottle from her hand and shoved it in his mouth.
‘Clever boy,’ Alessio said in delight, then looked at Beth. ‘Dinner will be ready in ten minutes.’
She gave a brittle smile. ‘I ate with Dom earlier.’
He contemplated her silently, nodded and left the room.
* * *
‘How long’s this silent treatment going to last?’ Alessio had eaten his dinner alone then come to his bedroom to find Beth in bed, turned on her side, reading a book. She hadn’t acknowledged him when he’d entered, hadn’t answered when he’d said he was taking a shower or turned to look at him when he’d climbed into the bed beside her and found her wearing a pair of pyjamas.
After all this, it didn’t surprise him that she didn’t answer.
His own anger at their argument had cooled considerably.
He’d thought long and hard about it in the intervening hours with increasing discomfort. Arguments and differences of opinion were a fact of life but this was now the second time he’d lost his temper in the office. Twice in one week after fifteen years of always keeping a cool head and seeing things from a logical standpoint. When those around him shouted to make their voices heard, he sat back and waited for calm.
What was it about Beth that could slide under his skin so effectively?
He’d been seconds from making love to her in the office again too.
‘Beth...’ He thought of the best words to use to bring about peace between them. He would not apologise for wanting the best for his nephew. He settled on, ‘I’m sorry you’re upset.’
She rolled onto her back and placed the book face-down on her stomach. She inhaled sharply and fixed her gaze to the ceiling. ‘I’m not upset, Alessio. I’m angry. I don’t care if it’s traditional for your family to dump all your children at boarding school, I will never accept Dom going. It’s cruel and barbaric.’
He bit back a curse. The time she’d had to think had not softened her stance in the slightest. ‘I told you, the school takes its pastoral care seriously.’
‘Does that stop children feeling homesick?’ she challenged.
‘I never suffered homesickness.’
‘Never? Not even once?’
‘I loved my time there.’ And he had. The days had been long but full: lessons, clubs, sports; plenty for a growing adolescent to get his teeth into. He’d made some great friends, shared some great experiences...
what was there not to like?
But those were not the things that would give Beth the assurance she needed right then.
‘If I ever suffered a low moment—which I don’t remember suffering from—there was always the thought of my grandparents coming to visit on the scheduled family weekends to keep me going.’
‘Your grandparents? Not your parents?’
‘My parents were too busy working.’
‘Too busy to visit their kids at their boarding school in a foreign country when every Palvetti has their own private jet? You think that’s normal?’
He sighed in exasperation. ‘It is for us. It doesn’t mean we were deprived of love or attention. I always knew my parents loved me. They worked hard for my benefit. My grandparents retired when my parents were established within the company. We spent lots of time with them. It’s how we work. You spend twenty, thirty years working hard and ensuring the business stays in shape for the next generation. When the next generation is ready, you step down and let them take over.’
‘And the cycle starts over again.’
‘Exactly.’
The length of time it took Beth to respond made him think he’d finally got through to her.
The mutinous tone when she found her voice dispelled that notion. ‘That might have been your experience of boarding school but I refuse to believe that not a single one of the rest of you didn’t get homesick. Domenico certainly did.’
‘I have already conceded that Domenico was built differently to the rest of us. He never embraced his birth right.’
‘You mean he wasn’t an indoctrinated robot.’
Feeling his temper start to fray again, Alessio sat up and swung his legs round to rest on the floor. ‘Domenico had exactly the same upbringing as me, but he rebelled from a young age, and he rebelled against everything.’
‘Or maybe he was kicking out because he wanted his parents to be the ones looking after him and not nannies and governesses and the occasional visit from a grandparent. Children need love.’
‘And we had it.’
‘Didn’t you miss your parents even a little bit? Did it never bother you that they were too busy working to put you to bed at night?’
A Cinderella To Secure His Heir (Cinderella Seductions Book 1) Page 13