At last he was to become a father.

‘But I was determined to keep the baby…even if I had to raise him on my own!’ Kate touched her hand to her chest, as if to calm her racing heart. ‘I wasn’t expecting you to support me even if I did manage to contact you. I was wary of seeing you again when we had only known each other for just a night.’

Raising the child on her own… The thought absolutely affronted his profound sense of honour and his duty to do what was right—not to mention the fact that this child would be the sole heir to his family fortune and all that Luca possessed! There was no way—no way on God’s earth—that Kate was going to raise the baby alone!

The day Maggie Cox saw the film version of Wuthering Heights, with a beautiful Merle Oberon and a very handsome Laurence Olivier, was the day she became hooked on romance. From that day onwards she spent a lot of time dreaming up her own romances, secretly hoping that one day she might become published and get paid for doing what she loved most! Now that her dream is being realised, she wakes up every morning and counts her blessings. She is married to a gorgeous man, and is the mother of two wonderful sons. Her two other great passions in life—besides her family and reading/writing—are music and films.

Recent titles by the same author:

THE SPANISH BILLIONAIRE’S CHRISTMAS BRIDE

THE RICH MAN’S LOVE CHILD

SECRETARY MISTRESS, CONVENIENT WIFE

PREGNANT WITH THE DE ROSSI HEIR

BY

MAGGIE COX

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Tony with all my love

CHAPTER ONE

‘WELL, well, well… Look who it is!’

As the honeyed sea of that mesmerising voice reached her, washing around her ankles, threatening to pull her under, Kate Richardson stared in mute shock at the man facing her across the room. Her memory of his electric blue eyes having the power to dazzle like the most flawless glinting gemstones had not failed her, but she did not recall them having the ability to almost slice her in two even as he smiled. Uncurling her fingers from their death lock on the door handle, she knew her surprised expression must easily mirror his. But as she had barely any sensation of her facial muscles functioning at all Kate couldn’t have sworn to it.

‘Luca…’ All she could do right then was stare in wonder, because her mental faculties seemed frighteningly slow in catching up with her speech.

‘At least you remember my name.’

Did he really think she would ever forget it? ‘The agency sent me.’ Kate could barely find the words to explain her presence. ‘You—you need a secretary for the next few days…apparently.’ Her shoulders lifted in a nervous shrug.

His jaw hardened. No spare flesh spoilt its perfect symmetry—it was just jutting, formidable bone. ‘Dio! I know perfectly well what I need! Come in and close the door!’

Kate obeyed, unable to disregard his harsh-voiced command even if she’d wanted to. Inhabiting the same electrically charged space as this man was like being swept along by a powerful current she couldn’t fight, and for a moment the sensation of vulnerability this instigated was too real to combat. She’d had no idea he worked in London…none. But then what she did know about the provoking specimen of masculinity glaring at her from across the room she could probably commit to just a single sentence. In the breathtaking few hours they had spent together in Milan three months ago, they hadn’t exactly immersed themselves in personal biographies. They had been held in thrall by other, far more distracting discoveries about each other instead.

‘Sit down.’

His authoritative command ricocheted through the tensely strung atmosphere like a velvet gunshot. Swallowing hard, Kate pulled out the chair on the opposite side of the huge modern desk and sat. She was glad to. Her legs were suddenly about as substantial as flimsy threads of cotton.

The huge plate-glass window behind her interrogator reflected a stunning vista that included Big Ben and the London Eye, but the imposing landmarks didn’t distract her. How could they when they were in unfair competition with the artfully sculpted male visage before her? Kate’s heart soared and her insides fluttered as she recalled that she knew intimately that his incredible body was equally as artfully designed. And there had been an altogether shocking and unexpected price to pay for that intimate knowledge, she reflected soberly, and her stomach executed an unsettling cartwheel at the fact.

‘Why did you leave without saying goodbye in Milan? Do you usually treat your lovers so casually? Leaving them in the morning without so much as the good manners to at least wait until they are awake? Do you get some kind of strange satisfaction out of such behaviour?’

Dumbstruck, Kate stared, feeling her cheeks burn in indignation and shock. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Last time we met your hearing was not impaired in any way, as far as I can recall.’ His disdain was clearly intended to sting.

‘I’m just a little taken aback that you would believe I do that sort of thing regularly. Let me assure you that I don’t!’

‘The fact of the matter is that you did it to me, Katherine… For some reason I expected better from you…but you disappointed me.’

Powerful regret washed over Kate. If she could have had that time back again would she act differently? Maybe. Hindsight was a wonderful thing.

Studying the handsome, disapproving face before her, Kate knew a sudden great desire to have him smile at her. So consuming was it that she could almost have wept in frustration, knowing that her wish was in vain. An icy chill shuddered through her. Thinking back to the party at some big-wig architect’s mansion that her friend Melissa had dragged her to, courtesy of the swish property developer she worked for, Kate had considered it a mistake right from the off. It had been the last evening of her holiday, and all she had really wanted to do was spend time in quiet reflection on how she was going to rebuild her life when she got back to the UK.

How did a person learn to trust again when they had been betrayed as brutally as Kate had?

Her plans had been hijacked by her friend’s insistence that she needed to ‘get out and have some fun,’ and instead of the quiet evening she’d had in mind she had had to endure the uncomfortable proximity of a bunch of strangers in a glamorous setting that had no power to lift her out of the despondency she’d been in. That was until the man now in front of her had appeared, cast his eyes round the room as though already bored with the faces that glanced back at him, and then shockingly rested his far too disturbing gaze on her.

Mel had been off hobnobbing somewhere else, and Kate had sensed her legs turn as weak as a newborn foal’s beneath the charismatic stranger’s sizzling observation. He had turned his back on several guests clearly eager to speak to him to cross the room and talk to her instead, introducing himself as ‘Luca,’ she recalled. Just Luca. There had been no mention of Gianluca De Rossi. And Kate had offered her name as Katherine. It was her full name, but she rarely used it, so why it had slipped out so naturally beneath his unsettling gaze was a mystery. Except that maybe a person couldn’t be expected to be totally in control of their responses when they were confronted by an aura of wealth, confidence and breathtaking good looks such as Luca was so commandingly in possession of? And maybe at that moment she had also succumbed to feeling small and insecure, and had needed the bolster of a name that sounded a bit classier than just plain Kate?

There were many reasons she’d acted so out of character that unforgettable night, and that was just the first of them… Clasping her hands in front of her now, on the polished surface of the desk, it took every bit of courage she could muster to meet the disapproving gaze Luca was still directing her way and hold it.

‘I hadn’t planned to leave the way I did. I just…I just didn’t want to wake you. It was the last night of my holiday and I had a plane to catch. I should have mentioned it before, but—’ She blushed, certain her cheeks were glowing red as ripe russet apples.

‘But we were otherwise engaged at the time?’ Luca suggested wryly, a visible muscle throbbing at the side of his fascinating cheekbone. ‘Even so…you should have woken me—not just left without so much as leaving a phone number or an address where I could contact you!’

‘I’m sorry.’ Kate meant it, and there was a helpless catch in her voice. Yet part of her was reeling at the idea that a man who moved in the privileged and exclusive circles Luca did even cared that his one-night lover had not left a number or address where he might reach her. Was she wrong to have assumed he would forget her so easily? Had she just convinced herself of that so that she could get over the pain of leaving him and never seeing him again by making the cut quick and clean? Because it had pained her to leave him…

The attraction that had flared between them had smoked white-hot the second their glances had met, and even Kate’s relative inexperience with men hadn’t fooled her into thinking that was a common, everyday thing. And underlying that blistering magnetic pull she’d miraculously sensed the kind of soul-to-soul connection she’d long dreamed of. There had definitely been something special about Luca that Kate had not been able to forget. But at the time she’d been grieving on two counts. Grieving for the loss of her mother as well as for the loss of her fiercely guarded self-esteem—brought about by the other thing that had so devastatingly occurred back home. Both those momentous events had left Kate in no fit state either to think straight or make good decisions. And now she had to contend with the unbelievable twist of fate that had brought her right back into this man’s charismatic sphere again—turning up for a temp assignment that meant she would be his personal assistant for the next couple of weeks, while his permanent PA was on holiday.

‘Well…on reflection, I think it probably best that we simply forget what has happened between us in the past and concentrate on the present. It is unfortunate that this has come about, but we will just have to live with it if we are to work together over the next two weeks.’

Luca sighed, as if weighed down with too much responsibility. Beneath the fluid expensive weave of his faultless Italian tailoring, his hard lean body emitted a palpable sense of weariness, and Kate got the definite impression that work had been driving him to the exclusion of all else lately. It made her want to alleviate the burden for him somehow.

‘Though I have to say,’ he continued, ‘it is a very strange coincidence indeed that you should turn up in my office to stand in as my secretary, is it not? Tell me the truth, Katherine. Has someone put you up to this as some kind of joke? Tell me now, before I have to take the regrettable step of calling Security and getting them to escort you out of the building!’

She gasped. ‘What are you saying? Of course it’s not a joke! The agency I work for sent me and that’s the absolute truth! I had no idea that Gianluca De Rossi was you! How could I? You never told me your full name that night, and neither did you tell me you worked in London! I naturally assumed you worked in Milan.’

‘But you could have asked anyone at the party my full name and they would have enlightened you. It was my house and my party, after all! It would have been easy if you had probed further to discover that I have an office in London as well as Milan, and that I am mainly based here.’

‘For your information, apart from the friend I went with I spoke to hardly anyone else that entire evening but you! And my friend didn’t know who you were. She was given the invitation by someone in her office who couldn’t go, and her only information was the address! Anyway, why would I wait three months if I wanted to see you again? If I’d wanted to stay in touch it would have been far easier to leave you my details back in Milan!’

‘So you are telling me that you purposely did not want to get in touch? How flattering!’ Luca’s mouth pursed, as though he had tasted something disagreeable. ‘And now—if I am to believe what you say is true—it is fate that has conspired to bring us together again! I suppose one could conclude from that that we must have some unfinished business after all. What do you think, Katherine?’

Suddenly feeling quite faint, Kate frowned. What did he mean, exactly? She was doubly perturbed by his words when she considered the potentially explosive secret she was keeping that he didn’t yet know about… She just about held on to her scant breakfast of dry toast when she thought about that.

‘Unfinished business or not, I’m here to work as your secretary, and genuinely that’s the only reason I’m here!’

‘Then if you are to work for me, know this! I expect you to be absolutely first-class at what you do. I will not be looking upon you with any leniency because of what happened between us before! Are you up to the task, Katherine? Because if you are not then I will ring the agency now and get them to send somebody else.’

His smile was laced with mistrust as well as a deep cynicism. It wasn’t at all like the one Kate had been acquainted with, that had lit up a room as brightly as a hundred-watt lightbulb. Her stomach churned with misery and shock.

‘You don’t need to get anyone else. I’m good at what I do and completely professional!’

‘Well, then,’ Luca continued, ‘as long as you know that I am hardly accustomed to women treating me as an opportunity for some kind of casual sexual release, and that there will be no chance of a repeat performance, our working together should perhaps not pose too many problems after all.’

‘It wasn’t like that! I never—’

‘You never what, Katherine? You never had a one-night stand before, or you never left a man’s bed the morning after without saying goodbye? How do I know what is the truth? I only have the evidence of my own regrettable experience to go on as far as you are concerned, and the fact is that you did leave the next morning with clearly no intention of ever getting in touch with me again!’

‘It wasn’t like that at all! And it was never my intention to treat you as some kind of casual sexual release, I assure you! There were reasons why I left the way I did.’

‘A plane to catch, you said?’

‘Not just that.’ Feeling as if she was on a rock face, scrabbling for purchase, Kate gave Luca a nervous smile in the hope that she might somehow get through to him. After all, hadn’t they shared something special that momentous night, when they had not been able to ignore the passion and urgency that had driven them into each other’s arms? Something that had fuelled Kate’s sense of something vital having been missing in her life as nothing else had ever done before?

But it took only an instant for her to realise that whatever faint hope she’d nurtured for Luca’s understanding was a waste of time. The look on his face already told her that sympathy from him was in frighteningly short supply.

‘Something had happened at home that I was desperately trying to deal with at the time,’ she started to explain, agitatedly linking and unlinking her hands together. ‘That’s why I’d gone to Italy…to try and sort myself out. I know you might find this hard to believe, but the way I behaved that night was so out of character that the following morning…waking up in your bed…I was— I couldn’t believe I had— I mean—’

‘It sounds like you are making excuses up as you go—and not even very good ones at that!’

Frustrated at her woeful inability to try and explain, and with her stomach cramping in distress, Kate shrugged disconsolately. ‘You’re obviously not going to forgive me, so perhaps it is best if you just ring the agency and get them to send somebody else in my place?’

‘No. I will give you one chance. What I propose to do is give you a one-day trial, and if you do not measure up to the high standards I expect then I will contact the agency for a replacement!’

‘I suppose I can’t argue with that.’

Even if she didn’t like the idea of failing Luca’s one-day trial, Kate breathed a silent prayer of thanks that he was at least going to give her a chance to prove herself, and not simply show her the door as she’d increasingly been expecting him to.

‘Now…I have already wasted enough time this morning and I must get on! We have a busy day ahead, and there are several things on the agenda that must be done. With your assistance I will try to accomplish as much as possible before I have to go to an important appointment at the Dorchester Hotel with a Saudi Arabian client who is also a good friend of mine. He is only in London for two days, and tonight I am throwing a small party for him and some colleagues he wants me to meet. In the meantime you can familiarise yourself with the notes my PA left for you. Her office is just through that door there, and unless I particularly have the need to be private the door between us stays open. Knowing your disconcerting habit for leaving without warning, Katherine, I think that is a sensible precaution under the circumstances—do you not agree?’

Staring at him, and realising that he clearly had very little respect for her because she’d left him the way she had that morning without explanation, Kate knew that she could not make matters even worse by walking out now. Something had happened between them that night they’d spent together in Italy—something that had had dramatic and far-reaching consequences—and Kate owed it to Luca to reveal it to him now that she’d been given the chance. No matter what his reaction to her news, there was simply no way she could or would duck out of telling him the truth. No matter how difficult the telling might be.

‘If that’s the way you want it, then that’s fine with me!’ Pushing to her feet and finding that her legs were still as insubstantial as tissue paper, Kate made her way towards the door Luca had indicated, into the office that would possibly be hers for the next fortnight. As she passed him, he struck out his hand and caught her by the elbow.

‘What?’ Her glance was alarmed.

For a moment the glittering intensity of his cerulean blue eyes seem to arrow right down into her soul, and the heat from his hand burned through her clothing, almost sapping her will and her strength with its power to unravel her.

‘Niente…nothing!’

He dropped her arm as though touching it somehow contaminated him and, feeling her stomach plummet like a stone, Kate moved through the opened door and into the stylish, perfectly neat office on the other side.

Driving his hands deep into his trouser pockets, Luca found he needed several moments to compose himself after the volatile encounter with the woman that it had been so hard for him to forget. Madre mia! He had thought he was seeing a ghost when she’d walked into his office! Such had been the dreamlike quality of their scorching but brief encounter in Milan that he could surely be forgiven for starting to believe he had conjured her up from his too-fevered imagination? Even now his heartbeat had still not resumed its regular normal cadence after he had seen her. His nostrils twitched at the evocative scent that lingered in her wake after he’d angrily let go of her arm. It called to mind a rain-washed English country garden, and was more provocative than any other sultry perfume he had ever encountered.

As if to echo his heated thoughts, a forceful, primal longing registered deep in his belly, and Luca pulled out the sumptuous leather chair behind his desk and dropped down into it, tunnelling his fingers with frustration through his thick, dark hair. Even his usually highly reliable photographic memory had not done Katherine justice, he concluded. She was even more bewitching than he recalled, with that soft mane of waving sable hair that no style could or should try to tame, and those glistening raven-dark eyes with their lustrous lashes that even the most artful make-up could not hope to enhance—for how did one enhance perfection? But along with her eyes and her alluring sexy body it was the memory of her passionate, sweetly giving mouth that had the power to keep Luca awake nights. Just one glance at close quarters—as he had experienced just now—was enough to make him want to crush it ravenously beneath his own and once again sample its ripe strawberry and vanilla sweetness with abandon.

Dio! What was he going to do now? Was he crazy even to entertain the idea of allowing Katherine to be his secretary for the next two weeks, given that his body still clearly desired her? And in spite of her casual treatment of their night together? Probably. But then he could be equally casual if he chose. He was certainly not looking for any kind of deep and meaningful relationship with the woman, so what had he to fear?

Sighing heavily, Luca recalled that night three months ago in Milan. There had been something about Katherine that had provoked the strongest reaction in him—and surprisingly it wasn’t all about sex. No…he had intuited an innate goodness about her that had made all his friends appear worryingly shallow in comparison. A man did not brush up against such innocence and goodness often, but when he did he never forgot it. Although right now Luca honestly could not attest to whether fate was on his side or not, delivering Katherine to his door as it apparently had. There was still her inexplicable departure the next morning to contend with, as well as the blow to his pride at hearing that she had not particularly wanted to get in touch with him again. Apart from his inconvenient desire, Luca was still too sceptical to believe unquestioningly that destiny was doing him a favour.

After losing Sophia three years ago in such a bitter and tragic way, he had all but relinquished any hope for future happiness anyway. When Katherine had left him that morning in Milan, after his initial confusion and frustration Luca had told himself to just put it down to experience and forget her. If he had wanted to locate her he could easily have asked friends at the party—the friends he had practically ignored all evening because he’d been so enthralled by her—for more information to help track her down. But at the time Luca had determinedly resisted the impulse. That night of the party he had found something of his wife’s that had stirred up some painful memories, and no doubt that was what had driven him into the arms of a woman he barely knew. Usually he was much more circumspect, and took time to get to know a woman before he took her to bed. It had certainly taught him a valuable lesson about the consequences of giving way to pure lust and emotion!

Once again Luca drove his restless hands through his tousled dark hair and shook his head at his remembered experience of a regrettable loss of control. Whatever reason Katherine had for showing up to work as his PA, from now on he would definitely be judging her on her professional acumen and not his attraction for her, he vowed!

CHAPTER TWO

THE door between her boss’s office and hers remained ominously open, and Kate deliberately didn’t glance towards it as often as her sometimes racing heart dictated. Even though—perversely, perhaps—she longed for a glimpse of the man occupying the adjoining room. The man who barked out instructions as though he cared little how she received them, and who clearly intended to treat her like someone well beneath him on the social strata while she was working for him.

She might well have despaired when she recalled the warmth Luca had exhibited towards her the night they had made love, but Kate refused to do so. Feeling sorry for herself would get her nowhere. But her already delicate stomach had churned many times that morning when she thought in distress about the secret she kept. A secret that she now likened to carrying smuggled contraband through a highly volatile airport Customs on red alert after the less than overjoyed way Luca had reacted to seeing her again.

That magical night in Milan seemed like the most incredible dreamlike fantasy when she considered the mistrustful and disapproving air he was treating her with now. And if he were already suspicious of her motives for being there, what would he be like when he heard the astounding news she was waiting to reveal?

The revelation was something Kate had wanted to tell him about, but she had not been able to because she had simply had no way of contacting him. After getting a job in the States, her friend Melissa had unexpectedly left Italy, and had not yet contacted Kate with her new address or phone number. And she had been unable to recall the full address of the mansion where the party had been that night—let alone the place of work where Melissa had been employed! All avenues leading to contact with Luca had been closed to her, it seemed, and Kate had told herself time and time again that it was her own stupid fault for not leaving him a way to contact her.

Back in the present, she forced herself to deal with the tasks in front of her and knew she would have to bide her time as far as choosing the right moment to break her news to Luca. The thing was, apart from anything else, she really needed this job and had no intention of failing his little ‘trial’. The agency was paying her the top rate for this particular assignment, and the extra money would definitely come in handy given the situation that faced her. In fact that was an understatement. She’d been trying to save as much as she could, but living in London was expensive, and the amount she had squirrelled away so far would hardly help her exist for a month without a job, let alone for the foreseeable future! The dilemma had already given Kate many sleepless nights.

Putting her worries aside, it didn’t take her long to find her usual professional stride, yet there was no let-up as far as her stomach was concerned. Her insides continued to turn over like some demented Ferris wheel, not letting her forget for even a second that she was effectively living with a ticking bomb until she spoke to Luca.

‘Come into my office, would you?’

Luca didn’t wait for Kate to rise from her desk. After briefly putting his head round the door he immediately returned to his room. The plush domain, with its modern, state-of-the-art furniture and its tastefully framed prints of grand public buildings and luxurious homes clearly designed for a fabulously wealthy clientele, proudly reflected his firm’s impressive architectural achievements and the fact that they were amongst the top echelon of the experts in their field. Lucy—the employment agency manager—had been eager to point out how incredibly successful the De Rossi empire was when she had outlined the details of the job to Kate.

Quickly collecting her notepad and pen, Kate was conscious of not wanting to keep her boss waiting.

‘Sit down,’ he commanded without preamble.

It was hard to maintain a purely professional focus when the cologne Luca wore so potently underlined his devastating appeal. Little tingles of highly erotic awareness sizzled up and down Kate’s spine as she detected musky notes of sandalwood and amber. The scent was a stunning and provocative reminder of the sensual, beautiful night they’d spent together and how amazing he had been as a lover. Everything about the man had enthralled Kate. From the expensive way he smelled to his rich, lightly accented voice, and the way every silk-skinned, taut and toned muscle in his incredible body had flexed so unforgettably beneath her awed fingers.

Because she feared he might somehow guess what was in her mind, she could hardly bring herself to meet the disturbing blue gaze that seemed to have no such hesitation in frankly appraising her.

‘My friend Hassan has been in touch with me, and I am just about to leave to go to our meeting. I am glad to see that you are wearing a formal jacket over your dress and that the length of the garment is a respectable one, because I need you to accompany me,’ Luca remarked, turning the gold fountain pen he held between his fingers over and over again, as though too much restless energy was pouring through his veins to be easily contained. ‘Although Hassan is quite a westernised Saudi, first impressions are everything, and I need my PA to reflect the professionalism and cordiality we absolutely pride ourselves on in this firm.’

Indignant heat flooded into Kate’s cheeks that Luca obviously felt the need to emphasise points she naturally took as read—and with a look that seemed close to disparaging. ‘I’m not unfamiliar with Saudi culture!’ she replied heatedly. ‘I once worked for an oil company in Dubai for six months, so I do know what is expected! Apart from that, I naturally know how to conduct myself in a professional manner when it comes to dealing with my boss’s clients. I would not have lasted this long as a personal assistant if I didn’t!’

A dark eyebrow quirked skywards in the sardonic face at the other side of the desk. ‘You are full of surprises, Katherine. I see that I cannot take anything for granted where you are concerned. But I know that to my cost already…do I not?’

‘Was there anything else?’ Deliberately biting her lip on a retort, Kate desperately renewed her silent mantra to keep calm and not lose her cool. Although Luca might take perverse pleasure in baiting her, apparently believing her to be deserving of nothing but his scorn, she wouldn’t add to the already simmering tension between them by rising to it. There was still the most important topic of all to discuss, and it hovered over her like an avalanche poised to do its devastating worst. Sooner or later Kate was going to have to call upon even deeper emotional reserves and just say it.

‘Yes. You might want to freshen your make-up a little and tie your hair back before we leave. I would not want that unruly mane of silk to prove distracting to my client and friend when we are in the throes of discussing important business!’

Kate stared at Luca in disbelief. He made it sound as though she was deliberately wearing her hair loose to provoke and allure! She was aware by now that he would probably take every opportunity he could over the next two weeks to belittle and mock her in any way that presented itself to his richly creative imagination, but descending to personal levels of criticism was a step too far in Kate’s book. Okay, her hair did have a tendency to defy any attempt to control its unruly wave, but she always kept it at a manageable shoulder length and made sure it was clean, shiny and healthy!

Unfortunately, his reference had provoked an unhappy childhood memory in Kate. Sometimes less than kind classmates in the grammar school she had attended had taunted her as a ‘scruffy little gypsy’. Just because she’d lived in a council flat and not in one of the wide leafy avenues where many of their own more affluent homes had been situated! It was fair to say a sense of not being good enough had definitely dogged Kate throughout her life because of her negative experience at school, but no way would she let this privileged, arrogant man relegate her to that insecure intimidated child again just because he held a grudge against her!

Gripping her notepad hard between her fingers, Kate sat up even straighter in her chair, anger overtaking the hurt that still lingered in her mind. ‘I really don’t appreciate such personal comments about my hair! And, for however short or long I work for you, you had better keep your thoughts on my appearance to yourself! For your information I’ve been a PA for nearly eight years, and in all that time I’ve never had one word of complaint about the way I wear my hair or how I look!’

‘I do not doubt it! But then I suspect that most of your bosses have been men, have they not?’

‘What exactly are you implying?’

‘You do not need me to spell it out for you, do you Katherine?’ Shifting in the luxurious leather chair so that it creaked with the movement, Luca leant forward and pierced her with the unsettling vivid glare of his sky-blue eyes. ‘Of course no healthy heterosexual male with hot red blood in his veins would voice a complaint about how you look! Privately they might find it somewhat of a challenge to have a girl with such—shall we say—distracting assets around. But I’m sure you realise I mean that in a complimentary way, and not as an insult.’

She didn’t want his compliments… Not when they were edged with such obvious underlying resentment towards her. Kate swallowed hard.

‘So. When are we leaving?’ Pushing to her feet, she was surprised when Luca followed suit. Again she felt at a disadvantage next to his imposing height, as well as from being the recipient of an arrogant glance that was surely meant to make her feel even smaller!

‘My car will be out front in ten minutes’ time,’ he told her, his flawless diamond gaze travelling almost insolently up and down her body.

She was wearing the smartest dress and jacket she possessed. Of course he would immediately see they were not of the same quality of his own expensive attire, Kate realised, but his glance was disturbing for another reason. Smart clothes were little protection from the inescapable idea that Luca’s knowledge of her body was already the most intimate possible, and her sense of vulnerability in his company increased uncomfortably.

Feeling heat prickle at the back of her neck and in the sensitive tips of her breasts, she self-consciously drew the edges of her jacket together, as if the neckline of her dress was too revealing. It wasn’t.

‘I’d better go and get ready, then.’

Just as she reached the door, Luca addressed her again. ‘Leave your hair. I have changed my mind about it. Do not trouble yourself tying it back. I will collect the necessary architectural plans and see you outside by the car.’

And with that he picked up the telephone receiver and snapped out an impatient order to the poor, unsuspecting receptionist at the desk on the ground floor…

Luca paused for a moment in mid-discussion of plans for a new, spectacularly modern hotel his friend Hassan was having built in his home city of Dubai. Although Luca was responsible for the initial design, there were two senior colleagues who had been with him in the original discussions who would be overseeing the build in the city itself. Right now they were both out of the country until the weekend, so naturally Hassan wanted to deal with the chief architect and his friend—Luca himself.

Luca had momentarily paused in what he was saying because the older man was none too discreetly staring at the woman who sat at the far end of the triangle of sumptuous armchairs in the floral-scented meeting room, taking notes. Observing the other man’s undoubted interest, Luca was unprepared for the scalding burn of jealousy that made the muscularly lean wall of his taut stomach harden like steel. Not that he could blame what he knew to be his friend’s notorious roving eye for alighting with such blatant speculation on Katherine. For just over three interminable months Luca had alternately been taunted and frustrated by the memory of her exquisite beauty, and had privately acknowledged that there had been something about her other than just an unforgettable face that made all men long to know her and possess her. But he had not allowed himself to speculate too deeply on the subject. All he knew right now was that no other woman could beguile so emphatically simply by wearing a shop-bought dress and jacket, the minimum of make-up and with no evidence of jewellery of any kind adorning her.

The admission did not help improve his mood. Frustration had been building in him ever since Katherine had walked into his office, and although his desire seemed to be acting independently of his will he was wary of being made a fool of by her a second time. He cleared his throat and Hassan glanced back at him, completely at ease and not at all abashed at being caught out ogling Luca’s PA.

‘You were saying, Luca?’ He smiled.

Briefly catching Katherine’s eye in silent rebuke, as if it were all her fault that the other man was so frankly appraising her, Luca seamlessly resumed from where he had left off. But he had to seriously tamp down an almost irresistible urge to wish the meeting at an end so he could whisk her back to the office, where he could at least be alone with her again.

Knowing he was feeling both predatory and possessive, he should have despised himself for a weakness that could only bring him more of the bitter pain he had been living with for too long—but his ego urged Luca not to let Katherine run out on him a second time before exacting some kind of payment in kind from her for her unexpected desertion that morning….

An hour later, the meeting at an end and Luca’s friend’s concerns and questions about the proposed new hotel satisfactorily appeased, the wealthy Arab took the younger man aside in the elegant lobby of the hotel. ‘Luca…I have to ask. Your secretary…she is a single woman?’ He glanced over at Katherine, standing patiently near the exit, waiting for Luca to finish his business and join her. ‘I observed no wedding ring on her finger.’

For a stricken moment the most unwelcome thought of all shook Luca out of any semblance of equilibrium left to him. He had considered it before, of course, and now he was forced to consider it again. What if Katherine was married, and that was why she had left him without explanation in Milan, leaving no way for him to contact her? Had she regretted her adultery with him and, overwhelmed with guilt, fled before he could discover any personal details with which to incriminate her? He sensed himself frown deeply, felt his stomach tied in knots.

‘No,’ he said clearly, hoping fervently it was the truth. ‘She is not married.’

‘Then is there a man in her life? Someone serious, I mean?’

Feeling the twisting knots in his insides lock tighter, Luca kept his expression as impassive as he was able. ‘I am not aware that Katherine is seeing anyone else, my friend, but I can tell you that she and I do have some unfinished business shall we say? Does that answer your question?’

The Arab’s large coal-black eyes widened in surprise. Beneath his elegant designer suit he shrugged his massive shoulders and grinned. ‘I can see you are indeed the dark horse, my friend!

But then your interest in her does not surprise me! Who could blame you for taking advantage of the chance to be with such innocent loveliness?’

In unison, both men moved their gaze to where Katherine still stood. Her slender yet shapely figure in her navy blue polka-dot dress, her beautiful eyes and dark gleaming hair were drawing other admiring glances besides their own, Luca observed with another helpless flash of jealousy.

‘I would give much to experience just one night with such a woman!’ Hassan slapped Luca heartily on the back. ‘No offence intended, my friend,’ he added quickly, seeing that the Italian’s mouth had firmed in what was clearly disapproval. ‘You are a lucky, lucky man!’

That was a matter of opinion, Luca thought in bittersweet reflection, glancing across at Katherine.

‘That aside,’ Hassan continued cheerfully, ‘I look forward to seeing you tonight at the little party you have most kindly arranged at your house for me and my business associates from Riyadh. They are most keen to talk to you about the incredible work you do, and if I am not mistaken, and things go well, you will no doubt have another valuable commission by the end of the evening!’

* * *

Unable to ignore the pangs of hunger that gripped her for another minute, and having forgotten to pack the dry biscuits she’d grown accustomed to carrying with her of late, Kate knocked lightly on the opened door between her office and Luca’s to get his attention.

‘What is it?’

His less than friendly response might have been intimidating if Kate wasn’t already getting used to it. Stepping inside the larger room, she saw that he was poring over some architectural drawings on the huge desk in front of him. The knot of his dark silk tie had been pulled a good three inches away from his pristine white shirt collar, and the tousled appearance of his thick dark hair also suggested that the work he faced was perhaps momentarily getting the better of him. The man worked like a Trojan, Kate observed. It was half past two in the afternoon and she’d seen no indication of him being even close to stopping for lunch or even a cup of coffee.

She frowned. ‘I wonder if I could pop out to get myself a sandwich? I didn’t eat breakfast this morning, and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather hungry. Perhaps I could get you something too?’

He stared at her…really stared. As the silence in the room became almost deafening, Kate’s feet seemed rooted to the floor by his disconcerting examination.

‘Did you hear what I said?’ she asked, her throat tightening with tension.

‘My friend Hassan asked me if you were married,’ Luca drawled, his blue eyes once again travelling slowly and deliberately up and down her body.

Kate’s hunger pangs were instantly demolished. Instead, hunger of a very different kind clawed at her. His lascivious glance made her feel as if he was physically touching her, and it made her shiver with want. But then the full import of his question finally found its way to central control in her brain, and a sense of deep shock rippled through her.

‘Are you married, Katherine?’ Luca asked.

‘No! I’m not! And why should that be any concern of your client’s?’

‘You must have seen how he looked at you?’

‘I was busy taking the notes of the meeting!’

‘Anyway…it is not my friend’s interest in the answer that I am concerned with. It is my own. So, if you are not married, what about a boyfriend?’

‘I have none! Is that what you thought? That I was two-timing someone when I was with you?’

‘It did occur to me, not long after I woke up and found you gone, that perhaps too much champagne the night before at the party had made you—possibly a married woman—a little reckless, shall we say? That maybe you were just looking for a good time and when opportunity knocked…you took it. In the morning, discovering what you had done, you were perhaps overcome by guilt and regret and decided to flee before you incriminated yourself further…’

‘Well, you’re wrong! It was nothing like that at all!’

Feeling distressed at the idea that Luca had even considered that she had run out on him because she was married or involved with someone else, Kate crossed her bare arms over the silk bodice of her dress and despairingly tried to straighten her thoughts. How could he think such a thing? she asked herself. Had she imagined the bond they had shared? A bond that she’d firmly believed had transcended the merely physical?

‘Then how was it, Katherine? And this time perhaps you will do me the courtesy of telling me the truth of why you ran out on me that morning?’

The truth. How simple that sounded… And yet the reality was that it wasn’t simple at all. It was a terrible, never to be repeated, embarrassing…mess.

CHAPTER THREE

UP UNTIL just over six months earlier, Kate had been engaged to be married to Hayden Michaels, a successful, handsome broker she’d met at a temp job she’d been doing in the City. A ‘wunderkind’ of the company, he was a young man with great ambition who worked hard to get what he wanted but played hard too.

Kate hadn’t been bowled over by him at the start. On the contrary, her cautious nature had warned her against getting involved with a man who seemed to treat life as one big party and one huge opportunity to plunder the honey-pot for all it was worth. She’d been taught firm, solid values by her mother, who had raised her single-handedly, and Kate’s own secret, small ambition was that one day she would meet the man of her dreams, fall in love and have the family that she longed for. As an only child she had yearned for brothers and sisters, and had often felt lonely growing up. Being bullied at school hadn’t helped her sense of alienation. She’d always been only too aware of the struggle her mother had had to make ends meet, and so instead of going on to university when she’d got her A level results, she had opted to go to secretarial college for a year, get some qualifications, then go out to work to help alleviate some of her mother’s financial burdens.

Over the years she’d dated on and off, but had never found the partner she’d secretly been hoping for. When she’d met the handsome and fun-loving Hayden Michaels something about him had appealed to Kate, but she’d known instinctively he wasn’t the type of man who would want to settle down with a wife and family. Not whilst ambition was his driving force. She had decided to resist his appeal. Yet day after day, week after week, as Kate had worked alongside him in the office, his bold smile, perpetual good humour and unflagging determination to get her to go out with him had finally persuaded her to give him a chance. Her mother had passed away suddenly from a heart attack just two months before she’d met him, and Kate had been lonely. Even if mother and daughter had not shared the closest of relationships… As time had gone by she’d begun to see another side to her new boyfriend…a side that had warmed her heart much more than the expensive gifts, designer clothes and meals at Michelin-starred restaurants he’d insisted on treating her to. It had been a sensitive, perhaps vulnerable side, that had hinted at his fear of failure, of being judged not good enough by his peers and friends, of not being able to sustain any success he had achieved. Perhaps Kate’s ever-alert antennae had picked up on the very things that she herself had struggled with since those days at school when she had been taunted for being the poor girl in the class. The one whose mother hadn’t been able to afford to take her on foreign holidays or buy her trendy clothes and expensive dance classes like the other girls’ parents had.

Truth to tell, it hadn’t been the lack of all those things that had left Kate so vulnerable. No. It had been the lack of demonstrable affection from her only parent that had got to her the most. Worn out with working too hard and worrying how to make ends meet, Liz Richardson had grown a hard shell around her heart that had kept her daughter from getting anywhere near her emotionally. But coupled with a legacy of childhood bullying and the sense of low self-esteem that she had perhaps naturally inherited from such an upbringing, Kate had found her own heart becoming guarded and wary. Even when men had told her they found her attractive, there had always been a part of her that never quite believed them, secretly waiting to hear the truth. That she was none of those desirable things they said she was, that she was still the poor girl with the scruffy hair who was at the posh grammar school on sufferance—not because she was actually bright and deserved to be there.

When, one glorious Sunday morning during a walk in Hyde Park, Hayden had surprised Kate with an engagement ring she had honestly been stunned. He loved her, he had said, and had hardly been able to think about anything else other than getting her to marry him. She’d promised him she’d think about it—saying that it was perhaps too soon to agree to such a commitment when they had only known each other a few short months at the most. But Hayden had worn her down with his persistence and, finally convincing herself that he must indeed love her—even though her own feelings had still been less than clear—Kate had foolishly agreed to the engagement. In her own defence she’d still been in the early stages of bereavement, and she saw now that she had probably unconsciously been craving the love and attention she’d so long been denied. Maybe that was why Hayden’s proposal and declaration of love had been so appealing?

The night they’d got engaged Kate had surrendered her virginity to her husband-to-be, and had even started to feel excited at the prospect of getting married and setting up a home together. But just one week later all her dreams of a happy future—of a devoted husband and longed-for children—had come crashing down around her ears with an ear-splitting crack.

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