by Susanna Carr
“I need you,” he insisted. His fingers spread through her hair and he cupped the back of her head.
“You are so far away from your home. You’re not there because of me.”
“I choose to live here.” He tilted her head back and she had to meet his gaze. “This is where we can protect our relationship and no one with an agenda can tear it down. This is where you are valued and respected.”
Tears burned the back of her eyes. “Your family is halfway around the world. You should be with them.”
“You are my family.” Sincerity rang in his voice. “You and this little one.”
“But what about your goal to make the Antonious untouchable?” It had been the one thing that motivated him through his life. He couldn’t give that up now.
“I will always provide for you,” he promised. “I will protect you no matter what. But I will not spend another day without you,” he vowed. “I want to fill my days and nights with you. I want to know our children and I—”
“When did you decide this?”
“When I sent you away to the other side of the world.” The lines in his face deepened with misery as he remembered. “It was the wrong choice and I won’t do it again. I promise we will face any obstacle, any threat, together.”
“Why?” she asked breathlessly.
“I can’t live without you. I don’t want to anymore.” His hand tightened in her hair. “I love you, Jodie.”
She had yearned to hear those words and now she was afraid to accept them. If they weren’t true, if his love wasn’t strong enough to last forever, it would destroy her. “No, you don’t,” she whispered. “You told me that you would never—”
“I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to protect myself from being vulnerable,” he said as he pressed his mouth against her hair. “I don’t let anyone close to me, but I let you. Because I know you will protect me like I will protect you.”
He loved her. Stergios loved her. Her breath caught in her lungs but she struggled to accept that as truth.
“I’ve been falling in love with you all this time. It’s you. It’s always been you,” he confessed as he brushed his lip against her cheek. “And I’m going to prove my love to you every day. Just give me another chance.”
She wanted to give him a chance but this was the biggest risk she’d ever take. If she took this leap of faith, it required her to be bold. Live and love wildly. She would accept his ring and take his name. She would create a family and a life with this man.
“Please, Jodie.” His mouth pressed against her jaw. “Let me show you how much you mean to me. Let me love you.”
“Yes, Stergios.” She clasped her hands on his cheeks. “I want all of that and more.”
EPILOGUE
JODIE SAT ON the stone bench and tilted her head back as the evening breeze carried the heavy scent of flowers. She inhaled deeply and smiled as a sense of peace washed over her. The splendor of the Antoniou estate gardens was lost on her boisterous and inquisitive children, who were now fast asleep in the nursery under the watchful eye of their beloved nanny.
It was a constant source of amazement for Jodie that she was a welcomed guest at the Antoniou home. Over the years the haunted look faded from Stergios’s eyes and Mairi had gradually accepted that Jodie was the woman her son needed. Jodie was also beginning to see signs that Mairi and Gregory would be the kind of grandparents she’d hoped for her children.
Rising from the bench, Jodie brushed a leaf from her dinner dress and walked back toward the house. As she took a turn, her heart leaped with joy when she saw her husband striding down the path. Her gaze greedily roamed his body as she noticed how the dark suit emphasized his athletic build.
“There you are,” he muttered as he reached for her. His touch was possessive and urgent as he clasped his hands on her hips and pulled her close. “I had back-to-back meetings but you were on my mind all day.”
“Stergios!” She frantically pushed at his audacious hands but he managed to capture her fingers. “Someone will see us.”
“I don’t care.” His voice was low and seductive as and he guided her off the gravel path. “I can’t get enough of you.”
Her spine bumped against the rough bark of a tree. Anticipation fluttered in Jodie’s stomach when she saw the glitter of lust in Stergios’s eyes. “Your family will think I’m a bad influence on you.”
“They believe you’ve tamed me. Domesticated me.” He raised her arms above her head, holding her wrists against the tree trunk. A slow wicked smile pulled at his lips. “If they only knew the truth...”
Her skin flushed as she remembered how she’d driven him to the height of ecstasy just before dawn. His response had been aggressive and primal as she’d held him spellbound. “Mairi will banish me from this house,” Jodie warned as she arched against Stergios.
“I go where you go,” he reminded her in a husky growl. Stergios leaned into her and she yielded against his hard, masculine body. He teased her with the featherlight touch of his mouth as she tried to capture his tongue.
“You drive me wild,” Jodie confessed as she tore out of his grasp and thrust her hands into his dark hair before she kissed him with a rapidly building hunger.
They had been married for five years and her desire for Stergios burned brighter than on her wedding day. Every intimate touch, heated debate and unguarded moment brought them closer. Jodie trusted this man with her heart, her body and her most private thoughts.
“And to think I had wanted a shy and compliant wife,” Stergios murmured as he bunched the hem of her dress in his hands. “A woman who wouldn’t distract me.”
“You’re the one who changed the course of my life. I didn’t know I could be this happy.” She hesitated and whispered, “It frightens me sometimes.”
Stergios lifted his head. “Because you’re afraid it won’t last?” he asked as he let go of her crushed dress. “That someone or something will try to steal your happiness and destroy it. Or are you afraid of what you will do to protect your happiness?”
“All of it.” Jodie looked away. “Am I that transparent?”
“Only to me.” He gently cupped her face with his large hands. Her breath caught in her throat as he held her gaze with his intense brown eyes. “Because I know how you feel. It scares me how much I need you in my life. I will do anything to protect this. To protect us.”
“I know.” He had proven it to her throughout the years. They both had made choices, sacrifices and compromises in the name of love. “But one day we will be tested.”
“Then we will face it together, pethi mou. When I’m weak, you will be strong for the both of us. When you’re scared, I will protect you. I will be with you during your best and worst moments. And through it all, nothing will stop me from loving you,” Stergios vowed before he claimed her mouth with a ravenous kiss. “Nothing.”
* * * * *
Look out for more stories in the
ONE NIGHT WITH CONSEQUENCES
miniseries in March 2015
A VOW TO SECURE HIS LEGACY
by Annie West
BOUND TO THE TUSCAN BILLIONAIRE
by Susan Stephens
Keep reading for an excerpt from A DEAL SEALED BY PASSION by Louise Fuller.
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Presents title.
You want alpha males, decadent glamour and jet-set lifestyles. Step into the sensational, sophisticated world of Harlequin Presents, where sinfully tempting heroes ignite a fierce and wickedly irresistible passion!
Enjoy eight new stories from Harlequin Presents every month!
Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
<
br /> Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
A Deal Sealed by Passion
by Louise Fuller
CHAPTER ONE
IN THE DARKENED bedroom of his penthouse hotel suite Massimo Sforza gazed in silence at the illuminated numerals of his watch. It was almost time. He held his breath, waiting, and then there was a quiet but audible beep. He breathed out slowly. Midnight.
His lean, dark features tightening, he shifted his gaze and stared down dispassionately at the naked women sprawled over both him and one another in the emperor-sized bed. They were beautiful and wanton and idly he tried to remember their names. Not that it mattered. He would never see either of them again. Women had a tendency to confuse intimacy with commitment but he liked variety and anyway the ‘c’ word was simply not part of his vocabulary.
The brunette shifted in her sleep, her arms flopping onto his chest. Feeling a spasm of irritation, he reached down and lifted the tangle of limbs away from his torso and onto the rumpled sheets before rolling over and out of the bed.
His breathing quiet and measured, he stood up and began to pick his way between the shoes and stockings strewn across the soft pale grey carpet. In front of the huge panoramic window that covered the length of the apartment he noticed a half-empty bottle of champagne and, leaning over, he picked it up.
‘Happy Birthday, Massimo,’ he murmured and, lifting it to his lips, he tipped it up. He made a moue of disgust. Flat and sour—like his mood. Grimacing, he looked down at the street below. He hated birthdays. Particularly his own. All that faux sentiment and ersatz celebration.
A signature on a contract. Now, that was a reason to celebrate. He smiled grimly. Take the latest addition to his ever-expanding property portfolio: a six-storey nineteen-thirties building in the exclusive Parioli district of Rome. He’d had his pick of five properties, two in the most sought-after road in the area: the Via dei Monti. His eyes gleamed. He could have bought them all—he still might. But the one he’d finally chosen hadn’t even been for sale.
Which was why he’d had to have it.
He gave a small tight smile. The owners had refused to sell. But their refusal had simply fuelled his determination to win. And he always won in the end. His smile widened. Which reminded him: those glitches in the Sardinian project should finally have been ironed out. He frowned. And about time too. Patience might be a virtue but he’d waited long enough.
Behind him, one of the women moaned softly, and he felt a frisson of lust shudder over his skin. Besides, right now, he was more interested in vice than virtue.
Savouring his body’s growing arousal, he glanced at the sky. It was nearly dawn. The project meeting was scheduled for that morning. He hadn’t been planning to attend—but what better birthday present could there be than hearing first-hand that the last remaining obstacle had been removed? And that work on his largest and most prestigious resort ever could finally begin.
His eyes narrowed as the blonde lifted her head, her lips curving into a suggestive pout. Coolly, he smiled back at her. Perhaps there was one thing...
He watched the brunette uncurl and stretch lazily and began to walk back to the bed.
* * *
Exactly fifty-one minutes later he strode into Sforza headquarters in Rome, wearing an immaculate navy suit and a deep blue shirt, his five o’clock shadow neatly trimmed.
‘Mr Sforza!’ Carmelina, the junior receptionist, gave a squeak of surprise.
‘Carmelina!’ he replied, smiling calmly.
‘I—I wasn’t expecting you in today, sir—’ she stammered. ‘I must have made a mistake. I thought it was—’
‘My birthday?’ Massimo laughed. ‘It is. You didn’t make a mistake, and I’m not planning on hanging around. I just thought I’d pop into the boardroom on my way to lunch at La Pergola. Don’t worry! I’m a big boy now. I can wait until tomorrow for my present from the staff.’
He watched Carmelina blush. She was sweet, and clearly had the mother of all crushes on him, but he never mixed business with pleasure. Nor would he—unless there was a sudden global shortage in the number of beautiful, sexually imaginative women eager to share his bed.
He paused briefly in front of the door to the boardroom and then pushed it open. There was a sudden flurry of people pushing back chairs and standing up as he walked purposefully into the room.
‘Mr Sforza!’ Salvatore Abruzzi, the company’s chief accountant, stepped forward, a nervous smile upon his face. ‘We weren’t—’
‘I know.’ Massimo waved him away with an impatient hand. ‘You weren’t expecting me.’
Abruzzi smiled weakly. ‘We thought you might be otherwise engaged. But please join us—and happy birthday, Mr Sforza.’
Around the table, his colleagues murmured their congratulations too.
Massimo slid into his seat and gazed calmly around the boardroom. ‘Thank you, but if you really want to give me something to celebrate then tell me when we’re going to start work in Sardinia.’
There was a strained, simmering silence.
It was Giorgio Caselli, his head of legal affairs, and the closest thing Massimo had to a friend, who cleared his throat and met his boss’s gaze. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Sforza, but I’m afraid we can’t give you that information at the moment.’
For a moment, the room seemed to shrink as though the air had been sucked out of it and then Massimo turned and stared unwaveringly at the lawyer. ‘I see.’ He paused. ‘Or rather, I don’t.’ He gazed slowly around the room, his blue gaze colder than an Arctic ice floe. ‘Perhaps somebody would care to explain?’ Frowning, he leaned back in his seat and stretched out his long legs. ‘You see, I was led to believe that all objecting parties had been—’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Removed.’
There was another strained silence and then Caselli raised his hand. ‘That’s what we believed too, Mr Sforza. Unfortunately the tenant of the Palazzo della Fazia is still refusing to accept all reasonable offers. And as you are well aware, she is legally entitled to stay on at the property under the terms of Bassani’s will.’
Pausing, Caselli tapped loudly on the top of a document box on the table in front of him; several of the junior board members jumped.
‘Miss Golding has made her feelings completely clear. She’s refused to leave the palazzo—and, to be perfectly honest, sir, I can’t see her changing her mind any time soon.’ He sighed. ‘I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think we might have to think about some sort of compromise.’
Seeing his boss’s set expression, Caselli sighed again and tipped over the box. There was a muffled gasp from around the table as Massimo stared coldly at the sprawling pile of identical white envelopes. Each one was franked with the Sforza logo. All of them were unopened.
He lifted his head, his expression suddenly fierce, his eyes the darkest ink-blue. ‘That’s not going to happen.’
Now the accountant cleared his throat. ‘I think on this occasion, sir, that Giorgio is right. Perhaps we might consider some form of conciliation—’
Massimo shook his head. ‘No!’ Leaning forward, he picked up one of the envelopes, his face blanked of emotion, the intensity of the gaze belying the quiet reasonableness of his tone. ‘I don’t compromise or conciliate. Ever.’
The eyes around the table stared at him with an unblinking mixture of fear and awe.
‘But we’ve tried every option, Mr Sforza.’ It was Silvana Lisi, his head of land acquisitions. ‘She simply won’t acknowledge our communications. Not even in person.’ She exchanged a helpless glance with her colleagues. ‘She’s completely uncooperative and volatile too, apparently. I believe she threatened to shoot Vittorio the last time he visited the palazzo.’
Massimo surveyed her steadily. ‘How volatile can some little old lady be?�
� He shook his head dismissively. ‘Look! I don’t care how old she is, or whether she looks like his nonna, Vittorio is paid to acquire land and properties. If he wants to care for the elderly, I suggest he looks for another job.’
His face pale with nerves, Abruzzi shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Sforza. I think you must have been misinformed. Miss Golding isn’t a little old lady.’
Lounging back in his chair, Massimo frowned. ‘I thought she was some elderly Englishwoman?’
An awkward silence spread across the room and then Caselli said carefully, ‘There was someone living at the palazzo when we first bought the estate—but she was a friend of Bassani, not a tenant, and she left the property over a year ago.’
‘So she’s irrelevant.’ His boss’s face darkened. ‘Unlike the volatile Miss Golding, who appears to have single-handedly thwarted this project and run rings around my entire staff. Perhaps she should be working for me.’
Caselli gave a strained smile. ‘I can only offer my apologies...’ His voice trailed off as he saw the look of impatience on his boss’s face. Sweeping the envelopes off the table, Massimo leaned forward.
‘I own that palazzo, Giorgio. I own the estate and the land surrounding it. And we’ve had approval for the first stage of the project for nearly six months and yet nothing is happening. I expect more than an apology, Giorgio—I want an explanation.’
Hastily, the lawyer shuffled through the papers in front of him. ‘Aside from Miss Golding, everything is on schedule. We have one or two more meetings with the environmental agencies. Just formalities, really. Then the regional council in two months. And then we’re done.’ He cleared his throat. ‘I know we have permission to convert and extend, but we could just modify the plans and build a brand-new palazzo on some other part of the site. We’ll have no problem getting it passed, and it would mean we can bypass Miss Golding entirely—’
Massimo stared at him, the cold blue of his eyes making the temperature in the boardroom plummet abruptly. ‘You want me to change my plans now? To modify a project we’ve worked on for over two years because of one tricky tenant? No. I think not.’ Shaking his head, he glanced angrily around the room. ‘So who exactly is this mysterious Miss Golding? Can someone at least tell me that?’
