Her Italian Boss’s Agenda

by Lucy Gordon

‘Good. Then I’m going to lure the lion into my den.’

  He grinned. ‘I guess I don’t qualify as a lion.’

  ‘I see you more as a bear,’ she agreed, giving the matter serious thought. ‘Brown and grizzly, with a growl that you have to listen to very carefully to work out what it means today. Is he ferocious or is he in a mood to have his fur stroked? Better get it right, or who knows what could happen?’

  It was subtle. It was clever. It was beautifully calculated to butter him up and soothe him down and, heaven help him, he knew he was going to fall for it even while he could see her pulling the strings.

  ‘Congratulations!’ he said admiringly. ‘At least I’ve had my warning. You’ll use me for practice, until the real prey turns up.’

  She turned on him, eyes shining gleefully, head on one side.

  ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

  ‘How kind of you to ask! Would it make any difference if I did?’

  ‘You could always refuse.’

  Sure, he could refuse! Like a drowning man could refuse to go down for the third time!

  He met her eyes.

  ‘I’m considering my options,’ he said. ‘But have you thought of the practical difficulties?’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘Aren’t you going to find it a little hard, running a lion and a bear in tandem?’

  ‘Ah, but suppose the bear’s on my side and he’s helping me, discreetly of course?’

  ‘Helping you-how?’ he asked, with well-founded caution.

  ‘Inside information. Practical advice. We could be a great team.’

  ‘A team implies an equal bargain,’ he protested. ‘Advantage on both sides. What do I get out of it?’

  ‘What do you want to get out of it?’ she teased.

  Suddenly his head swam. What did he want to get out of it?

  When the wild dance of his senses had calmed a little he managed to speak.

  ‘If that means what I think it does,’ he said softly, ‘you’re a shameless hussy.’

  ‘Not at all. You know the score.’

  ‘Maybe I have my own method of scoring.’

  ‘That will only make it more interesting,’ she murmured, so softly that he had to strain to hear, and her breath whispered across his face.

  Out of sight, he gripped the table.

  ‘You’re a wicked woman,’ he said appreciatively. ‘Scheming, manipulative, dishonest-’

  ‘No.’ She laid a finger over his lips. ‘I’m not dishonest. I’m completely upfront about what I want and what I’ll do to get it. That’s honest. It doesn’t make me a very nice person, but it does make me honest.’

  ‘Olympia, for heaven’s sake! What a way to talk! Anyway, what do you mean by “inside information”?’

  ‘What’s the best way to approach him? What kind of woman does he like?’

  ‘The kind he’s married to,’ he replied, straight-faced.

  Her eyes opened wide. ‘He’s married?’

  ‘Suffocatingly married for the last twelve years. He has five children and his wife’s a dragon with gimlet eyes. She’s a jealous fiend who inspects all his female employees with a machine-gun in her hand.’

  ‘But Cedric says-’ She checked herself, finally seeing the glint in his eyes. She leaned back in her chair, glaring at him.

  ‘I ought to squirt something at you for scaring me like that.’

  ‘It’s all true, I swear it.’

  ‘True, nothing! He’s a bachelor. Cedric told me.’

  ‘So you’ve been pumping poor Cedric?’ he exclaimed in unholy delight. ‘I can’t wait to hear what you offered him.’

  Suddenly she could no longer meet his eyes. ‘The usual,’ she murmured.

  ‘And just-what-is the usual?’ he asked, smothering his unease.

  ‘Well-you know-’

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘Whatever his heart desires. It has to be that, or there’s no point.’

  He drew a long, painful breath. If she didn’t answer soon, so help him, he was on the point of violence.

  ‘And what did Cedric’s heart desire?’ he asked with a deadly smile.

  Olympia looked around in both directions before replying in a low voice. ‘Cedric has a particular interest. He doesn’t talk a lot about it because-well, people are so quick to make judgements-’

  ‘But he knew you’d understand?’ Primo said grimly.

  ‘Oh, yes. He’s shown me his whole collection, and I was able to complete it. He was really pleased.’

  ‘Complete it?’

  ‘Yes, he collects videos about dinosaurs, and there was one he’d never been able to get hold of. Luckily my father had it, so I copied it for him. Cedric eats out of my hand now.’

  He stared at her. ‘Dinosaurs,’ he said, dazed.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You got him a video about dinosaurs?’ he repeated slowly.

  ‘That was what his heart desired.’

  Her eyes were full of fun, telling him he’d been well and truly had. He tried to quell his laughter but it welled up inside him, finally bursting out loud enough to startle a passing waiter.

  ‘You tricky, devious-’ he choked.

  ‘But whatever did you think I meant?’ she asked, wide-eyed and innocent.

  ‘I daren’t tell you. You’d probably slap my face.’

  Of course she’d followed his every thought, because she was a black-haired witch who could tease a man into her glittering snares, even when he knew he ought to run a mile. That was the sensible thing to do.

  But he’d been sensible all his life, and suddenly it was impossible.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I T TOOK him a while to stop choking with laughter and sit shaking his head as he regarded her in delight.

  ‘You should be ashamed of yourself,’ she said sternly.

  ‘So should you,’ he riposted at once. ‘Now tell me, was Cedric’s information worth the price?’

  ‘No, I’m afraid Cedric’s knowledge is limited. He couldn’t even say what Signor Rinucci looked like, although he’s met him. “Tallish”, is the best he could do.’

  ‘Yes, I don’t think noticing details is poor Cedric’s strong suit.’

  ‘But you’ll know. Is he good-looking? What sort of things does he enjoy? Come on. Tell.’

  ‘Are you planning to seduce him?’ he asked, avoiding her eyes.

  ‘Certainly not. I’ll be far more subtle than that. Seduction merely complicates things. Besides, when you say seduction, what exactly do you mean?’

  ‘I’m disappointed in you, Olympia. I thought you were a strong woman, not one who backed away from facts. You know exactly what seduction means. The whole thing. Admit it. You haven’t thought this through.’

  ‘Not thought it through? If you knew just how many hours, waking and sleeping, I’ve spent working out this-’

  ‘But you’ve never gone as far as the logical conclusion.’

  ‘Look, there’s seduction and there’s seduction-’

  ‘No, there isn’t. There’s only seduction, and you’d better know what you mean by it before you set out after this man. He’ll want far more than a dinosaur video. Just how far are you prepared to go?’

  ‘Not that far. What do you take me for?’

  ‘A woman prepared to put her ambition before everything else. Before love, before happiness, before being a person.’

  ‘That depends on what you mean by being a person. To me it means being a success. I want to impress him with my knowledge of business, my ability to speak his language, my willingness to commit myself to the job one hundred per cent.’

  ‘And you’re not going to use your womanly wiles at all? Is that it?’

  She shrugged lightly. ‘I may not be the kind of woman he likes.’

  ‘Oh, he likes them all,’ Primo said, throwing caution to the winds. ‘He’s dangerous.’

  ‘Dangerous, how?’ she asked eagerly.

  He racked his brain, searching for ways to describ
e his ‘other’ self. He was beginning to find this exhilarating.

  ‘He’s a womaniser,’ he said recklessly, ‘a man without discrimination. If you’ve got any sense, you won’t tangle with him.’

  ‘Oh, but I love a challenge.’

  ‘But he won’t be a challenge. It’s too easy to attract him on that level, but what happens afterwards?’

  ‘Then I’ll move on to Plan B.’

  ‘You’ve got it all worked out,’ he observed wryly.

  ‘You have to work things out to get what you want.’

  ‘And Primo Rinucci is what you want?’

  ‘Not him personally. What I want is his power and influence.’

  ‘And his money?’

  ‘Not at all,’ she said, shocked. ‘Just his power. I can make my own money.’

  ‘I just can’t work you out.’

  ‘Excellent. Then I’m on the right track. He mustn’t be able to work me out either.’

  ‘Can we forget Rinucci?’ he said, a tad edgily. ‘There are some holes in your reasoning that you’ll have to consider later, but I’d prefer not to spend this evening on the subject.’

  ‘What?’ she said at once. ‘What holes?’

  He sighed and gave in. ‘Well, for a start, there’s the troop of lovers that you seem to keep dancing after you. Won’t they get in the way rather?’

  ‘What troop of lovers? I don’t have any lovers. At least-’ She seemed to consider. ‘No,’ she said at last. ‘Not at the moment.’

  ‘Admirers then. All those cards this morning, two without a message and one that said, “I’ll never forget”. Who is he, and what won’t he forget?’

  ‘Ah, that was from Brendan,’ she said with a smile. ‘We had a flirtation a few years back and I get a card every year.’

  ‘A flirtation, was it?’ he couldn’t resist saying.

  ‘Brendan’s a great one for pretty gestures at a safe distance. He always makes sure he’s on the other side of the world in February. This came from Australia.’

  ‘And the other two? And the red roses?’

  Suddenly she burst out laughing, not a soft teasing sound but a chuckle of genuine mirth.

  ‘You won’t believe me when I tell you.’

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘They were from my parents.’

  ‘“To the one and only, the girl who transformed the world”,’ he quoted.

  ‘They’d been married twenty years before I came along, and they’d given up hope. As long as I can remember they’ve sent me Valentine cards and flowers with messages about how I changed the world for them. They’re such darlings.’

  ‘Well, I’ll be-is that for real?’

  ‘Yes, I swear it’s the truth. Didn’t you see their picture on the bookcase?’

  ‘Yes, but I thought they must be your grandparents.’

  ‘That’s because they’re both nearly seventy.’

  ‘But why didn’t you tell me this morning?’

  ‘Because I was enjoying myself. I don’t mind being thought of as a woman with a host of admirers.’

  ‘Miss Lincoln, you have the soul of a tease.’

  ‘Sure I have. It’s very useful. My husband got quite uptight about those cards at first. Right to the end I’m not sure he really believed my parents sent them.’

  ‘The end? You’re a widow?’

  ‘Oh, no, he’s still alive. He came close to meeting a sudden end a few times but I resisted that temptation.’

  ‘Your better self asserted itself.’

  ‘No, I don’t have a better self,’ she said cheerfully. ‘He just wasn’t worth the hassle. With my luck, I’d never have got away with it, so I let him live.’

  She finished with a shrug, as though the whole thing was just too trivial for words, but he felt as though he’d had a glimpse through a keyhole. It was narrow, but the details he could see suggested a whole vista, waiting to be revealed.

  The waiter appeared to clear away their plates.

  ‘I gather he didn’t deserve to live,’ Primo said casually.

  ‘That’s what I thought, but I’m probably doing him an injustice. He wasn’t really the monster I made him into. I told myself that love conquered all, and then blamed him when that turned out to be nonsense. And we married too young. I was eighteen, he was twenty-one. I suppose we changed into different people-or discovered the people we really were all the time.’

  ‘I don’t think this is who you really were all the time,’ he said with sudden urgency. ‘This is what he did to you.’

  ‘He taught me a lot of things, including the value of total and utter selfishness. Boy, is that ever the way to get ahead! Tunnel vision. Wear blinkers and look straight down the line to what you want.’

  He’d often said the same himself, but he couldn’t bear hearing his own ruthlessness from her.

  ‘Don’t,’ he said, reaching out swiftly and laying a finger over her lips. ‘Don’t talk like that.’

  ‘You’re right,’ she said, moving her lips against his finger before he drew it away. ‘It’s too revealing, isn’t it? I need a better act. How lucky that I have you to practise on.’

  ‘Yes, isn’t it?’ he said wryly.

  ‘I mean that I don’t have to pretend with you. We can afford honesty. Why, what is it?’ She’d seen his sudden unease.

  ‘Nothing,’ he said quickly. ‘But the waiter wants to serve the next course.’

  The mention of honesty had reminded him that he was sailing under false colours. But at the same time he had an exhilarating feeling of having found a new kind of honesty. His heart was open to her, his defences down as never before. Was this what Hope had been trying to tell him all the time?

  ‘So your husband taught you all about selfishness?’ he said.

  ‘I guess I was a willing learner.’

  It hurt him to hear her slander herself, but she seemed driven to do it, as though that way she could erect a defensive shield against the world.

  ‘Did you ever want children?’

  She hesitated a long time before saying, ‘I wanted his children. I hadn’t thought of myself as the maternal type at first. It was going to be a career for me, although I thought I’d probably want children later. Then I’d find a way to juggle them both.’

  ‘So the career wasn’t going to be everything to you?’ he asked cautiously. ‘Not like now.’

  ‘No, not like now. But then I met David and it overturned all my ideas. I wanted to be his wife and have his babies so much that it hurt.

  ‘Somehow it was never the right time for him. He said we were too young-which I suppose we were, and there were “things to do first”. That’s how he put it. I just said yes to whatever he wanted. It seemed a fair bargain as long as he loved me.’

  She said the words with no deliberate attempt at pathos, but with a kind of incredulous wonder that anyone could believe such stuff.

  ‘But he didn’t,’ Primo said gently.

  She made no reply. She was barely conscious of him. Something had drawn her back into the person she used to be, naïve, giving and totally, blindly in love. The impression was so strong that she could almost feel David there again-confident, charming, with the ability to take her to the top of the world-then dash her down.

  Never again.

  ‘No, he didn’t,’ she said. ‘I was useful to him, but only for a while. He used to wear expensive clothes because he had to make a good impression at work. I made do with the cheapest I could find because who cared what I looked like?’

  ‘Didn’t he?’

  ‘You should have heard him on that subject. He was very good. “Darling, it doesn’t matter whether your dress is costly or the cheapest thing in the market. To me, you’re always beautiful.” What is it?’

  She asked the question because he had covered his eyes in anguish.

  ‘I can’t bear this,’ he said. ‘It’s such a corny line. I thought it was dead and buried years ago.’

  ‘Well, it rose from the grave,’ sh
e said tartly. ‘And, to save you asking, yes, I fell for it. Hook, line and sinker.’

  ‘I’ll bet he wasn’t wearing the cheapest thing on the market.’

  ‘You’re right. I bought him a shirt once-not expensive, but I thought it was nice. He sat me down, explained that he couldn’t be seen in it, and asked if I had the receipt. He returned it to the shop, got the money back, then added some money of his own to buy what he called “a decent one”. It was his way of letting me know what was good enough for him and what wasn’t.’

  ‘And you let him live?’ Primo demanded, scandalised.

  ‘I think I was kind of hypnotised by him. I wouldn’t let myself believe what I was discovering. And he looked fantastic in the new shirt. If a man’s incredibly handsome you somehow don’t think he can be a jerk.’

  She lapsed into silence and sat brooding into her glass, trying to make a difficult decision. What came next was something she’d never been able to speak of before.

  Yet here she was, on the verge of telling her most painful secret to a man she’d known only a day. But that day might have been a year, she seemed to know him so well. All her instincts reassured her that he was a friend and she could trust him with anything.

  ‘Tell me,’ he said gently. ‘What happened then?’

  She gave a faint smile.

  ‘He had to work on a marketing project. By that time I had a job in the same firm. I was down at the bottom of the ladder but I understood the business and I helped him with the project. I’d done that before and, if I say it myself, the best ideas in that project were mine.

  ‘In fact the layout and presentation were mine too. He used to say that my talent was knowing how to say things. I was flattered, until it dawned on me that what he really meant was that he was the one with talent, and all I could do was the superficial stuff.’

  ‘But firms will pay big money for someone who can do “the superficial stuff”. It’s what marketing and presentation is about, and I’m surprised you don’t know that.’

  She gave him a shy smile that went to his heart.

  ‘Well, I do know it now,’ she said. ‘But not then. I didn’t understand a lot of things then. As far as I knew, David was the great talent in the family.’

  ‘Because that’s what he kept telling you?’