by Jill Sanders
Secret Pleasure
After a terrible breakup and the loss of her dream job, Airlea is just looking for a fresh start. When her mother takes it upon herself to help, Airlea finds herself working for a wealthy family back in Italy, whose son was recently involved in a serious auto accident. She jumps at the chance to escape Greece and leave her worries behind, unaware of the new dangers she now faces in Rome. To further complicate things, she now must deal with the most arrogant patient she’s ever seen, which would be a lot easier if he wasn’t so damn sexy!
Dante is fed up with his broken body. All he wants to do is work through the pain and try to get his life back to normal. Instead, his mother hires an amazingly bossy nurse to help with his rehab, which might go a lot easier if she wasn’t so damn hot! Trying to keep his nosy family out of his business and vying for the affection of his beautiful nurse could end up being a dangerous affair.
Other titles by Jill Sanders
Finding Pride – Pride Series #1
Discovering Pride – Pride Series #2
Returning Pride – Pride Series #3
Lasting Pride – Pride Series #4
Serving Pride – Prequel to Pride Series #5
Red Hot Christmas – A Pride Christmas #6
Secret Seduction – Secret Series #1
Secret Pleasure – Secret Series #2
Secret Guardian – Secret Series #3
Secret Passions – Secret Series #4
Secret Identity – Secret Series #5
Secret Obsession – Secret Series #6
Secret Demands – Secret Series #7
Secret Sauce – Secret Series #8
Cowgirls Ride Harder – Book one Cowgirls Series
Cowgirls Ride Faster – Book two Cowgirls Series
Cowgirls Ride Longer – Book three Cowgirls Series
Secret
PLEASURE
by
Jill Sanders
SECRET PLEASURE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN:978-1492157953
Copyright © 2013 Jill Sanders
Edited by Erica Ellis – http://ericaellisfreelance.com
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Dedication
To all my good friends,
past and present
Jennifer
Cyndi
Monica
Jeannie
Carmen
Shannon
Essie
Melinda
Just to list a few…
Prologue
Airlea walked out of the hospital just after midnight. Her shift had ended an hour earlier, but she’d been so caught up helping her latest patient, Anna, she’d been late leaving work. Anna had been in a fire just over a month ago, and seventy percent of her little, eight-year-old body had been badly burned. Her little arms and legs had the telltale signs of scarring, and even though she was still wrapped up tight in bandages, Airlea knew what was underneath them.
Getting the little girl to trust her had been easy, keeping her happy wasn’t. Airlea knew the road ahead for Anna was going to be a difficult one and she knew by the time she got done, Anna wasn’t going to like her. Tonight Anna had gotten her first glimpse at what was ahead of her. Airlea had pushed the little girl until there were big fat tears rolling down her perfect little cheeks.
Being a physical therapist was what Airlea was born to do. She loved helping others heal and recover after something major had knocked them down. She looked at it as a rebirth experience for her patients. Most of them came out the other side a changed person. Almost all came out a better person than they’d been when they’d experienced their setbacks.
She was walking the same roads she’d walked for the last five years of her life. Her tiny apartment was only two blocks from the hospital in Igoumenitsa, Greece. She’d been born and raised just outside of Venice, Italy, but shortly after finishing school, she’d moved to Greece when she’d been offered a full-time position at the hospital here. She’d enjoyed her time ever since arriving.
She had friends and had even had a few relationships, her latest ending a little over a month ago. Angelo Ernesto had been everything Airlea had ever wanted in a man. He’d been caring, patient, kind, very good looking, and a doctor. That was until she’d allowed him to move in with her after they had been dating for six months. Then everything had changed.
It had taken less than a week for her to see the side of himself that he’d been hiding. The jealousy and temper brought on by the smallest things had been the reason she’d asked him to move out less than a month after he’d moved in. Now when she walked by him in the halls of the hospital, she tried to avoid talking to him.
How could something so beautiful be so rotten on the inside? She’d learned a valuable lesson with him. He still called her, but she’d gotten to the point where she didn’t answer his calls anymore. Every call would start out with him apologizing, then it would escalate to him raising his voice about why she wouldn’t take him back. She just didn’t want to deal with him anymore.
She’d made it halfway up the stairs outside her apartment before she saw him sitting on the steps. She rolled her eyes; she wasn’t in the mood to deal with him anymore.
“Hi,” he said, standing up and matching her steps.
“Listen, Angelo, I’m really tired. I’ve just gotten off my shift and I’m heading straight to bed. Can we talk tomorrow, instead?” She hunted in her bag for her keys, not even glancing in his direction.
When she reached her door, he pushed her until her back was up against the hard wood, the door knob thrust painfully against her hip. His hands held her shoulders back.
“Damn it, Airlea, if you never talk to me, how can we make this all better?”
“Let go of me!” When he didn’t, she dropped her bag and tried to push him back a step. He didn’t budge. “We are not going to work this out. Don’t you get it? I don’t want to work it out. It just didn’t work, move on.”
“I can’t believe you’re being such a bitch about this. You kick me out with some lame-ass excuse and now you won’t even talk to me.” He held her still, looking down into her eyes. “If you’d just give me a chance.” He started moving his head towards her, leaning in as if he was coming in for a kiss.
She turned her head away. “Get off me, Angelo. I’ve told you, it’s over. Get off!” She pushed him again, this time catching him off guard a little. He took two steps back and glared at her as she slid her keys in the door and quickly stepped inside, leaving her bag outside her door.
“You think this is over?” he said to her closed door. “I have pull at the hospital. Don’t think I won’t use it.” She watched him through her peep-hole as he picked up her bag and walked away. She relaxed against her locked door, very glad that the scene was over. So she’d lost her scrubs and her extra pair of shoes. She knew she could get them back if she just talked to him, but she didn’t want to and they didn’t really matter.
The next day at work, she was called into the director’s office. As she stood in front of his large metal desk, she kicked herself for the fool she was.
“Miss Rossi, is this your bag?” Mr. Lutz wasn’t one of those ‘hands-on’ kind of directors. He was strict and ve
ry old-school. Any explanation she might have given as to how he’d gotten her bag and who had taken it and why, would fall on deaf ears.
“Yes, sir.” She braced herself for whatever was going to come next.
“Can you explain this?” He opened the bag and a dozen pill bottles fell out. She recognized some of the names on the labels and her mouth fell open. The bottles of medicine had been missing for over a week. Employees had received memos all week long about the missing medication.
An hour later she walked out of the hospital, the contents of her locker in a box tucked under her arm, and her dignity lost forever. She assured herself the entire short walk home that she would never trust a man again.
Chapter One
Dante threw the glass across the room and smiled a little when he heard it shatter on the wood door. His mother crossed her arms and glared at him. He knew he was acting childish, and he didn’t care. The pain had fogged his mind to the point that nothing else mattered.
It had been two days since he’d been released from the hospital, and so far he’d only had about three hours of sleep. He knew his mother and aunt had the best intentions for him, but he couldn’t stand them being around all the time, seeing him like this. So he’d acted out the only way he knew how, by throwing things and yelling at them.
He looked up from the bed he’d spent the last two days in and noticed his mother’s left eye twitching, something that only happened when she was truly pissed at him.
“Dante Damiano Cardone, I’m so ashamed of you right now. You will not behave like this when Miss Rossi gets here, do you understand me?”
He was saved from answering by his aunt coming in.
“What’s going on in here?” She rushed to his side and grabbed his hand. Her dark gray hair was long and flowed close around her face. She was a stout woman who held herself like she had a lot of power.
“Dante, are you in much pain?” Her English wasn’t very good, but his mother had set the rule many years ago that when she was in the house, they spoke English. Something even his aunt had obeyed for the last twenty-seven years. It hadn’t been hard for them to follow the rule in the past, since she’d only been in the house a few weeks out of every year. But now, she was living there full-time and he could tell his aunt was having a hard time following the rule, and tolerating the other woman in her house. Even his aunt had obeyed this rule for the last twenty-seven years. It hadn’t been hard for her to follow in the past, since Dante’s mother had only been in the house a few weeks out of every year. But now she was living there full-time and he could tell his aunt was having a hard time following the rule, and tolerating the other woman in her house.
Florentina Cardone was in her late fifties and the younger sister of Dante’s father, Damiano, though she acted like she was older. She always seemed to be in charge of him, at least when his mother wasn’t around.
The house Dante had grown up in was very large and had been handed down for over five generations. His father had spent his first million refurbishing his parents’ small home and turning it into what it was today—a mansion. The acres of olive tree groves and vineyards spread out around the large tan, red-roofed place which sat like a beacon in the green fields of rolling hills. The view was spectacular, something he had missed while he had lived in the States over the last few years. But he hadn’t gotten to enjoy any of it since his return home.
He tried to sit up a little and was reminded of the sharp pain shooting down his left side. The pins in his leg that started just above his knee towards the outside of his thigh, and the pain in his shoulder caused such immense pain, his vision blurred.
He didn’t blame his sister, Katie, for his injury. After all, it had been her kidnappers that had rammed their vehicle into his. He was just grateful that his half-brother, Ric; Ric’s father, Rodrick; and Katie’s new husband, Jason, had been there to help save his newly found sister from the two men.
Dante had found out about Ric, his half-brother, when he was in college in the States. He’d been raised to think his mother had had an affair while in college and had Ric then, but just last year the truth had finally come out that his mother had been married to Ric’s father and had two children. Ric was almost six years older than Dante. Katie, who had been raised by Rodrick Derby as his own, was in fact Dante’s father’s daughter and his full-blooded sister. Katie was almost three years younger than him.
He’d finally gotten to meet Katie at the hospital the day after his accident. He couldn’t really remember meeting her that day, but she’d come back the next few days before they left on their honeymoon, and he’d gotten to know her and her husband, Jason, quite well by the time he’d finally been released from the hospital almost two weeks later.
His mother had not only cheated his father out of a daughter, but she’d deceived them all. The entire time he had been growing up, he’d been told that her absence from the family was because her parents in the States didn’t condone their relationship, when the truth was, he had a completely separate family that she was spending her time with.
Growing up, he’d seen her as often as one would a distant relative. His aunt had filled the role of mother most of his life, and he could tell that now that his mother was in the house full-time, his aunt despised the fact that her brother hadn’t kicked her to the curb.
But Damiano had been adamant about his views. Shortly after Kathleen had dissolved her marriage to Rodrick, Dante’s parents had officially been married.
“Dante, you need to not work yourself up so much. Here, you need to take your medicine. You drink the soup I made for you, then take these.” His aunt held up the bottle of medicine he’d been ready to throw at the door after the glass.
He might be able to deny his mother, but he couldn’t say no to his aunt.
Looking into those dark chocolate eyes, he was reminded of his upbringing and knew he needed to obey the short woman who had raised him like her own.
“Florentina, maybe you can talk some sense into my son.” His mother uncrossed her arms and walked to the doorway. “I expect him to behave when Miss Rossi gets here.”
“Who is this Miss Rossi?”
“Remember? She is the nurse I’ve hired to take care of Dante. She’s a specialist in physical therapy. She’s the one that’s going to get him on his feet again.” She started to walk out the door and he swore he heard her say, “Even if it kills him.”
Airlea Rossi was running late. Her little car sputtered and coughed up the long, muddy driveway. Her GPS told her the house was two miles ahead, but the roadway was so rugged, she didn’t think her little Saab would make the trek.
Finally admitting defeat, she pulled over into the grass. Getting out of her car, she looked around and all she could see were trees and deep green, rolling fields.
Picking up her phone from her seat, she check the GPS one more time. The little red arrow pointed in front of her, and less than two miles down the road was the blue dot that marked her destination.
Tossing the phone back into her car, she stomped her foot.
“Skata!” she screamed into the field.
Just then she heard a noise and looking over her shoulder, she saw an old, beat-up pickup truck come bumping up the lane behind her.
Waving her arms, she felt relief when the older gentleman stopped beside her car. He wore dirty overalls and had a big hat on his head.
“Hello? Are you lost?” He asked in broken Italian.
“Yes, I’m looking for the Cardone residence,” she answered easily.
She watched as the man took off his big hat and ran his forearm across his sweaty forehead. He had a full head of very dark curly hair and was younger than she first thought.
“What do you want at the Cardones?”
“I am the nurse hired to help with their son.”
“Well, why didn’t you say this to begin with?” He put back on his hat and got out of the truck. “Your car won’t make it up the drive. I’ll drive you the rest of the
way.” He walked around the truck. “Do you have bags?”
“Yes.” She felt uneasy about leaving her car in a field alongside a dirt road. Even though the car was a few years old, it didn’t deserve to be deserted like this.
“What shall I do?” she asked as she motioned to her car.
“Well, I can have someone come and bring it up to the main house if you want. Then we can make sure, when you leave, that we get you back down the hill safely. Usually the road isn’t this bad, but we’ve had rain the last four days. The mud makes the road become too much for anything but the truck here to get through.”
He helped her get her two bags out of the back of her car, then he tossed them in the back of the truck while she rolled up her windows and locked her car, making sure to grab her purse and cell phone.
“I’m Airlea,” she said and she held out her hand.
“I’m Damiano Cardone.” He took her smaller hand and shook it politely.