New Year at the Boss's Bidding(10)

       
           



       

'I wanted to work tonight.' Her matter-of-fact words came so fluidly it  was as if she'd rehearsed them. She'd used that excuse again and again  in recent weeks as the party invitations had arrived. There was just one  person who'd seen through it. Vanessa.

He smiled, one of satisfaction, but it still made him look deliciously handsome. 'You are hiding, then.'

What would he say if he knew the truth? Would it kill whatever hummed  between them? She certainly hoped so, because she was finding it ever  more difficult not to notice the way her body felt each time he looked  at her.

'Not exactly. My fiancé called off our wedding exactly a year ago  today.' The sharp words hurtled out. Just bringing Jason into her mind  cooled the effect Xavier was having on her.

He sat back in his chair, his fingers slowly turning the stem of the  wine glass. 'So you thought that working this year was preferable to  partying?'

'Something like that.' She wished she hadn't begun this conversation.  In a bid to quell the tension, which was loaded with passion, she'd  already said too much. 'I'll get the next course.'

Before he could say anything else she left the room, as gracefully and  quickly as her heels allowed. In the kitchen she dished up the venison  casserole and croquette potatoes that the wintery weather had inspired  and forced down the pain of Jason's betrayal.

Footsteps alerted her to Xavier's presence and she pretended to be busy  with the food, not wanting to look at him and see the same pity on his  face that her friends and family bestowed on her. Pity she didn't  deserve, not when ultimately it had been her fault the wedding hadn't  happened. She'd just followed through from being school friends to  fulfilling everyone's expectations of marriage. Jason had been the only  constant in her life, but for him, at least, it hadn't been enough.

She heard Xavier put down the starter plates, but couldn't acknowledge  him yet, keeping resolutely turned away. He stopped directly behind her  and her breathing deepened as her almost bare back tingled from his  nearness and she vehemently wished she hadn't changed out of her jeans  and jumper.

'Can I offer help?' The husky note of his voice, to her dismay, made her shiver visibly. 'You are cold.'

'A little,' she lied, as she turned to face him, alarmed at how close  he was. 'You hired me to cater for this dinner party and should not be  helping.'

She picked up the hot dish of the main course with her waitressing  cloth and left the kitchen, desperate to get away from the heat he'd  surrounded her with. But if she'd thought things would be easier as they  sat at the table again, she had been wrong. Their polite exchanges were  merely a smokescreen for something much bigger.

'Your fiancé, he was a fool.' Xavier finished his meal and placed his  napkin on the table, intently watching every move she made.

'You can't say that. You don't know anything about him.' Instinctively  she protected Jason. It hadn't been entirely Jason's fault. He'd only  been reacting to her inability to show him love. When her father had  died her mother had sought solace with a new man and she had felt  abandoned. All she'd wanted had been to feel special and Jason had done  that, first as a friend, then as her boyfriend, but never as her lover.

'That may be so, but I do know he was a fool to let a woman like you  go.' A light smile lifted his lips and she found herself wondering what  it would be like to be kissed by him. Instantly she dismissed the  thought as totally unprofessional. It was so unlike her and guilt filled  her for thinking it when the only man she'd kissed was Jason.

Again that item on her bucket list nudged to the forefront of her mind.  It was so out of character for her that Vanessa had been shocked when  she'd told her, but hadn't let her forget the idea, adamant it was just  what she needed. She'd reminded her of it earlier when she'd called her  to say she was snowed in at the manor. Could this really be her chance  to tick that off her list, to prove to herself she was over Jason,  without getting her heart broken?

No. She was here professionally and wouldn't jeopardise her business  reputation for one night of excitement, however tempting Xavier might  be.

* * *

Xavier sensed there was a lot more she wasn't telling him. To be  defending her ex-fiancé so strongly, she must still love him. But why  love someone who'd hurt you, walking out on you when it had most  counted?

He done exactly that to his long-term girlfriend when she'd left him  literally hanging in the hospital, too disgusted to even sit with him.  Carlotta had taken it so well he'd seriously questioned if she'd ever  loved him and was relieved he'd resisted prompts from her and his  family, before the accident, to make that final and permanent  commitment. At least he hadn't had to deal with a divorce as well as the  knowledge he'd destroyed Paulo's family.                       
       
           



       

Tilly stood up abruptly, dragging his thoughts back from those dark days, effectively ending the conversation. 'Dessert?'

The husky tone of her voice pulled his thoughts back from those painful  months after the accident. Painful not because Carlotta had shown her  true shallow nature but because of the guilt that racked him every time  he thought of the accident and the devastation it had caused.

He let his gaze travel down Tilly's slender body, allowing her gorgeous  figure to ground him and pull him back from that abyss. On her  beautiful face was an expression of hesitancy, mixed with the composure  she'd been fighting to retain all night.

A stab of hot lust shot through him. It wasn't just the challenge she'd  set before him, it was much more-and almost impossible to ignore.

He wanted her-more than he'd wanted any woman.

'Let's abandon this formality.' The need to break out, to rebel against what was right, surged through him.

'What do you mean?' The shock in her voice was clear, her blue eyes wide with disbelief.

'The fire in the lounge is so much more inviting, no?'

'Yes, it is.' She lowered her lashes, blocking him out, but even so her  body called to his, beckoned him with the lure of desire.

'Bene.' He got up and moved around the table towards her. She met his  gaze again, her gorgeous eyes wide and luminous, and he felt something  squeeze tight around his chest. It had been a long time since a woman  had affected him so potently.

Suddenly she moved away from him and began clearing the table. 'I will  see to this first.' The matter-of-fact words cooled his ardour,  reminding him she was not the kind of woman to have affairs, the kind  who wanted just what at the moment he could offer. He had to remember  he'd hired her for this evening's dinner party, which in itself was an  added complication.

Before he had time to process those thoughts properly she left the  room, carrying things back to the kitchen. He picked up other items from  the table and strode through to the kitchen where the bright lights  subdued what had arced between them-and highlighted reality.

'I have a few things to do then I will bring dessert through to the  lounge.' She turned and looked at him, the wariness in her eyes halting  him in his tracks. She was warning him without words to keep away,  telling him she didn't want to pursue the attraction, and after what  she'd just told him he'd be heartless to force her. She was still in  love with another man, even though her body called to his. But ignoring  her was proving difficult.

'Allow me to help.'

'No.' The shock in that word startled him, and he looked at her in  question. 'No, thank you. This is my job, Signor Moretti, I'm not here  to be wined and dined. I'm paid to be here-working.'

She was either putting them both firmly in their places or laying down  an even bigger challenge. His pulse leapt at the thought, but he knew,  deep down, it wasn't that. She was right. Her brief story about last New  Year's Eve only confirmed she wanted more than a night of passion and  an expensive parting gift. She wasn't the kind of woman who sought such  nights, she never would be. He couldn't give a woman like Tilly what she  wanted.

'Very well,' he said firmly. 'But I expect you to join me in the  lounge. I have no intention of welcoming in the New Year alone.'

'But...' She searched for more excuses.

'You will join me,' he said sternly, and she looked up at him and the  expression on her face soothed his ruffled demeanour. She looked  vulnerable and so very beautiful. 'For just one glass of champagne. To  toast in the New Year.'





CHAPTER FOUR

TILLY'S HEART RATE HAD barely slowed after Xavier had left the kitchen.  Unable to do anything for a while, she had just stood looking out of  the window, watching the large snowflakes drift past, so white against  the darkness of the night.

For the last hour she'd kept reminding herself she was working for  Signor Moretti, as she tried hard to think of him. Anything to stay on a  professional level, because talking about Jason and last New Year's Eve  with him had allowed things to slip into something more intimate.