by Sara Wood
Anna laughed with the others and was just getting over the sight of Lucy’s psychedelic T-shirt and tight leather trousers when she saw Steve ushering Peter into the room. Dark and striking, dressed conventionally in a dark charcoal suit, fine striped shirt and co-ordinating tie, nevertheless her fiancé seemed suddenly blank and charmless.
Her eyes flicked over to Vido and she made an instant comparison. His moleskin trousers clung to his narrow hips, the pale caramel colour echoing that of his soft shirt. Without making any effort, he commanded the entire room by sheer force of personality alone.
It wasn’t just his good looks that drew her to him—Peter was technically just as handsome. But Vido had something extra. The X factor, a tangible inner force that gave him an enviable vitality. Quite naturally, he projected an authority and a magnetism that Peter had never possessed. And right now, Vido seemed to be firing on all six cylinders, his whole body alive with energy and enthusiasm as he chatted to the lovely Camilla.
A twist of deep jealousy sealed Peter’s fate. If she envied Camilla then she definitely didn’t love Peter. Oh, sure he’d wined and dined her, and had flattered and charmed her—but on reflection it had been in a rather detached way which suggested he might not have been as interested in her as in her inheritance. Though she couldn’t be sure. The one thing she did know, was that the engagement had to be ended tonight. It was only fair.
‘I’ve seen someone I know,’ she said, reluctant to claim a more meaningful relationship. ‘Excuse me, I’ll go over and say hello.’
Leaving the canapé plates in Joe’s capable hands, she took a deep breath and went over to meet Peter. She could see his eyes darting about, taking in the luxurious room and its vibrant inhabitants. And then Vido’s broad shoulders obscured her view as he moved towards her fiancé.
‘You must be Peter Talbot,’ Vido said coolly. ‘Welcome.’
‘Peter!’
Vido half turned to her, giving her a burning look over his shoulder before he managed to detach his hand, which Peter was enthusiastically pumping up and down.
‘Hello, darling.’ Peter gave her a perfunctory peck on the cheek as if she was an irritating diversion and turned back to Vido. ‘I’m delighted to meet you at last, Mr Pascali,’ he gushed. ‘The City is alive with stories about your successes. I’m very interested in troubleshooting myself. Think I’m pretty good at assessing my fellow man—’
‘And woman,’ Vido murmured.
Peter blinked. ‘Oh. Yes. Of course. Mustn’t forget the little woman!’
‘Where would we be without them?’ said Vido with a chuckle.
Anna bristled. Little woman indeed! This was a side of Peter she’d never seen. He sounded like something out of the ark! And was she imagining it, or was Vido deliberately egging Peter on?
‘We’d probably be doing the typing and washing up, that’s what!’ Peter joked with a grin that was horribly close to being sycophantic.
‘I’d forgotten!’ Vido said, slapping his forehead. ‘Remind me, Anna. It’s my turn to do the dishes today. You were saying, Peter?’
Definitely, she thought darkly, he was stirring things and making Peter look stupid. Though she had to admit that Peter was doing pretty well on his own, without any help from Vido.
‘Er…yes.’
Peter had obviously been thrown by Vido’s remark but he recovered quickly and Anna realised that her fiancé was revealing himself to be pretty thick-skinned. How odd that she’d never noticed before. Up to recently, he’d been charming and amenable, treating her with respect. Only after her grandfather’s bankruptcy had he shown signs of regretting their engagement—and signs, too, of impatience with her.
Perhaps this was the real Peter. And she suspected that he wasn’t bothered about her, now she had no fortune. Maybe he was an opportunist, currently latching on to the fact that through Anna he could land a plum job.
‘Mr Pascali, I’m a great fan of yours,’ he flattered. ‘I wondered if we could have a little chat—’
‘We must. But first there’s someone on my staff I think you should talk to,’ Vido said earnestly.
It seemed to Anna that Peter preened in delight at such personal attention. In vain did she try to resurrect her former opinion of her fiancé. Unfortunately the scales had fallen from her eyes and she was seeing Peter in a new light.
‘Ah. Lucy.’ Vido drew his cleaner into the crook of his arm and smiled down at her cheery face. ‘Mr Talbot wants to tell you all about himself. Why don’t you two get together with Joe and have…a little chat?’
Anna saw Peter goggling at Lucy’s unusual outfit. She knew she ought to tell Peter that he was on the brink of selling himself to the cleaner and the gardener, but a wicked goblin seemed to have tied up her tongue.
It had annoyed her that Peter hadn’t commented on the way she looked. He’d shown little interest in her at all. It looked as if she might be a stepping stone to his ambition—using her as Vido had, ten years ago. Cursing the ruthlessness and selfishness of men, she hardened her heart as Peter left with the amused Lucy.
‘Why did you do that?’ she asked Vido with assumed coldness.
‘He was invited to support you, not to angle for a job,’ he replied sharply. ‘And he neglected to say how beautiful you were. So I’ll say it for him.’ He gave her a long and intense stare. ‘You look fabulous, Anna.’
She stared, her heart pumping hard because his husky compliment had thrilled her. Then she recovered her composure.
‘I must cook the pasta,’ she said in a total panic and slipped out of the room before she melted into a little heap on the floor.
‘Divine. What do you think, Vido, darling?’ Camilla speared another piece of lamb.
Anna held her breath. It was crucial that he should like her cooking. Everyone else had raved about it—apart from Peter and Vido. Peter was too busy boring everyone with a résumé of his entire life and Vido, at the far end of the table from her, had been unusually silent as if something was on his mind.
The candlelight gave his face a soft, golden glow. He didn’t even lift his eyes from his plate. ‘Perfect.’
The conversation swirled around her again. While Condalita recounted a funny story to her, she watched him covertly. It pleased her that he was eating slowly, savouring every mouthful, especially the last. His eyes were half closed as if in bliss. Her pulses began to beat out a little rapid rhythm.
That’s how he would be, she imagined, when kissing. Or making love. Suddenly he sensed that he was being watched and shot her a blazing look of such intensity that she felt it sizzle across the table like a flash of fire.
How dare he? she thought, angrily scowling at her plate. It didn’t matter to him that Camilla might have seen. He didn’t give a damn about anyone’s feelings.
‘Let’s change seats!’ cried Joe with a false heartiness.
Everyone, including Anna, fought back sympathetic smiles. He’d been sitting next to Peter and it was obvious why he wanted to move. But, amiably they switched around while some of the men collected dishes with Anna and she set off to the kitchen to turn out the chestnut cake.
When she returned, she found herself at the head of the table next to Vido. Trembling a little, she served the portions while Vido added crème fraîche or ice cream as requested. Squeals of delight greeted the first mouthfuls.
‘Vido! This is the summit of a glorious meal. If you don’t take Anna on, I’m leaving!’ declared Camilla.
Thrilled, Anna found that her smile was tinged with bitterness. There couldn’t be a clearer announcement of Vido and Camilla’s relationship than that.
She saw Peter frown at the interruption. Tapping his fingers on the table, he waited impatiently till everyone had heaped praises on her head, reducing her to pink-faced embarrassment, then he launched forth again.
Eyes glazed over. One or two rolled up to the ceiling. She felt ashamed of his lack of awareness.
He’d spoiled the atmosphere. Without him, the conversa
tion would have been light and amusing. For a moment as she’d looked around the table, which was sparkling with Georgian silver and crystal goblets, she’d felt wrapped in warmth and friendship, just as if she were part of an extended Italian family eating out of doors beneath clambering vines.
This was something she’d always craved during her lonely childhood and the cautious, reserved years that had followed. A dinner table bursting with interesting people who regarded her as their friend.
And one day, she’d dreamed of her own large family with her at its head, sitting beside an adoring husband. For a few magical minutes part of that dream had seemed a possibility. But it had been ruined by Peter.
Throughout the meal he had sought always to dominate. It was something she’d never noticed before. Even Vido listened to people. In fact, he spent most of his time listening with genuine interest.
She felt Vido’s breath on her neck and she jerked her head around. ‘Interesting. Your fiancé flashes his teeth a lot and flirts with Camilla, but he only addresses his remarks to the men around the table,’ he mused.
Startled, she knew that he was right. ‘Does he?’ she dissembled, knowing perfectly well that Vido had spotted one of Peter’s many flaws. Women weren’t to be taken seriously.
She watched uncomfortably, wishing she’d never invited him. Peter was picking out as a target the unfortunate Joe, now on Anna’s left, in the fond belief that Joe held some executive position.
‘…vis-à-vis the international potential?’ Peter queried pompously, waving a heavy silver fork in the air.
‘No idea, mate,’ the immaculately tailored Joe said cheerfully and Anna noticed with amusement that he’d suspiciously developed a Cockney accent. ‘I’m only the bloke what mows the lawn.’
Everyone tried to suppress his or her giggles as the apparently innocent Joe transferred a morsel of food to his mouth with the utmost delicacy.
‘The…gardener?’ Peter said, aghast that he’d wasted his time on such a minion.
‘Isn’t this fun?’ murmured Vido.
She ignored him, her anxious eyes on Peter. Clearly shocked and in need of a drink, he spotted Maria carrying a bottle of wine from the sideboard. Without even looking at her now, he held up his glass to her in a peremptory manner as if she were a servant. Vido tensed and there was an audible intake of breath around the table but Peter didn’t even notice.
Anna realised that he saw Maria as an inferior. She was blonde and pretty and a woman in T-shirt and jeans.
‘I can tell you about worms and dung heaps if you want to know,’ Joe offered, all innocence. But Peter was too sure of himself to pick up on Joe’s wicked insinuation. ‘But “vis-à-vis” aren’t my ball game. Ask Maria instead,’ Joe suggested.
Peter laughed at what he imagined was a joke while Maria demurely poured wine into Peter’s glass and batted her eyelashes at him, affecting a dumb-blonde expression.
‘Maria,’ Vido murmured into the hushed, waiting silence, ‘is my head troubleshooter in Milan.’
As the white-faced Peter choked on his wine, Vido chuckled and leant towards the humiliated Anna.
‘When we move into the drawing room for coffee and brandies,’ he whispered into her burning ear, ‘I think you’d better take your fiancé aside and have a little word with him about my philosophy regarding my staff. And then I want to see you alone.’
Grim-faced, she nodded. Peter could well have ruined her chances of working here. She felt like murdering him. Not only was she hopping with anger at his behaviour, but also she was appalled by her total inability to choose a decent boyfriend. Vido and Peter were both megalomaniacs. Why couldn’t she fall for someone nice like Joe?
‘I have a whole heap of things to say to Peter,’ she said with a scowl. ‘I’d like to go somewhere private with him if that’s all right.’
Vido’s triumphant expression unsettled her. ‘Anywhere you like,’ he murmured. ‘Except the bedrooms.’
‘No chance of that,’ she snapped and he sat back in his chair looking horribly pleased with himself.
Their body language when they returned to the drawing room for after-dinner coffee told him all he wanted to know. Anna was flushed and on the edge of some kind of explosion, her eyes flinty with anger. Her breasts were rising and falling with her rapid breathing. She looked magnificent and utterly ravishable.
Peter, on the other hand, definitely had the relieved look of a man who’d escaped the scaffold. He was already contemplating Camilla thoughtfully and Vido put down his coffee-cup and smiled to himself as Peter accosted his PA and began to chat her up. She wasn’t the sort to waste her time on vain men who had an inflated opinion of themselves.
The coast was clear. Fired with excitement of what was to come, he strode over to Anna and took her arm. She had removed her engagement ring, which she’d been wearing earlier. He felt a quickening of his pulses.
‘I want to speak to you. My study. Now.’
Warily she looked up at him from under her lush black lashes. ‘The kitchen,’ she dissembled. ‘I have to do the dishes—’
‘No, I do. But we’ll go there if you like. The kitchen will do just as well,’ he purred.
Just then Peter broke off in the midst of talking to Camilla and held out his empty cup to Anna. Her eyes widened in amazement. Vido realised that Peter had learnt nothing from the earlier episode. It was clearly a deeply ingrained knee-jerk reaction. Empty cup or glass, woman near by, problem sorted.
‘Coffee, Anna,’ Peter ordered when Anna didn’t move a muscle.
Vido’s eyes narrowed. She fixed a totally false smile to her face.
‘No thanks,’ she said sweetly and swept out.
Vido’s fists clenched. It would be very enjoyable, he thought, to punch Peter between his nasty little eyes. Instead, he curbed his desire for violence and confronted the arrogant brute instead.
‘You may be my guest, but I would advise you not to treat my staff, and particularly women, like servants,’ he said coldly. ‘Get your own coffee. Your legs aren’t paralysed.’ He allowed a heartbeat of a pause before adding a menacing, ‘Yet.’
Steaming angry, he went to find Anna. She was in the kitchen, scowling and nibbling scraps of leftover lamb. Like him, she was screwed up with anger and he wanted to kiss her now, while she was in a raging passion.
Instead, he joined her and for want of a displacement activity, he selected choice bits of meat too. His temper receded slightly because the flesh melted in his mouth and he was standing almost hip to hip with Anna.
‘That man is opinionated and insensitive and he clearly regards women as a sub-species,’ he muttered.
‘I know!’
Crossly she tore off a titbit but before she could put it in her mouth he had taken her hand in his and made her feed it to him. She gave a little intake of breath at his temerity and he almost crushed her to him, then and there, and kissed her till she couldn’t breathe.
Unsteadily, he concentrated on what he needed to say first. ‘My staff loathes him. He has as much chance of a job here as Vlad the Impaler.’
‘He didn’t seem like that before,’ she defended, in case he thought she was terminally stupid. ‘He was quite different—’
‘Perhaps because you were an heiress,’ he drawled.
She glared. ‘Takes a gold-digger to know one,’ she muttered.
His eyes flickered. ‘Don’t push it, Anna. I have the verdict on you,’ he said, his voice softening. ‘They like very much.’
She gasped. He gazed down at her small white teeth as they paused in savaging an unsuspecting piece of meat. Hazily he wished she was already nibbling at his flesh, instead. Soon, he promised himself.
‘They do?’
He smiled at her amazement. Still the same lack of self-confidence. ‘Their stomachs have spoken. They want you to be our chef. In fact, they’re all deserting me if I don’t employ you. It’s unanimous.’ He gave a pretend sigh. ‘Such is the lack of loyalty nowadays.’
&nb
sp; Joy lit her face. ‘Fantastic! Not the loyalty I mean…Oh. You were joking. Then…how do you feel about this?’
He managed a shrug. ‘Your cooking is out of this world and you got on well with everybody, so we’ll give you a short-term contract. OK?’
‘Yes! Thank you!’ she cried in awe. ‘I can’t tell you how thrilled I am!’
Show me, he thought, beginning to lose his head. But not yet, he cautioned himself. He cleared his throat. ‘Here’s a list of your duties and rough times of meals. I’ll let you know what’s happening each week so you can make plans. I’ll notify you of any changes daily, during breakfast. You think you can handle your grandfather?’
Starry-eyed, she nodded vigorously. ‘I’ll break it to him gently. There’s that beautiful convalescent home near by I told you about, that he’s had a wistful eye on,’ she confided. ‘An old manor house, set in twenty acres with a lake. He’ll love it. And when he’s well enough to come here…’ She lowered her eyes as if she wanted to hide her thoughts. ‘I think I can persuade him to make the best of things.’
‘I’m damned if I would in his place,’ Vido observed.
‘Your pride tends to take precedence over common sense,’ she retorted.
He smiled faintly. ‘You could be right. And I believe your common sense has surfaced at last. Concerning Peter,’ he prompted, when she looked puzzled. ‘You don’t love him,’ he drawled. ‘Do you?’
‘No.’ She gave a little shudder. ‘I’m sorry to have inflicted him on you all. He was an awful bore. And a prat. You brought out all his worst points.’
Vido lifted an eyebrow. ‘He has some good ones?’ he queried.
She wrinkled her nose. ‘I thought he had. I liked the fact that he made no demands on me except…’
‘Except?’ Vido prompted.