Bargaining With The Boss (Harlequin Romance)

by George, Catherine

  Eleri laughed, pulling a face. ‘Thank you, James—for the beautiful roses, if not the fateful number.’

  ‘Perhaps you’d prefer these then,’ said James, handing her a gift-wrapped box.

  She shot a glance at him, then egged on by Nico, unwrapped her present to reveal a pair of ruby pendant earrings. ‘Oh, James, how extravagant—they’re exquisite.’ She gave him a brilliant, sparkling smile. ‘I’ll buy a new red dress to do them justice.’ She darted to the large gilt mirror in the hall to thread the earrings through her lobes, then ran back to him and threw her arms round his neck and kissed him. ‘You’re spoiling me.’

  ‘Where are your parents?’

  ‘Over at the trattoria,’ said Nico, and glanced at his watch. ‘Ouch, I’m supposed to be there too. We’re lunching in the function room in honour of the birthday girl and my help is required.’ He pulled a face. ‘Brace yourself, James. Family parties demand stamina!’

  When he’d gone James took Eleri by the elbows and looked down into her face. ‘Don’t keep me in suspense. Did you tell him?’

  ‘Yes.’ She shook her head in wonder. ‘He already knew.’

  James whistled. ‘How?’

  ‘Nico came home early one night last week, due to a cancelled football practice, and my parents came back from the trattoria thinking he was out. He was just about to run down and announce himself when he heard my mother saying it was high time Nico knew the truth.’

  ‘So he eavesdropped.’

  Eleri nodded. ‘He stole back to bed afterwards and pretended to be asleep when my mother went to check on him.’

  ‘So when he woke up in hospital and said “Mamma”, he wasn’t confusing you with your mother,’ James said slowly.

  ‘No. He said he’d always felt closer to me than Claudia. Which isn’t surprising. From the moment my mother brought him home I shared the responsibility of looking after him—nappies, feeding, sterilising, the lot. But Claudia adores him too. Between us we taught him to walk and talk, and I used to read to him by the hour.’

  ‘So it came as no great surprise to him, then?’

  ‘Not really. But he’d been worried sick about the identity of his father. Nico knows all too much about rape and assault from television. His relief was enormous when I told him that his father was a perfectly nice boy I had a crush on. Especially when I told him Simon was a bit of a star on the football field.’ She pushed her hair behind her ears, her eyes suspiciously shiny. ‘It won’t alter anything. Nico loves my parents as much as they love him. Thank God, he doesn’t seem bothered by it all—he even joked about having three parents instead of two.’

  ‘Are there any grandparents he should know about?’

  Eleri shook her head. ‘Simon was brought up by his grandmother. I went to see her after Nico was born, but she was very ill. She couldn’t understand who I was, so I didn’t try to tell her. She died not long afterwards. Nico’s all mine,’ she added fiercely.

  ‘Could you love any children of ours as much?’ asked James bluntly.

  Eleri stood very still. ‘Oh, yes. Of course I could.’ She smiled at him happily. ‘How many would you like?’

  The birthday lunch to celebrate Eleri Conti’s thirtieth birthday was a memorable occasion, everyone gathered there intent on having a wonderful time and doing full justice to the lavish display of Welsh and Italian cuisine. When James arrived with Eleri, he managed a few minutes in private with her parents before she took him on a round of introductions—which included her pretty, heavily pregnant sister Claudia, who had insisted on coming despite her anxious young husband’s fears.

  ‘Miss a birthday party?’ she declared, beaming at James. ‘Not to mention meeting you! I insisted Paul bring me.’

  ‘No problem eating for two here, Claudia,’ said Nico, grinning. ‘We could feed half of Pennington with this lot.’

  The Contis had invited neighbours and friends, including a very shy Lucy, plus Mrs Bronwen Hughes, who had arrived by train from Cardiff the night before.

  ‘This is James Kincaid, Grandma,’ said Eleri.

  ‘How do you do?’ said Mrs Hughes, eyeing him searchingly.

  ‘I’m very glad to know you,’ responded James, and returned the look very steadily. ‘Eleri’s told me a lot about you.’

  The fierce black eyes softened. ‘Has she indeed? All good, I hope?’

  ‘Astonishingly so,’ he assured her, and gave her the smile her granddaughter found so irresistible.

  The party went with a swing from the first, not least because Catrin and Mario Conti were so very obviously enjoying themselves as much as their guests. It was late in the afternoon when Mario got to his feet and raised his glass, asking his guests to join him in a birthday toast to his daughter.

  There was a chorus of greetings round the table as the guests drank to Eleri, then Mario rapped on the table again for silence. ‘And now another toast, again to my daughter Eleri, but this time also to her future husband, Mr James Kincaid.’

  There were exclamations of surprise and pleasure, and calls for Eleri to make a speech. She shook her head, smiling, and James rose to his feet and thanked his host for a wonderful meal, expressing much pleasure at meeting family and friends. ‘And last, but not least, I thank you all for your good wishes to Eleri and myself.’ He took a familiar box from his pocket and opened it, then slid the ruby ring on Eleri’s finger to a deafening cheer from the gathered company.

  Suddenly there was a gasp from Claudia. Her husband Paul bent over her in panic and Catrin and Eleri almost cannoned into each other in their haste to get to her.

  ‘Is it the baby?’ demanded her mother.

  ‘Yes.’ Claudia managed a lopsided smile. ‘Sorry to leave so soon, but I think someone else wants to join the party.’

  James suggested Nico bring his Lucy along to Chester Gardens to wait for news, leaving the Contis at home with Mrs Hughes.

  ‘I’ll ring you as soon as Paul lets us know,’ said Catrin, and reached up to give James a kiss. ‘Welcome to the family, James. I hope it wasn’t too much for you today.’

  ‘It was a great party, Mrs Conti,’ he assured her. ‘My grateful thanks. When my parents come over from France I’ll get my sister and her family up from London and we’ll have another one. On me, this time.’

  ‘We shall be delighted,’ said Mario, and looked at Nico with a commanding eye. ‘Take Lucy home in good time, my son.’

  ‘Will do,’ said Nico cheerfully.

  ‘I’m afraid we’ll all have to walk.’ said James ruefully. ‘The wine you served was so superb I indulged too much, Mr Conti. I daren’t drive.’

  ‘Mario, please,’ said her father, to Eleri’s surprise.

  ‘You made a hit with Pa,’ remarked Nico as they set out for Chester Gardens. ‘Probably grateful—thought he’d never get Eleri off his hands.’

  ‘Nico!’ said Lucy, scandalised, but Eleri laughed and gave him a not too gentle shove.

  ‘Any more of that and we’ll let you go hungry when we get home.’

  James gave her an appalled look. ‘Are we obliged to feed these two as well as keep them out of mischief?’

  ‘Are you sure it isn’t the other way round?’ said Nico slyly. ‘Luce and I are coming along to play gooseberry.’

  Despite the banter over a cold supper, as the evening wore on Eleri couldn’t help feeling anxious. Her own experience of childbirth had been protracted and agonising, and she hoped fervently that Claudia’s would be easier. She looked up from the Monopoly board at one stage to intercept a look which told her Nico was reading her thoughts. He smiled at her affectionately, then gave a furious exclamation as he landed on Lucy’s Mayfair property.

  ‘You’re going to clean me out, Luce. If I’d known you were such a whiz at this I’d have voted for Trivial Pursuit.’

  ‘She’s probably a whiz at that too,’ said James dryly.

  Lucy, who was a lot more at home in their company by this time, nodded matter-of-factly. ‘We play at lot of boa
rd games at home.’ She gave Nico a sweet little smile. ‘I’m good at Maths too.’

  When the phone rang just after eight James grabbed it and tossed it to Eleri, who listened to her mother’s jubilant voice with relief, then rang off and turned to the others, beaming. ‘Caterina Paula arrived a few minutes ago. Mother and baby doing well, father shattered! Ma sent you a message, by the way, Nico.’

  ‘I know! Take Lucy home in good time, come straight home afterwards, and no hanging about because it’s school tomorrow, bang on the head or not,’ he chanted.

  James laughed at the wicked reproduction of Catrin’s accent. ‘She can’t have said all that, Eleri?’

  ‘No. But the general drift was there, so let’s pack this lot up and speed these two on their way.’

  While Lucy was downstairs in the bathroom Nico looked from Eleri to James rather awkwardly. ‘I haven’t congratulated you both. But I’m glad. About a lot of things.’ He gave Eleri a hug, and a hurried, clumsy kiss. ‘It hasn’t sunk in properly yet—you look too young to be my mother.’ He grinned at James. ‘And I promise not to call you Dad, either.’

  ‘That’s a relief,’ said James promptly. ‘Otherwise I’d ask for my ring back.’

  ‘Ask as much as you like,’ said Eleri, waving her left hand about admiringly to hide her emotion. ‘The only way you get this is with finger attached.’ She looked up as the doorbell rang. ‘Right, then—come on, Lucy. James is treating you to a taxi.’

  Nico flushed as James handed him a banknote to pay for it. ‘This is too much.’

  ‘Keep the change,’ said James, and grinned. ‘Don’t worry, this is a one-off. Any other night you walk.’

  ‘That was very nice of you,’ said Eleri as they waved the younger pair off.

  ‘I am nice,’ he said, smiling and closed the door. ‘So come inside, my pretty one, and thank me in the way I like best.’

  ‘I like it too,’ she admitted, fluttering her eyelashes.

  James let his eyes wander over her in leisurely scrutiny, from the black velvet trousers to the tawny silk shirt which clashed so vividly with the ruby earrings. ‘You look like twenty tonight, not thirty.’

  ‘It’s the relief of Nico’s reaction, plus Caterina’s safe arrival, and the fact that I’ve just got engaged to the most wonderful man in the world,’ she said extravagantly.

  ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that,’ said James modestly. ‘There must be one or two others around.’

  Eleri shook her head, suddenly serious. ‘Not for me.’

  James looked at her for a moment, then glanced at his watch. ‘It’s nearly nine, Cinderella. I assume you want to be home by midnight.’

  ‘Afraid so.’

  ‘Would it shock you to know that I’m desperate to make love to my future wife?’

  ‘Not in the least.’

  ‘Then what would you say if I suggest taking some champagne downstairs for a private, passionate celebration of our own?’

  ‘I thought you’d never ask!’

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-6281-2

  BARGAINING WITH THE BOSS

  First North American Publication 1998.

  Copyright © 1997 by Catherine George.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual know or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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