Million Dollar Christmas Proposal

by Lucy Monroe

  “You are so sure?”

  “Yes. Long before my parents played their we-don’t-have-a-gay-son card, both Toby and I knew that they didn’t feel the same way about us as they did our older siblings, the children they’d planned for.”

  This was not a conversation he wanted to revisit, so he did not reply with agreement or denial to her implication that Franca and Angilu might suffer the same fate.

  Leaning back against his desk, one ankle crossed over the other, Enzu asked, “Are you still determined to wait for marriage before having sex?”

  As topic-changers went, it was a resounding success.

  Audrey inhaled her sip of tea and had a short coughing fit before demanding, “What? Why would you ask that?”

  “Because in addition to having a rapport with the children, my wife and I will have to be sexually compatible.”

  “You plan on having sex with all the candidates for the position?” Audrey asked with not a little amount of disgust.

  He would hazard that not a single other woman on the list of candidates would object to his doing so. However, instead of being annoyed with her for the disapproval set in every line of her body, he found it ridiculously charming.

  The truth was, he had no desire to have sex with a bevy of strangers. A man with his wealth and influence could not afford to indulge indiscriminately.

  “No, Audrey. Once I have narrowed the candidates down to the most likely hire, she will be introduced to the children in a series of planned meetings. She will also spend time with me, testing our social and sexual compatibility.”

  “You’re talking about choosing a wife like an employee.”

  “Exactly.” He’d always done very well choosing employees.

  In the thirteen years since taking over the bank presidency from his father at the tender age of twenty-three Enzu had made exactly four bad hires. He had learned from each mistake.

  “You’re not normal, you know that?”

  “On the contrary, business arrangements for this sort of thing are very common in my world.”

  “And they’re amazingly successful, are they?”

  He let Audrey know with a severe look that he did not appreciate her levity.

  She frowned back. “What if I don’t like the idea of going on a sexual test-drive?”

  “I’m afraid it’s a non-negotiable.” While he had not considered this aspect previously, now that he had he wasn’t going to compromise on it.

  “But that’s not legal. You can’t require sex for a job.”

  “Absolutely, but as much as we are handling this situation like I’m hiring an employee, I am not actually doing so. You won’t be working for Tomasi Enterprises or the bank. You will be my wife and the children’s mother. Your job here is in no way dependent on what happens in this interview, or later between us, for that matter.”

  “That’s not true.”

  Shock coursed through him, followed by hot anger he refused to allow to the surface. “You are accusing me of lying?”

  “Not exactly. It’s just that if I were to be selected as your wife and the children’s mother, I believe you would expect me to quit my job.”

  “That is correct.”

  “So…”

  “Ultimately a successful outcome on your part regarding this position would impact your current job, but only in the same way that getting a promotion would do so.”

  She nodded, still looking a little shell-shocked.

  “However, should you withdraw from the application process it will not impact your current or future success with Tomasi Enterprises, or the bank should you transfer back there.”

  “By ‘withdraw’ you mean…”

  “Refuse the physical aspect.” He would not mince words.

  “I… This is insane.”

  “On the contrary; it is efficient.”

  Her lovely dark eyes narrowed. “You do realize it is illegal to pay for sex in the state of New York?”

  Offended, he glared at her, unable to suppress his anger at that particular accusation. “I am not paying for sex.”

  “It sure sounds like it to me. $250,000 a year.”

  “That money is to ensure that, as my wife and the children’s mother, you would not feel the need to embark on a career to provide an independent income. Many men provide their wives with a significant personal allowance for this very reason.”

  “Maybe in your tax bracket they do.”

  Since he had very little experience with life outside his tax bracket, he did not argue the point.

  Audrey fiddled with her teacup, but didn’t take a drink. “So, this sex thing is a deal-breaker for you?”

  “Sì.”

  She went silent for several long seconds, then seemed to come to a decision. He waited with unaccustomed agitation to find out what that was.

  “I think you better kiss me.”

  “What?” Had he heard correctly? “You want me to kiss you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I think that would be obvious.”

  He was not used to people implying he was thick. “Explain it to me.”

  “Because if we don’t have the chemistry to make it through a single kiss, the rest of this interview is an exercise in futility. Since you’re so set on us being physically compatible.”

  It actually made sense, and he had not considered it because he’d been so intent on not giving in to his urge to kiss her.

  He nodded and stood up, away from the desk, putting his hand out to her. “That is an excellent point.”

  She stared at his hand as if she couldn’t imagine why it was there, but with only the briefest hesitation she placed her palm against his. The simple touch jolted the underlying buzz of arousal that had not abated since she’d entered the office.

  Curling his fingers around her hand, he pulled her to her feet, her body coming within inches of his own.

  Their gazes locked, hers filled with trepidation and something else that he had been unsure he would find there: desire.

  “You want me.”

  “I want a kiss,” she corrected, but the truth was there.

  He wouldn’t ignore the fear, though. The knowledge that this kiss was a test for both of them made him determined to make it the best she’d ever had. He could not afford to frighten her with overwhelming passion, but he had to show her that the potential to burn up the sheets between them was there.

  Not a man who suffered self-doubt, he confidently cupped the back of her head. Using his hold there, and on her hand, he pulled her forward so their bodies touched.

  She gasped, her eyes glazing with passion before he even had a chance to bring their mouths together. How had this woman stayed a virgin for so long?

  Enzu bent forward and brushed his lips against hers in the gentlest of caresses. Breath escaped her, leaving her mouth parted. That was when he kissed her.

  He did not use his tongue, not yet, but concentrated on giving pleasure with chaste lips. Lust rolled through him in inescapable waves, his body going tense with the need to do more than simply kiss.

  She made a soft sound of need and he could not help deepening the kiss, pulling her body hard against him. She had to feel his arousal, but she didn’t try to back away. She moved against him in an unconscious invitation that took all of his formidable self-control not to accept.

  He wanted her naked on the pristine white plush pile carpet of his office.

  Knowing that was impossible, and very much afraid he might do it anyway, he forced himself to gentle the kiss and then pull away.

  She moaned in protest, her hand coming up to pull his head back down to hers.

  He let her have her way and kissed her again, tasting her desire and the English afternoon tea she’d been drinking. He didn’t think the sweetness of her mouth had anything to do with the sugar she’d put in it, though.

  She hadn’t touched him and he was seconds away from coming in his trousers. Enzu did not lose control lik
e this. Not even during the earthiest sex with a highly experienced partner.

  Alien fear made him push her away, all the way back into her chair.

  She looked up at him with passion-clouded eyes, her lips every bit as enticing swollen from his kisses as he’d thought they would be. “I… That was…”

  “Yes, it was.” He could not help the harshness in his tone.

  He was fighting urges that had no place in a work day.

  Her gaze slid down to the revealing bulge in trousers tailored too well to hide his need when it was this strong.

  “Yes, I want you.” He gritted his teeth, refusing to show any embarrassment at the blatant proof of his sexual need. “You will agree that our chemistry is strong enough to move forward with the interview?”

  For a long moment he didn’t think she would answer. He wasn’t even sure she understood his question.

  But finally she nodded. “The interview. Right. Yes, we should continue.”

  He wasn’t running when he returned to his chair behind the oversized executive desk and the privacy it afforded. Enzu did not run. Nor did he grimace at the pain sitting down with a marble-hard erection caused him.

  *

  Audrey collapsed on the sofa in the small but welcoming apartment she shared with her brother.

  Totally gobsmacked and exhausted by the “interview” she’d had with Vincenzo, she’d begged off the rest of the day from work. She wasn’t going to think of him as Mr. Tomasi after that kiss, or while the threat of test-drive sex hung in the air between them.

  Wow. That kiss.

  She’d never experienced anything like it. She and Thad had been engaged for two years, and come close to breaking their commitment to wait for marriage, but nothing they’d done together had affected her like Vincenzo’s kiss.

  The man knew what he was doing with his lips. She hadn’t wanted it to end. Audrey had acted with complete wanton abandon. If it had been up to her they would have still been kissing—and probably doing it without all their clothes on—when Gloria came in to refresh their beverages and remind Vincenzo about his ten-thirty appointment.

  He’d told his PAA to reschedule and resumed his exhausting and often invasive questions. All with a dispassionate air that completely belied the ardent kiss they’d shared.

  He’d acted like it had been nothing. Maybe for him it had been. He was probably used to getting that worked up. No doubt he wasn’t still suffering from the frustration of unrequited lust.

  Her body, on the other hand, was buzzing with physical desires she’d never felt this strongly. Was it because she was a twenty-seven-year-old virgin? Or was it because the man who’d kissed her was Vincenzo Tomasi, the subject of her most secret fantasies?

  With no answer she wanted to acknowledge to that question, Audrey tried to go over the rest of the interview in her mind with as little emotion as he’d shown after their kiss.

  Thankfully she had several hours to decompress and think about her meeting with the arrogant man.

  Toby had football practice after school and wouldn’t be home until later. The season was almost over, but Audrey didn’t expect to see much more of him than she did now before Christmas break. He had a full and varied social and academic life. She couldn’t have been more proud. Audrey had always been a little shy, but Toby wasn’t. Not even a little.

  He was personable, confident and so intelligent she was in awe of his brain. Considering what he’d gone through, that was pretty much a miracle.

  She wasn’t entirely sure how her little brother would react to Vincenzo, though. And the idea of them meeting was a much stronger possibility after the morning she’d spent with the CEO.

  The kiss had proved their chemistry and the interview had lasted into lunchtime, culminating in his request that she sign a non-disclosure agreement that covered situations beyond that on the papers that she’d signed for her initial employment with his bank. Vincenzo had left his office to give instructions to Gloria for the paperwork.

  The PAA had returned only a few minutes after Vincenzo with documents for Audrey to sign.

  Rattled from the kiss and the interview that had followed it, Audrey probably hadn’t taken as long looking over the documents as she should have. However, after noting that the first few paragraphs were identical to the non-disclosure agreement she’d signed when hired on to his company, she’d found herself skimming the rest when the words blurred together in her brain anyway.

  She did note that the agreement forbade her discussing the whole hiring a mother for his children thing and she’d had no problem signing it.

  By that point she’d just wanted to get out of the office and as far away from the emotions Vincenzo Tomasi provoked in her as she could.

  He’d quizzed her on every aspect of his requirements for the position, plus a lot more besides.

  While he had agreed that on paper Audrey seemed to meet them all, Vincenzo wanted deeper clarification.

  She’d expected him to bring up the issue of Toby, since one of the requirements was that she not have any children of her own. When he didn’t, she did. But Vincenzo had dismissed the apparent conflict, citing Toby’s age and his plans to go off to college the following fall.

  He did not deny that for all intents and purposes Audrey was Toby’s mom, despite their only having a nine-year age-gap between them. He assured her that he realized Toby was part of the Audrey Miller package.

  Vincenzo’s concerns seemed weighted toward her willingness to be an “at-home mom” and give up her career.

  Since Audrey had never considered her job as anything but a way to support herself and Toby, she felt no qualms about leaving it. If she’d had a career she was passionate about, that would have been something different. For Toby’s sake she might have been willing to put even that on hiatus, but as it stood Audrey had no major barriers between her and fulfilling a requirement Vincenzo obviously considered very important.

  She wasn’t really sure why Vincenzo was so stuck on a dedicated full-time mother for his niece and nephew. She thought it might be a knee-jerk reaction to losing his brother and sister-in-law.

  He’d decided what would mitigate that loss the most for the children and was determined to provide it.

  She thought it might be different if any of the grandparents were active participants in the children’s lives, but they weren’t. Johana’s parents lived in Germany and visited the States rarely. They’d never even met their grandson Angilu.

  And Vincenzo’s parents appeared to be a lot more like his late brother Pinu than Vincenzo, constantly traveling and pursuing fun like it was the elixir of the universe.

  Maybe Vincenzo was trying to create the family he had not had growing up, even if the powerful businessman did not realize it.

  And that was all well and good. Audrey did not object to being a dedicated full-time parent. In fact she looked forward to it, having lost that personal dream like all the others when Thad walked away.

  But the sex…Vincenzo’s plan to test out that particular compatibility…had Audrey’s stomach tied in knots. Even more so now that she realized how strongly he affected her physically. In a word, it terrified her.

  She was embarrassingly susceptible where he was concerned.

  What happened if she became addicted to his lovemaking and he decided it wasn’t good enough with her?

  Her deepest fear lay in the possibility that her inexperience and lack of practical knowledge in that area might bore him, if it didn’t turn him off completely.

  His clinical attitude toward sex between them, or rather him and the most promising candidate, was really off-putting, too. Especially after he’d kissed her to within an inch of her life.

  What virgin wanted her first time to be some kind of test-drive for compatibility?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ENZU WAS SURPRISED at his own impatience as he waited for the driver to collect Audrey.

  In the car parked outside her apartment building, Enzu was ostensibly g
oing through emails on his tablet. He found himself looking out the window instead, watching for her arrival.

  It wasn’t a new complex, but the buildings were maintained, as were the grounds. A group of teenagers played basketball at the end of the parking lot.

  If he was not mistaken, one of those young men was Audrey’s brother. The tall, heavily muscled teen matched the pictures in her dossier. Grabbing the ball he was dribbling, he stopped, and his head came around to face the direction of Enzu’s car.

  The teen waved and yelled something and Enzu realized he’d missed Audrey’s arrival. She called out a goodbye to her brother as the driver opened the door nearest her. Audrey paused before getting into the car, her body tense.

  At least thirty seconds went by and she did not move, her jean-clad legs showing no indication they would be bending in the imminent future.

  Enzu stifled the urge to call her name. There were times for putting a subordinate in place for keeping him waiting. This was not one of them.

  His impatience did not stem from his schedule. It was caused by his desire to see her again. To give in would be to show weakness, a loss of control that would be unacceptable. Enzu was discovering the chocolate depths of Audrey’s eyes to be even more addictive than the sweets he indulged in rarely but enjoyed thoroughly.

  No, his life was governed by an iron will backed up by careful planning. He did not get surprised; he did not become impatient waiting for something he wanted. Enzu was a rock and everyone around him knew it.

  His reputation for being able to wait without urgency for a business rival to slip up, or a meticulously thought-out plan to increase his company’s holdings to bear fruit, was legendary.

  He could most certainly wait for one rather innocent woman to get into the car.

  A moment later Audrey did just that, settling into the seat beside him as the driver closed the door.

  “Good morning, Vincenzo,” she said, without looking at him as she buckled her seat belt, only the slightest tremble underlying her tone to indicate she wasn’t feeling as breezy as she acted. “It’s nice and warm in here. I don’t think I need this.” Audrey tugged on the sleeves of her black peacoat, shrugging it off along with a houndstooth scarf. “I hate wearing a coat for long drives.”