by Lucy Monroe
“I assure you I did not build an empire without an ability to read people.”
“But you are going about this emotionlessly.”
“Which should make me even more capable of making the best decision for Franca and Angilu.” And why was he having this discussion with a stranger standing uninvited in his office?
“Not when that decision is about the emotion you are hoping to provide for them.”
“A woman does not have to love them to be loving toward them.”
“That you believe that only shows how little you know.”
“Excuse me?” Ice laced his tone.
She closed her eyes, as if gathering her thoughts. When she opened them he read frustration, even disappointment, but that determination he’d seen there at first hadn’t dimmed. “May I sit down?”
What the hell? “You have fifteen minutes.”
Something like anger washed over her features, but she crossed the room and sat in one of the sleek leather armchairs facing his modern, oversized executive desk.
When she didn’t speak immediately, he found himself demanding impatiently, “Well?”
“You are looking for someone who will make your children the priority in her life, is that right?”
“You keep calling them my children, but you do realize I have custody of them only because their parents are dead?”
“I know, but your desire to give them a loving mother has made me believe you want to fulfill the role of dedicated father. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed.” She said the last as if she was talking to herself.
“You are not wrong.” He would be a better father than Pinu, who had been borderline indifferent to his two offspring.
“Then they are your children?”
“Sì.”
She nodded, as if in approval of his admission. He should not care, but he found himself pleased by that.
“So back to my question: you want a woman who will put Franca and Angilu first?”
“Yes.”
“And you do not think she has to love them to do that?”
“Financial compensation will ensure it.”
“Will it?”
“Of course.” He understood money and how to wield it.
“And if something comes into her life that is more important than the money you are paying her to pretend the children are a priority?”
He did not like her description of the job. “She will not be pretending.”
“If it is for the sake of the money, how can it be anything but pretense?”
“Regardless, I doubt very much that something will come up that would make someone lose sight of ten million dollars.”
“Really? What about a husband who is worth thirty million?”
“I am a billionaire.”
“Presuming you are married to this woman, there would be an ironclad prenuptial agreement that only provides her with a yearly stipend and a ten-million-dollar payout nearly two decades down the road.”
“You are so certain there would be a prenup?” He hadn’t mentioned it to Gloria.
“It only makes sense. A man like you isn’t going to offer a woman half of your empire under any circumstances, but particularly if she comes into your life as part of a business proposal, no matter how personal the terms might seem.”
He inclined his head in acknowledgment of her insight. “There aren’t that many marriage-minded multimillionaires out there.”
“But moving in your circles will increase her chances of meeting them exponentially.”
“I’m not going to get hoodwinked by a gold digger.”
“Maybe. But even if you don’t, you must realize that while money can be a very compelling motivator, it isn’t always the most important one.”
There was something about her tone that made him think she not only believed this, but had personal experience. “Few things trump it.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Audrey—he found it difficult to think of her as Miss Miller—sighed with the kind of weariness that came from a lot more than a single conversation.
“Tell me, do you think Johana Tomasi married your brother primarily for the lifestyle she could enjoy as his wife?”
Enzu shocked himself by saying honestly, “Yes.”
“And yet, by all accounts, she was not a loving mother.”
“You investigated my family?” he asked dangerously.
“Are you kidding?” she asked, with a genuine laugh he found altogether too charming. “I’m a senior specialist in your customer service department; I’m hardly in a financial position to hire a private detective. Johana’s exploits were tabloid fodder as much after she became a mother as before.”
He could not deny that. “What is your point?”
“She had to know that you would pay her handsomely to be a more involved parent.”
Both his brother and sister-in-law had known that, but they’d refused his offers of increases in their allowance in exchange for a quieter lifestyle. “She and Pinu saw no point in having access to money if they couldn’t spend it on the lifestyle they enjoyed.”
“Exactly.”
“Whatever you may think of me, I am not an idiot. I have no intention of bringing a woman like that into the children’s lives.”
“I do not think you’re an idiot at all, just maybe naïve.”
“I am far from naïve.”
“Oh, you are very worldly and brilliant about money and business…”
“But?” he prompted, knowing that was not all to her assessment of him and inexplicably unable to let it lie.
“But you don’t understand emotion.”
“Emotion is a weakness I cannot afford.”
“That might be true, but do you really want to withhold it from Franca and Angilu?”
“I will give them everything they need.”
“You will try. But if you hire them a mother, you are almost guaranteeing the best they will ever know is kindness born of duty to the job.”
“You came here to apply for that job you are so disparaging of. Are you trying to convince me you wouldn’t be doing it for the money?”
“No.”
“Exactly,” he said, with much less satisfaction than he should have felt at her admission.
“But I am also offering to love your children, not just treat them lovingly out of duty.”
“You cannot promise to love them.”
“Of course I can. They are innocent children, left without their parents. How could I not love them?”
He stared at her, incomprehension washing over him. She believed what she was saying, and yet… “You claim another woman would not do the same?”
“I am not other women. I am me. Sure, there are women out there that would love them, too, but would they be the women your PAA finds to offer as candidates?” There could be no question that Audrey didn’t believe it.
“Why?”
Audrey’s head went back, an impatient sound coming from her. “I’ve tried to explain it. You and Gloria, you’re approaching this whole thing without any emotion. That’s almost a guarantee that the women she puts forward and the one you eventually choose will be every bit as emotionless.”
“I still do not see the problem with that.” Emotion was volatile, impossible to predict with consistent accuracy.
“No, I don’t suppose you do.” She stood. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“On that at least we can agree.”
This time Audrey’s shoulders slumped and the wince was more pronounced. Without another word she turned toward the door and crossed his office, an air of defeat surrounding her as she made the long trek.
She stopped with her hand on the door handle. “Do I need to start looking for another job?”
“No.”
She turned the handle.
“Audrey.”
“Yes?” She didn’t turn.
“I assume you had more reasons for believing you were an appropriate
fit for the position than your self-proclaimed affinity for emotion?”
She tensed, but nodded. “I meet the requirements.”
“Tell me how you know what those requirements are.”
She just shook her head, and he got the impression that even if he threatened the job she clearly wanted to keep she wouldn’t give in.
Gloria had to have shared her assignment with Audrey in a moment of indiscretion, but the younger woman wasn’t about to throw his PAA under a bus. He had to appreciate the loyalty.
“I will not tell anyone about this discussion,” he offered.
She had been misguided, but he had no wish to see her pay with her livelihood for what he was certain was an honest attempt to protect his children.
“Thank you.” Her voice was flat, lacking the passion that had infused her arguments for her point of view during their conversation.
She went to leave, but he said her name again.
She stopped without replying.
“Look at me,” he ordered, unwilling to be ignored.
She turned, her face as blank as a statue. No weakness, no emotion showed there, and he couldn’t help but respect that. She had to be disappointed, even a little afraid that he would go back on his word and get her in trouble with her divisional supervisor.
“It was a pleasure to meet you.” They might not agree, but he’d found talking with her more invigorating than with any other woman in a very long time.
“Thank you.”
She left, with the door closing quietly behind her, as he tried to make sense of the fact he was more than annoyed she hadn’t returned the sentiment. He was bothered.
Gloria checked in when she returned a few minutes later. Their afternoon went much as he had planned for it to. Enzu would have been surprised if it didn’t.
But throughout his meetings and other work parts of his discussion with Audrey kept popping up to distract him. The way she’d looked when she said she shouldn’t have come to his office, like she was disappointed. In him.
It was not a reaction he was used to. That had to be why he couldn’t put it out of his mind.
And it had nothing to do with him putting a note with Audrey Miller’s name on Gloria’s desk before she left for the evening. Audrey had claimed she fit all of his requirements. If that was true, it would be a poor business decision not to include her in the pool of eligible candidates.
His PAA looked up at him quizzically. “What’s this for?”
“I want her on the list.”
“List?” Gloria asked.
“Women who would make a suitable mother to Franca and Angilu.”
Comprehension dawned in Gloria’s pale grey gaze. “That list. Will do.”
“I expect dossiers for a minimum of six women with complete background checks on my desk next Friday.”
“That kind of rush on the background investigation is going to cost.”
“And?”
“Nothing. I just didn’t want you having a fit when you saw the expense report.”
“I do not throw fits,” he said with great dignity.
“Call it what you like. So long as you don’t have one of them when you see how much this little plan of yours is going to cost.”
“Fine.”
“If you don’t mind me asking…?” Gloria said before he could return to his office for an evening of work.
“Ask.”
“Who is Audrey Miller?”
“You do not know?” Suddenly the sinister implications of Audrey knowing what she did were at the forefront in his mind. “She does work here?”
“She might very well. I don’t know every employee of Tomasi Enterprises. Even I am not that efficient.”
“Look her up in the employee database.”
Gloria gave him a strange look, but did as he asked. An employee file popped up on her screen. The picture wasn’t all that recent, and there were shadows of fear in the young woman’s eyes that he had not seen today, but it was the same one.
He didn’t let his relief show.
She’d been hired six years ago by the bank for their call center. That explained how young she looked in the picture. She’d been twenty-one, which made her twenty-seven now. So, she did fulfill that particular requirement.
But how she knew about them was still a mystery.
“You don’t know her?” he asked Gloria again.
“No. She doesn’t even look familiar. But she works on the third floor.”
And employees on the top floors rarely interacted with those on the lower floors.
He opened his mouth to demand how Audrey knew about the position if Gloria hadn’t told her, but snapped it shut. That question would lead to more and reveal Audrey’s visit to his office, which he’d promised not to do.
Enzu didn’t consider a security breach. Like all cautious men in his position, he had his office scanned for listening devices on a weekly basis by a security team he trusted implicitly. No business rival was getting sensitive information from Enzu’s own lips.
Gloria must have told someone and that someone had to have passed the information on to Audrey. He would look into it further after his search for a wife…and mother to his children…was over. Someone had shown an egregious lack of discretion, but that could be dealt with later.
After he’d made his choice about the woman he would marry.
He ignored the way his mind returned again to Audrey Miller. She would be one of several candidates, not the candidate.
Even if his libido might demand otherwise.
CHAPTER THREE
DUMBFOUNDED, AUDREY HUNG up her phone and took off her headset. Someone else could take the next few customer service calls.
Mr. Tomasi’s PAA had just made an appointment with Audrey to meet the CEO for an interview the following morning.
It had to be for the job of mother to Franca and Angilu. But the way he’d acted he couldn’t be interested in her for the position, could he?
Only tomorrow’s appointment said otherwise.
*
Gloria ushered Audrey Miller into Enzu’s office.
He flicked a glance to the Rolex on his wrist. Exactly on time.
He mentally marked a tick on this positives column for the customer service specialist who had shown the courage to approach the CEO of her company in an unconventional way in order to apply for an equally unconventional job.
“Ms. Miller, sir,” Gloria said.
As if Enzu would forget who the woman was after little more than a week. “Thank you, Gloria.”
He eyed Audrey as she crossed the office on unhurried feet, showing more aplomb than most of his upper level managers when called to Enzu’s office for a meeting. She wore a knockoff black sheath dress and an open cropped white sweater with black swirls. The pearls around her throat were no doubt faux, but they did not look gaudy. Modest heels raised her average height less than two inches.
It was an elegant if inexpensive outfit. Not a sexy one. But Enzu’s body reacted like she’d walked into his office wearing nothing at all.
A curse rose to his lips but he bit it back, swallowing the gasp of shock at his immediate physical response just as quickly.
He’d been hard almost the entire time they’d talked last week and it looked like he was going to experience the same phenomenon again. He couldn’t remember reacting like this to another woman in years. If ever.
Either he’d allowed too much time to pass since practicing that particular stress-reliever, or this woman was something special. Cynicism directed he lean toward the former.
Audrey moved with an unconscious grace he liked and Enzu allowed himself the minor pleasure of simply watching her finish her journey across his intimidatingly large office. It was one of the many calculated ways he used to establish his dominant role in any meeting that occurred in this room.
Audrey did not appear intimidated.
He found that reaction, or rather lack thereof, intriguing.
S
he stopped in front of his desk. “Good morning, Mr. Tomasi.”
Enzu did not reply immediately, his brain fully engaged with controlling his body’s unholy reaction to this woman.
“Thank you for considering me for this position.”
Typical, well-used words in an interview, and yet Audrey’s sincerity inexplicably touched him.
Her voice was soft, arousing. Not weak.
The subtle strength of a woman. His many summers in Sicily had taught him to appreciate it and never to underestimate the steel that ran through the spine of a woman who had learned to sacrifice for her family.
Unlike most of his Sicily-based family, Enzu had never once heard his great-aunt raise her voice. But there had never been any doubt in his mind who ran the family. His great-uncle could yell with amazing volume, even at eighty. And yet it was the old man’s wife whose quiet orders no one in the family dared to disobey.
Enzu’s silence must have lasted too long for Audrey’s comfort.
Uncertainty glowed in her chocolate gaze as it flicked between him and Gloria, who remained near the door, an assessing look in her pale eyes as she watched the exchange in silence.
Enzu forced himself to speak, allowing none of his response to this interesting woman to show in his voice. “Have a seat, Audrey.” He indicated the chair she’d occupied the week prior.
She nodded, silent, and then sat down in a rush as if her legs didn’t want to hold her up. The evidence of nervousness on her part surprised him.
“I assume you understand why you are here?”
“You want to interview me for the position of mother to your children?” she asked, her tone implying she found that particular eventuality very difficult to believe.
“Yes.”
A sound escaped her. “Oh. Okay.” She seemed to relax, though Enzu could not have identified exactly what gave him that impression.
He was as much an expert at reading body language as any psychologist with a PhD. It was a little unnerving to realize he could not pinpoint the change in hers that indicated her more relaxed state.
It occurred to him that this woman would be a challenging adversary across the boardroom table. He would do well not to forget it, either.
“You are still interested in the position?”