by Carol Grace
The air-conditioning was turned on in the car, but the heat was mounting, generated by their eye contact every other moment. She glanced at him, then looked out the window, afraid of the passion she saw in his eyes. Afraid she was wrong. How could it be? How could he care for her that way? He didn’t know her, she didn’t know him. And yet, and yet…
She was afraid of being trapped, of getting caught in a fantasy, believing that he liked her more than as a nanny. Not as a nanny at all, but as a desirable woman.
It was the storm. It was the car. They were alone, together in a cocoon. The world was out there somewhere, but they were inside, warm, dry and safe, just the two of them. The ride went on and on and yet it was over too soon.
By the time they arrived back at the villa, the rain had stopped. Vittorio got out and the mood was broken. The fresh air was like a slap in the face. A dose of reality. He opened her door, thanked her again and went to his office. As if nothing had happened. For him, it hadn’t. She felt like she’d hit a bump on a smooth highway and smashed her head on the roof of the car. Just what she needed.
He didn’t ask what she would do next or make any suggestions. Why should he? A nanny is never at a loss for something to do. She ran up the stairs in search of some job to do, something to take her mind off Vittorio.
In the twins’ fairy tale room she found the catalog from the Academy in Florence. Every thing was in perfect order there. After all, they had a the staff to maintain such perfection. No need for those girls to pick up a single item from the floor when someone else was paid to do it for them.
Then she went to her suite to gather up the books she’d brought along to use for the girls’ instruction. Everything was in perfect order there too, her clothes had been pressed, her bathroom full of clean towels and a selection of lotions and soaps. How would she ever adapt to real life after this kind of luxury? After changing into one-piece maillot, she wrapped herself in the robe hanging in the bathroom and headed for the pool. As far as she knew no one was using it and she’d be alone. A perfect place to enjoy the ambience, the sun and get some work done. The kind of work she was trained and hired to do. Preparing children for life in the big world, whether it was prep school or a prestigious academy.
As soon as she’d taken off her robe and seated herself in a deck chair under a large umbrella, a maid appeared to ask what she would like to drink.
“Some juice would be nice,” she said and thumbed through her pocket dictionary. “Spremuta dell’arancia sanguigna.”
The maid beamed her approval at Sabrina’s attempt at Italian and quickly brought her a fresh cold drink. Sabrina cautioned herself not to become accustomed to being waited on or to lunching with her employer. And most of all not to get carried away by a friendly gesture. None of these things would likely happen again.
In the house, Vittorio stood at the window of his office looking out toward the pool without really seeing the trees or the crystal-clear water. He had work to do. He didn’t need any distractions, but for once his well-trained and disciplined mind wouldn’t cooperate. All he could think about was Sabrina. It was impossible to concentrate on the upcoming merger after a day like this. He couldn’t remember relaxing and enjoying the company of a woman so much. It was almost as if… No, that couldn’t be.
The face and voice of Aurora had somehow faded away. When he thought of her he wondered how he could consider marrying her when he felt absolutely nothing. Not that he’d expected to find passion or excitement again. He didn’t want to. He wanted to avoid being swept away. The last time had been so gut-wrenchingly painful when it ended.
He blinked and there she was. His nanny was walking slowly toward the pool. She took off her robe and appeared in a swim suit that was modest by Italian standards, but still showed her uplifted breasts, her long legs and her hips to full advantage. He pressed his face against the window but she had taken a seat in a chaise lounge and was out of sight. He was irrationally, undeniably, crashingly disappointed.
He told himself to go back to his desk. What was wrong with him? He shouldn’t have held her hand. It only made him want to do more than that. He’d driven around the lake a few times just to prolong the ride back from the restaurant, but eventually it had to end. But he hadn’t wanted it to. He’d wanted to continue their conversation, to find out more about her. He told himself to forget it. It would be wrong to even consider more intimate contact with her.
But the next thing he knew he was in his bedroom tearing off his clothes and grabbing a pair of swimming trunks he hadn’t worn for years. The pool was there. His nanny was there. He’d worked hard today. Hell, he’d worked hard for the past seven years. Was it so wrong to want to enjoy life for a change? To sit outside in the sun, to relax and continue the conversation they’d started at the restaurant?
Wasn’t that the way his life was supposed to go, sharing his life with a companion until he’d made the mistake of his life in choosing Elena for his wife. There was no going back, no rectifying that mistake. He had to live with the results of that decision, and that’s just what he was doing.
He was on his way to the pool when his cell phone rang and it was Aurora calling from Rome. Just what he needed for a large dose of reality. He hadn’t realized how much her voice grated on his nerves.
“I received an e-mail message from your daughters,” she said in an icy tone. “It disturbed me quite a bit.” When Aurora was angry, she did nothing to conceal it. That was part of her charm, she’d explained to him, that she was up-front about her feelings. With her what you saw was what you got. At first he’d found it refreshing and appealing, but not now. Not today.
“What was it?” he asked impatiently, standing at the window hoping to catch a glimpse of Sabrina.
“They thought I should know about your new nanny.”
“So you should,” he agreed readily. “Since we decided that the girls need more supervision.”
“I had no idea she would be young and attractive. I thought she would be an older, more serious type of woman. I strongly suggest you get rid of her at once.”
“Aurora, be sensible. The girls are meddling. Naturally they don’t want a nanny. They don’t want to go to boarding school either. But this nanny is here to make sure they get accepted at the Academy. I can’t object to that.”
“They will be accepted. I will call the director myself.”
“That’s not the way I want to go about it,” Vittorio said. “Either they get accepted on their own merits, or they don’t. They cannot be allowed to think they are privileged and that there is no consequence to their actions.”
“Very well, Vittorio,” she said. “They are your daughters, but after we’re married…”
Suddenly the thought of marriage to Aurora made his blood run cold.
“In any case, I will expect you at the fashion run-way in Rome this weekend.”
“Not this weekend. I won’t be there,” he said. “I am busy,” he said curtly. “And I will continue to be busy. Good-bye, Aurora.” He heaved a sigh of relief. He had to break it off with her. He knew that now. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Out on the stone path he realized it was the first time he’d gotten that close to the free-form pool fringed with pines, cypress and brilliant camellias in bloom since he’d had it installed to replace the crumbling old cement pool no one ever used. He sometimes watched the girls playing there with their nanny or baby-sitter, but only from the window.
The sound of water cascading down the man-made rocky waterfall concealed his footsteps. He told himself he’d been too busy to enjoy it, but was that really the reason? Being busy had become such a convenient excuse for any and everything he didn’t want to do. Now he wanted to sit in the sun-dappled terrace around the pool and talk to his new nanny. What about? The obvious subject was the merger and his work or the girls and their future, but it seemed they had only scratched the surface of topics to discuss. Which had nothing to do with the way Sabr
ina looked in her swimming suit and the fact that the view from his office was not nearly good enough. The tantalizing glimpse of her only made him want to see more.
Suddenly an appropriate subject came to mind, one that was apropos to her job as a nanny and his job as a father.
“About that snake,” he said suddenly as he approached her chair. “What happened to it?”
She was so startled she dropped the book she was reading, took her sunglasses off and looked up at him, her eyes wide, her lips – pink and ripe and tantalizingly kissable - parted.
Chapter Six
The sight of her employer at the pool where she least expected him still wearing a swimming suit so surprised Sabrina that she sat up abruptly and the book she was reading slid off her lap.
“The snake was given its freedom to chase mice and other rodents,” she blurted trying not to stare at his broad shoulders, his bare chest sprinkled with dark hair and his muscular legs.
“Good,” he said. Then he picked up her book and handed it to her, his hand brushing hers and causing a frisson of awareness to travel up her arm. “The Guide to the International Academia of Florence,” he said after a glance at the title. She was glad he’d changed the subject. She had no more to say about snakes. She could think of nothing coherent to say on any subject, not with him standing there, looming over her, half naked. She gripped the book tightly to keep her hands from shaking. A sudden chill had caused goosebumps to run up and down her arms despite the warm afternoon sun.
She shaded her eyes with one hand. It wasn’t so much to block the sun, but to block the view of the man who stood over her, formidable and charismatic, bigger and sexier than any man had a right to be. And completely at home, dressed for an afternoon around the pool. Even though she’d been lead to believe he never took time off, never relaxed, never used his pool.
“I thought I could get some research done here at the pool, maybe I was wrong…” she trailed off. Reading anything with him there was impossible.“It must be the atmosphere, the smell of the rain-washed flowers, the pool…Did Nanny Chisholm do much swimming and sunning?” she asked.
“I rather doubt it, but you are nothing like our Scottish nanny. Remind me to show you a photograph of her. Why shouldn’t you use the pool for research or just relaxation? You deserve it after what you did this morning,” he said.
She took a sip of the delicious fresh juice to help her find her voice and recover from the shock of seeing her employer here at his own pool when she imagined he’d be inside working. “I found the book in their room. It will help me prepare the children for their interview next week.”
“What is your opinion?” he asked, taking a seat in the chaise next to hers as if their meeting at the pool was nothing out of the ordinary. Did he know she’d be there? Did he hope to be alone? She might never know.
“Of the school?” Happy to have something to do besides stare at him, she leafed through the booklet and opened it to a picture of the campus and read the text aloud. “’Housed in an ancient palace with frescoes and vaulted ceilings, the Academia offers young women every opportunity for learning, both inside and outside the classroom.’” I must say it’s very impressive. They seem to do an excellent job preparing girls for a life of service.There’s an long list of alumnae, women from many countries who are artists, politicians, and business leaders.”
“I have a hard time picturing my daughters on that list,” he said soberly.
“Give them a chance. They’re only seven. Which as you know, I think is too soon to go away to school. My step-mother wanted to send me away to school when I was young, but my father intervened. Later I wanted to go when I was at a public school with my step-sisters who teased me unmercifully. I longed to get away from them and leave home, but that was not to be, not until I finished college and nanny school.”
She paused and self consciously pulled a colorful beach towel around her shoulders. She was almost naked and he was too. She tried not to notice, but her gaze kept straying to his body, as if she’d never seen a prince in a swim suit before. If only he wasn’t built like an Adonis. But he was.
“I know, when you were seven you were out with your brother already making money,” she continued. “Bear in mind the twins’ family situation is different from yours.” Or was it? Sabrina didn’t know if he was raised by two loving parents or by a raft of servants like his own daughters.
“I don’t care if they don’t follow in my footsteps. I only want what’s best for them,” he said firmly.
She remembered the last time he’d said that was when she very blithely told him that she was what was best for the girls. “What would be best for them would be a father who took an interest in their activities. You enrolled them in this summer camp…”
“I know what you’re getting at Sabrina,” he said. “And that is the parents’ day. I have made my position clear. I am busy Friday. If you’ll excuse me I think I’ll do a few laps.”
While she watched he dived in at the deep end. If she had any sense at all she’d leave the pool now, but she didn’t. She stayed where she, but instead of studying the school catalog, she watched fascinated while he swam back and forth.
When he got out of the water, he shook his head and returned to his chair next to her. The he continued speaking as if there had been no gap in their conversation. “You think I should forfeit an important meeting to watch my daughters sail a boat around the harbor, is that it?” he said, obviously incredulous.
“That would be a start and it would mean a lot to them,” she said, her eyes riveted on the school catalogue. She dared not risk another glance at his firm muscles or his taut stomach. The worst thing she could do was to imagine they were just an ordinary couple relaxing around the pool on their estate. The idea was beyond ridiculous. She gave herself a stern warning and a reminder of her past mistake.
“I doubt that,” he said. “The twins wouldn’t notice if I was there or not.”
She pressed her lips together to keep from giving him a lecture. She was not his personal assistant. She was not his secretary. She was most certainly not a colleague or a co-worker. She was the nanny. The last time she’d forgotten who she was, she’d been hurt so badly she didn’t know if she’d recover. But she had.
She’d gone to work in the office and successfully placed a dozen nannies (until she ran into Vittorio Monteverde) and had done a good job of it. Now she had a chance for a fresh start. She could succeed where others had failed. She knew she could. The girls only needed some attention and understanding and even some love. If their father didn’t understand that, then it was her job to show him or provide what they needed herself.
“What are their chances?” he asked her, leaning over to tap the school catalog with a pen.
She leaned in the opposite direction to escape the wave of sexual energy he radiated. But there was no escaping him. He was next to her, so close she could smell the masculine scent of his skin and hair. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to focus on his question when all she could think of was how easy it would be to brush an arm against his, to feel his skin warm against hers. “Of getting accepted? I don’t know. I can only guess they wouldn’t have any trouble. They’re smart, their spoken English is perfect, but…”
“But you don’t think they’re ready, you’ve made that clear.”
“Not at their age. I was wondering, because you speak so nostalgically of your own childhood…”
“Do I? You’re wrong. I am not nostalgic. Not at all. The word means nothing to me. I don’t look back. I don’t have time. I was merely trying to explain to you, to give you some background as to why I am in the banking business today. It may seem boring to you..” he said stiffly.
“Not at all boring,” she insisted still avoiding looking at him. “Your childhood sounds almost idyllic. And if once I did think banking was a boring job, dealing only with assets and debitures, today you gave me an insight today into your occupation and I found it more interesting th
an I imagined.”
“Every day isn’t like today. Most days there are no mergers. We stare at figures all day or sit in on endless meetings.” She imagined him rubbing his hand across his forehead as if to erase the images. She wondered how much he really liked his job.
“Then you are lucky to have such a beautiful, restful place as your villa to come home to where you can relax around the pool.”
“You may not believe this, but this is the first day I’ve been out here for months, maybe years. Then why have a pool? For the girls I suppose. And because there has always been a pool at the villa. When I was young we played various games out here before I had it resurfaced, but fun and games are only a memory these days.”
She stole a glance in his direction. Good thing she was seated because her knees went weak at the sight of his shoulders still covered with droplets of water. She looked away and swallowed hard.
She wanted to ask why he had no fun anymore. Was it because his wife had died and he’d been plunged into melancholy ever since? Did he need the money to keep up the villa? Was it just a habit to live a life of all work and no play?
“When you remarry surely you’ll have a different life-style, perhaps do more entertaining, and have more time for leisure?”
He laughed dryly. “Hah. You don’t know Aurora. She works even harder and longer than I do. Sometimes I wonder…”
She waited anxiously for him to finish his sentence but he didn’t. Instead he closed his eyes. She took advantage of this to let herself have a good look at him, all six foot something of muscles and bones. Because of his lack of attention she was able to watch fascinated as the lines in his forehead smoothed out and his wide generous mouth relaxed.
