Under Her Skin

by Michelle Love

  Under Her Skin

  Michelle Love

  Contents

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  Free Gift

  Under Her Skin

  No Promises

  A Billionaire’s Luck

  Stormfronts

  A Billionaire’s Gift

  His Illegitimate Half-Brother

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  About the author

  Copyright and Disclaimer

  ©Copyright 2018 by Michelle Love - All rights Reserved

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights are reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

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  Dance With Me

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  Spending her first Christmas away from her family, Juno Sasse finds that while her day job as a music teacher at the Gabriella Renaud Foundation is fulfilling, she feels a little isolated, with nearly all of her friends coupled up. Spending the holidays with her friends Livia and Nox, she bonds with a young singer, Ebony, and the two become good friends. When Juno reveals a lifetime dream of learning to dance, Ebony introduces her to her older brother, Obadiah, one of New Orleans’s finest dance tutors. Their working relationship is soon complicated by a growing attraction between the two of them and when Obe asks Juno to be his partner at an important dance competition, Juno has to put aside her innate shyness and step up to the challenge…

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  Under Her Skin

  Arrogant Italian billionaire, Arturo Bachi, is outraged when the final apartment in the building he plans to turn into a hotel is bought at an exclusive auction by someone who outbids him at the last minute. His ire fades after he meets a gorgeous young woman with whom he spends a passionate, life-altering one-night stand. Arturo is immediately enchanted; it doesn’t hurt that she’s the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, even if she won’t tell him her real name. Though still scarred by the murder of his teenage sweetheart Flavia twenty years earlier, Arturo’s frozen heart begins to thaw.

  What he doesn’t know is that Hero Donati is the person who bought the apartment, and she is trying to escape a terrible tragedy in her past that keeps her terrified of ever giving her heart away again.

  Though the two quickly begin fall in love their problems are far from over. Hero’s other neighbor, George Galiano, Arturo’s friend-turned-sworn-enemy makes a play for Hero’s heart. Soon, Hero is trapped in a bitter war between the two men and finds herself not knowing who to trust.

  Worse still, Flavia’s killer makes it known that he now has Hero in his sights…

  Can Arturo and Hero fight for their love, and their lives, or will they be torn apart in the most brutal and devastating way?

  Chapter One

  Arturo Bachi smiled at his guests as he raised his glass. “Tomorrow the final apartment in the Villa Patrizzi will go up for auction, and I’ve been assured by the seller that it will finally be mine. So, friends and fellow investors, let’s drink to Lake Como’s finest and most exclusive hotel—the future Hotel Bachi!”

  His friends cheered and applauded him, and Arturo stepped off the stage to talk with his guests. After an hour where it seemed he’d shaken hands with everyone in Northern Italy, he was relieved when his best friend, Peter, spirited him away.

  “Fortitude and strength,” Peter grinned at his friend as they sat down at the edge of Arturo’s estate, overlooking Lake Como’s gentle waves. Further across the water, an alpine town nestled into the mountains softly lit up the night.

  Peter had snagged a bottle of Scotch for them, and they lit cigars. Peter smiled at his friend’s satisfied expression. “So close, now, Turo. Can you see it coming together quickly after the sale is settled?”

  Arturo nodded. “I can. Everything is in place: the construction teams, architects. Everyone is just waiting for my go-order. God, Peter, it seems like finally, my dream is coming true.” His green eyes shone with excitement. “I was rethinking the name though. Hotel Bachi seems…a little self-indulgent.”

  Peter shrugged. “Not necessarily, but I take your point. The main thing is—we’re close. Do you think the apartment will sell for much?”

  Arturo shook his head. “It’s tiny; only four rooms. I’m going to turn it into a suite with the adjoining apartment. I think I’ll get it for a steal; the Board has set a price limit, so after we secure it, we’ll be able to afford to go ahead with every design feature as planned.”

  He sighed as he continued, “A part of me wishes that I’d used my own money, then I wouldn’t have to answer to anyone about budgets. But my accountant wouldn’t let me.” He shot a mock-scowl over to his friend, who shrugged good-naturedly.

  “I just didn’t want you to go broke, buddy. With this and your other hotels around the world…you’re stretching yourself, and you know it. You can’t rely on your trust fund to keep you afloat. Philipo could withdraw it at any moment.”

  Arturo sighed. His uncle Philipo had been made executor of Arturo’s father’s will because Arturo was too young to take over the company after Frederico died. Soon after, the grieving teenager had tumbled into alcohol and drugs, and since then, Philipo had handed out Arturo’s inheritance in regulated increments. Arturo would inherit the bulk of his inheritance—nearly a billion Euros—at age forty. He both admired and resented his uncle for his decisions, but his caution had forced Arturo to leave the wild life behind and work towards his own fortune. Property had been Arturo’s chosen career path and, with his natural talent and flair for it, he had earned his first billion Euros by the time he was thirty.

  Now at thirty-nine, he was on the cusp of adding this inheritance to his own fortune and becoming one of the world’s richest men. Arturo lived for his work, but he also enjoyed the trappings of his wealth, and it didn’t hurt that he was considered one of Italy’s—perhaps even one of the world’s—handsomest and most eligible bachelors.

  A face that could look warm and friendly one moment, and dangerous and brooding the next, his teenage beauty had matured into a more masculine and sculptured face: his large green eyes ringed with thick, midnight-black lashes; his brows dark and heavy; his beard trimmed but not overly fussy; his sensual mouth just a hint too full; his wild black curls untamed. It had to be said—Arturo Bachi was sensational, and he knew it.

  He had no time for relationships and was always honest with his many conquests, but Arturo never slept with the same woman twice. Not since Flavia, his sweetheart in college. He had loved Flavia with all his heart: she was his future, his true north, his love. And Flavia had loved him for himself, not the rich, handsome boy born into wealth and opportunity, but the goofy, fun-loving boy with the big heart and poetry in his soul.

  They were inseparable until that one fateful night when Arturo had been ten minutes late to the party, and Flavia had been taken by another man, one with hate in his heart and murder in his soul.

  They had found Flavia a week later, stabbed multiple times, her body dumped in the lake. Arturo had run to the lake as soon as the news hit the radio; he had made it just in time to see her brought up onto the bank, her long, dark hair wrapped around her body, her usually dark olive skin so grey and wan. The water had washed the blood away, but Arturo could clearly see the stab wounds in her stomach—vicio
us, brutal. He had fallen to his knees and screamed until his friends Peter and George had come to get him.

  Arturo thought of Flavia now, her kind, brown eyes shining up at him. As usual, her image turned his mind to imagining how scared, how terrified she must have been as her killer took her life.

  God. An involuntary groan slipped out, and Peter glanced at his friend. “You okay?”

  Arturo nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Peter, who had always been able to read Arturo’s mind, looked at him with sympathy. “Flavia?”

  Arturo nodded. “Maybe…Hotel Flavia?”

  Peter sighed. “Arturo, as sweet as that gesture would be, it’s not going to help you allow her to rest in peace. It’s been twenty years, buddy.”

  Arturo nodded, knowing Peter was right. His eyes slid across the lake to George’s villa. George Galliano, his other friend on that night. A friend no more.

  “Hey.” Peter nudged his shoulder. “Stop wallowing. Let’s get back to your guests.”

  Arturo threw back the rest of his Scotch, his gaze returning to the almost empty villa across the lake: Villa Patrizzi that he owned 99 percent of right now. Tomorrow, it would belong to him entirely.

  He couldn’t wait.

  Hero Donati looked around the tiny apartment. She had persuaded the realtor to let her in, even this late at night, so she could be prepared for tomorrow. This place was perfect: tiny, compact, but with a balcony that looked out over the lake where she could sit and sketch or read or just…be.

  Peace. Serenity. How often she had wished for that feeling over the past two years. Here, she could imagine regaining at least some of it.

  Back at her hotel, she checked her bank account for the hundredth time, making sure the money was transferred and ready for the auction tomorrow, then she went to soak in the tub. She wound her long, dark hair up onto her head. I really ought to get this cut, she thought. Her hair hung down past her waist now; she hadn’t been to a hairdresser since she didn’t know how long. She risked a glance in the mirror, but then looked away again. Her dark eyes still had that haunted look she had grown accustomed to, but she could no longer bear to look at herself for long.

  Hero Donati had been adopted at birth by an Italian-American businessman and his wife who already had one daughter, Imelda. Hero’s birth mother had been a young Indian student at one of Milan’s colleges who had become pregnant by her Italian lover and had given her child up for adoption, unable to care for the baby herself. From her mother, Hero had inherited a dark beauty—a beacon for so much male attention that Hero learned to deliberately downplay her appearance. She became intentionally tomboyish, wore thick-rimmed spectacles, and had remained resolutely single until she met Tom.

  Tom, with his merry grey eyes and blonde hair, hadn’t put the moves on her at all. Instead, they routinely sat together in classes at their college in Chicago and made fun of all the rich kids. Tom, working class from Wisconsin, had become her best friend, and then one night, her lover. They married the day after graduation, and Beth had been born a year later, the family settling in Chicago.

  Hero had become a mother and wife, and to her shock, she loved it. Hero worked on her doctorate while raising Beth, and she and Tom had been blissfully happy together; even Hero’s sometimes-fraught relationship with her adoptive family had improved. Beth was a radiant ball of utter joy and love, and even Hero’s sister Imelda, who didn’t have a maternal bone in her body, adored the young girl.

  Three years, four months, and six days later, it all came to a brutal end. The family had been driving to Wisconsin to spend Christmas with Tom’s family when a drunken driver slammed into their Volvo at high speed. Though three-year-old Beth was killed instantly, Tom lingered in a coma until pronounced brain-dead on day five. His parents had made the decision to turn off his life-support, because Hero couldn’t; she was also in a coma and not expected to survive.

  When she woke three months later, she wished she hadn’t. Not one word could describe the depth of her heartbreak. Both her worried parents and Tom’s bereaved parents tried to reach her, but no one could. On her behalf, they sued the drunk driver’s employers and secured Hero a settlement just shy of eleven million dollars, but even so, Hero couldn’t even begin to think about starting again.

  For months, she stayed at home in the apartment she had shared with her husband and daughter and let life go on without her. Eventually, it took two incidents to shake her out of the fugue.

  The first episode still seems unbelievable to Hero. One night, rather than sit home wrapped in Tom’s sweater with Beth’s favourite ‘blankie’ nuzzled next to her face, something snapped inside Hero. She put on her tightest dress and all her makeup and went out to a nightclub in the city. Drinking herself into a manic mood, dancing, making out with strangers, she fully intended to fuck someone just to numb the pain, but she chose wrong—so, so wrong. As soon as the man got her into his car, he turned violent, and Hero fought for her life, quickly escaping only after punching her attacker hard in the balls.

  She caught a cab home, and inside her apartment, Hero spent the rest of the night alternating between sobbing and screaming.

  One of her neighbors had called Imelda. “I think Hero needs you.”

  Imelda, who had never been an overly warm person, stripped Hero off and put her in the shower. Feeding her oatmeal, strong coffee, and sleeping pills, she put her adoptive sister to bed and stayed with her while she slept it off.

  The next day, Hero dutifully listened to Imelda’s harsh pep talk. Imelda didn’t mince her words. “I don’t care what you do, Hero, but do something. Go off on a world trek, open an art gallery, go teach in China. But you need to snap out of this. Tom and Beth are dead.”

  Hero had turned on her sister. “Do you think I’ve forgotten, Melly? I know they’re fucking dead! I wish I were, too. Jesus.”

  Imelda regarded her coolly. “Then do it. Kill yourself. Be that selfish. Mom and Dad need that on top of losing Beth. Do it.”

  Hero had stared at her sister, dumbfounded. She knew Melly was just trying to shock her out her funk, but at that moment, she hated her sister. Hated. “I have to get out of this damn country.”

  “Good. Do it. Bye, now.” Imelda had walked out, calling back over her shoulder. “And if I see you again, it’ll be too soon.”

  Fucking bitch.

  Hero was angry now, but her anger had become a cold, silent thing that ate away at her soul. She would escape. She would go back to Italy; she still held citizenship there, after all. Maybe she would try and find her mother or her father—her birth parents. Maybe. She just knew she couldn’t stay in Chicago a moment longer.

  Banishing those thoughts of the past as far as she ever managed to, Hero climbed out of the tub and headed to bed. Tomorrow she would bid for that small apartment in the Villa Patrizzi. She would win it. And then she would move into it. And maybe. Maybe. Maybe then she could restart her life.

  Chapter Two

  The great terrace of the Villa D’Este in Cernobbio was packed with Lake Como’s elite: the women gorgeous, the men handsome in their designer suits, as they drifted around, champagne in hand, socializing before the auction began.

  There was only one lot in this auction and as Arturo arrived, he went to find the auctioneer and to shake his hand. “I’m looking forward to this, Claudio.”

  The older man nodded. “It certainly has the feel of an event, Signore Bachi. I have a feeling you will be a very happy man by the end of today.”

  As Arturo started toward Peter, who he could see across the room, he was frequently stopped by both attractive women and admiring men, all wanting a few moments of his coveted attention. By the time he finally reached Peter, who was rolling his eyes and smirking, Arturo’s confidence was sky-high.

  “Peter, my friend, this is a good day.”

  “Cautious optimism, Turo,” Peter said, his Canadian stoicism at full power. Arturo grinned at his friend.

  When they’d met at Harvard, they quick
ly found they had the same irreverent sense of humor. Peter had been the man-whore of the college, and he relished his role; Arturo had Flavia and was deliriously happy. It had been only after Flavia was murdered that Peter showed his serious and loyal side. He never left Arturo’s side during the funeral and the subsequent murder investigation within which Arturo was a natural suspect. Luckily for him, he had a strong alibi; the reason he was late to the party that day was he had been helping a young mother change a burst tire in the pouring rain. The woman happened to be the daughter of the local newspaper owner, and when Arturo was questioned, she came forward immediately.

  Peter Armley was a year older than Arturo, already forty and still resolutely single. Unlike Arturo, he was picky about who he slept with and always called them back, even if just to say goodbye. He was on good terms with most of his former girlfriends and had even dated a couple for significant periods of time. A tall man, an inch shorter than Arturo’s six-six, Peter could easily pass as a Roman citizen wearing a toga and laurel wreath in the Coliseum. His handsome face looked to be hewn from rock, but when he smiled, his blue eyes shone with warmth. His close-cropped brown hair was always neat, and his suits were Saville Row.

  A math genius, he was recruited by Philipo to be the company’s financial director—and to look after Arturo’s finances. Arturo teased his friend about being his ‘accountant,’ but it really was down to Peter’s handling of the finances that Arturo was the man he was now.

  “Listen,” Arturo told his friend, “I just want you to know, that if everything goes well with this auction, it’s entirely down to you, Pete. You picked me up out of the sinkhole. I love you, brother.”