by Annie West
Reaction hit and Allegra shuddered. She longed for a hot bath and solitude. She didn’t feel up to dealing with Luca now.
‘How many fingers am I holding up?’
‘Sorry?’
‘You heard me.’ His voice was crisp, totally businesslike. Allegra should be relieved. She shouldn’t miss that gravelly edge she’d heard in his voice just minutes ago. Now he sounded more like the man she knew – controlled, ordered, and unemotional.
Automatically she turned. He was still too close, his dark, fathomless eyes fixing her to the spot. His tantalising spicy scent made her nostrils tingle and her stomach do a little shimmy of delight. His strong jaw had that determined set she knew meant he wasn’t about to back down.
‘Three fingers. I’m not concussed.’ Allegra pushed her hair back from her face with a hand that shook. It was still there – that fine trembling. Maybe it was reaction to the accident after all. Her gaze travelled to the steep drop beside her and her stomach bottomed.
‘Don’t!’
Her head swung up and their gazes meshed. The impact of it shivered through her. ‘Don’t what?’
‘Think about what might have happened.’ His tone was terse, almost savage, and it struck her she’d never heard Luca quite so angry. Even the day his rival Raffaele Petri had beaten him to a once in a lifetime deal for a brilliant coastal resort. ‘You’re safe now. That’s what matters.’
Allegra nodded.
Safe. He was right. That was the important thing.
But her cover was blown. Luca might not be peppering her with questions but she could tell by the searing intensity of his stare that he had plenty. About why she dressed the way she did, hid her real eye colour behind coloured contacts and shunned everything that might draw male attention.
‘You’re right, of course.’ Slowly she got to her feet, pretending she didn’t see his outstretched hand. The last thing she needed was to touch him. She felt too weak as it was.
Gingerly she stretched, relief rising as each bone and muscle worked as it should. There’d definitely be bruising, but somehow she’d escaped serious harm. Slowing for that hairpin bend had probably saved her life. She’d just been accelerating when—
‘I told you not to think about it.’ Suddenly he was before her, looming far too near. ‘Come on.’ His hand curled around the leather at her elbow.
‘Where?’
‘To the car. You’re not up to riding down the mountain, even if the bike’s okay, which I doubt.’
It was on the tip of Allegra’s tongue to argue but she wasn’t stupid. She was so shaken up she wouldn’t trust herself on a pushbike right now, much less the powerful motorcycle.
Silently she nodded and let him lead her to the low-slung sports car, a prestige symbol of fluid power in cobalt blue.
‘What?’ One sleek, dark eyebrow rose as he opened the door. Trust Luca to read her expression even when she hadn’t spoken.
‘Just wondering why a man who drives a car like this should disapprove of motorbikes.’
He pushed her gently into the soft bucket seat and stepped back, towering before her like some thunder god with that scowl marring his handsome face. To her chagrin, anger only emphasised the charisma of those strong, compelling features.
‘I don’t disapprove of them. I’m a bike rider myself.’
‘So it’s just the idea of me riding one that you don’t like?’ Why she pushed it, Allegra didn’t know. Except there was an excess of adrenalin still pumping in her bloodstream and she needed an outlet for this sudden surge of emotion. Under normal circumstances she was the one to pour oil on troubled waters, not pick a fight.
Or maybe her anger was fuelled by disappointment. For the first time Luca had glimpsed the real her, not the sedate, buttoned up version she’d learnt to adopt for corporate survival. It hurt that instead of…liking what he saw, he so obviously disapproved.
The fall must have addled her brain. She didn’t want his approval, or for him to be interested in her personal life. That’s why she’d adopted camouflage in the office, to avoid intimacy.
Yet somehow that strategy had backfired. These last months the idea of intimacy with her employer wasn’t quite as taboo as it had once been.
Slowly Luca folded his arms over his chest and Allegra had to call on all her control not to follow the movement, but keep her eyes on his. With his shirt sleeves rolled up to reveal strong, sinewy forearms, his eyes narrowed and glossy, dark hair rumpled, he looked like some mountain marauder, not a captain of industry.
‘I don’t like the idea of you in danger. It was bad enough watching the bike skid off the road. When I realised it was you…’ He shook his head, his jaw setting like stone. And all of a sudden it wasn’t indignation Allegra felt but a strange, fluttery excitement as if her heart beat too high in her chest.
‘I’m fine. Like you said - just don’t think about it.’
‘Do as I say, not as I do?’ His mouth kicked up at the corner and her pulse with it.
Any more of this and she’d need medical attention for her heartrate. Because his half smile was so rare and devastating it did ridiculous things to her, no matter how well she hid behind her mask of professional indifference.
‘Sit and rest while I check the bike.’
Allegra opened her mouth to say she was perfectly capable of checking the bike herself then snapped it shut. Her legs were like jelly and it was heaven just sitting.
Fascinated, she watched as Luca righted the bike, then proceeded to pore over it with deft efficiency.
‘A few scrapes but it seems sound.’ He started it, listening intently to the throb of the motor, before shutting the engine. ‘When we have phone coverage I’ll organise for it to be collected and checked out. It shouldn’t take long.’
And leave her precious bike abandoned on the roadside?
She didn’t say it aloud but he must have read her thoughts. Luca sometimes had that uncanny knack.
‘I could ride it down myself but I doubt you feel up to driving just yet.’
Allegra stared at the car’s dashboard. Any other day and she’d jump at the chance to control such a precision-engineered vehicle. But not now when her legs felt like wet noodles and her hands trembled. She slid her hands under her thighs, not wanting Luca to notice. He’d just fuss.
‘I’ll move it along behind the rock wall back there till the mechanic arrives.’
Numbly she watched him move the bike. Then he returned to the car and without pausing, bent and scooped her legs up into the well of the car, gently closing the door.
Allegra was wondering how she still felt the imprint of his hand on her leg when he got in the driver’s seat, filling all available space with his big body and his electric presence. Once more those hard hands reached for her, this time drawing the seatbelt across her body and clipping it into place quickly and efficiently as if he hadn’t felt the brush of his knuckles across her breasts.
Allegra’s nipples budded against her T shirt and she shut her eyes, profoundly grateful for the thick leather jacket that must hide that deeply feminine and wholly unstoppable response.
The engine throbbed into life and she felt the car swing gently onto the road.
‘So, Allegra.’ That soft-as-silk voice slid through her like a caress, making her eyes pop open warily. ‘Are you going to explain the masquerade?’
CHAPTER THREE
* * *
Wide, dark-fringed eyes met his and something punched deep into his gut. Anger, confusion, and hurt that the one woman he’d trusted above all others had perpetrated such a fraud on him. His belly clenched in denial.
Those eyes he thought he knew so well stared back, bright, unfamiliar, more beautiful than he’d ever imagined.
The woman he thought he’d known had made a fool of him every day when she’d hidden herself behind camouflage that had turned flagrant beauty into bland, understated primness.
Though he’d sensed the beauty in her, hadn’t he? She’d intru
ded far too much on his thoughts.
He’d grown…fond of her. And all the time she’d been secretly laughing at him.
‘Do you even need glasses?’ The words shot out, abrupt and bitter.
She blinked and her pupils dilated, making the blue-grey look almost silver. So clear and pure. So deceptive!
Luca set his teeth and focused on the long smooth ribbon of road, then the next tight curve. He manoeuvred the car on auto pilot, his attention on the woman sitting so stiffly beside him.
‘Sometimes. For reading.’ Her voice was muffled, a shadow of her usual crisp tones. The aftermath of shock? Or from being found out?
Impatience ground through him. ‘Yet you wear them all the time in the office.’
Silence.
‘You owe me an explanation.’
‘Let’s wait till we get off the mountain. I’d rather you concentrated on the road.’
Of course she did. It was in her interests to delay. But Luca had no compunction about pressing the issue. Years of commercial experience had taught him to capitalise on weakness. He wasn’t giving Allegra time to stitch together any excuses.
‘I can drive and listen. Tell me now.’
He paused and waited for a response that didn’t come and his anger turned icy. No man appreciated being made a fool of. Especially by the woman he—
‘Tell me now, or when we get to the hotel site I’ll accept your resignation.’ She’d lied to him too long.
Allegra’s breath hissed in and he fought the impulse to retract the words. Yes, she was off-centre, probably hurting and in shock, but he needed to know.
He couldn’t afford to be distracted by sympathy. Bad enough he’d had to battle to let her go earlier. It had been far too hard to unlock his arms and let her pull away from him.
The realisation it was Allegra on that out of control bike… Luca couldn’t recall being so terrified in all his life.
From the corner of his eye he saw her slender fingers knot over black leather trousers, her discarded gloves on her thigh. Guilt swamped him as instantly his mind conjured an image of her kneeling before him on the roadside, black leather stretched taut over the ripe swell of a perfect, female backside. He’d discovered more about her body in the last ten minutes than in twelve months working together.
‘Is it industrial espionage? Are you working for Raffa Petri? Or for Fabrizio Armati?’ That was more likely. Armati had an axe to grind since Luca had beaten him to the Venetian palazzo that, when renovated, would make a superb luxury hotel.
Armati had even accused him, Luca, of having a spy in his office, feeding him information on the deal! But Luca’s success was due to sheer hard work and a huge dollop of luck. He’d been in Venice at just the right time. A chance conversation at a party had led him to the elderly aristocrat needing to sell his ancient palazzo.
‘I’m not working for anyone but you.’ Allegra’s voice was flat. It annoyed him that he couldn’t read it. ‘If I was going to betray you I’ve had plenty of opportunities. But you know I haven’t.’
It was true. In fact the Venetian deal had succeeded, in part, because of her. The vendor had taken a liking to Allegra with her restrained courtesy, her sober clothes and that surprising dry sense of humour. The fact that, despite being born and raised in England, Allegra’s Italian was coloured by a touch of her mother’s Venetian dialect might have helped too.
‘What else have you lied about?’ He frowned as he shifted down for another bend, then another. It couldn’t be her references. They’d been checked meticulously before he’d even interviewed her.
‘Nothing!’
She sounded outraged, as if butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. As if he was the one in the wrong and she the innocent!
Luca slanted her a sideways look and saw her in profile, her bottom lip caught in her teeth as if biting back emotion.
Ridiculously guilt sliced through him.
‘Then why? Why the charade? If it’s some joke at my expense—’
‘It’s not! It’s got nothing to do with you.’ Gleaming eyes met with his and something unravelled in his chest. He turned back to the road.
‘Yet I’m the one you lied to for the past year.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice was small but clear. ‘I thought it was necessary and then later…well, it was too late.’
‘Explain.’ Luca hauled the car around the last of the hairpin bends and accelerated. Not too far to go. Impatience filled him. He wanted answers, now.
‘I’m good at my work, you know that. I’m diligent and productive. I work long hours and I manage pressure well.’
Luca said nothing. If she was after a reference she was barking up the wrong tree.
*
‘Don’t stop now, cara. I’m all ears.’
Allegra cringed at the sarcasm in that pseudo endearment. She’d never been his dear and never would be.
It was some vast cosmic joke that she’d gone to such lengths to put a wall between herself and the men she worked with, negating any chance that they’d see her as desirable, only to find herself falling for her boss.
She, who’d vowed that work and personal life would stay strictly separate.
As if she had a personal life these days!
She turned and viewed his taut profile. Even the short beard he’d grown in the past couple of weeks couldn’t disguise the stark clamp of his jaw. The tendons in his neck stood proud and his nostrils flared.
He was absolutely furious and keeping it in by the smallest of margins.
Fine. He wanted the truth. He could have it.
Allegra knotted her hands in her lap and faced forward, watching as they approached a stand of dark trees and the road flattened into a high valley.
‘I’ve always worked hard, given a hundred percent of myself to my work. But I discovered early that some people expect more.’ She paused, swallowing. ‘Far more than anyone should have to give.’
There was a long silence.
‘Are you talking about sex?’ She couldn’t read his tone but the steel in it made the fine hairs on her arms prickle and rise.
‘Yes.’ She tipped her chin higher. She had nothing to be ashamed of. ‘I was sexually harassed.’ Allegra was proud of her cool tone, like water slipping over grimy stones. If only the memories could be so easily washed away.
‘You didn’t complain to your boss?’
A snort of derision escaped. ‘Who do you think was doing the…harassing?’ She swallowed, tasting bitterness on her palate. Harassing sounded clinical and simple. So much easier than groping or attempted rape. Just as well her big brother had taught her how to defend herself. Sam Parkinson had ended up with severe bruising and a damaged ego and Allegra had escaped unharmed, if you didn’t count losing her job. And then there was the sick, panicky feeling in her stomach whenever a man got too close.
Though that had worn off, hadn’t it? She and Luca regularly worked late, closeted in his office, and he’d never in all that time made her feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, she’d found herself spinning what if fantasies about him.
‘Allegra?’ His voice was sharp. ‘I asked if you were hurt.’
‘No.’ Not in ways that showed. ‘But I was angry. He was the one in the wrong but because he was the manager I was the one who had to leave a good job.’
‘You didn’t take him to court?’
Allegra shook her head. ‘And go through every incident again in public?’
‘It happened more than once?’
His tone made her turn to find his anger hadn’t subsided. Not if the white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel was an indicator.
‘There was a build up.’ She’d kept telling herself she could handle it, but of course that was impossible. ‘And he wasn’t the only one.’ She hesitated, then heard the words spill out. ‘I found out later there was an informal bet on among some of the men, to see who could get me to…’ Her throat closed and to her horror she found herself blinking.
It must be the aftermath of the accident, making her feel wobbly. The rest was history. Her year in Italy, working with Luca, had shoved it all well and truly into a past that seemed like a bad dream now.
‘Bastards. You should have pressed charges.’
Allegra shrugged. ‘Yes. I know that now. There was an internal enquiry though and several staff lost jobs. The CEO offered to give me a promotion, working for him, but I just wanted to get away.’
‘Which is when you came to Italy.’
She nodded. ‘It was a new start.’
‘Yet you didn’t trust me? You felt you had to hide your real self? Why? Because you thought I might attack you?’
CHAPTER FOUR
* * *
Luca was torn between sympathy and outrage. Something caught in his chest at the idea of Allegra at the mercy of a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer. A man who used his position of authority to coerce. Of a group of men betting on getting her into bed.
His mouth curled with distaste at the scenario.
But to believe he, Luca, was the same? To go to such lengths to camouflage herself… It was a vicious blow to his honour.
‘If you thought I was going to jump you, why take the job?’
From the corner of his eye he saw her flinch and instantly regretted his harsh tone. But he needed to know. Surely he’d never done anything that could be misconstrued? He might be demanding, but he’d always treated her with respect.
‘I took the job because you’re the best and I knew I was beyond lucky to have a chance to work with you.’
The tight feeling in his chest eased a little. But at the core was a tension he suspected wouldn’t disappear until he found out who’d tormented her. And made them pay. Knowing Allegra had been preyed upon like that aroused a surge of implacable hostility against those responsible, a need for retribution.
He swung up the road to the newly-completed ski lodge and parked the car in the gravel forecourt. But he barely took in the unique building with its soaring roof, huge windows and unique design.
