‘And where do you want it?’
‘In me,’ she breathed boldly. ‘Inside me.’
‘Me, too,’ he purred, reaching out to grab a condom from the sadly diminished pile on the bedside cabinet.
Molly was aware of being warm and sticky as he moved over her. Of her hair all mussed and her teeth unbrushed—but somehow none of that seemed to matter because Salvio was touching her as if she were some kind of goddess. His fingers were sure and seeking and goosebumps rippled over her skin in response as he smoothed his hand over her belly. She felt as if she were soaring as she wrapped her thighs around his hips and gave herself up to the exquisite sensation of that first sweet thrust and then the deepening movements which followed.
She loved the way they moved in time. The way she felt as if she were on a fast shuttle to paradise when another orgasm took her over the top. And she loved his almost helpless expression as his face darkened and he pumped his seed inside her. The way his tousled head collapsed onto her shoulder afterwards as he uttered something intently in what she presumed was more Neapolitan dialect. His breathing was warm and even against her neck and, terrified he would fall asleep and delay his departure, she shook him. ‘Salvio,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t go to sleep. You’d better go. Before anyone wakes up.’
‘Then you’d better get out of here, too,’ he instructed, pushing aside the rumpled duvet. ‘Right now. Before anyone sees you.’
For some reason his remark dispirited her and brought her crashing back to earth, allowing reality to puncture her little bubble of happiness. But despite the insecurities which were bubbling up inside her, Molly managed to retain her cheery smile, enjoying the sight of Salvio pulling on his jeans and sweater and quietly opening the door as he headed for the bathroom.
Once he’d gone she got out of bed and pulled on her discarded underclothes—pulling a face as she smoothed her crumpled work dress over her hips and rolled her black tights into a little ball, which she gripped in her hand. She’d be able to do something with her appearance once Salvio had left, she reasoned—glancing up as the door opened as he came back into the bedroom, his dark hair glittering with tiny drops of water from the shower.
In silence he dressed before snapping his overnight case closed, his expression very serious as he walked towards her. For a moment he just stood in front of her, his gaze sweeping over her like a dark spotlight, as if he were seeing her for the first time.
‘So why?’ he questioned simply. ‘Why me?
Molly expelled a shuddered breath, because in a way she’d been waiting for this question. He hadn’t asked her last night and she’d been glad, because she hadn’t wanted the mundane to spoil what had been the most fantastic night of her life. In a way, she would have preferred it if he hadn’t brought it up now—but he had, and she needed to answer in a way designed to keep it light. Because she didn’t want a single thing to tarnish the memory of how glorious it had been. She shrugged. She even managed a smile. ‘I don’t meet many men in this line of work,’ she said. ‘And certainly none like you. And you’re...you’re a very attractive man, Salvio—as I expect you’ve been told on many occasions.’
He frowned, as if her honesty troubled him. ‘I want you to know that I didn’t invite you in here in order to seduce you,’ he said slowly. ‘I’m not saying the thought hadn’t crossed my mind earlier, but that wasn’t my intention.’
She nodded. ‘I know it wasn’t. You were being kind, that’s all. Maybe that’s why I agreed to have a drink with you.’
He gave an odd kind of laugh. ‘You had a very profound effect on me, Molly.’
There was an expression in his dark eyes which Molly couldn’t work out but maybe it was best that way. She didn’t want him telling her it had been an inexplicable thing he’d done. She wanted to hang onto what had happened between them—to treat it as you would one of those precious baubles you hung on the tree at Christmas. She didn’t want to let the memory slip from her fingers and see it shatter into a million pieces.
‘I’m glad,’ she said, holding onto her composure only by a thread, her heart pounding frantically beneath her breast. ‘But time’s getting on. You’d better go.’
He nodded, as if being encouraged to leave a bedroom was a novel experience for him, but suddenly he turned and walked towards the bedroom door without another word, and Molly’s heart twisted painfully as he closed it quietly behind him. She stood there framed in the window, watching as he emerged from the house, his dark figure silhouetted against the crashing ocean, and for a second he looked up, his black gaze capturing hers. She waited for him to smile, or wave, or something—and she told herself it was best he didn’t, for who knew who else might be watching?
Throwing his bag inside, he slipped into the driver’s seat, the closing door blotting out her last sight of him. His powerful car started up in a small cloud of gravel before sweeping down towards the coastal road and she watched until it was just a faint black dot in the distance. As sunrise touched the dark clouds with the first hint of red, Molly wondered if Salvio’s life was a series of exits, with women gazing longingly out of windows as they watched him go.
Her cheeks were hot as she whipped the bottom sheet from the bed and removed the duvet cover. She would come back later to collect the linen and clean the room from top to bottom. But first she needed a hot shower. The Averys had plenty of events coming up and Molly had a long list of things to do today. Perhaps it was good that the weeks ahead were busy during the run-up to Christmas. It would certainly stop her from dwelling on the fact she would never see Salvio again. Never feel his lips on hers or his powerful arms holding her tight. Because this was what happened in the grown-up world, she told herself fiercely. People had fun with each other. Fun without expectations, or commitment. They had sex and then they just walked away.
Quietly, she closed the guest-room door behind her and was creeping along the corridor with the exaggerated care of a cartoon thief, when she became aware of someone watching her. Her heart lurched with fear. A shadowed figure was standing perfectly still at the far end of the guest corridor.
Not just anyone.
Lady Avery.
Molly’s footsteps slowed, her heart crashing frantically against her ribcage as she met the accusing look in her boss’s pale eyes.
‘So, Molly,’ Lady Avery said, in a voice she’d never heard her use before. ‘Did you sleep well?’
There was a terrible pause and Molly’s throat constricted, because what could she say? It would be adding insult to injury if she made some lame excuse about why she was creeping out of Salvio’s room at this time in the morning, carrying a balled-up pair of tights. And now she would be sacked. She’d be jobless and homeless at the worst possible time of year. She swallowed. There was only one thing she could say. ‘I’m sorry, Lady Avery.’
Her aristocratic employer shook her head in disbelief. ‘I can’t believe it!’ she said. ‘Why someone like him could have been interested in someone like you, when he could have had...’
Her words trailed away and Molly didn’t dare fill the awkward silence which followed. Because how could Lady Avery possibly finish her own sentence without losing face or dignity? How could she possibly admit that she had been hoping to end up in Salvio’s bed, when she was a married woman and her husband was in the house?
Molly’s cheeks grew hot as she acknowledged the shameful progression of her thoughts. Behaving as if the Neapolitan tycoon were some kind of prize they’d both been competing over! Had the loneliness of her job made her completely indiscriminate, so that she had been prepared to leap into bed with the first man who had ever shown her any real affection? ‘I can only apologise,’ she repeated woodenly.
Once again, Lady Avery shook her head. ‘Just get back to work, will you?’ she ordered sharply.
‘Work?’ echoed Molly cautiously.
‘Well, what else did you think you�
��d be doing? We have ten people coming for dinner tonight, in case you’d forgotten. And since this time I’m assuming you won’t be obsessing about one of the guests, at least the meat won’t arrive at the table cremated.’ She gave Molly an arch look. ‘Unless no man is now safe from your clutches. I must say you’re the most unlikely candidate to be a femme fatale. Just get back to work, will you, Molly, before I change my mind?’
‘Y-yes, Lady Avery.’
Unable to believe she hadn’t been fired on the spot, Molly spent the next few weeks working harder than she’d ever worked before. She went above and beyond the call of duty as Christmas approached and she tried to make amends for her unprofessional behaviour. She attempted ambitious culinary experiments, which thankfully all turned out brilliantly. She baked, prodded, steamed and whipped—to the fervent admiration of the stream of guests which passed through the mistletoe-festooned hallway of the house. And if Lady Avery made a few sarcastic digs about Molly hanging around hopefully beneath the sprigs of white berries, Molly was mature enough not to respond. Maybe her boss’s anger was justified, she reasoned. Maybe she would have said the same if the situation had been reversed.
And it didn’t matter how busy she was—it was never enough to stop her thoughts from spinning in an unwanted direction. She found herself thinking about Salvio and that was the last thing she needed. She didn’t want to remember all the things he’d done to her. The way he’d stroked her face and lips and body, before pushing open her thighs to enter her. Just as she didn’t want to think about the way he’d whispered ‘bedda mia’ and ‘nicuzza’ in that haunting dialect when they’d both woken in the middle of the night. Because remembering that stuff was dangerous. It made it all too easy to imagine that it mattered. And it didn’t. Not to him. He’d been able to walk away without a second glance and Molly had told him she was able to do the same.
So do it.
Stop yearning.
Stop wishing for the impossible.
* * *
It was four days before Christmas when two bombshells fell in rapid succession. Molly had just been about to drive to the village, when she came across Lady Avery standing in the hallway—a full-length fur coat swamping her fine-boned frame. Her face looked cold. As cold as the wintry wind which was whistling outside the big house and bringing with it the first few flakes of snow.
‘Molly, don’t bother going to the shops right now,’ she said, without preamble.
Molly blinked. She’d made the pudding and cake and mince pies, but she still had to pick up the turkey and the vegetables. And hadn’t they run out of satsumas? She looked at her boss helpfully. ‘Is there something else you would rather I was doing?’
‘Indeed there is. You can go upstairs and pack your things.’
Molly stared at her boss in confusion. ‘Pack my things?’ she echoed stupidly. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Don’t you? It’s really quite simple. Surely there’s no need for me to spell it out for you. We no longer require your services.’
‘But...’
‘But what, Molly?’ Lady Avery took a step closer and now Molly could see that all the rage she’d been bottling up since Salvio’s departure was about to come spilling out. ‘I hope you aren’t going to ask me why I haven’t given you more notice, because I really don’t think the normal rules apply when you’ve abused your position as outrageously as you have done. I really don’t think that sleeping with the guests ever made it into your job description, do you?’
‘But it’s just before Christmas!’ Molly burst out, unable to stop herself. ‘And this...this is my home.’
Lady Avery gave a shrill laugh. ‘I don’t think so. Why don’t you go running to your boyfriend and ask if he wants you over the holiday period? Because it’s not going to happen, that’s why. Salvio will have moved on to the kind of women he’s more usually associated with by now.’ Her pale eyes drilled into Molly. ‘Do you know, they say there isn’t a supermodel on the planet he hasn’t dated?’
‘But why...why wait until now?’ questioned Molly in a low voice. ‘Why didn’t you just fire me straight away?’
‘With wall-to-wall engagements planned and Christmas just over the horizon?’ Lady Avery looked at her incredulously. ‘I was hardly going to dispense with your services and leave myself without a housekeeper at such a busy time, now, was I? That’s what’s known as cutting off your nose to spite your face.’ There was a pause. ‘You’ll find you’ve been paid up to the end of the month, which is more generous than you deserve. Philip and I have decided to fly to Barbados tomorrow for a last-minute holiday and we’re going out for the rest of the day. Just make sure you’re gone by the time we return, will you, Molly?’
‘But...but where will I go tonight?’
‘You really think I care? There’s a cheap B&B in the village. You can go there—if they’ll take you.’ Lady Avery’s mouth had curved into a cruel smile. ‘Just make sure you leave your car and house keys on the hall table before you go.’
And that was that. Molly could hardly believe it was happening. Except that she could. Her heart clenched as her old friend Fear re-entered her life without fanfare and suddenly she was back in that familiar situation of being in a fix. Only this time she couldn’t blame her brother, or the vagaries of fate which had made her mother so ill throughout her childhood. This time it was all down to her.
Biting her lip, she thought desperately about where she could go and what she could do, but no instant solution sprang to mind. She had no relatives. No local friends who could provide her with a roof over her head until she found herself another live-in job. Her mind buzzed frantically as some of Lady Avery’s words came flooding into her mind. How would Salvio react if she called him up and told him she’d been fired as a result of their crazy liaison? Would he do the decent thing and offer her a place to stay? Yet, despite recoiling at the thought of throwing herself on the mercy of a man who’d made it clear he wanted nothing but a one-night stand, it was growing increasingly clear that she might have to. Because the second bombshell was hovering overhead ready to explode, no matter how hard she tried to block it from her mind.
Telling herself it was stress which had made her period so late, she pushed the thought away as she remembered the card Salvio had given her—the one with a direct line to his assistant. What had he said? That his assistant knew plenty of people and could help her find a domestic role if ever she needed one. Molly licked her lips. She didn’t want to do it but what choice did she have? Where would she even start looking for a new job and a home at this time of year?
Quickly, she packed her clothes, trying not to give in to the tears which were pricking at the backs of her eyes. Carefully she wedged in the framed photo of her mother and the one of Robbie in his school uniform, the cute image giving no hint of the gimlet-eyed teenager he would become. And only when she was standing in her threadbare winter coat, with a hand-knitted scarf knotted tightly around her neck, did she dial the number on the card with a shaking finger.
Salvio’s assistant was called Gina and she didn’t just sound friendly—she sounded relieved when Molly gave her name and explained why she was ringing.
‘I can’t believe it,’ she said fervently. ‘You are the answer to my prayers, Molly Miller.’
‘Me?’ said Molly doubtfully.
‘Yes, you.’ Gina’s voice softened. ‘Are you free now? I mean, as of right now?’
‘I am,’ answered Molly cautiously. ‘Why?’
‘Because Salvio is having his annual pre-Christmas party in the Cotswolds tomorrow, just before he flies to Naples—and the housekeeper we’d hired has called to say her mother has fallen downstairs and broken her wrist, and she’s had to cancel. If you can step in and take over at the last minute I can make it very worth your while.’
Molly pushed out the words from between suddenly frozen lips. ‘That’s very bad news—about
the broken wrist, I mean, but I don’t think I—’
But the tycoon’s assistant was breezing on as if she hadn’t spoken.
‘Salvio must rate you very highly to have given you my number,’ Gina continued. ‘Why, it’s almost like fate. I won’t even have to bother telling him about the change. He doesn’t like to be bogged down with domestic trivia and he’s always so busy.’
Molly bit her lip so hard it hurt. This was fast becoming a nightmare, but what else could she do? How could she possibly turn down this opportunity just because she’d had sex with the man who would now unwittingly be employing her? She would just blend into the background and pray that the Neapolitan tycoon would be too busying partying to pay her any attention. And if the worst came to the worst and he discovered her identity—then she would shrug her shoulders and tell him it was no big deal.
Realistically, what could go wrong?
But being rumbled by Salvio wasn’t the worst thing which could happen, was it? Not by a long way. The fear which had been nagging at her for days came flooding into her mind and this time would not be silenced, because all her excuses about stress and anxiety were rapidly fading. Because she wasn’t sure if anxiety was capable of making your breasts ache and feel much bigger than usual. Or whether it could sap your normally voracious appetite.
She stared at her pale reflection in the hall mirror and saw the terror written in her own eyes. Because what if she was pregnant with Salvio De Gennaro’s baby?
CHAPTER FIVE
VISIBILITY WAS POOR—in fact, it was almost non-existent. Salvio’s fingers tightened around the soft leather of the steering wheel. Eyes narrowed, he stared straight ahead but all he could see was an all-enveloping whiteness swirling in front of the car windscreen. Every couple of seconds, the wipers dispelled the thick layer of snow which had settled, only to be rapidly replaced by another.
The Italian's Christmas Housekeeper Page 5
