His Final Bargain

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  ‘Will you miss her?’

  ‘I’ll miss her terribly. She’s such a little sweetheart.’ I wish she were mine.

  ‘And what about me?’ His eyes were suddenly unreadable. ‘Will you miss me too?’

  Eliza’s heart gave another painful contraction at the thought of leaving him. Would their paths ever cross again? Would the only contact be seeing him from time to time in a gossip magazine with some other woman on his arm? How would she bear it? What if he did decide to marry again? He might go on to have another child, or even more than one. He would have the family she had longed for while she would be stuck in her bleak, lonely life back at home, trapped in an engagement with a man who could not free her from it even if he wanted to.

  She forced a worldly smile to her lips. ‘I’ll certainly miss picnics on luxury launches and swanning about in a villa that’s as big as an apartment block.’

  ‘That wasn’t what I was asking.’

  ‘Just what exactly are you asking?’ She gave him a pointed look. ‘It’s not like you want me to stay with you permanently—Kathleen is coming back. You won’t need me any more.’

  ‘We’d better get going.’ His expression was a mask of stone. ‘I have some work to see to before we leave for London tomorrow.’

  ‘We’re leaving tomorrow?’

  ‘The bursar of your school wants to meet with me. He spoke of a project you had proposed to the board for young single mothers on parenting practices and counselling, especially for those with children with special needs. I’d like to look at it a little more closely. It sounds like a good idea.’

  Eliza had trouble containing her surprise. ‘I don’t know what to say…’

  His eyes were hard as they held hers. ‘Don’t go attaching anything sentimental to my interest. I have a lot of money and, like a lot of wealthy people, I want to make a difference where it counts. There are other schools and charities that are in just as much, if not more, need of funds. I have to choose the ones I think are most productive in the long run.’

  ‘This means so much to me,’ she said. ‘It’s been a dream of mine for so long to do something like this. I don’t know how to thank you.’

  ‘I don’t want or need your thanks.’ He moved to the suite where Alessandra was sleeping. ‘Meet me at the car. The paparazzi guy should have left by now.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ELIZA DIDN’T SEE Leo until the following morning, just as they were about to leave for London. She had waited for him last night but he hadn’t come to her.

  She was still so deeply touched that he was considering doing more for her school. She wasn’t sure what was behind his motivation, she was just grateful that he was contemplating supporting the project that was so very dear to her heart.

  Had he softened in his attitude towards her? Dare she hope that he would no longer hate her for how she had rejected him all those years ago? Was this the time to tell him about Ewan? He had expressly forbidden her to speak of her fiancé, but maybe during this trip to London she could find a quiet moment to explain to him her circumstances. He came across as such a hard-nosed businessman, but she knew he had a heart. She had seen it time and time again when he was with his tiny daughter. She caught faint glimpses of it when she found his gaze on her, as if he was studying her, trying to put things together in his head. She desperately wanted him to understand her situation. As each day passed she felt more and more that he had a right to know. She could not leave him without telling him why she had made the choice she had.

  ‘Signor Valente wants a quick word with you in the study,’ Marella said as she bundled Alessandra into her arms. ‘I’ll get Alessandra settled in the car. Giuseppe will take the bags.’

  Eliza went through to the study, where she found Leo standing behind his desk looking out at the garden. He turned as he heard her footfall and picked up a newspaper off his desk and handed it to her with an unreadable expression. ‘The press have identified you as my new mistress.’

  She took the paper and looked at the photo of her, standing on the deck of his boat with Alessandra asleep against her shoulder. The caption read: New stepmother for tragic toddler heiress Alessandra Valente? London primary schoolteacher Eliza Lincoln has been identified as the mystery woman in Leo Valente’s life.

  Eliza swallowed thickly. What if Samantha saw this? Would it hit the press back in Britain? What would Samantha think of her? She had told her a version of the truth rather than tell her an outright lie. She’d said she was visiting an old friend in Italy to fill in for the regular nanny who was taking a little break. She hadn’t said the old friend was actually the man she had met and fallen in love with four years ago. Now it would be splashed over every newspaper in the country that she had gone off and had a clandestine affair. Samantha would be so dreadfully hurt. She would feel so betrayed.

  ‘You might want to warn your fiancé in case this gets picked up by the British tabloids,’ Leo said as if he had read her thoughts.

  She chewed at her lower lip. ‘Yes…’

  ‘I suspect there will be quite a lot of press attention when we arrive in London,’ he said. ‘It will blow over after a day or two. Remember you are forbidden to comment on anything to do with your time with us here.’

  Eliza straightened her shoulders as she handed him back the paper. ‘I haven’t forgotten.’

  The flight to London went without a hitch but, as Leo had predicted, there was a cluster of photographers waiting outside for a glimpse of the young Englishwoman who had been spotted on his boat with his little girl the day before. The click, click, click of camera shutters going off sounded like a heavy round of bullets being discharged.

  ‘Miss Lincoln, what does your fiancé Ewan Brockman think of you spending the last couple of weeks with billionaire Leo Valente in his luxury villa on the Amalfi coast in Italy?’

  Eliza totally froze. How on earth did these people find out this stuff? What else did they know? For all these years Samantha had been adamant Ewan’s condition should be kept out of the press. She had done everything she could to keep Ewan’s dignity intact and Eliza had loved and respected her for it. Who had released his name? Someone at school? Only Georgie knew of the extent of Ewan’s condition. Had a journalist pressed her for details? That was another phone call Eliza should have made. She should have warned Georgie to keep quiet if anyone approached her to comment on her private life.

  ‘Miss Lincoln is my daughter’s fill-in nanny,’ Leo said before Eliza could get her mouth to work. ‘She will be returning to her fiancé in a matter of days. Please give us room. My daughter is becoming upset.’

  It was true—Alessandra was starting to whimper in distress, but Eliza had a feeling it had more to do with Leo’s statement that she was leaving them to go back to her old life rather than the surge of the press. She cuddled the little girl close to her chest and, keeping her head down against the flashing cameras, she walked into the hotel with Leo until they were finally safe in their suite.

  It didn’t take long to settle Alessandra, who was tired after the journey. Marella, who had travelled with them, offered to babysit while Leo and Eliza went out for a meal.

  ‘Are you sure this is wise?’ Eliza asked as Leo closed his phone after booking a table at a restaurant.

  ‘We need to eat, don’t we?’

  ‘Yes, but surely a meal in our suite would be perfectly fine?’ She fiddled with the chain around her neck with agitated fingers. ‘What’s the point in deliberately entering the fray? They’ll just hound us all over again.’

  He gave her an ironic lift of his brow. ‘You were the one who said I shouldn’t hide Alessandra away.’

  ‘We’re not talking about Alessandra,’ she said stiffly. ‘We’re talking about me, about my reputation. People are going to get hurt by all that stuff they’re saying about me.’

  ‘I take it you mean your fiancé?’ His eyes were hard as stone as they held hers.

  Eliza still hadn’t had either the time or the priva
cy to call Samantha. Any moment now she expected her phone to ring, with Samantha asking her what the hell was going on. It was making her nervy and jumpy. A headache was pounding at her temples and a pit of nausea was corroding the lining of her stomach like flesh-eating acid. ‘I don’t like being called your mistress.’

  ‘It’s the truth, isn’t it?’

  ‘Not for much longer.’ She scooped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘Let’s get this over with. I want to get back as quickly as possible and go to bed.’

  He gave her a smouldering look as he held the door open for her. ‘I couldn’t have put it better myself.’

  They were halfway through dinner at an exclusive restaurant in Mayfair when Eliza’s phone audibly vibrated from inside her bag. She had set it to silent but hadn’t thought to turn off the vibration and illumination component. She tried to ignore it, hoping that Leo hadn’t heard, but the glow every time it vibrated was visible through the top of her bag.

  ‘Aren’t you going to answer it?’ he asked.

  ‘Um…it can wait.’ She picked up her glass of wine and took a little sip to settle her nerves.

  The phone vibrated again.

  ‘Sounds like someone really wants to talk to you,’ he said.

  Eliza knew it was pathetic of her to keep putting off the inevitable. It was a lifetime habit of hers to procrastinate, hoping that things would go away or be resolved on their own, but it was only prolonging the agony. Wasn’t that why she was in this mess? She should have been honest right from the word go with Ewan. She shouldn’t have waited for months and months without saying anything, letting him believe everything was fine when it wasn’t. Hadn’t she learned her lesson by now? She had to face things, not hide from them. ‘Um…will you excuse me?’ She rose to her feet. ‘I won’t be long.’

  There was no one in the lipstick lounge adjacent to the restroom, so Eliza sat on a chintz-covered chair and pressed Samantha’s number. ‘Hi, it’s me.’

  ‘Oh, darling,’ Samantha said with an audible sigh of relief. ‘I’m so glad you called back so quickly. I’m bringing Ewan up to London to see the specialist tomorrow. You know how we’ve been on that waiting list for months and months? Well, there’s been a sudden cancellation. I know you’re probably tied up with your little nanny job, but I was hoping since you’re back in London for a couple of days that you could come with me. Do you think you could get an hour or two off? You know how hard I find managing him all by myself. I called the agency and asked for a respite carer to come with me but there’s no one available at such short notice. I was just hoping you could come with us. I know it’s a lot to ask.’

  Eliza felt her insides twist into cripplingly tight knots of guilt. How could she say no? She knew it wasn’t the physical support with Ewan that Samantha was after. She knew how much hope Samantha had invested in seeing this particular specialist. She also knew Samantha was going to be completely shattered when the specialist gave her the same prognosis every other specialist she had taken Ewan to had done.

  How could she let her face that all by herself?

  Leo would be tied up with his work most of the day as well as his meeting with the bursar so it shouldn’t cause too much of a problem. Marella probably wouldn’t mind giving her a couple of hours. She needn’t even ask Leo’s permission. He would probably say no in any case. He would probably assume she was going against his orders and sneaking in a passionate session with her fiancé.

  If only he knew…

  ‘Of course I’ll come with you,’ she said. ‘Text me the address and the time and I’ll be there.’

  ‘You’re an angel,’ Samantha said. ‘I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you.’

  Eliza took an uneven breath and slowly released it. ‘I thought you were calling about the stuff in the press…I guess you’ve seen it by now, otherwise you wouldn’t have known I was here. I should have called you first to warn you. I’m sorry. It all sounds so horribly sordid.’

  ‘Oh, sweetie, don’t worry about that,’ Samantha said. ‘I know what the press are like. They make up stuff all the time. You can’t believe a word you read these days. It’s just pure sensationalism. I know you would never leave Ewan.’

  Eliza felt guilt come down on her like a tower of bricks. But I had left him! The words were jammed in her throat, stuck behind a wall of strangling emotion.

  ‘See you tomorrow, darling,’ Samantha said. ‘Love you.’

  ‘Love you, too.’ Eliza gave a long, heavy sigh as she switched the phone off. And, taking a deep breath, she got to her feet and walked back to where Leo was waiting for her.

  He stood up when she came back to the table. ‘Is everything all right?’

  Eliza gave him a brief forced smile as she sat down. ‘Of course.’ She picked up her wine glass and cradled it in both hands to keep them occupied.

  ‘Who was it?’

  ‘Just a friend.’

  ‘Eliza.’

  She brought up her gaze and her chin. ‘Yes?’

  ‘I don’t need to remind you of the rules, do I?’

  ‘Would you like to screen all my calls while you’re at it?’ She put her glass down with a little clunk. ‘Or how about you scroll through my emails and texts?’

  He frowned and reached for his own wine glass. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t want to spoil our truce.’

  ‘Truce? Is that what you call this?’ She waved a hand to encompass the romantic setting.

  ‘Look, I don’t want to spend the only time we have alone together arguing. That wasn’t the point of going out to dinner this evening.’

  ‘What is the point?’ Was it to make her fall in love with him again and then drop her cold? Was it to make her feel even more wretched about her other life once this was over?

  He took one of her tightly clenched hands and began to massage her stiff fingers until they softened and relaxed. ‘The point is to get to know one another better,’ he said. ‘I’ve noticed we either have mad, passionate sex or argue like fiends when we are alone. I want to try doing something different for a change.’

  Eliza looked at her hand in his, the way his olive skin was so much of a contrast to her creamy one. She felt the stirring of her body the longer he held her. Those fingers had touched every part of her body. They could make her sizzle with excitement just by looking at them. It was becoming harder and harder to keep her emotions hidden away. She wasn’t supposed to be falling in love with him again. She wasn’t supposed to be dreaming of a life with him.

  That was not an option for her.

  She raised her gaze back to meet his. ‘What did you have in mind?’

  He smiled a slow smile that made his eyes become soft and warm, and another lock on her heart loosened. ‘Why don’t you wait and see?’

  An hour later they were on a dance floor, not in an exclusive nightclub or a hotel ballroom, but on the balcony of their hotel suite. Champagne was in an ice bucket, romantic music was playing from the sound system and the vista of the city of London was spread out below them in a glittering array of twinkling lights and famous landmarks.

  Eliza was in Leo’s arms, dancing like Cinderella at the ball. The clock had moved way past midnight but this was one night she didn’t want to end. She had never considered herself a particularly good dancer but somehow in Leo’s arms she felt as if she was floating across the balcony, their bodies at one and their footwork perfectly in tune, apart from a couple of early missteps on her part.

  She leaned her head against his chest and breathed in the warm citrus and clean male scent of him. ‘This is nice…’

  His hand pressed against the small of her back to bring her closer. ‘Where did you learn to dance?’ he asked.

  She looked up at him with a rueful smile. ‘I know, I’m rubbish at it, aren’t I? I’ve probably mashed your toes to a pulp.’

  He gave a deep chuckle and kissed her forehead. ‘Don’t worry. I can still walk.’

  Eliza laid her head back down against his chest as
she thought of Ewan sitting in that chair, his legs and arms useless, his once brilliant brain now in scattered fragments that could no longer connect.

  The line of that old nursery rhyme played inside her head, as it had done so many times over the last five and a half years: All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again…

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE NEXT DAY, Leo got back earlier than he’d expected from his meetings. He had particularly enjoyed the one with the community school bursar. He had made a commitment to the school and he couldn’t wait to tell Eliza about it. The project she had set her heart on would go ahead, no matter how things turned out when her time with him was up.

  Last night he had sensed a shift in their relationship. In the past they had had sex, last night they had made love. He had felt the difference in her kisses and caresses. He wondered if she had sensed the difference in his.

  Did it mean she might reconsider her engagement? He had done a quick Internet search on her fiancé but he hadn’t uncovered much at all. It surprised him for in this day and age just about everyone had a social media page or blog or website. Was the man some sort of recluse? It had niggled at him all day. After what had come out in the papers yesterday, why hadn’t the guy stormed into the hotel and punched Leo’s lights out? It didn’t make sense. If Ewan Brockman loved Eliza, then surely he would have come forward and demanded an explanation.

  It was time to have a no holds barred conversation with her. Something wasn’t quite adding up and he wasn’t going to stop digging until he found out what it was—and there was no time like the present.

  Leo came into the suite to find Marella sitting on the sofa with a book while Alessandra was having a nap in the next room.

  ‘Where’s Eliza?’ he asked as he put his briefcase down.

  ‘She went to do a bit of shopping,’ Marella said, closing the book and putting it to one side. ‘She’s only been gone a couple of hours. I told her to take all the time she wanted. She should be back soon. Why don’t you call her and meet her for a drink? I’ll give Alessandra her bath and supper.’