by Lynne Graham
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Copyright
“Evidently you’re still sleeping with the boss.”
Mina gazed back at him in disbelief. “How dare you—why are you treating me like this—saying such things?”
Cesare laughed softly. “That look of injured innocence, Cara… I award you full marks for trying but I’m not a lonely old fool, hungry for the attention of a young, sexy woman. I’m Cesare Falcone…and if you hadn’t disappeared into thin air four years ago, I’d have shredded you limb from limb for what you did to me!”
“For what I did to you?” she inquired shakily.
“But the good news is…a Sicilian never forgets being stabbed in the back, and if he has to wait a year or two…? Even better. The desire for revenge merely becomes keener.”
Dear Reader,
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Starting this month, and continuing to December, THIS TIME, FOREVER brings you a complete reunion romance every month, where passion, the past, secrets and scandals, and marriage and miracles all play their parts in bringing about the happiest of endings.
Together, forever—with Harlequin Presents!
The Editor
A Savage Betrayal
Lynne Graham
For my husband, Michael—all the romantic inspiration any woman could want.
CHAPTER ONE
‘AND this is my executive assistant, Mina Carroll.’
Mina shook hands and smiled as yet another introduction was made by her boss, Edwin Haland. Elegantly attired in an Armani suit, her golden hair swept up into a loose Edwardian knot, she could easily have been mistaken for a wealthy patron, rather than one of the organisers of the charity benefit. Nobody would have guessed that this was the first time she had been invited to play such a prominent role or that she was a last minute stand-in for her immediate superior, who had come down with the flu.
A hand curved round her elbow, drawing her aside. ‘Where on earth did you get that suit?’ Jean, their junior PR officer, hissed. ‘Did you rob a bank?’
‘My sister’s wardrobe,’ Mina whispered with dancing amethyst eyes.
‘I wish we could swap sisters. Mine’s into Doc Martens and vampire make-up,’ Jean groaned. ‘And even if I was insane enough to want to borrow something, I’d have to mug her to get it! Yours must be an angel.’
Mina laughed. ‘Not quite.’ She frowned at the untouched buffet and the hovering waiters. ‘Why isn’t the food being served?’
‘Our VIP’s flight has been held up.’ Jean grinned. ‘Of course, I forgot. You’ve been on holiday. You won’t have met our newest sponsor yet. What a treat you have in store!’
‘He must be some VIP if Mr Haland won’t start without him.’
‘Socially prominent, mega-rich, background of family philanthropy,’ Jean told her in a mocking undertone. ‘Manna from heaven. Our directors did everything but kiss his feet. The more humble office mortals looked, longed and languished—even Polly, our man-hating tea lady.’
Mina’s beautiful face was wreathed with amusement. ‘Polly—you’re joking?’
‘Polly went out and bought a cream cake for him——’
‘You’re kidding me!’
‘I’m not. He’s drop-dead gorgeous. I was in the lift with him, praying it would break down…not that I expect he would have done anything with the opportunity.’ Jean sighed, smoothing her hands over her ample hips. ‘But you never know. Italians are supposed to like women well-stacked, and you can’t say I’m not that.’
‘He’s Italian?’ Mina had stiffened slightly.
‘And there he is.’
‘Where?’
‘Heavens, where are your eyes?’
Mina’s searching gaze shrieked to a halt on the tall, black-haired man striding down the room, flanked by two of Earth Concern’s directors. Her heart gave a frantic leap behind her breastbone and every muscle pulled taut. She could feel the blood draining from her face, the sudden cold, clamminess of her flesh. She was in the grip of a shock so extreme she was paralysed by it.
‘Cesare Falcone,’ Jean whispered. ‘Falcone Industries. Quite a coup, don’t you think? Apparently, Mr Barry gave him a copy of our newsletter at some dinner and he was so impressed, he set up a meeting the same week! He even mentioned my article on waste recycling’
‘Did he?’ Mina unpeeled her tongue from the roof of her dry mouth. Waste recycling? Cesare?
Her stomach cramping with sudden nausea, Mina turned on her heel without a word and headed for the cloakroom. Mercifully it was empty. She braced her hands on the edge of a vanity unit and slowly breathed in, struggling to combat the sick dizziness assailing her. To see Cesare again where she had least expected to see him…when, indeed, she had never expected to see him again. Dear God, but life could be cruel, she thought with sudden raw bitterness.
Anger currented through her, squaring her shoulders, stiffening her spine. Four years ago, fresh out of college with a fistful of top grades, Mina had walked into what had appeared to be the plum job of her year. Cesare Falcone had hired her as his executive assistant. Three months down the line she had been sacked without warning and in the most humiliating way possible denied entrance to the Falcone building.
And, as if that had not been bad enough, she had been refused a reference. That refusal had put a big black question mark on her employment record. It had been well over a year before Mina had found another job and she had had to settle for a low-paid position without responsibility. Cesare Falcone had wrecked her career prospects in the City.
But he hadn’t done it alone, she conceded with painful self-loathing. She might not have deserved the brutal treatment she had been dealt but she had played a part in her own downfall. One slip…one mistake. She had fallen in love with her employer. She had become vulnerable. Her heart had got in the way of her head. Common sense had taken a hike. And when, late one evening, Cesare had broken out the champagne over a particularly successful deal, Mina had served herself up as supper…
She closed her eyes tightly, shutting out the memories, hating them, hating herself for ever having been that naïve, that reckless, that stupid. If it hadn’t been for that night, she would have sued for wrongful dismissal, but shame had choked her and kept her quiet when in any other circumstances she would have fought him to the last ditch for daring to terminate her contract on such terms. Gross misconduct. She shuddered in remembrance.
She had to drag herself back out of the cloakroom, feverishly aware that at some stage of the evening she would be forced to face Cesare. Edwin Haland was making a short opening speech by the time she returned to the crowded function-room. Everyone was already seated with their plates heaped high. Jean gave her a frantic wave from a nearby table.
Mina dropped down gratefully into the vacant seat beside the other woman. Noting her pallor, Jean frowned at her. ‘You’re not coming down with this flu bug, are you?’
‘I’m just a bit tired.’ Without appetite Mina studied the plate that Jean had helpfully filled for her.
Cesare would be seated at the top table. Mina tried hard not to look in that direction but a compulsion stronger than she was triumphed. Her heartbeat slowed t
o a dulled thud. ‘Drop-dead gorgeous’, Jean had called him and, ironically, the one time Mina hadn’t noticed those sensational looks of his had been at her interview when he had stretched her with so many difficult questions that she had emerged afterwards inwardly wrung out and possessed only of the memory of dark, deep-set eyes which had seemed to be cruelly willing her to trip up and fall apart under the pressure.
After all his sardonic references to her lack of experience, she had been amazed when she had got the job. But within a week of entering employment in the Falcone building she had assumed that it was her sex which had made him put her through hoops of fire. She had discovered that she was the only female above the level of secretary on the executive floor and that the men in the boardroom unashamedly rejoiced in their chauvinism, reacting to her arrival in their midst with horror and downright resentment. Staying the course had been an uphill battle from day one…
She sank back to the present, and discovered that she was still staring, her attention roaming over his strong, dark features in profile, so familiar, even after all this time, she couldn’t believe it. Her stomach clenched tight again, sudden comprehension shuddering through her to make her cringe from her own blindness.
Of course those features were familiar to her…feminised and in miniature. Hadn’t she lived with those high cheekbones, those winged brows and those dark golden eyes for over three years? Her daughter, Susie, wore her parentage like a banner.
‘You’re nervous about the directors’ meeting tomorrow,’ Jean decided, finally noticing that Mina wasn’t eating. ‘I wouldn’t worry if I were you. Your promotion’s in the bag.’
Grateful to be distracted from her painful reflections, Mina sighed. ‘Nothing’s in the bag, Jean.’
‘Mr Haland’s very keen for you to head up the finance section, and the other directors will accept his recommendation,’ Jean asserted in a bolstering tone.
‘There were other candidates.’
‘I doubt if they had your qualifications, and I would say your invitation to stand in for Simon tonight is as good as an advance announcement.’
Mina had been hoping the same thing but she didn’t say so. Her self-confidence had dive-bombed in the dole queue four years ago, and her streak of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed youthful ambition had taken a similar battering. Throughout her two-week vacation, which she had spent, as she always did, at her sister’s home, Mina had crossed her fingers and prayed that she would win that promotion, and not because she was eager for the higher status or the challenge of greater responsibility. No, not at all. Mina was quite simply desperate for the considerable rise in salary which would come with the position of finance manager.
Edwin was rising from the table, ushering his VIP guest to the podium. Below the lights Cesare’s ebony hair had the sheen of silk, and Mina was attacked without warning by a tormentingly painful image of her own fingers sliding through those thick dark strands. Her skin burning, she dropped her head and lifted her glass of wine with an unsteady hand. Cast back in time, frantically struggling to rescue her self-discipline, she didn’t absorb a single word of Cesare’s speech.
But it must have been witty and amusing. Laughter broke out several times, interspersed by that appreciative silence which was the reward of a speaker talented enough to play his audience like a professional. But all she actually heard was the sound of Cesare’s deep, rich voice, backed by the indolent purr of his accent. Her brain seemed incapable of taking in anything more profound.
‘No wonder the directors are walking on air tonight,’ Jean murmured. ‘Cesare Falcone could take Earth Concern into the major leagues all on his own. Look how many journalists are here…we’ve never had a press turnout this good!’
People were rising from their tables and starting to mingle. Edwin signalled to Mina. With all her being she wished it were possible to ignore that gesture. She stood up, relieved to see that Cesare was being mobbed. Little wonder, she reflected cynically.
So many of their patrons only supported them because to be seen at such events lent one a certain cachet. And the chance to rub shoulders, however briefly, with Cesare Falcone, a true member of the glitterati, who when in London moved only in the most select social circles, was a chance few of their patrons would wish to miss.
‘A tremendous speech, don’t you think?’ Edwin remarked, curving a light arm to her back, making her stiffen in surprise, as he surveyed the crush which had engulfed Cesare with unhidden satisfaction.
‘Very impressive.’
‘Where on earth did you get to earlier?’ the older man demanded with faint irritation. ‘I wanted you to sit with us at the top table.’
‘I had no idea…sorry.’ But it was a challenge to look sorry. As Mina realised what a narrow escape she had had, she felt quite light-headed with gratitude. With a little luck she would be able to slip off home soon, pull herself together and decide how she would handle being introduced to Cesare, as she surely would be sooner or later.
Tell him now, a little voice urged her. She should tell Edwin that she had once worked for Cesare, even though that fact had not appeared on her carefully doctored c.v. Edwin would be surprised, but he was highly unlikely to go back and check that same document.
‘I suppose it was my fault.’ He smiled, looking down at Mina, whose tiny, delicate stature never failed to remind him of his late wife. ‘I should have asked you to join us.’
Picking up her courage in both hands, Mina parted her lips. ‘Edwin——’
‘Do you realise that this is the very first time you have called me by my Christian name?’ he chuckled.
Mina flushed. She was always very formal with the directors.
‘Please don’t apologise,’ he told her cheerfully. ‘Being called Mr Haland all the time makes me feel as old as the hills.’
‘Which you’re far from being,’ Mina said politely, a little disconcerted by the warmth she read in his eyes.
‘I certainly don’t feel it when I’m fortunate enough to be in the company of a very beautiful young woman. Indeed I feel privileged,’ Edwin asserted with vigour, shocking her into rigidity as she glanced back up at him.
‘Mr Haland?’ someone intervened from behind them.
The older man’s arm lifted from her narrow back with a reluctance that could be felt. Mina’s cheeks were pink, embarrassment and dismay having taken hold of her. She had always been aware that Edwin Haland liked her as a quiet, hard-working member of staff, but it had not until now occurred to her that he might be attracted to her.
‘Where have you been hiding yourself all evening, cara?’
Her downbent head flew up and then tipped back, amethyst eyes wide with apprehension, the colour highlighting her complexion evaporating fast as her gaze connected with molten gold.
‘Cesare…’ she whispered tautly, striving manfully to recover her composure, telling herself that she had had plenty of time to adjust to the prospect of such a confrontation but discovering to her horror that that fact seemed to make no difference to her shattered response to his sudden looming presence less than a foot from her.
‘Sì, Cesare…who remembers you well,’ he murmured in a flat undertone that chilled her, intent narrowed dark eyes scanning her pale face. ‘Do I warn the old goat that he’s about to fall into the alligator pit? Or do I keep my mouth shut?’
‘I beg your pardon?’ Mina framed without comprehension.
‘From the outside it looks as though you have your sights set on a wedding-ring, but I wonder if that’s true. You’re a devious little bitch,’ Cesare told her in a conversational tone that made what he was saying all the more shocking, ‘but you’re predictable. Evidently you’re still sleeping with the boss.’
Totally unprepared for such an offensive attack, Mina gazed back at him in utter disbelief. ‘How dare you——?’
‘At the table Haland was like a dying swan in search of his mate. It didn’t occur to me that it was your absence which was making him so restive, but it shoul
d have done,’ Cesare told her with derision. ‘There has to be some very good reason why you’re working for small bucks in a charitable enterprise. Let’s face it, Pollyanna you’re not!’
Starting to tremble, wondering crazily if Cesare Falcone had gone mad, Mina whispered jerkily, ‘Why are you treating me like this…saying such things?’
Cesare laughed softly. ‘That look of injured innocence, cara…I award you full marks for trying but I’m not a lonely old fool, hungry for the attention of a young, sexy woman. I’m Cesare Falcone…and if you hadn’t disappeared into thin air four years ago I’d have shredded you limb from limb, a piece at a time, for what you did to me!’
Unable to drag her eyes from him, Mina took an instinctive step back. She was in such shock, she couldn’t even think straight. ‘For what I did to you?’ she repeated shakily.
‘But the good news is…a Sicilian never forgets being stabbed in the back, and if he has to wait a year or two…?’ Cesare spread a frighteningly expressive lean brown hand in the air between them and smiled with such chilling satisfaction that the blood in her veins ran cold. Involuntarily, she was mesmerised. ‘Even better. The desire for revenge merely becomes keener, sharper…altogether more intense. I’ll break you.’ He closed his long fingers into his palm as if he were crushing something and laughed with wolfish amusement. ‘Running was a major mistake.’
The smouldering silence thundered in her eardrums, making her feel dizzy, disorientated.
‘I see you’ve already met Miss Carroll, Mr Falcone.’ Edwin’s voice intruded, making her flinch as she belatedly recalled that there were people all around them. Like a sleepwalker, suddenly woken up, Mina attempted to regain an awareness of her surroundings, but it was hopeless. Cesare’s insane behaviour was already exercising her brain to full capacity.