Hired for the tycoon’s convenience...

Engaged to secure his legacy!

Brooding Spaniard Luca Ross has the world at his feet. But left to care for his orphaned godson, the heir to his unimaginable wealth, he’s completely out of his depth! Then bubbly, innocent Ellie Edwards stumbles into his life, and she’s exactly what Luca’s been looking for. Contracting her to look after the young child is easy—denying their fierce attraction is infinitely more challenging... Fall in love with this billionaire boss and his Cinderella!

CATHY WILLIAMS can remember reading Mills & Boon books as a teenager, and now that she is writing them she remains an avid fan. For her, there is nothing like creating romantic stories and engaging plots, and each and every book is a new adventure. Cathy lives in London. Her three daughters—Charlotte, Olivia and Emma—have always been, and continue to be, the greatest inspirations in her life.

Also by Cathy Williams

The Secret Sanchez Heir

Bought to Wear the Billionaire’s Ring

Cipriani’s Innocent Captive

Legacy of His Revenge

A Deal for Her Innocence

A Diamond Deal with Her Boss

The Italian’s One-Night Consequence

The Tycoon’s Ultimate Conquest

The Italian Titans miniseries

Wearing the De Angelis Ring

The Surprise De Angelis Baby

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Contracted for the Spaniard’s Heir

Cathy Williams

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08749-0

CONTRACTED FOR THE SPANIARD’S HEIR

© 2019 Cathy Williams

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

Extract

About the Publisher

CHAPTER ONE

‘SHALL I BRING the girl in now, sir?’

Sprawled back in his swivel chair, Luca Ross looked at his housekeeper, Miss Muller, who was standing to attention by the door.

In short order, he had sacked the nanny, sat his godson down for a talk to find out what the hell was going on and now, item number three on the agenda, was the girl waiting in the kitchen. It was fair to say that his day had been shot to pieces.

He nodded curtly at his housekeeper, who was as forceful as a sergeant major and one of the few people not intimidated by her aggressive and powerful boss.

‘And make sure those hounds don’t come with her,’ he said flatly. ‘Lock them outside if you need to. If it’s raining, then they’ll get wet. They’re dogs. They’re built for that. Just make sure they don’t destroy any more of my house.’

In the cold confines of his home office—which was better equipped than most commercial offices, with all the accoutrements necessary for him to keep in touch with his myriad companies that spanned numerous time zones—Luca Ross sat back and contemplated this latest, unwelcome development.

He had failed. It was as simple as that. Six months ago, out of the blue, he had inherited a six-year-old cousin once removed, a boy he had briefly met when he had accepted—with cavalier nonchalance, he now realised—the role of godfather.

Luca had few relatives, and certainly none with whom he kept in active contact, and the request, coming from his cousin, had seemed perfectly acceptable. A compliment, even.

His cousin had then set off for foreign shores to seek his fortune, breathtakingly naïve in his assumption that the streets of California were really and truly paved with gold, and Luca had promptly lost touch.

Life was hectic. Emails had been few and far between and his conscience when it came to the role of godfather had been easily soothed by the occasional injection of cash into the bank account he had set up for his godson shortly after his cousin and his young wife had set off to sail the seas and make their fortune.

Job done.

He had not banked on actually being called upon to take charge of anyone, least of all a six-year-old child, but fate, unfortunately, had had other plans.

Jake’s parents had been tragically killed in an accident and Luca had been left with a godson who had no place whatsoever in his highly controlled and extremely frenetic life.

Naturally, Luca had done his best and had flung money at the unexpected problem. But now, sitting back in his office while he waited for the tiny, dark-haired thing who had returned his godson two hours earlier, he had to concede that he had failed.

That failure was an insult to his dignity, to his pride and, more than that, signalled a dereliction of the duty he had blithely taken upon his shoulders when he had accepted the position of godfather.

Once this chaotic mess was brought to a conclusion, he would have to rethink the whole situation or else risk something far worse happening in the not-too-distant future.

What, precisely, the solution to that problem might be, Luca had no idea, but he was confident he would be able to come up with something. He always did.

* * *

Standing outside the door, where she had been delivered like an unwanted parcel by the fearsome middle-aged woman with the steel-grey hair and the unsmiling face of a hit man, Ellie wasn’t sure whether to knock, push open the door which was ajar or—her favoured option—run away.

She instantly and regrettably ruled out the running away option because right now, in the pouring rain, the dogs she was looking after were mournfully doing heaven only knew what in the back garden of this stupidly fabulous Chelsea mansion. She couldn’t abandon them. If she did, she quailed to think what their fate might be. Neither the hard-faced housekeeper nor her cold-as-ice employer struck her as the types who had much time for dogs. They would have no problem tossing all three dogs into the local dogs’ home faster than you could say ‘local dogs’ home’.

She licked her lips. Hovered. Twisted her hands together. Tried hard not to think about the towering, intimidating guy to whom she had spoken briefly an hour and a half previously when she had rung the doorbell to deliver one runaway six-year-old back to his home. She’d had no idea to whom the blond child belonged, but she certainly hadn’t envisaged the sort of drop-dead gorgeous man who had greeted them with an expression that could have frozen water. He had looked at her and the dogs and then taken charge of the situation in a manner that had brooked no debate, dispatching her to the kitchen where she had been commanded to sit and wait; he would be with her shortly.

She tentatively knocked on the door, took a deep breath and then walked into the room with a lot more bravado than she was currently feeling.

Like the rest of the house she had glimpsed, this room positively screamed luxury.

In her peripheral vision, she took in the cool greys, the marble, the built-in bookcase with its rows of forbidding business tomes. On one wall, there was an exquisite little painting that she vaguely recognised. On the opposite wall, there was an ornate series of hand-mounted clocks, all telling different times, and of course the vast granite-and-wood desk on which were three computers, behind which...

‘My apologies if you have been kept waiting.’ Luca nodded at the leather chair facing his desk, his cool, dark eyes never leaving Ellie’s face. When she had shown up at his front door, with Jake in one hand and a series of leads attached to dogs in the other, Luca had thought that he had never seen such a scrappy little thing in his life. Small, slender, with short hair and clothes he associated with the sort of people with whom he had minimal contact. Walkers, ramblers, lovers of great open spaces...

He’d barely been able to see what sort of figure she had because it had been hidden under a capacious jumper that was streaked with muddy paw-prints. Her jeans had been tucked into similarly muddy wellies and she had forgone the nicety of an umbrella as protection against the driving summer downpour in favour of a denim hat from beneath which she had glared at him with unhidden, judgemental criticism.

All in all, not his type.

‘Sit. Please.’

‘I don’t know what I’m doing here, Mr Ross. Why have I been made to hang around, waiting to see you? My whole day has been thrown out of kilter!’

‘Tell me about it. And I’m betting that your out-of-kilter day is somewhat less catastrophic than mine, Miss...Edwards, is it? When I left for work this morning, the last thing I anticipated was being called back here because my godson had done a runner.’

‘And it was a good job I was there to bring him back!’ Ellie stuck her chin out defiantly, recalling in the nick of time that she was really furious with this man, who clearly ran such a rubbish ship on the home front that his godson had absconded, crossing several main roads and endangering his life to get to the park where anything could have happened, because this was London.

Anger felt very good, because the alternative was that unsettling awareness in the pit of her stomach because the guy staring at her, as grim-faced as an executioner, was also one of the most ridiculously good-looking men she had ever set eyes on.

An exotic gene pool was evident in the rich bronze of his skin and the midnight darkness of his stunning eyes while his features were perfectly and lovingly chiselled to exquisite perfection. One look at him had been enough to knock the breath out of her body and, sitting here, the effect of those remote, thick-fringed dark eyes on her was threatening to do so again.

‘You have no idea how dangerous London can be,’ she emphasised, tearing her gaze away from his with visible difficulty. ‘A young boy wandering through a park...? That’s a disaster waiting to happen.’

‘Yes. There is no doubt about that.’ Luca sat back and stared at her coldly and thoughtfully. ‘Incredibly fortuitous that you were on the scene, ready to return him.’

‘Yes. Yes, it was.’

‘Should I tell you at this point how fortunate you are that you’re not currently being quizzed by the police?’

Ellie stared at him blankly while her brain tried to crank into gear and make sense of what he was saying.

‘Police?’

‘My initial reaction when my housekeeper phoned to tell me that Jake couldn’t be found was to suspect kidnap.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Look around you, Miss Edwards.’ Luca waved his hand carelessly to encompass the luxurious surroundings of his office, where an original Picasso rubbed shoulders with an impressive sculpture of an elongated woman that rested on a glass stand.

Ellie duly looked.

‘I have never,’ Luca continued, ‘considered the necessity for bodyguards—or kidnap insurance, for that matter—but then I have never been in charge of a young and unpredictable child. Had you not shown up when you had, my next phone call would have been to the police, and you would now be sitting here being interrogated by them. However, here you are, and, in answer to your original question, the reason I kept you waiting was because I thought it necessary to establish what role, if any, you played in my nephew’s disappearance.’

‘I’m sorry, but I’m not following you.’

‘In which case, I’ll give you a few moments to digest what I’ve just said. I think, once you’ve done that, you’ll know precisely where I’m going with this.’

‘You think that I...that I...’

‘I’m not a man who takes chances. I’ve always found that it pays to take what people tell me with a generous pinch of salt.’ Luca shrugged. ‘For all I know, you could have lured the boy out with the bait of those three hounds frolicking in my back garden.’

‘Lured him out? Why on earth would I do that?’

‘Now, Miss Edwards, you must surely realise that anyone living in a place like this would be able to pay whatever money you might ask for in return for the safe return of his charge? I won’t go so far as to say that you kidnapped the boy. Perhaps it was an opportunity that presented itself, one you decided to take advantage of. Maybe you saw Jake out with the nanny at some point? Noticed where he lived? Temptation and opportunity often have a way of finding one another.’

‘That is the most outrageous thing I have ever heard in my entire life!’ Cheeks flaming, Ellie sprang to her feet and then stopped dead when he commanded her to sit back down.

‘When you’re sitting on a fortune, you find that people will do anything to try and get their hands on some of it. Had the police been called, trust me when I tell you that the line of questioning would have been far more intrusive.’

‘Perhaps in your world, Mr Ross, people will do anything to try and steal your money—maybe you’re surrounded by people who have no scruples—but I can assure you that I’m not interested in getting my hands on any fortune of yours! I had no idea that Jake lived in a place like this. Thank goodness,’ she added sarcastically, ‘that he was wearing a convenient dog tag so that I knew his address.’

Luca had the grace to flush. ‘He’s six years old and he’s only been in the country for a few months. It was important that he carried some form of identification on him, just in case he ended up lost for some reason. His nanny was instructed never to let him out of her sight, but as you can see for yourself my instructions were lamentably ignored. Jake is a bright boy, but he can’t be expected to remember an address he is not familiar with.’

‘Do you believe me when I tell you that I just happened to find him in the park, Mr Ross?’ Ellie said tightly. ‘Because I don’t have to stay here and be accused of...being a criminal!’

‘Yes.’ Luca sighed and twirled the pen on his desk between his fingers before fixing his riveting dark eyes on her. ‘I had a word with my godson and it would seem that he got bored. Alicia, the nanny, was on her phone—doubtless on a personal call, which is clearly against the rules—and he thought he’d go and do a little exploring.’

Luca preferred not to dwell on that conversation which, as with most of the conversations with his godson, had been monosyllabic and unsatisfactory.

He had sat on the bed, while Jake had conspicuously refused eye contact, and had done his best to elicit information from him.

‘What did you think you were doing, leaving the house without the nanny?’ Luca had asked, tempering an inclination to be impatient and critical.

Jake had shrugged.

‘Not a good enough answer,’ Luca had gritted, which had met with another shrug.

In the end, he had managed to drag a ‘I hate it here and I was bored so I went outside to play’ from Jake and that had been the sum total of words exchanged.

‘It’s what six-year-old boys do, unfortunately. They explore, especially when outside looks like more fun than inside.’ Her voice was cold. She was still bristling at his insulting insinuation that she might have had something to do with his godson’s absconding from the less-than-happy home sweet home. Whatever world Luca Ross inhabited, did he honestly think that everyone around him had some sort of underhand motive and had nothing better to do than to try and access his bank account?

That there wasn’t a person out there who wouldn’t do what it took to get their hands on what he had?

Except...

She, of all people, was uneasily aware that she should have known what power money and wealth could exert.

She had grown up with the disastrous consequences of a beautiful mother who had been one of those people Luca had talked about; one of those people who would have done anything for money.

Her mother had yearned for that very thing Luca Ross accepted so casually, and that yearning had created a war zone within the Edwards household. Andrea had, as she had made patently clear over the years, married beneath her. She had married a lowly clerk who had failed to rise to the heights she had initially hoped when they had both been young and hopeful. Riven with bitterness and disappointment, she had focused all her energies on ensuring that her youngest daughter, Lily, a beauty like her, could make good on the dreams and aspirations she had had to watch wither away.

And the casualty had been Ellie, studious, hardworking and a sparrow to her little sister’s shimmering peacock.

Oh, Ellie knew just how damaging the quest for money could be. She had grown up loathing the way people were prepared to behave to get it. Her father had been the one with the strong moral compass and she had adhered to him from a very young age.

The arrogant billionaire sitting in front of her was just the sort of guy she loathed.

The fact that he could sit there and casually accuse her of deliberately trying to con him out of money by snatching his nephew and then returning him in the guise of a Good Samaritan said it all.

‘If that’s all, Mr Ross...? I have to return the dogs to their owners. I’ve texted to tell them that there’s been a bit of a situation but I can’t afford to antagonise any of them.’

‘Let me have the addresses of these people. I will ensure that their pets are returned to them.’

‘I’ve already been here for nearly an hour and a half. I have things to do. You said you wanted to talk to me and I’m thinking that you wanted to establish whether you had to bring the police in to arrest me. Now that you’ve seen I’m not a criminal, I shall leave and take the dogs back to their owners myself. They’re tired and they need to be fed.’

‘There are a couple of things I still want to straighten out. I can assure you that the dogs will be delivered safely back.’

‘By your housekeeper?’ Ellie smiled at him without warmth. ‘I think she blew the bonding bit when she chucked them out into the pouring rain and locked the door behind them.’

‘My orders. I had no intention of letting those dogs drag any more mud into my house than they already had. They’re dogs. Enjoying the great outdoors is what they do. My driver has two dogs. He will deliver them, unless you want to hang onto them for another hour or so. Your choice.’

‘What else is there to say, Mr Ross? I’ve told you everything that happened. I saw Jake playing with the dogs and, when I went over, he let slip that there was no adult with him. At first I didn’t believe him, because kids are clever when it comes to twisting the truth to get what they want, and I thought that perhaps he wanted to have a bit more time with the dogs, but I very quickly realised that he was telling the truth. He was in that park on his own. Naturally, I was horrified.’

‘Naturally.’

‘And I got him back here as fast as I could. And, no, I don’t want any money for returning your nephew. I’m just relieved that—’

‘Yes, got the drift. As for the money element to your statement, why don’t we return to that later?’

‘There’s nothing to return to, Mr Ross.’

‘You rescued my godson. I feel we can step away from formalities. Why don’t you call me Luca? And you... Ellie, I believe you said?’

Ellie flushed. Luca. Strong, aggressive name for a strong, aggressive male, was the thought that ran through her head. She squashed it flatter than a pancake and gave him a little half-shrug.

‘You seem to imply that you’re familiar with children.’ The dark eyes watching her were careful and speculative as he continued to command the conversation, thinking on his feet as he talked, observing—something he was extremely good at. ‘Have you any of your own?’

‘I’m twenty-five. I would have to have started very early.’

‘And you’re not married...’

‘How on earth do you know that?’

‘No ring on your finger. Jake took to you as well as the dogs. If he hadn’t, he would never have allowed you to walk him back to the house. He would have scarpered. It’s obvious he trusted you. He was also holding your hand when he returned.’ He tilted his head to one side and inspected her in silence for a few long seconds. ‘None of this may seem like much of a big deal to you, Ellie, but I can assure you that it is. Since he came over here, he has found it difficult to...settle.’

‘Can I ask what happened?’

Luca’s initial response to that was to shut down, because answering questions posed by other people was seldom within his remit, unless those questions were work-orientated. Personal questions were off-limits. This was a personal question, but for once he wasn’t going to drop the shutters, because he was in a jam and he was beginning to think that part of the solution could be sitting right there in front of him.

‘His parents were killed in a car accident,’ he intoned flatly. ‘Freak situation. They left Jake an orphan. By virtue of the fact that I was Johnny’s closest blood relative—his cousin, to be precise, not to mention Jake’s godfather—and the fact that Ruby, his wife, had no close family members, I inherited Jake.’

‘So you’re Jake’s second cousin as well as his godfather...’

Luca frowned. ‘As I have just said.’

‘And yet, despite that connection, things must be a bit strained between you for him to have run away.’

Was he being called to account? For a few seconds, Luca’s mind went blank because being called to account was not something with which he was familiar.

‘A bit strained?’ he questioned in a voice that would have had grown men quaking, a voice he had perfected over the years, one which was very handy when it came to controlling anyone who had the temerity to breach his barriers.

The slender, dark-haired gamine sitting opposite him wasn’t quaking.

‘It happens,’ she said, her voice rich with sympathy. ‘Just because you’re family doesn’t always mean that the relationship is close.’ She thought of her own relationship with her sister, which was anything but close even though, once upon a time, they had been far closer than they were now.

‘Jake and his parents,’ Luca said heavily, ‘went to America to live. Keeping in touch was difficult.’

‘I’ll bet.’

‘I’m an extremely busy man.’ Luca heard the irritation in his voice and was exasperated with himself for launching into explanations that were, frankly, unnecessary.

‘It wasn’t meant as a criticism,’ Ellie murmured, lowering her eyes and thinking that that was exactly how it had been meant—because what she was deducing was that Luca would have been way too busy making money to remember some cousin on the other side of the world.

‘The fact is that we have both found ourselves in a situation where adjustments have had to be made and Jake has found those adjustments somewhat difficult.’

‘Poor, poor kid. No wonder he’s had trouble settling down. I’ve come across that sort of thing a couple of times, usually involving kids who have come to London from another country, and in one instance to stay with a distant relative they really didn’t know very well. Adjusting was an issue.’

She sat up straighter, on more solid ground now that she was in possession of a few facts. ‘I don’t suppose...’ she had nothing to lose by speaking her mind ‘...it’s helped that he’s been farmed out to a nanny and a housekeeper, and heaven only knows who else, when all he probably needs is one-on-one time with you as the adult responsible for his welfare.’

‘Is that a criticism?’ Luca asked coldly. ‘Because I’ve been sensing a few of those under the demure replies and the polite questions.’

Ellie dug her heels in and shrugged. ‘I can tell you don’t appreciate it,’ she said eventually, when the silence threatened to become too tense, ‘but I’m just speaking my mind. I’m a teacher, and I have quite a bit of experience when it comes to young kids.’

‘So you’re a teacher? That’s very interesting.’ Luca dropped his eyes and doodled something on the pad in front of him.

‘Is it? Why?’

‘I feel I would have worked that out eventually,’ he murmured, and she reddened.

‘Why is that, Mr Ross?’

‘Luca.’

Ellie stared at him, lips tightly pressed together, and just like that Luca smiled.

Her expression—thorough disapproval even though she was let down by having such a delicate, feminine face, all huge green eyes, short, straight nose and a mouth that was a perfect Cupid’s bow. The more defiantly she tilted her chin, narrowed her eyes and aimed for severe, the more amused he was.

‘I’m not seeing the joke.’ Ellie’s heart was slamming against her rib cage, and not just because she knew that he was laughing at her. That smile was so sexy and, just like that, she glimpsed someone other than the ice-cold billionaire who had rubbed her up the wrong way the second she had met him and who represented everything she had no time for.

And this someone other was dangerous. She felt it. This someone other wasn’t just drop-dead gorgeous. He was sinfully sexy, the sort of sexy that should come with a health warning.

‘You should see your face,’ Luca drawled. ‘Tight lips, pursed mouth, disapproving eyes. Could you be anything but a school teacher?’

He made that sound like a source of amusement instead of consternation, which somehow made his criticism all the more offensive.

‘Maybe most of them are too scared,’ she snapped with reckless abandon.

‘I don’t care for that tone of voice.’ Cool eyes fastened on her flushed face. He realised that she had signally made no effort to try and impress him from the second she had walked into his house, just as he realised that most people did, which was something he took for granted.

‘And I don’t care for the fact that you think it’s okay to sit there and laugh at me. I’m a teacher, an excellent teacher, and if you think that it’s hilarious that I speak my mind then too bad.’

‘Not hilarious,’ Luca said slowly, speculatively. ‘Refreshing.’

His mobile buzzed and he took the call, which lasted a matter of seconds. Not for a second did his eyes leave her face.

Ellie had the strangest sensation of intense discomfort under that scrutiny. It was as if her body was on hyper-alert, sensitive in ways she couldn’t quite understand. She felt restless in her own skin and yet frozen to the spot, barely able to breathe.

‘The dogs have gone. I’m sure their owners will be overjoyed to have them home.’ He sat back and inclined his head to one side. ‘Can I ask you something, Ellie?’

Ellie felt that he would anyway, whatever answer she gave, so she tilted her head to one side and didn’t say anything.

‘Why are you walking dogs when you have a job?’

That wasn’t what she had been expecting and she went bright red.

‘I don’t see what that has to do with anything,’ she muttered.

‘The nanny has gone.’ He changed tack so abruptly that she was left floundering and wrong-footed.

‘The nanny...?’

‘Second in six months.’

‘That can’t be a good thing. The poor boy probably needs continuity,’ Ellie said when he made no attempt to elaborate on this. ‘Children really need defined boundaries and, especially in Jake’s situation, stability would be very important.’ Tight lips...pursed mouth...disapproving eyes... Ellie was impatient with herself for letting him get under her skin, because who cared what the man thought one way or another?

‘I fully agree with you. It’s been disappointing but what can one do? The first nanny was a middle-aged lady who was clearly out of her depth dealing with Jake. He’s extremely clever and very strong-willed underneath that quiet exterior. It would seem that he simply refused to go along with any plan he didn’t agree to.’ Luca paused. ‘He also created such a fuss about going to school that, as it came out in the wash, the woman was browbeaten into keeping him at home on a couple of occasions which, naturally, didn’t work.’

‘Has he not settled into school life either?’

‘It’s been a difficult period,’ Luca murmured with exquisite understatement.

Confused, because she had no idea where this roundabout conversation was leading, but very much aware that there was a definite destination in sight even though it eluded her at the moment, Ellie stared at Luca with fascination.

Everything about him was compelling, from the graceful, economical movements of his hands when he spoke to the proud angle of his head and the harsh beauty of his features.

For the first time, she was awkwardly conscious of the gaping chasm between them—and not just in the money stakes.

He was so breathtakingly beautiful that he made her aware of her shortcomings, and that was a place she hadn’t visited for a long time.

Growing up, she had learned to accept that when it came to looks she was second-best.

Lily was the one with the looks. Like her mother, she was tall, willowy and blonde, her vanilla hair dropping like a waterfall down her narrow back. From the day she’d been born, she had been attracting attention, and that had only become more pronounced as she had grown and eventually matured into a stunningly beautiful adolescent.

With a sister blessed with such spectacular looks, Ellie had quickly learned to fade into the background, developing skills that did not rely on physical appearance. She had studied hard, got A grades in everything, helped out during summers at the local kennels and played as much sport as she could, because being outside the house often beat being inside it.

So it was irritating now to find herself thinking about her looks and wondering what Luca saw when he stared at her with such a veiled expression.

‘I had hoped,’ Luca said truthfully, ‘that Alicia might have worked out. I’d come to the conclusion that it might have been a mistake relying on experience to deal with Jake, without taking into account that experience might come with the downside of being a little too stuffy to handle a kid of six.’

‘Mr Ross... Luca... I’m sorry that your nephew hasn’t settled over here as well as he might have. I would advise you to try and bond with him a bit more, but I’m sure you’ll ignore me. Perhaps, after this little incident, his nanny will be a little more vigilant. Maybe she just needs to get him out and about a bit more. It’s the summer holidays and there’s an awful lot going on in London at the moment for kids. Or she could even take him out of London. To the seaside, perhaps.’

‘That would be difficult,’ Luca said gently, when she had finally tapered off into silence, ‘considering the nanny has been sacked.’

‘Sacked? But why?’

‘Why do you think?’

‘Yes, well... I’m sure she will have learned from this episode...’ Ellie vaguely wondered whether the sacked nanny could take him to some kind of industrial tribunal for unfair dismissal but somehow she couldn’t envisage anyone, least of all a young nanny, having the courage to do anything of the sort.

And sadly, whilst the poor girl probably did deserve a second chance, it was fair to say that letting her charge escape did come under the heading of dereliction of duty.

‘I would hope so but it doesn’t matter because it’s not my problem.’ Luca pushed himself away from the desk and linked his fingers on his washboard stomach. ‘My problem isn’t what the sacked nanny does now. My problem is what I do now...’

CHAPTER TWO

LUCA HAD REACHED a decision. He’d done what he did best. Faced with a problem, he had brought his natural creativity to the situation, thought on his feet and come up with a solution.

He’d sacked the nanny. He needed cover. And it wasn’t going to fall on his shoulders because he didn’t have enough hours in the day.

Miss Muller, efficient though she was, could hardly be expected to turn her hand to child minding a six-year-old. She’d never had children and, from the little he had glimpsed of her interaction with Jake, an eagerness to make up for that lack was not there.

And the agency wasn’t going to be much help in the immediate future. They were painstaking when it came to the business of sourcing nannies. Leave it with them and he could be collecting his pension before they came up with a replacement, especially given the short, chequered history of the previous two, both sacked.

Cover was staring him in the face. The girl was perfect. He was good when it came to reading people and he could read that this one would be up to the job.

He would lay his cards on the table soon enough but first he would find out as much as he could about her personal circumstances because her personal circumstances could be used to his advantage.

He would at least have to determine her availability.

It didn’t occur to him to ask her directly whether she would be able to step into the breach because getting what you wanted always panned out better once you’d got a feel for the lie of the land. A lifetime of dealing with people had given Luca a healthy scepticism when it came to making sure he got the best possible deal from them.

This girl was no gold-digger, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be tempted to try her luck if she thought she could pull a fast one.

‘You never told me why you were walking dogs.’ He lazily returned to the question he had earlier directed at her. He tilted his big body at an angle that allowed him to watch her closely from under lowered lashes. ‘You have a job. I don’t know what teachers get paid, but I’m assuming it’s not so little that they have to take a begging bowl onto the streets.’

‘Walking dogs isn’t the same as taking a begging bowl onto the streets.’

‘Figure of speech. Shouldn’t you be enjoying your respite from tetchy kids and classrooms?’

‘I...’ Ellie reddened. ‘I like dogs,’ she said lamely. ‘And I like walking.’

‘And that’s very commendable, but you surely must do it because of the money?’

‘I... As it happens, I find the additional income very useful.’ Ellie heard herself stutter out the truth and immediately told herself that it was nothing to be ashamed about and that she shouldn’t let herself be cowed into editing her personality which was, by its nature, open and honest.

‘Why?’

‘Why? Mr Ross, Luca, I’m not one of your employees. I don’t actually have to tell you anything.’

‘Instead of getting worked up because I’m asking you a few questions, you need to sit back and listen to me without interruption for a few minutes.’

Ellie’s mouth dropped open.

‘You probably want to get back to your house as much as I need to return to work, but there was something I wanted to propose to you, and I think you would be open to my suggestion—especially if you tell me that you need money.’

‘I never said that I needed money.’

‘You don’t have to but I’m good at joining dots. I heard the anxiety in your voice when you talked to me about reuniting those dogs with their owners. You were apprehensive about upsetting them. You don’t want to upset them because, however much you love dogs and love walking, it’s not a labour of love for you. Ergo, you need the money.

‘Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t give a damn what you want the money for—addiction to fine wine, an obsession with designer clothes...or maybe you’re saving for a round-the-world cruise. I don’t care. It’s all the same to me. You have no criminal record, because checks would have been done on you before you became a teacher. Here’s the deal.’

He leant forward, palms flattened on the desk. ‘I no longer have a nanny and I can’t afford to spare the time out for babysitting duties. Miss Muller isn’t going to be able to step up to the plate here and I would not ask her to. However, as I said to you, my nephew took to you and that in itself speaks volumes. Combined with the fact that you clearly need the money, we could work together towards a satisfactory solution to my problem.’

Ellie stared at him in a daze. She was accustomed to controlling situations. It was part and parcel of her job, but right now she felt as though she had handed the reins over to someone who was cheerfully steering her in the direction he wanted her to go.

‘I’ll admit my immediate reaction to you showing up at my front door with my godson was one of instant suspicion.’

Ellie was fascinated by Luca’s lack of apology for behaviour that frankly had been pretty outrageous. When she had walked Jake back, she had anticipated gratitude. She had mentally prepared an informative speech about the importance of family and of understanding the psyche of children. It was going to be a severe speech, as befitted the situation. She had even mulled over the possibility that she might step into a quagmire that would necessitate outside intervention. She worked in a school where that sort of thing had occurred on a couple of occasions, although something about Jake had made her think that his family life wasn’t going to be a disaster zone. His clothes had been dishevelled and muddy from the dogs but expensive all the same.

She hadn’t anticipated a series of events that had seen her told coolly that she could have been hauled down to a police station, accused of staging the whole thing for money and then eventually been given the all-clear without a hint of remorse.

‘I got that,’ Ellie said tightly as her mind continued to whirr. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. He was larger than life in every sense of the word and in his presence every nerve-ending in her body was on red alert, every sense and pulse stretched to breaking point. From the proud angle of his head to the luxuriant dark hair and exotically sculpted features, the man oozed more than just sexuality and it knocked her for six.

And now he was offering her a job?

‘Naturally I would do my own background check on you anyway,’ he murmured, half to himself.

‘You’re offering me a job?’ Just in case she’d got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

‘The circumstances are a little unusual,’ Luca admitted. ‘It’s not in my nature to jump into anything without first testing the water, but I need someone to look after Jake, and sooner rather than later...’

‘But you could always just take a couple of weeks off work. Maybe go on holiday with him whilst the agency finds a replacement. If he’s had trouble settling down then a holiday might be just the thing he needs.’

‘I don’t have time for holidays,’ Luca said flatly.

‘Never?’ Ellie asked incredulously, wondering what the point of being rich was if you never took time out to enjoy your hard-earned cash. If she had money, then she would travel the world. It was a luxury she had never had.

‘There’s no time off when you’re running a business the size of mine.’ Luca shrugged. ‘It may sound harsh but I’m simply being realistic.’ He leaned back and sighed heavily, with a hint of impatience. ‘This escapade has made me realise that Jake needs someone who is not only capable of taking him from A to B and making sure he is fed and watered, but someone with whom he has some kind of bond. He clearly didn’t bond with either of the previous nannies, but in the space of a very short time he managed to do that with you, and I’m guessing your experience as a teacher has something to do with that.’ He looked at her shrewdly. ‘So here we are.’

‘I already have a job,’ Ellie said. As job offers went, this one certainly hadn’t been wrapped up in any pretty packaging. He was in a jam and she was a possible solution. No beating about the bush with any niceties.

‘Teaching, and walking dogs for the additional income.’

She decided not to go down the ‘needing money’ road again. Luca made her nervous and uncomfortable and she couldn’t think of anything worse than working for him. ‘There’s no way,’ she said politely, ‘that I would ever consider jacking in my full-time job to become a nanny to your godson. I love my job. I enjoy working with lots of different kids.’

He would make a terrible employer. It was obvious that he was as warm and cuddly as a rattlesnake. He thought nothing of getting rid of people who didn’t live up to his high expectations and, while he was quick to blame, he didn’t seem prepared to accept that he might be the root cause of Jake’s behaviour.

Work for him?

She would rather walk on a bed of burning coals. Part of the reason she enjoyed what she did, aside from the satisfaction of working with the kids, was that she really loved the people she worked alongside.

They were on her wavelength. They were all part of the greater caring community who didn’t rush to put themselves first.

Luca Ross was part of the cut-throat community who thought nothing of taking what they wanted whatever the cost. He was arrogant, ruthless and manipulative. She’d been in his company for a handful of hours and already she felt wrung out.

‘I’m not talking about a long-term position,’ he clarified, still fully confident that he was going to get what he wanted because, frankly, he always did. ‘Of course, a suitable nanny will be found in due course, but that’s going to take time, and this time around I will have more input to the procedure than previously.’

Ellie was making a mental list in her head of all the things she disliked about him and she tacked this new one on. He probably left choosing the nannies to his secretary because he was too busy and couldn’t be bothered...

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, standing up so that he could take the hint that their conversation was at an end. Her body broke out in light perspiration as he slowly rose to his feet. He strolled towards her, in no hurry.

His long, lean body oozed latent strength and suffocating masculinity. She could almost see the flex of sinew and muscle under the charcoal-grey trousers and the white shirt, which he had cuffed to the elbow. His forearms were liberally sprinkled with dark hair. She wondered whether his chest would likewise be sprinkled with dark hair and she furiously stopped herself in crazy mid-thought.

He cast an ominous shadow as he finally paused to stand in front of her, and Ellie had to will herself not to cower.

The mental checklist of things she disliked about the man was growing by the second. Not only did he think he could get whatever he wanted but he was not averse to using sheer brawn and intimidation tactics to get there.

‘Sorry?’

‘I’m not interested in working for you.’ She cleared her throat and their eyes collided, causing the air to rush out of her body in a whoosh. ‘I appreciate the offer, but you’re better off going back to the agency, and maybe taking more of a hands-on approach this time, because you seemed to imply that you hadn’t on the previous occasions.’

‘How can you appreciate my offer when you haven’t heard the details?’

‘I don’t need to.’

‘Care to tell me why?’

‘I know you think that you can get whatever you want because you’re rich, but you can’t.’ She tore her eyes away with difficulty. He was standing so close to her that she could breathe in whatever woody, intensely masculine aftershave he was wearing.

Breathing was proving to be a problem. It was unnerving. She forced herself to remain calm and composed because he was just standing there; he wasn’t trying to prevent her from leaving the room. She remembered how to breathe and then looked at him.

‘Jake ran away for a reason.’ Her voice, thankfully, did not betray the utter turmoil his proximity was bringing on. ‘Okay, so maybe he didn’t like the nanny very much, or perhaps he got bored and decided to venture out, but the bottom line is that there’s obviously something missing on the home front and that something can only be provided by you.’

‘We’re going round in circles.’

‘Because we’re on completely different wavelengths.’ She cleared her throat and wished that he would back off by even a couple of inches so that she could get her act together. ‘And that’s just one reason why I could never work for you. We’re from different worlds.’

‘Since when do people have to think alike in order to have a satisfactory working arrangement?’

‘It matters to me,’ Ellie persisted. Since she had nothing to lose, she said, bluntly, ‘I don’t like what you stand for. I’m not into money and I don’t approve of people who focus all their energy on making it. I’m happy doing what I’m doing, and I wish you all the best in your search for a replacement for the nanny you sacked.’

Luca stared at her in silence then he nodded slowly.

He backed away, leaving a cool void behind him. Desperate to leave only seconds earlier, Ellie now hovered uneasily. He had moved back to the desk but was now perched on the edge and was watching her with a thoughtful expression.

‘So...’ She licked her lips nervously.

‘You were on your way out?’

‘Yes, I was!’ She pulled open the door and an odd thought suddenly sprang into her addled brain—this will be the last time you set eyes on this man. She blinked, surprised and bemused at the discomfiture that thought provoked out of nowhere.

Ellie thought he might have tried to stop her, one last stab at persuading her to hear him out, and she was disconcerted to find that she was almost disappointed when he remained in the office while she let herself out of the house, pausing and looking up the stairs on her way out.

Should she try and find Jake? Say goodbye? She wanted to. In a short space of time, he had touched her with his shy overtures of friendship.

No. She’d already become way too involved in his backstory. She’d done her good deed for the week and delivered him back to his home and it was doubtful she would lay eyes on him again.

Whatever nanny Luca got, Ellie’s money was on the poor girl being monitored more closely than a convict on parole. She would be manacled to the poor child while Luca carried on making money and kidding himself that he was being a good guardian by flinging cash at the problem that had landed on his doorstep.

Hateful and obnoxious, she thought, barely aware of the walk back to the park and then on to the nearest bus because she was so busy thinking of him.

Ellie shared a house with three other girls. Every time she approached the front door, she recalled the far nicer little place she had rented previously where she had been able to relax in peace; where she hadn’t had to jostle for space in the fridge; any time she wanted to herself now had to be spent in a bedroom that was only just about big enough for a bed, a chest of drawers and a wardrobe that was a whisker away from being held together by masking tape. But needs must.

She wondered, but only briefly, whether she should have listened to whatever offer Luca had been prepared to put on the table...

* * *

Twenty-four hours later, Ellie was on her way back home when she noticed a long, sleek, black car pull away from the kerb, picking up speed and then slowing down until it was right alongside her.

The persistent rain of the past couple of weeks had stopped and, at a little after six-thirty in the evening, a watery sun was trying to remind everyone that it was still summer.

The road was quiet, practically deserted, and with a flare of panic she quickened her steps, only almost to collide into the passenger door of the car which had been flung open, barring her path.

‘Hop in, Ellie.’

She recognised the voice instantly and, when she peered inside, her heart did a quick flip and her breathing hitched. Luca was the last person she had been expecting to see again.

The tinted windows had prevented her from seeing the driver and now she wondered how on earth he had managed to do that? Show up just when she was on her way back to her house. Did he have some sort of telepathic X-ray vision?

She blinked, her mouth opening and shutting while Luca looked at her in total silence.

‘How did you find me?’

‘Hop in.’

‘No!’

‘Don’t slam the door. Just get in the car and listen to what I have to say.’

‘How did you find me?’ she repeated, reluctant to get in the car yet not wanting to draw attention to herself. She slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door behind her.

In the enclosed space, she was uneasily conscious of the raw sexuality that had accosted her the last time she had been in his company. He was so staggeringly male, so devoid of any soft side, so unapologetically masculine.

She looked at him and didn’t know whether it was because he had been on her mind, or whether it was just the shock of seeing him when she hadn’t expected to, but her body was suddenly filled with a disturbing electric charge.

Her nipples pinched, scraping against her tee shirt because she seldom wore a bra except to work. What was the point when there was precious little to hold in place? And there was a stickiness between her legs that horrified her, made her want to slam her thighs together tightly.

‘Don’t forget, I know where your dog-walking clients live,’ Luca intoned smoothly. ‘I asked them whether you were out with their dogs. Actually, I struck jackpot with owner number one. You’re a creature of habit, Ellie. Same routine. It was a pretty simple process of deduction that you would be heading back to your house around now. Mrs Wilson was kind enough to let me have your address. She also gave me your mobile number but I thought it best if I surprised you.’

‘She had no right to hand over my private details!’

‘Maybe she could tell at a glance that I wasn’t a homicidal maniac.’

‘That’s not the point.’

‘Which is your house?’

‘I don’t want you in my house!’

‘Then we can sit here and have this conversation,’ he said calmly. He killed the engine and reclined in the chair, angling his big body so that he was facing her.

‘We’ve covered everything there is to say. I’m not going to work for you.’

‘You’ve moved.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘You never used to live in this part of London. You used to rent a tidy little flat in West London, but you gave that up two months ago so that you could move to this area which is, at the very best, dodgy.’

‘How did you find all of that out?’

‘I can find out anything I want to,’ Luca told her without batting an eyelid. ‘And I wanted to find out about you because I want you. You’re saving money, and a brief background check leads me to believe that it’s because you’re helping your father out of a hole.’

Ellie stiffened, shocked and dismayed. How far was his reach?

‘Tell me about it,’ he said, but his voice was curiously gentle. ‘And don’t let your feelings for me and your pride get in the way of your common sense, Ellie. Like I told you, we can help one another. As business arrangements go, this could be an extremely rewarding one for both of us. I need someone there for Jake. Did you know that he’s asked after you?’

Suspicion poured out of every pore in Ellie’s body but that question, tacked on at the end, made her hesitate, even though she suspected that he was a man who would work the cards in his hand any way he chose if it could get him what he wanted.

You didn’t get to the top by being kind and caring and making allowances for the weak and feeble. You got to the top by being ruthless, and he was at the very top.

‘It’s the first conversation I think I’ve had with Jake since he came over here. Or, at least, the first conversation that wasn’t like squeezing blood from a stone.’

Ellie opened her mouth to inform him that she wasn’t interested, and besides she resented the fact that he had been investigating her behind her back, but instead she heard herself say, ‘What do you mean?’

‘We’ve barely spoken. I’ve had reports from the nannies but the times we’ve sat down together over a meal, he’s only managed to mutter a few monosyllabic answers to the questions I’ve asked. This morning, he asked after you, and after those mutts you introduced him to. He wanted to know whether he would be able to return to the park so that he could walk with you.’

His expression was shuttered but Ellie was good at reading body language and what she was seeing was genuine emotion from a man who probably found it difficult to express himself in terms of feelings and who was at a loss with a situation he couldn’t control.

‘This would not be a permanent position,’ he told her softly, shifting, because a car was not the most comfortable of places in which to have a protracted conversation. ‘It would be a matter of a few weeks, no more than the duration of the summer holidays, during which time you could perhaps help source a replacement nanny for Jake. I think your input would be helpful on that front. It’s clear you have an instinctive empathy with children, which is something I clearly lack.’

Ellie opened her mouth and he raised his hand.

‘No, allow me to finish before you start digging your heels in.’ He shot her a crooked smile and Ellie blinked because, shorn temporarily of that authoritarian streak in him that she had previously glimpsed, he was curiously human. It was unnerving.

‘I could have found out the details of whatever commitment you may have towards your father, but I stopped short of that because it doesn’t matter, and I also felt that if you wanted to fill me in then you would. I will pay you enough to more than cover the entire debt your father has incurred.’

‘That’s a crazy assurance,’ Ellie said shakily. Her eyes dropped to where he was resting his hand lightly on the gear shaft and she inconsequentially thought what shapely hands he had.

‘My pockets are shockingly deep,’ Luca returned without a trace of false modesty. He paused and inclined his head to one side. ‘What happened? Do you want to talk about it?’

The vision of being released from the stranglehold of a debt that would take her years to clear dangled in front of Ellie’s eyes like an oasis in the desert.

‘If you’d rather not go into the details, then that’s fine. All I want to know is this: are you prepared to consider my offer? In return for a handful of weeks working for me, your father will never have to worry about his debts again. You don’t have to like me to agree to this. That doesn’t enter the equation. All you have to do is ask yourself whether you’re willing to prolong your father’s unhappy situation because of misplaced pride.’

As trump cards went, Ellie knew that he had pulled out the ace of spades. Her father was stressed beyond belief and frankly so was she.

Did she want him to know the situation? Ellie already knew that she would agree to what he wanted. He’d somehow managed to find the precise spot where his appeal would hit pay dirt.

‘It would be a relief to clear my father’s debts,’ Ellie said stiffly.

‘Before you continue, do you want to carry on this conversation in your house? I’m too big to sit in this car indefinitely. I need to stretch my legs.’

‘I share the place with other girls.’ She involuntarily grimaced. ‘But I guess we could go to a pub. There’s one not far from here. I could direct you.’

Having secured the deal, Luca had no intention of letting the grass grow under his feet. They were in the pub with a bottle of chilled wine in front of them within fifteen minutes.

‘So...?’ he pressed urgently.

‘My dad has found himself in a bit of a pickle.’ She opened up, because she did want him to know more than just the bones of why she was taking this job. He’d found out so much about her that he could easily have found out the entire story and the fact that he hadn’t softened her impression of him. Just a little. If she chose not to explain anything, she knew that he wouldn’t try to find out off his own bat but, for some reason, she didn’t want him to be left with the suspicion that her father had blown away his savings on rubbish.

‘He got taken in by a scam on the Internet. He didn’t admit to what had happened for a while. In fact, I only found out because I happened to come across a letter from the bank he had left on the console table in the sitting room. When I asked him what was happening, he admitted to everything. The bills have been piling up and he hasn’t been able to meet his mortgage payments for the past few months. He’s been having panic attacks.’

She looked down quickly. ‘Apologies,’ she said huskily. ‘My dad and I are very close and I can’t bear to think what he must have been going through. Anyway, of course I earn enough to keep body and soul together, but I’ve had to move into somewhere smaller temporarily. It’s been very stressful and you should know that if it weren’t for...this situation there is no way I would be sitting here having this conversation.’ She looked at Luca, her green eyes challenging.

The clarity of her gaze was so disconcerting that for a few seconds words failed him.

He was staring at someone from another planet. He had offered her an easy, hassle-free job and instead of biting his hand off and naming her price she had turned him down. She was only accepting the offer now because she would have been insane to refuse it.

Luca was accustomed to women who accepted his generosity without batting an eyelid. He was made of money and he had never yet come up against any woman who didn’t enjoy spending some of it when it was on offer.

He hadn’t cared why she’d needed money when he had first suggested the job. He’d been confident that she would snap at the chance to get her hands on some to fund whatever lifestyle had left her in debt. He’d assumed a credit card crisis and had banked on her trying to manoeuvre to get the maximum out of him.

He was quietly pleased that he hadn’t been able to buy her.

‘Tell me how much your father owes,’ he said, not beating around the bush, and Ellie reddened and hesitated.

‘Do you think I’m going to laugh because he’s been the victim of a scam?’

She didn’t answer that, instead naming a figure that seemed so huge to her that she looked away in embarrassment.

‘Naturally I don’t expect you to cover that stupid amount...’

Luca told her what he was willing to pay her, and for once in his life he wasn’t interested in driving a hard bargain.

The woman had such fundamental integrity that he was surprised to discover a side to him that wasn’t utterly cynical. Born into wealth, Luca had seen from the sidelines how ugly the pursuit of money could be after his mother had died. As an eligible middle-aged widower, his father had become a magnet for women from the ages of twenty to seventy. Many of the women, having admitted defeat with his father, had turned their attentions to him, even though Luca had been a mere boy of seventeen at the time.

His own experiences as an adult had hardly served to change his opinion that there wasn’t a woman alive who wouldn’t do whatever it took when the stakes were high.

Luca didn’t mind. He was happy to be lavish with the women he dated but he had no intention of settling down with any of them. He had no intention of settling down, full-stop.

He was fascinated by Ellie’s clear-eyed gaze as their eyes met.

Predictably, she was staggered by the sum he was willing to pay. Even more predictably, she hotly refused to allow him to part with such a vast amount of cash.

‘You’re overreacting,’ he dismissed, reaching to top her glass up. ‘I’m not offering you the crown jewels...’

‘As good as. It goes against my nature to accept a sum as large as that.’

‘And it goes against my nature to be stingy when it comes to a situation like this. You’ll be doing me a service, and I’m a man who rewards good service.’

A quiver of excitement rippled through her as their eyes met and tangled. This was a business arrangement, but right now it felt like an adventure...

CHAPTER THREE

THE FOLLOWING DAY, Ellie finally made contact with her sister.

Lily had called their father the night before and it hadn’t taken him long before he phoned Ellie to tell her all about their conversation. But by then Ellie was on her way out to meet Luca for dinner. He would have her contract of employment and had told her that it was essential she knew what was expected of her. Ellie thought that top of the agenda would be not making personal calls while her charge slipped out of the house.

‘Did she leave a number, by any chance?’ Ellie asked when there was a break in the conversation.

She was going to be late for dinner but if she didn’t talk to Lily now then there was no guarantee that she would talk to her at all. Over the years as Lily had pursued fame and fortune, using her incredible looks to open doors, she and Ellie had grown increasingly distant. It took a lot of will power to resist the temptation to let things slide until their contact was reduced to birthday cards and polite conversation over the turkey with their father on Christmas day.

Ellie had no time to beat about the bush.

‘Did Dad mention anything...er...about his situation over here?’ she asked bluntly, because the long-distance call was costing her money, and if she didn’t stop her sister in mid flow then she would have to spend the entire phone call listening to Lily wax lyrical about all the exciting things happening in her life and the agents who were hunting her down with scripts for movies.

‘What situation?’ her sister questioned cautiously, so Ellie explained.

She decided that throwing out hints wasn’t going to work. ‘I thought that since you’ve found your feet over there you might think about helping me out, Lily. I earn a teacher’s salary and I don’t have to tell you that it’s not much...’

‘You chose to be a teacher,’ Lily snapped defensively. ‘So please don’t tell me to start feeling sorry for you because you haven’t got any money!’

‘This isn’t about me, Lily. It’s about Dad. I’ve had to take...er...another job to help raise money to clear his debts, but if you could contribute then it would give me some flexibility...when it comes to accepting the offer. Luca will clear the debt but obviously it goes against my pride to accept that level of generosity.’

‘What job?’ Lily asked curiously. ‘Luca? Who’s Luca?’

In a mad rush to leave, Ellie briefly explained the situation, that Luca was a Spanish businessman who had hired her to look after his godson for the summer. Lily knew where she stood when it came to money. She would know that accepting such a vast sum of cash would have been tough.

‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ Lily said, although her voice was more thoughtful now. ‘Stop with the pride thing and just accept what’s on the table. Jeez, the guy is obviously loaded and he needs you to look after the kid. Instead of beating yourself up about it, you should be trying to suss whether you can’t get more out of him! Anyway, I can’t commit to anything, Ellie, and even if I could I’d be nuts to hand over hard-earned cash when there’s some rich guy willing to clear all Dad’s debts for a few weeks of playing happy families with his kid.’

So that was that.

Despite the fact that her sister was in the enviable position of having producers banging on her door, she was being true to who she was and refusing to help.

In a rush, Ellie barely glanced at herself in the mirror before flying out of the house.

She was meeting Luca at an Italian bistro in Covent Garden. He had only ever seen her in clothes used to walk dogs, but this was going to be a more formal meeting, and she had dressed accordingly, in the same outfit she pulled out of the wardrobe for parents’ meetings. A neat grey skirt, a white blouse and a pair of ballet pumps.

It was an outfit that reminded her of the businesslike nature of their relationship, and for that Ellie was grateful, because when she thought of him her mind started playing games, and what she saw in her head wasn’t someone in a suit discussing terms and conditions and holding a fountain pen, it was a man with smouldering sexiness and a smile that could give her goose bumps.

She was half an hour late by the time she stepped into the bistro and looked round her, spotting Luca instantly.

She smoothed down her skirt and took a few seconds to gather herself. The restaurant was busy, with every table filled, and despite the casual sense of waiters hurrying with trays, the open-plan kitchen and the unfussy furnishings, Ellie could tell that the food would cost a fortune.

The clientele was all well-heeled. The food passing her on plates was delicate, artistic creations.

She weaved her way towards Luca and, the closer she got, the more nervous and self-conscious she felt. Her outfit, which had seemed sensible and appropriate when she had put it on an hour earlier, felt cheap and drab and she slid into her chair with a palpable feeling of relief.

‘You’re late,’ Luca opened.

Ellie’s initial reaction was to snipe back at him. Her glass-green eyes were narrowed as he glanced at his watch and then relaxed back in the chair to look at her.

Unlike the other people in the restaurant, who were all clearly kitted out in designer gear, Luca looked as though he had dressed in a hurry and without any thought for the end result. His dark hair was combed back and there was a scraping of stubble on his chin. Yet it suited him—he looked even more dangerous with a five o’clock shadow and her nervous system went into free fall.

He was in black. Black tee shirt. Black jeans. Loafers without socks.

Her mouth was suddenly parched and she gulped down some of the water that had been poured into a glass in front of her. A glimpse of her prissy grey skirt was a timely reminder of why she was sitting in this upmarket bistro.