It made her ache all the same.
Think, she ordered herself, but it was hard when she was stuck in this swamp of feeling so thoroughly scorned by a man who enthralled her.
"I want a lawyer," she managed to say.
"Why would you need one?" Vittorio asked with a wrathful lift of his brows, so godlike.
"This is wrongful dismissal. You're treating me like a criminal when those photos are illegal. They were taken at a spa without my knowledge. They're not selfies, so how could I have sent them to Kevin Jensen? Or anyone? His wife is the one who recommended I go there for my shoulder!"
Vito flicked his gaze to the laptop, mentally reviewing images that would have been very titillating if they were a private communication between lovers. For long seconds as he'd reviewed the photos, he'd been captivated against his will, having to force himself to move past his transfixion with her sensual figure to the fact that this was a hydrogen bomb aimed directly at the bank that was his livelihood and the foundation that supported his entire extended family.
But the photos weren't selfies. That was true. He had thought Jensen must have taken them.
Nadine seemed to think his shift of attention was a prompt for her to bring them up for another look. She started to open her laptop.
"Would you stop showing those to people, you freak?" Gwyn cried.
"Let's keep this professional," Nadine snapped.
"How would you react if you were me?" Gwyn shot back.
Gwyn Ellis was not what he had expected. There was an American wholesomeness to her that neutralized some of the femme fatale that had come across on-screen. He had expected, and received, an impact of female sexuality when he had entered the room. He'd felt the same thing the day she'd smiled at him in the lobby.
She'd already been under suspicion, so he'd pretended not to notice her, but nothing could downplay her allure. That body of hers didn't stop, with her firm, well-rounded breasts that sat high beneath her neatly cut jacket and her waistline that begged for a man's hands to clasp before sliding down to the flare of her hips and her gorgeously plump ass that he dreamed of kneading. Knees were not something he'd normally catalogue, but she had cute ones.
An image of cupping them as he held them apart drifted through his brain.
She was a very potent woman. Her shoulders were stiff, her frame tense and defensive, but her slight stature and smooth curves announced to the animal kingdom that she was undeniably a female of the species, of fertile age and irresistibly ripe.
She called to the male in him, quickening the blood of the beast that he suppressed at all costs.
Visceral reactions like lust were something he indulged in very controlled quantities. This was not the time and, judging by his reaction to her, Gwyn was not the woman. High-octane risk-taking was his cousin's bailiwick. Vito controlled his bloodlust ruthlessly-even though there was a part of him that beat with excitement for the challenge of throwing himself into this perfect storm of chemistry to see if he could survive it.
What they could do to one another...
He turned his mind from speculating, hearing Nadine aim a very pointed barb at Gwyn. "I wouldn't sleep with a married man. This wouldn't happen to me."
"Who said I slept with Kevin Jensen?" Gwyn challenged hotly. "Who? I want a name."
So indignant. This was not the reaction of a woman who had posed for a lover, running the risk of exposure. She ought to be furious with Jensen or his wife, perhaps tossing her hair in defiance of judgment over her decision to pose naked for her paramour. Instead, she was a woman on the edge of her control, reacting to a catastrophe with barely contained hysteria.
"His wife said you slept with him. Or want to. Obviously," Oscar Fabrizio interjected, "since she posted these filthy photos when she discovered them on his phone. You've been having lunches and dinners with him."
Vito found that attack interesting. He had brought certain suspicions about their nonprofit accounts manager to Paolo's attention a few weeks ago. The assumption had easily been made that the New Girl was in on the arrangement, facilitating.
"Kevin wanted to do things-have our meetings, I mean," Gwyn quickly clarified, "away from the office." She was visibly distraught, looking to Vito in entreaty. "He's a client. I didn't have a choice but to go to him if that's what he requested."
Vito had to accept that. Excellence of customer service was a cornerstone at Donatelli International. If a client of Jensen's caliber wanted a house call, employees were expected to make them.
"You didn't take those photos?" he pressed her.
"No!"
"So they're not on that phone?" He nodded at where she clutched her device in a death grip.
Gwyn had forgotten she was holding it, but she always grabbed it out of habit when she left her desk, and had switched it to silent as she came into this meeting. Now she stared at it, surprised to see it there. At least she could say with confidence, "No. They're not."
"You'll let me confirm that?" He held out his hand.
On the surface it was a very reasonable request, but, oh, dear Lord, no. She had something on here that was beyond embarrassing. It would make this situation so much worse... So much worse.
She knew her face was falling into lines of panicked guilt, but couldn't help it.
His nostrils flared and his jaw hardened. The death rays coming out of his eyes told her she'd be lucky to merely lose her job.
"This phone is mine," she stammered, trying not to let him intimidate her. If she hadn't already been violated, she might not have been so vehement, but he was going to have to knock her out cold to pry this thing out of her hand if he wanted access. "I get an allowance to offset my using it for company business, but it's mine. You don't have any right to look at it."
"Can it clear you of suspicion or not?" His gaze delved into her culpable one.
She couldn't hide the turmoil and resentment coursing through her at being put on the spot. "My privacy has been invaded enough."
She was naked. On the internet. She supposed everyone in the building was staring at her image right now. Men saying filthy, suggestive things. Women judging whether her stomach was flat enough, saying she had cellulite, calling her too bony or too tall or too something so they could feel better about their own body issues.
Gwyn wanted to hang her head and sob.
All she could think was how hard she'd worked not to be pushed around by life the way her mother had been. At every stage, she'd tried to be self-reliant, autonomous, control her future.
Breathe, she commanded herself. Don't think about it. She would fall apart. She really would.
"I think we have our answer," Fabrizio said pitilessly.
She was starting to hate that man. Gwyn wasn't the type to hate. She did her best to get along with everyone. She was a happy person, always believing that life was too short for drama and conflict. Being the first to apologize made her the bigger person, she had always thought, but she doubted she would ever forgive these people for how they were treating her right now.
A muted buzz sounded and Nadine looked at her own phone. "The press is gathering. We need to make a statement."
The press? Gwyn circled around Fabrizio to the window and looked down.
Nadine's office was midway up the tower, but the crowd at the entrance, and the cameras they held, were like ants pouring out of a disturbed hill. It was as bad as a royal birth down there.
She swallowed, stomach turning again.
Kevin Jensen was an icon, a modern day, international superhero who flew into disaster aftermath to offer "feet on the ground" assistance. Anyone with half a brain saw that he exploited heart-wrenching situations on camera to increase donations and boost his own profile, but the bottom line was he showed up to terrible tragedies and brought aid. He did real, necessary work for the devastated.
But lately Gwyn had been questioning how he spent some of those abundant donations.
Had this been his answer? A massive discrediting that would get her fired?
She hugged herself. This sort of thing didn't happen to real people. Did it?
Her gaze searched below for an escape route. She couldn't even leave the building to get to her rented flat here in Milan. How would she get back to America? Even if she got that far, then what? Look to her stepfather to shelter her? Who was going to hire her with this sort of notoriety? Ever?
She'd be exactly what she'd tried so hard to avoid being: a burden. A leach.
Oh, God...oh, God. The walls were beginning to creak and buckle around her composure. The pressure behind her cheekbones built along with weight on her shoulders and upper arms.