by Lynne Graham
Andreo attempted to read her tranquil expression for he had discovered that for the first time in his life he was extraordinarily impatient to hear a woman’s opinion on a topic he usually avoided like the plague. He almost groaned out loud when he registered that it was the tranquillity of sleep that had reclaimed her. He recalled her patience with his decidedly irritating little brother and he found himself smiling. He was willing to bet that she was crazy about kids.
Furthermore, why had he been worrying when she was patently unconcerned by that unfortunate glitch with the condom? What did she know that he didn’t? Most probably, he decided, she was too shy to tell him that at the current stage of her cycle there was precious little chance of conception having taken place.
Pippa wakened to the sound of her mobile buzzing only inches away from her head.
While acknowledging that she had a headache and felt as though she had engaged in some very over-active sport, she fumbled for the phone and half sat up to answer it. ‘Hmm?’
‘Did you sleep well, bella mia?’ an awesomely familiar masculine drawl enquired in a tone as smooth as black velvet.
At the same time, Pippa struggled to adjust to the additional revelation that she was stark naked and lying in a bed in an only vaguely familiar hotel room. ‘S-sorry?’ she stammered.
‘I ordered breakfast for you,’ Andreo continued with quiet assurance. ‘It should be waiting for you next door about now.’
Dazed blue eyes now huge and appalled, Pippa stared down at the phone in her hand and blinked rapidly. ‘I thought maybe…er…maybe I dreamt you up,’ she confided unsteadily.
‘Your dreams are that exciting?’ Andreo teased in an intimate undertone, flagrantly ignoring signals from his personal staff that his presence was awaited in the boardroom.
‘For goodness’ sake…what time is it?’ Pippa exclaimed.
‘Half-past nine, sleepyhead…but don’t worry, I’m happy to give you the day off.’ A reflective smile on his wide, sensual mouth, Andreo was picturing her as he had seen her before he’d left his suite. All tousled and flushed and beautiful even while still asleep. She had been exhausted, he recalled. She should spend the day in bed recouping her energies.
‘Half-past nine? A day off…are you kidding?’ Pippa framed in a rather high-pitched response.
‘We’re dining out tonight and I want you to be rested,’ Andreo countered with all the masterful cool of a male who felt it was his business to ensure her well-being.
Had she signed over her soul to him as well as her body the night before? She flinched in shame and growing shock. ‘Andreo…I appreciate that you have to be senior to me at Venstar but I don’t take days off just because I’m tired—’
‘But you will today, cara,’ Andreo intoned, waving away the executives hovering in the doorway with a censorious frown as he concentrated on his call.
‘Why?’ she whispered shakily.
‘Why?’ Andreo queried in frank astonishment for, in his own opinion, he had only made a tiny request. ‘If for no other reason then to please me, of course!’
Since when had pleasing a guy been one of her priorities? Since you fell for tall, dark and domineering, who wasn’t a dream last night!
‘Look, it’s not convenient for me to chat right now. But I have a surprise to share with you tonight over dinner. I think it’ll make you smile. Leave me your address so that I know where to pick you up,’ he instructed before he concluded the call.
Oh, boy, was he in for a surprise! No way was she taking a day off the same day that Cheryl assumed management of the finance section. Shaking her buzzing head, Pippa set her phone down and then as swiftly snatched it up again. As it was already after nine, she needed to call work and make her excuses before saying when she would be in. Calculating how long it was likely to take her to travel home and get changed before trailing all the way back across the city to begin work at around lunchtime if she was lucky, Pippa winced and abandoned that idea. Almost throwing herself out of bed, she raced about picking up her clothing and hurtled into the bathroom. It would be faster and simpler if she simply bought a new outfit to wear!
Into the shower she went, determined to think of nothing but her goal of getting into work as fast as possible, but her self-discipline crumpled while she washed. Every movement reminded her of the intimate ache at the heart of her body from Andreo’s passionate possession. She was torn between mortification and a guilty sensation of happiness that seemed wholly inappropriate in the circumstances. Alcohol had banished her caution and her inhibitions and she had gone to bed with a male she had only just met. His interest had turned her head and she was shocked at the speed and ease with which her pride and moral principles had fallen in the face of temptation. Hadn’t she behaved like a tramp?
But she discovered that she could not be that hard on herself. Not every romance was strictly conventional, she told herself urgently. Andreo seemed as wildly attracted to her as she was to him and he had called her first thing and he wanted to take her out to dinner that very evening. Reaching for the towel as she left the shower, she saw her reflection in the mirror and wrinkled her nose at the dizzy grin on her own face. All right, so he was gorgeous, she bargained with herself, but wasn’t that all the more reason to make an effort to keep her foolish feet on the ground?
Fully dressed and having paused only to print her address on the writing pad by the bed, she entered the elegant reception room next door and came to a startled halt. An exquisite arrangement of roses adorned with an envelope carrying the name ‘Philly’ met her attention first. Even as she breathed in the glorious scent of the wonderful old-fashioned blooms, she was taking note of the incredible number of breakfast choices on the table. Having no idea what she would like, Andreo, it seemed, had just ordered up everything for her.
Without warning, her eyes stung with tears and, with a choky little laugh of embarrassment over her own teeming emotions, she dashed away that betraying moisture. Her hand not quite steady, she reached for a fresh roll and buttered it and drank down one of the fruit juices. But it was just no use trying to block out the thoughts pressing in on her: Andreo was, indeed, pretty special. She could not remember when, if ever, any man had made such an effort on her behalf. Her own father had not given two hoots when his own last-minute demands first thing in the morning had ensured that she’d rarely had time to eat before she’d rushed out to work.
‘You might as well learn it now,’ Martin Stevenson had told her with excruciating bitterness more than once over the years. ‘Life’s tough.’
Cocooned in her warm, happy feelings about Andreo, Pippa went shopping. In fast succession she bought a black trouser suit, comfortable loafers and fresh underwear in the same store that had supplied her entire wardrobe. She really hoped that it wasn’t her dress sense that had drawn him because she had never had a flair for choosing clothes or doing her hair or make-up, she conceded ruefully. How superficial in his judgements was a guy who looked as though he had sprung live from a glossy magazine of sophisticated, classy, handsome men? Possibly dating Andreo was likely to demand a lot from her…but since when had she not been up to a challenge?
Chin at an upbeat angle, Pippa entered the Venstar building with a decided smile lurking in her clear blue eyes. In the lift she stood beside two women talking about the employee meeting that was being held on the third floor. The events room that was always used for large staff gatherings was packed. Pippa slipped in at the back just as a middle-aged director lifted a welcoming hand to announce, ‘Andreo D’Alessio, Venstar’s new president!’
Pippa saw Andreo, her Andreo, rise from his seat at the top table. Magnificent in a pale grey business suit worn with a dark blue shirt and toning silk tie, lean, sardonic face grave, he made her heart leap and her tummy fill with butterflies. Trying to keep a silly smile from forming on her lips, she felt quite ridiculously proud and possessive of him. Only when she was about to look away rather than risk other people noticing who she was staring at
did it finally dawn on her that her Andreo was striding forward to raise a silencing hand in response to the thunderous tide of applause.
For a long, timeless moment, she assumed that he was acting as spokesman for his employer and then the director addressed him as, ‘Mr D’Alessio’ and all such hope died. Disbelief made her eyes huge and her mouth fall open and, inside her suit jacket, her heart seemed to be running a one-minute mile so noisily that it was interfering with her hearing.
The finance project assistant, Jonelle, shifted closer to speak to her. ‘Go on, admit it. For a bloke as hot as Andreo D’Alessio, just about any woman would stretch a point and consider donning diamond-studded handcuffs! I mean, you wouldn’t throw him out of bed, would you?’
Pippa tried to laugh off the comment but her voice had vanished and her lips were too slow and clumsy to shape words for her. But then, had she been able to rescue her vocal cords and make sound, she would have sobbed with raging unbelief and pain.
CHAPTER FOUR
SHOCK was rolling over Pippa in a suffocating, chilling tidal wave: her Andreo was Venstar’s president, the fabulously wealthy Italian entrepreneur and womaniser, Andreo D’Alessio!
Gutted by that revelation and much too devastated to immediately react, Pippa listened dully to Andreo giving a short, witty speech about his plans for Venstar. Her Andreo? Since when? Sick with shame and the most terrible sense of hurt and betrayal, she shivered, cold to the very centre of her bones, even her skin clammy. Why had he lied to her? Why had he let her think that he was just another employee? How could he have done that to her? What sort of sick, perverted sense of humour did the guy have?
Only then did she remember that she had made the first error in mistaking the small, portly man at the podium for Venstar’s new owner. She had then made critical remarks about Andreo D’Alessio. Was that why he had slept with her? The ultimate putdown? Her tummy gave a nauseous roll. How very funny he must have thought he was being when he’d assured her that Andreo was a very common name in Italy and she’d swallowed his stupid lie whole!
Across the room, Andreo’s attention was caught by the apricot glint of her bright head. His recognition of her was instantaneous even though her hair was caught up in a rather juvenile pony-tail and her face was bare of make-up. Having assumed that she would do exactly as he had asked, he was disconcerted. In fact, he frowned. Why the hell hadn’t she remained at the hotel? Even as he looked he saw her spin away and almost cannon into a group of people in her haste to leave the room. Of course, he conceded grimly, she would immediately have learned who he was.
Instinct urged Andreo to follow her, but he was determined not to make a parade of their relationship during office hours. He was aware that his blatant pursuit of her the night before had been far from discreet. Annoyance flared in him at that grudging acknowledgement. Philly should have listened to him and taken the day off. Why was she so stubborn? Now instead of discovering his identity over a relaxing meal, she was finding it out in rather more challenging circumstances.
‘I find it hard to believe that your being late today was accidental,’ Cheryl Long was informing Pippa in a sharp tone at that exact same moment. ‘I wasn’t able to show the Kelvedon project figures to senior management because I had no idea that you had sent the file back to Acquisitions. That caused me a lot of embarrassment!’
Staff nearby stiffened at that unjust attack but Pippa was much too devastated over what she had just discovered about Andreo to feel the full bite of Cheryl’s outrageous accusation. She said nothing because she would have felt foolish defending herself against such a ridiculous charge.
‘I’d like you to use my old desk from now on,’ Cheryl added, determined, it seemed, to get a reaction out of her subordinate.
‘Fine.’ Pippa began to clear out her desk drawers.
Cheryl allowed a small smile to play over her burgundy lips and murmured with studied casualness and in an almost friendly tone, ‘Oh, I’ll need a copy of the presentation you planned to give at this afternoon’s meeting for Mr D’Alessio’s benefit.’
‘I’m afraid I haven’t prepared one,’ Pippa replied.
‘But you must have done…’ the brunette asserted, her smile falling away at ludicrous speed.
‘No, I hadn’t got around to it.’ Pippa saw no reason to point out that had she been given the job of manager, she would have devoted all of the previous day to that most important task.
Cheryl gave her a furious look of disbelief and, turning on her heel, she stalked across the room and entered Ricky Brownlow’s office with only the smallest warning knock.
‘Life around here is going to be hell,’ Jonelle forecast gloomily to nobody in particular.
‘I never thought she’d be such an unbelievable cow,’ someone else whispered aghast. ‘I mean, she’s always been good for a laugh.’
‘I can’t understand how on earth she….’ Jonelle fell silent, possibly appreciating that such remarks were tactless within Pippa’s hearing.
In the uneasy silence, Pippa relocated her possessions to her new desk.
‘What did you think of Andreo D’Alessio’s girlfriend last night?’ one of the other women asked Jonelle with determined cheer.
‘The redhead? She was sex on legs. Every bloke in the place was drooling over her to the most disgusting extent,’ Jonelle lamented. ‘If that’s the standard of the competition, what hope have us more ordinary types got with him?’
‘None at all, I should think.’ The older woman chuckled. ‘I got the impression that as couples go those two were rather well matched.’
‘Matched? In height, I suppose you mean.’ Jonelle pulled an unimpressed face.
‘Come on…he could hardly bear to take his eyes off her for longer than twenty seconds. She’s got him tagged and good luck to her. Didn’t she remind you of anyone?’
‘Like who?’
‘There was just something very familiar about her. I don’t know what it was but I thought that maybe she was a model and I’d seen pictures of her somewhere.’
‘She didn’t remind me of anyone,’ Jonelle retorted.
Pippa had grown tense, but her tension ebbed as the subject was dropped. Of course, nobody was going to recognise her, she told herself bracingly. She busied herself with work that she herself had given Cheryl the previous week. The task was well beneath her ability and, in failing to engage her brain, ensured that as she emerged from the shock of having discovered Andreo’s true identity her angry pain only became more raw at the edges.
Never in her life had she felt more humiliated. Andreo had deceived her with a cruel and heartless masquerade. He had lied to her and betrayed her trust. But what kind of an idiot had she been to trust a guy she had only just met? What she had believed to be a wonderfully special and romantic encounter now seemed much more like a sleazy one-night stand. Hurt distaste filled her. He was a notorious womaniser. How come she hadn’t at least recognised that reality?
After all, he had been as sleek and sophisticated as the legendary Casanova. Her soft, full mouth compressed. She had been too naive to recognise Andreo D’Alessio for what he was. But where had her intelligence been? He had handed out orders with the cool authority of a male used to people jumping to do his bidding. Arrogant, confident, forceful in personality. His hotel suite had been very large and opulent. The roses and the expensive array of breakfast choices had been the lavish gestures of a rich man, accustomed to using his wealth to impress a woman. And she had been impressed, hadn’t she? Without warning, a hot tide of moisture hit the back of Pippa’s eyes in a stinging flood.
Getting up from her desk, she headed straight for the cloakroom. There she stared at herself with loathing in the mirror until those weak tears had receded of their own volition. How could she be hurting so much? So the fairy tale had been an illusion. And she was surprised? As her late father had often reminded her, life was tough. What she had to do was move herself on and focus on something else. But what? Her lacklustre future w
ith a company that had refused her promotion and moreover suggested she take a lengthy career break? That was when Pippa decided that at the end of her three weeks of leave she would not be returning to work at Venstar.
Instead, she would hand in her notice and make a fresh start elsewhere. Some place where looks did not count more than ability and where hard work and results were rewarded. Some place where she had not slept with her boss. Settling her tremulous lips into a firmer line, Pippa steadied herself. That was his fault too…that she had betrayed her principles and ended up sleeping with her employer. An amount of anger that left her downright giddy shot through her in a re-energising surge. In retrospect she could not credit Andreo’s reckless behaviour and she knew then that she would know no peace until she confronted him.
She took the lift up to the executive floor. It was almost lunch time and the corridors were busy with people hurrying back and forth. She headed straight for the managing director’s office, knocked once on the door and entered before anyone could try to prevent her.
Taken aback by that sudden interruption, Andreo swung round from the computer screen and focused on Pippa instead. On a slender woman dressed all in black with eyes as bright and blue as sapphires and a mouth that even unadorned was as inviting as a ripe cherry.
He smiled because he was pleased that she had come to him and then wondered why she was wearing a suit at least a size too large for her.
It was his smile that first threatened Pippa’s tenuous self-control. That he could still smile when she felt lacerated was almost more than she could bear. But that smile was also a trip wire for it had megawatt charm and she found herself staring at him, drinking in his lean bronzed features and the stunning impact of the dark golden eyes welded to her. A host of intimate recollections drowned out her anger. Suddenly she was back where she had been the night before, blushing like mad and as overwhelmed by the power of her own frantic response as an adolescent in the presence of her idol.