Making love to Alessio...
It had been wonderful. Better than she could have dreamed. Better than she had dreamed. But he had enough power in their marriage without him knowing how deeply moved the whole experience had left her.
She settled on, ‘I think I built it up in my mind to be this big, terrifying thing and now I don’t have to be scared any more. It’s done.’
There was a long pause before he asked, ‘Why did you wait so long?’
‘It wasn’t intentional.’
When he didn’t fill the silence, she felt compelled to explain, although she knew even as she started to speak that this was only a partial truth. ‘I was an eighteen-year-old virgin when I moved to London and started working at White’s Events, and pretty sheltered about the more debauched ways of the world. My eyes were opened quickly. We hosted parties and events of all shapes and sizes where the one constant was that alcohol was always on tap. Lots of the guests assumed event staff were up for it...many were up for it.’
‘But not you.’
‘No way.’ She made sure to inject brightness as she spoke, not wanting Alessio to think there was anything more than the tale she was narrating. ‘I didn’t want my first time to be a notch on some drunken idiot’s bed post and dumped the next morning. My life was busy. I had a great career, a fun social life... The longer I was single, the choosier I became. I knew what I didn’t want in a man but I never found what I did want.’
‘What did you want?’
Someone to love.
‘Someone who would respect me.’ A sudden burn of tears filled the back of her eyes.
All she’d wanted since her parents had died was to know that in this world there was one person who loved her. She’d found a version of that with Caroline but that had been a love of friendship and sisterhood built on mutual grief, two castaways clinging together. As she’d matured, she’d longed for emotional intimacy but, she could see now, had shied away from it too, scared of love that could be lost at the turn of fortune’s wheel.
She blinked back the tears, thankful the darkness stopped Alessio seeing them, and injected brightness into her voice. ‘Now that the noose of my virginity has gone, it feels like a weight’s been lifted from me. It’s the same with our wedding—I was terrified in the run-up to it but, now that it’s done, it’s done.’
He propped himself on an elbow and traced a finger down her cheek.
She shivered and swallowed to contain a rush of emotion that suddenly had her yearn to wrap her arms around him and cling tightly to his strength.
Alessio might have displayed a tenderness and empathy she would never have thought him capable of but he would not want that. Palvetti wives could be many things but emotional was not one of them.
He placed a lingering kiss to her lips and murmured, ‘And, now that “it’s done”, how do you feel about doing it again?’
Her heart expanded so hard it filled her chest.
Love might never be a part of their marriage but she would have this.
And, as she embraced his love-making a second time, she thought that, if this was all the intimacy she would have from their marriage, that would be enough.
It would have to be.
* * *
‘You look pale,’ Alessio observed the next morning when Beth joined him for breakfast. ‘Are you feeling all right?’
‘I’m fine,’ she said with a brittle smile. ‘Do I look okay?’
He looked her up and down and marvelled to see the colour rise up her face. That she could still blush after the night they’d just shared...
‘You look beautiful.’ So beautiful that if they didn’t have to leave for work shortly he would have carried her up the stairs and made love to her again.
‘What about my clothes?’
She’d dressed conservatively but fashionably in a form-fitting high-necked navy dress that fell to her knees and a pair of black heels. She’d left her hair loose, spilling over her shoulders. His fingers itched to touch it.
‘It’s not a fashion parade.’
She took the seat opposite him. ‘I know that but I don’t want to stick out.’
‘You’re my wife.’ He experienced a real surge of satisfaction calling her that. ‘You’re going to stick out.’
She rolled her eyes and poured herself a coffee. ‘Thanks for the comfort. What will I be doing when we get there?’
‘Today, tomorrow and next week, you will shadow me. You will accompany me to meetings and read the files for each department so you can become familiar with everything.’
‘And then what?’
‘And then you will start shadowing the other directors.’
‘How many are there?’
He noticed she added two extra spoons of sugar than normal.
‘Four of us in total. Once you have shadowed all of us, we will sit down and discuss which area you are best suited for.’
‘What if you don’t think I’m suited for anything?’
‘You will be.’
‘But what if I’m not? And what if your family all hate me or find me wanting?’
He reached over the table to cover the hand still absently stirring the sugar.
Memories of her white-faced fear before the wedding surfaced, along with her terrified nerves before they’d made love. His mind pushed back further to remember her agitation on their drive to the palace when her nerves about getting everything right for the masquerade ball had rippled from her.
He had no doubt her current nerves would disappear as soon as she started working. If he’d learned anything about Beth it was that once she’d confronted her fears they were put to bed as if they’d never existed in the first place. It was the build-up to confronting them that was the challenge.
‘Why do you always think the worst of situations?’ he asked, curious to understand more about his wife.
‘I don’t. I just like to prepare myself for worst-case scenarios.’
‘It’s the same thing.’
‘Not really. I always hope for the best.’ And then she gave a burst of shaky laughter. ‘God, I thought having sex for the first time was scary.’
Their eyes met and held. He could almost see the same images flashing through her mind as were in his: locked lips, entwined limbs, perspiration glistening on them both...
Willing away the tightening in his limbs the images provoked, Alessio cleared his throat.
Soon they would leave for work. Beth was going to be introduced to the most important part of his world. Fantasising about carrying her up the stairs...
He pushed his chair back. ‘Eat something, bella,’ he ordered gently. ‘It will settle your stomach. We leave in ten minutes.’
* * *
The closeness and joy Beth had found in Alessio’s arms on their wedding night solidified her intention to make the best of her situation. She went to work with him that first day filled with nerves but determined to find a role within Palvetti as fulfilling as she’d found at White’s Events.
Palvetti was synonymous with sophistication and glamour. How could she fail to find something she enjoyed?
Quite easily, as it transpired.
Exactly two weeks after starting there, the only thing she enjoyed about it was the building they worked from.
Set in the heart of the fashion district, the sixteenth-century building that housed the Palvetti administrative headquarters looked so much like the others in the vicinity that no one would look twice at it in passing. Recent major renovations had created a vast network of functional offices and creative studios, and yet despite the efficiency that breathed through the walls there was an air of romance to it too, almost as if the elusive brand the family had created had seeped into the building’s core. It evoked her imagination.
She wished the work she’d been given evoked it too. Sh
e wished the thick files of accounts Gina had dumped on the desk of the tiny box room she’d shoved Beth into didn’t give her a headache. But they did.
She was sat in that excuse for an office when Alessio walked in.
She brightened to see him. It was the first time he’d visited her since she’d started shadowing Gina four days ago.
She’d actually enjoyed the days she’d spent shadowing him. He’d put her in a decent-sized, airy office that adjoined his own and kept the dividing door open so he was always on hand for any questions she had. All she’d done while shadowing him was read through documents and files to familiarise herself with the different aspects and territories of the business, but she’d never felt unwanted. He’d eased her in gently. Working for his cousin Gina...
Not only did Beth have zero interest in finance but Gina was easily the least welcoming of the Palvettis. An immaculately dressed stocky woman, with platinum hair that managed to be classy rather than brassy, when Gina had embraced Beth at their wedding reception it had been like being hugged by an iceberg.
It was a coldness that showed no sign of abating.
‘I’ve got a meeting at the production facility,’ Alessio told her, nothing on his face to suggest he’d woken her with his love-making before the sun had risen.
For all the passion that took them when the bedroom door was closed, the only thing that consumed Alessio’s attention in the waking hours was the business.
His detachment outside the bedroom had to be innate. And why it even bothered her she didn’t know. This was nothing she hadn’t expected. It was her own feelings that should trouble her, not his.
She shouldn’t long for him. Alessio had been explicit about the marriage he wanted and that was the marriage she’d signed up for.
‘I’ve arranged for a driver to take you home if I’m not back by five.’
Although Beth welcomed the early finish, she thought longingly of the production facility, known informally as the workshop.
The workshop was the beating heart of Palvetti, the place in which all their exquisite jewellery was designed and created. The scents and cosmetics they produced in their laboratories were a high-value tie-in to it, a concept sold to the rich as the ultimate badge of wealth, but a badge that should be kept secret and elusive.
Everything about Palvetti was secret and elusive.
And so far she’d been privy only to their most minor secrets. She had no idea where the workshop was located. She longed to visit it and see for herself how their beautiful creations came into being.
‘Can I come with you?’
The emerald eyes held hers for a beat before he shook his head. ‘I’m going with Marcello.’ Marcello was Gina’s husband and the Palvetti creative director.
‘Okay.’ She tried to hide her disappointment with a smile.
But it wasn’t just disappointment at not being allowed to go to the workshop with him. She hated when he left headquarters without her. Even though she hadn’t seen much of him during business hours this week, knowing Alessio was just a few doors up the corridor had given her a small modicum of comfort when dealing with Gina’s iciness.
Alessio put his hands on her desk and studied his wife closely. ‘Are you?’
‘What?’
‘Okay? Is something the matter?’
She shrugged, no longer meeting his eyes.
‘Beth?’
She rubbed her forehead. In a small voice, she admitted, ‘I’m struggling.’
‘With finance?’
‘It might as well be in Latin for all I understand of it. I’m used to working under set budgets for events and that’s fine, I manage okay with them, but anything else to do with finance...’
To his shock, Alessio saw a shimmer in Beth’s eyes.
She was holding back tears.
The urge to take her in his arms was strong.
He cursed inwardly.
The first two weeks of their marriage had gone much better than he could have hoped. Beth had accompanied him to the office every business day. When she’d shadowed him, she’d read the thick files he’d given her diligently, had asked pertinent questions, been pleasant with the lower-ranking staff and generally an all-round good presence. The evenings...
He drove away thoughts of the long, hot nights they shared.
Fantasies were not a luxury he allowed himself in the workplace but, Dio, it had been hard to keep his head where it should be when all he’d had to do was glance through the opened adjoining door and see his wife with her head bowed in concentration and imagine it in a far more intimate place.
That was one thing he hadn’t expected—that Beth’s presence would be such a distraction. He’d never imagined he would be on the phone with a client wishing to purchase over five million euros of jewellery on a special commission and would lose his train of thought because his wife had dropped something off her desk and leaned over to pick it up, giving him a brief glimpse of golden, creamy cleavage.
It had been a relief to go in that Monday and have her move to be under Gina’s tutelage. No more distractions...
Until he’d found himself having to fight his thoughts away from her.
He’d resisted visiting her in Gina’s domain until now.
He looked grimly around the windowless cubby-hole his cousin had stuck his wife in and wondered if this had something to do with Beth’s low mood.
‘Tell me what you’re thinking,’ he commanded gently. ‘I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me.’
‘It’s nothing specific,’ she answered in a small voice. ‘It’s just so different from my old job. I’m just finding things a bit overwhelming, that’s all.’
‘And Gina?’
Immediately her expression became wary. ‘What about her?’
‘How are you finding working with her?’
Her shoulders rose as she bit her lip. Then she blurted out, ‘She hates me.’
‘What’s she done to make you feel that?’
‘Nothing specific. Maybe I’m being over-sensitive, but she never looks at me when she’s talking to me, and when I attend meetings with her she makes me feel like an unwanted stray dog she’s been saddled with. I get the same vibes from the other directors.’
‘Gina’s a hard woman but once she gets to know you and realises she can trust you you’ll find her a good friend.’
In the meantime, Alessio thought grimly, he was going to bang some heads together. He’d told his family—the directors specifically—to treat Beth with respect.
‘Trust me?’ she asked with a crease in her brow.
‘They don’t trust you yet,’ he admitted.
Her face fell. ‘Why?’
‘Because you were Domenico’s friend. Domenico hated us. They worry you are planning to destroy us from within.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’
‘I know.’
‘Do you?’
He leaned forward. ‘Yes.’
Beth had committed to their marriage in body and in spirit. No one knew that better than him.
‘Is that why you’ve not taken me to the workshop?’
‘Yes.’
Her eyes held his before she sighed. ‘Thank you for being honest.’
‘We will find something you enjoy,’ he told her. His mind raced as he thought of what that something could be. Their marketing was subtle and under the radar. Unless you knew what you were looking for you wouldn’t see it. They did not throw the kind of events and parties Beth had run. ‘I need to go. Marcello’s waiting for me. You should go too—take the rest of the day off. Get some distance from the office. Find a new perspective on things.’
Her brow creased. ‘Really? Won’t Gina mind?’
‘Don’t worry about Gina. I will deal with things. Va bene?’
She nodded.
‘And Beth?’
‘Yes?’
‘Next time something’s troubling you, come to me. I can’t help you if I don’t know.’
Her smile made his heart clench.
‘Before I forget, we’re going out Saturday night.’
Beth’s deflated spirits lifted. ‘Great. Where are we going?’
‘It’s a business dinner.’
A business dinner on a Saturday night?
Her spirits fell flat as quickly as they’d lifted. For a few wonderful seconds she’d thought her husband was going to take her out on a proper date.
In this respect at least, Domenico had been right about his family. They were workaholics. Their lives revolved around the business, with early starts and late finishes the norm.
Alessio even worked weekends. Thankfully he hadn’t expected her to go to the office with him, or even suggested it, for which she was grateful, just as she was grateful he hadn’t dismissed her concerns out of hand and was grateful for this unexpected early finish which would give her some precious time with Dom.
She thought wistfully of the Saturday nights of old, before Caroline’s diagnosis, when Beth had had an evening off work. Nights out watching live music, dancing, drinking more than was sensible, tottering back to her small flat with friends in tow to carry on partying. Dancing in her living room. Enjoying life. Aware that every moment was precious and that it could all end in a heartbeat.
He must have seen her disappointment for he smiled ruefully. ‘It will be good for you. It’s with our Chinese representative. He confirmed a few minutes ago.’
She forced her own smile. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’
CHAPTER TEN
BETH’S EARLY FINISH and the unexpected extra hours she got with Dom went all too quickly. In no time, the morning arrived and she was kissing her baby goodbye and heading for the car, all over again.
‘You look sad,’ Alessio commented as their driver bullied his way out of their estate and into the Milanese traffic.
‘I just hate knowing I won’t be home before Dom goes to bed.’ She attempted a smile. Having been home in time to feed Dom his dinner, bathe him and put him to bed on a work day for the first time since the wedding had only served to remind her how badly she missed being with him. ‘I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually... I think your driver’s taken a wrong turn.’
A Cinderella To Secure His Heir (Cinderella Seductions Book 1) Page 10
