Rival Attractions & Innocent Secretary(35)

'I am glad it is you tonight,' Luca said. And close to midnight, with  champagne inside her, it would have been very easy to lean closer, very,  worryingly easy to rest her head on that chest that was just inches  from her, terribly, terribly easy to wonder at his words. So to stop  herself, she reminded herself of the real reason that she was here, and  couldn't help herself from asking.

'What happened with Ruby?' She spoke to his lips, the same way that he  was speaking to hers, and suddenly it wasn't working. Reminding herself  of his appalling reputation wasn't keeping her safe-she was having to  forcibly resist the urge to move closer to him.

'She said those four little words.'

'Three little words!' Emma corrected, because occasionally his excellent English slipped.

'No, four … ' She could see the shadow of growth on his chin, his full  mouth moving as he spoke, feel his breath and wished suddenly he'd just  kiss her. 'Where is this leading?'                       
       
           



       

She could only smile at her own stupidity as realisation hit, and was  so, so glad she hadn't quickly answered what she had briefly assumed was  a question, because it took a second to work out he wasn't talking  about them-he was answering her question about Ruby.

'So I told her-nowhere!

'Come on,' he said as the music ended and he broke away, 'let's go. I'm  staying at the office. We have a helicopter to catch … ' he squinted at  his watch ' … in five hours.' Which translated to about three hours' sleep  if she went home. 'What about you?

That extra hour actually counted when you were operating on Luca time.

* * *

Ever the gentleman, he pulled out the sofa bed in her office then  retired to his luxury suite. Emma lay staring at the ceiling, thinking  about him. Not once had he pounced on her, had never made her feel  uncomfortable, and apart from that blistering first invitation, there  had been nothing else.

Except he'd caught her looking at him earlier.

Emma squirmed in embarrassment and then consoled herself that if she'd  been standing in her bra and panties, he'd have had a quick peek too.

It offered no consolation.

'What's the point of it all, Em?'

His voice over the intercom penetrated the darkness and made her smile. He did this every now and then.

'So you can make pots of money,' she responded.

'I've made pots of money.'

'So you can have any woman you want.'

There was a pensive pause.

'I have any woman I want.'

'I don't know, then.'

'So why are you here?' Luca asked. 'Working yourself into the ground, that cruel boss never giving you a night off?'

'Because I love my work!' she duly answered.

'Rubbish!' came the voice over the intercom, and Emma smiled. 'Why are you here Em?'

She paused for the longest time-almost expecting the door to open and  Luca to walk in. This conversation, despite taking place over an  intercom, was surprisingly intimate. And lying in dark, she was almost  tempted to tell him, about the bills and the house, about her dream of  going to art school. About how this job was her lifeline, about how, one  day, she hoped it might set her up to pursue her goals …

Which was hardly the conversation to have with your boss.

''Night, Luca!'

She could never have guessed but save for those two words her office door would have opened.

He liked her.

Luca stared up at the familiar ceiling, at the dimmed lights that never  actually went off-and it was a measure of how much he liked her that he  didn't go to her.

It had nothing to do with Evelyn's stern warnings-well, maybe a bit, as  Evelyn was too good to lose, and her husband was getting less and less  impressed with the hours his wife put in.

But it was more than that.

He didn't want to lose Emma.

He liked her.

Not just liked her, but actually liked her.

Liked having her in his day.

She was nothing like anyone he'd met before. She brightened up the  office with her chatter and her fizz and she answered him back and made  him smile.

And she liked him too. In that way.

He'd actually been beginning to wonder-he'd been a bit taken aback when  she'd so coolly turned him down at their first meeting. Working with  him, she was so on guard, so scathing of his ways, that he'd wondered if  the reason he liked her was that she was the one woman who didn't fancy  him.

Then tonight he'd seen her expression in the mirror, and in that second  before she'd realised he'd caught her, he had seen the want in her eyes.

He lay racked with rare indecision.

His instinct was to let nature take its course.

With women, Luca always followed instinct-and instinct told him to go  out there to where she lay, in those ugly pyjamas she wore. Luca became  instantly hard at the thought of those curls on the pillow, and her soft  skin.

So why the reticence?

Because it would last a couple of weeks, a couple of months perhaps-and  then she'd want more from him, like they all did, like Martha had …

He closed his eyes on that sudden thought, but circles of light still danced before his eyes.

Martha had been the only one it had really hurt to let go.

It was a thought that till now had comforted him-that he had said  goodbye to the one, that the hardest part of the deal he had made all  those years ago was over.

So why, when he hadn't so much as kissed Emma, was he comparing her to Martha?

He hadn't seen anyone since Emma had joined the staff, had finally dumped Ruby, whom he'd kept dangling for weeks.

He thought about going out there to Emma-how he thought about going out  there-but something stopped him: she really needed this job and for now,  at least, he wanted her around.                       
       
           



       

He couldn't have both.





CHAPTER FOUR


'YOUR sister is insisting that she speak with you. She's tried your  mobile, she's been calling all morning,' Emma said to the silence of the  intercom. 'And now she is insisting.'

'I'm still in a meeting.'

Luca did everything the other way around from anyone else she had met:  he didn't drop a thing for family! He had several mobile phone  numbers-yet his family all went directly to message bank, no exception,  no deviation. Emma knew he checked them-had seen him listen, scowl and  hit 'delete', yet unless he was in the right frame of mind, Luca refused  to pick up.

Which left Emma to deal with the fallout.

'I'm sorry, Daniela,' she said for the umpteenth time. 'He really can't  be disturbed-is there anything that I can help you with?'

'You can ask why he no come, why all he can give me on my special day is  two hours of his precious time, familia is everything, my own brother … '  It really was rather draining to listen to, yet she was being paid  fabulously to do so. And dealing with Daniela's histrionics was actually  easier than dealing with Luca right now-as the wedding approached his  mood blackened. Oh, nothing had been said, he was still his fastidious,  energetic self, barking orders, making her laugh every now and then, but  there was this tension to him that was palpable-this grey, gathering  cloud that seemed to be following him wherever he went.

'I'm going over to Hemming's.' Evelyn came to her desk. 'Luca needs some files and I have to speak with the accountant.'

'Sure.'

'Whatever you do, Emma-' Evelyn's voice was serious '-don't put Daniela  through-with Luca in this mood, he'll surely say something he regrets  and guess who will have to deal with it?'

'What is going on?' Emma asked for the fiftieth time. 'Why can't he just  go for the weekend? He does it for his clients all the time.'

'I've no idea.' Suddenly Emma realised Evelyn wasn't putting her off  with vague answers. 'I've worked for Luca for years now and have had  little to do with his family, but since this wedding was announced,  they're on the phone every five minutes, and it's doing nothing to  improve his mood.'

'I had worked that one out.'

'Get me Dr Calista on the phone.' Luca's voice through the intercom was a  brusque order and Evelyn rolled her eyes as Emma picked up the phone.

'Good luck.'

It was rather like knowing there was a wild bear in the building with the door unlocked.

Luca wandered out every now and then, snarling and sniping, giving his  orders and then retreating. The phones were ringing red hot and with  Evelyn out, Emma rang the deli and had some sandwiches sent up for her  own lunch. Luca had snapped, when she'd asked him, that he didn't want  anything.

'What's in them?' He peered at her lunch and selected the smoked salmon  and cream cheese without a word, but Emma was used to him now, and the  second he slammed the door of his office she opened her drawer and  pulled out her own smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, smiling at  her own foresight as she picked up the phone.

She wasn't smiling now-the sandwich like sawdust in her mouth as she  faced a new challenge, wondering if she should ring Evelyn and check,  completely unsure what to do.

'Luca … ' she swallowed the mouthful of water she had quickly taken ' … it's your mother on the phone.'