Blackmailed by the Italian Billionaire(14)

But she reappeared a few minutes later and moved determinedly across the room, picked up her jacket, bag, and shoes, and left the office—this time without looking back.

Luc switched off the monitor, slipped the disk from the machine, and locked it in the desk drawer. What had she been searching for? Could she be working for her father? Had Jimmy Brent decided to finally finish what he had started so long ago and take Luc out of the picture?

He didn’t know. But one thing was for sure—he was going to find out.





Chapter Five




“Three weeks is not a long time in the whole scheme of things,” Lia told the horse she was grooming. “I need a little longer, that’s all.”

Given enough time she was sure she would get over this. So what if she went to bed every night and dreamed about him, then woke every morning hot, sweaty, and frustrated? She would get over it. She had to because she refused to end up like her mother. There was no way she was going to wallow in misery over some man for the rest of her life.#p#分页标题#e#

“Maybe for a little bit longer.”

Looking back, she couldn’t actually believe she had come up with such a stupid plan, that she had thought for one minute she could pull it off, but when she had found those old letters from her father and realized what he’d done, she’d been furious. Ten years ago, he had taken out a mortgage on their home and then promptly disappeared, taking the money with him. And she needed it back or else risked losing her home.

All she’d wanted was to find him, make him take some responsibility for his family. He hadn’t even met Mike, had never even bothered to visit the son he had fathered before he left.

So, she had been going to put everything right. It didn’t occur to her that her mother had been searching for her father for more than ten years without success. Lia had thought she could walk in and Harley Watson would tell her everything she needed to know. She now realized she had been naïve and foolish to think things would work out so neat and tidy, but she had been desperate and still hurting from her mother’s death.

She couldn’t quite believe that she was going to lose the home she had lived in all her life.

Over the last three weeks, she’d racked her brains trying think of another way out of her problems. She’d even been back to the bank, but she knew it was no good. There was no way they were going to give her a bigger mortgage when she couldn’t even make the payments on the one she already had. The house had been in her mother’s family for generations, but she was going to have to face the fact that she had to sell their home and find somewhere else for her and Mike and Sally, their housekeeper, to live.

The only good thing about the whole mess was that at least now she could forget her father ever existed. And if she could do the same for Luc Severino, erase him from her mind as easily as she could her father, then perhaps she could get on with her life. So far, it wasn’t happening.



She realized bitterly that she hadn’t stood a chance from the moment he’d first touched her. Nothing in her life had prepared her for the way he’d made her feel. She’d been in the hands of an expert, and he had played her with an ease that made her cringe in retrospect. Lia hadn’t known anything could feel that good. A frisson of sensation ran through her at the memory, and she slid down the wall to sit in the straw, hugging her knees to her chest.

The first time he had taken her had been like a storm, like riding a wild stallion, bucking and rearing so all she could do was hold on.

The second time had been slow and gentle and relentless. He had stretched her so tight, taking her to the limit of her endurance time and time again, until she had finally snapped and exploded into a thousand pieces. And, unfortunately, three weeks later she still wasn’t back together again.

She dropped her head to her knees. She had to stop thinking about this. It was only sex. Absolutely spectacular, mind-shattering sex, but still only sex. He was obviously very good at it, but then, he’d probably had plenty of practice. With his looks, he could have any woman he wanted. Except her. Not ever again anyway; and if she was frustrated, well then she could go shopping and buy herself a vibrator.

“Lia?”



She jumped and glanced up at the sound of a voice. Pete leaned over the stable door, a grin on his face, and Lia scrambled to her feet, brushing the straw from her back.

Pete opened the door and came in, patting the horse as he passed. “Are you hiding in here?”

She shook her head. “Not really, just thinking.” About vibrators!

“How’s the wrist?” he asked.

Lia held it up in front of her and wriggled her fingers. “Better.”