Back In The Italian's Bed (2 page)

It was infuriating that even now she found herself eating him up with her eyes.

‘What explanation do you have?’ He lounged back in his leather chair, but his eyes were sharp as lasers. ‘Why did you go like that?’

For a moment Jenna was tempted to blurt out everything. But that would serve no purpose. What she’d thought they’d shared hadn’t been real. Besides, she refused to reveal how much his dismissal had hurt.

Hurt? That made it sound simple and complete. Finished. Instead it was a festering wound that still wouldn’t heal.

‘We’d been together for what? Seven months?’ She shrugged and congratulated herself on her insouciance. He’d never realise she knew to the day how long they’d been together. ‘The attraction had run its course. It was time for me to leave.’

Something flared in those deep-set eyes that almost made her step back from the table. But Jenna was through with letting Fabrizio Armati ride roughshod through her life. He mightn’t like what she’d done but he’d coped. Only his pride was bruised.

‘Now, did you have any specific questions about the Villa Bellini?’ She made a show of shuffling the papers before her. ‘Or was this a pretence to get me alone?’

‘Why would I want to do that?’ He steepled his hands under his chin. ‘I’ve already known you
intimately
.’ His softly spoken words had the lash of a whip. ‘And the novelty has definitely worn off.’

Jenna felt blood sting her cheeks as she met his cool gaze. How dare he speak to her like that?

Yet it was only what she should have expected from someone so callous.

‘My feelings precisely,’ she said smoothly. ‘I see I don’t have to explain my reason for leaving after all.’ She paused, watching his brows cram together in a thunderous frown. Expert lover that he was, she’d bet it was the first time a woman had claimed to tire of him. ‘Why get stuck in a rut once boredom sets in?’

She made a show of packing up her papers, ignoring the bristling antagonism radiating from across the table. ‘So if we’ve cleared that up, I’ll be on my way. I have work to do.’

‘So eager to run back to your current protector?’

Jenna froze, her nape prickling at the slimy implication in his words.

‘Eager to get back to work. Coming to Rome for this meeting has taken a chunk of time out of my schedule.’

Fabrizio surged to his feet, his knuckles white on the conference table, his mouth twisting, almost as if with pain. Jenna stared, telling herself she was a fool to imagine vulnerability where there was none. Fabrizio was many things, but vulnerable wasn’t one of them.

‘And what’s on that schedule? A little afternoon sex on De Laurentis’s desk? Or shopping for titillating lingerie to amuse him tonight?’

Jenna gasped at the naked fury in those hard, silver eyes. And at the knot of pain high in her chest that stifled her breathing. It took a full thirty seconds for her to find her voice.

‘
You
may not be capable of seeing a woman as anything other than a sex object, Fabrizio, but there are some men who appreciate our talents.’

His eyes shadowed in a way she’d never seen before. Something more than anger lurked there. For a disturbing second her brain tried to persuade her it was regret, even pain, until she realised that was wishful thinking.

‘And which
talent
did you use to impress De Laurentis?’ he snarled, leaning across the wide table till the space between them shrank alarmingly. ‘Did you get down on your knees before him and—’

‘That’s enough!’ The words were a crack of sound. Her chest heaved as she tried and failed to drag in air. Her ears buzzed with the heavy pulse of her racing blood. She thought she’d scraped rock bottom the day she left him, but she’d been wrong. This proof of his casual cruelty sliced straight to her heart all over again. Pain consumed her. How could she have imagined he might have regrets?

‘Signor De Laurentis is my employer, and a very good one too. There is nothing sexual between us.’

‘You ask me to believe that?’ His jaw jutted belligerently.

‘I don’t give a damn what you believe, Fabrizio. But I’ve never lied to you.’

Not until today, when she pretended she’d grown bored with their relationship when the opposite was true. She’d fallen for Fabrizio hook, line and sinker all those months ago. His betrayal had all but torn her apart. All through the meeting she’d battled a resurgence of those tender feelings, only to have him turn on her with his vile accusation.

Somehow she had to banish what she’d once felt for him. Wretchedly she told herself he was doing a fine job of helping her.

Jenna speared Fabrizio with a look. ‘He employed me because of my professional skills.’

‘Skills such as industrial espionage? Is that how he managed to lever a better deal in this property swap? I should have known he’d stoop to any advantage he could get, even to hiring a woman whose value is in the insider information she gleaned in my bed.’

Jenna planted her hands on her hips and willed her howling outrage into silence. She was fast losing track of the number of ways Fabrizio insulted her. Enough was enough.

‘What secrets would they be, Fabrizio? You never shared commercially sensitive information with me. In fact, as far as I recall, we never talked business, presumably because you assumed I wasn’t capable of understanding anything as taxing as profits and losses.’

He stared back at her as if she’d grown two heads. As well he might. Never in their time together had they argued and, Jenna realised now, she’d been content to go along with Fabrizio’s plans for the pair of them. She’d spent her time in a delicious haze of love, delighted at his thoughtfulness and passion. And he
had
been thoughtful – catering to her every whim and encouraging her delight in each new experience they shared.

How naïve she’d been. She’d never once noticed all that was wrong with their relationship until that last fateful day when the rose-coloured glasses had been dragged from her eyes and smashed underfoot.

‘You never took more than a passing interest in the career I had before I met you.’ She hadn’t realised till she left him how much that rankled. ‘Or my aspirations for the future.’

Aspirations for the future! How he’d laugh if he ever found out they’d once, briefly, centred on him.

‘I didn’t give your rival any trade secrets, Fabrizio, because you never trusted me with them!’ Jenna slid her tablet into her briefcase and snapped it shut. ‘Whatever agreement my boss negotiated with you, he did it without any input from me.’

On the contrary, if she’d had any say in the matter, which she didn’t being so low in the De Laurentis hierarchy, she’d have begged he not consider a deal that included swapping the lovely old Villa Bellini for a parcel of prime real estate in Florence, currently owned by Fabrizio Armati. She had no illusions that Fabrizio would keep her on at the Villa once it was his. The savage gleam in his eyes told her he didn’t know anything about letting bygones be bygones.

Jenna slid her briefcase from the table and turned to the door.

‘Wait! We haven’t finished.’

She shook her head. He may not have finished but she had. Jenna hung onto her composure by the merest thread. Any minute now and the welling pain she battled would swamp her, breaking down her resolve to appear in control.

She refused to let him reduce her to tears ever again.

‘We’ve finished, Fabrizio. I don’t ever need to see you again.’ She drew a shuddering breath of relief that it was true. ‘If you have any questions about the Villa, I’ll answer via email.’

Jenna had taken three steps towards the door when he spoke.

‘Weren’t you paying attention earlier,
cara
?’ He paused and foreboding skittered through her, freezing her spine. She didn’t like the smug satisfaction in his tone. ‘I intend to check out every corner of your precious Villa before I agree to proceed with this deal. That means I’ll be staying there over the weekend.’

Again that pause. This time it lasted so long the hair rose on her nape. When he spoke again his tone was silky yet lethal. ‘And you’ve been assigned the honour of conducting me on a personal tour.’

‘AS YOU CAN see, the beach is completely private.’ Fabrizio watched Jenna gesture towards the secluded cove of pristine sand between the headlands before turning briskly back to the path.

His ex-lover was nervous. From the moment he’d arrived she hadn’t been still.

Did she have any idea how movement turned her prim dark suit from corporate camouflage to pure enticement? He doubted it. She wore a distant expression and kept twitching her collar together as if the conservatively cut business shirt was too revealing.

But following her through the manicured gardens to the sea, he’d been in a perfect position to appreciate the way her skirt clung to her taut backside and gently swelling hips with every step. She’d negotiated the stairs in her high-gloss heels, more suited to a trendy office in Rome, or drinks on a secluded city terrace before a long, friendly, shared siesta.

He dragged his mind back to the purpose of his visit.

Face it, Fabrizio, she
is
the reason for the visit.

One of his staff could have done the final check of the hotel. But from the moment he’d realised Jenna MacDonald was working for De Laurentis, managing the place, there’d been no question but he’d take care of this himself.

Fabrizio didn’t like unfinished business and Jenna MacDonald was precisely that.

He resented it. Before her his life had been so simple. Business was serious and women were for pleasure. That had always worked for him and it was the way he intended it to work in future. But she’d upset the neat balance of his life, invading his thoughts when he should have been concentrating on bringing off yet another commercial coup.

She swung round and for the first time their eyes met. Heat soldered his gut to his pelvis as that aquamarine stare drilled into him. It was the same enticing colour as the sea fringing the golden sand. How often had he lost himself in those liquid depths as he’d surrendered himself to ecstasy?

Possessiveness roared through him. No matter what she said, she hadn’t finished with him. That surge of attraction wasn’t dead. He saw it in her eyes, in the rapid pulse beating in her throat, in the flush washing over her collarbone.

So why had she run from him?

‘Are you coming?’ she challenged.

Fabrizio clamped his jaw on a description of exactly how he’d like to come, hard and fast inside her. She’d be gasping his name, those sexy heels locked behind him as he drove her to heaven, recanting her lie that she’d grown bored with him.

‘Of course. I don’t want to miss a moment.’

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘Our clients enjoy it here as much for the seclusion as for the coast, but there’s a spectacular view of the sea from every guest room.’

‘So you can listen to the waves from your bed? I understand it’s supposed to be very soothing.’

Her eyes widened. Obviously she remembered telling him that when he’d once taken her to Sorrento for the weekend. The closest they’d got to the sea was the balcony of their bedroom as they feasted on seafood and wine before abandoning the meal in favour of their bed.

Fabrizio swallowed a growl of protest at what she’d thrown away. As lovers they’d been spectacular together. Even out of bed, chatting easily, finding shared likes and dislikes, they’d been remarkably…compatible.

‘As you say, Villa Bellini is the ultimate in luxury relaxation. It’s an excellent investment.’ She turned and began climbing the rock-cut steps up the cliff.

He stood back and enjoyed the view. His fingers prickled and his pulse revved at the temptation of that ripe peach bottom lovingly outlined with every step she took.

Fabrizio shook himself. He was here because he wanted answers.

And vengeance, though he was unsure what form that would take.

Now he realised all that could wait.

What he wanted most urgently was Jenna.

Fabrizio took the stairs three at a time, halting close behind her as she reached the cliff top, crowding her so she swung round, a gasp on her ruby lips. A few wisps of gold had escaped the hair she’d secured so neatly and her face was flushed with exertion. He smiled, imagining her panting for breath beneath him, her hips cradling him, her skin like silk against his.

She must have read his thoughts for suddenly she was retreating, almost stumbling back along the white gravel path as he stalked towards her.

She swallowed hard then seemed to gather herself. She stopped and stood straight, her hand going to her collar in that tell-tale gesture. Her chin lifted and her eyebrows arched as if challenging him.

Hadn’t she realised yet he never ignored a challenge?

Fabrizio smiled slowly and watched her mouth tighten.

‘Now that you’ve seen the grounds, and the security arrangements, I’ll leave you in Guido’s capable hands for the rest of the tour. I’m afraid I have—’

‘Whatever other work you have, you can forget it.’ He paused, letting that sink in. ‘You’re mine for the duration of this visit.’

Her gasp of outrage was loud and delightfully satisfying. Had she really thought she could wipe her hands of him as if he was some nobody?

‘De Laurentis assured me you’d answer all my questions personally. And I have lots of questions.’ Purposefully he stepped forward, almost brushing her shoulder as he passed. ‘We’ll start in the kitchens.’

IT WAS DUSK by the time they finished. Fabrizio had been meticulous in his attention to detail and relentless in his questioning.

It was only the second time Jenna had seen Fabrizio the billionaire hotelier, rather than Fabrizio the charming, charismatic lover. Despite herself, she was impressed.

Whatever his reasons for putting her through the torture of a day in his company, she was in no doubt how he’d transformed his already sizeable inheritance into a commercial empire of luxury hotels. She’d always known him to be quick-witted and intelligent, but hours answering his probing questions left her both exhausted and admiring. His interest in every aspect of the business, and the way his thoughts galloped ahead to potential opportunities and problems were impressive. Her goal was one day to run a hotel of her own and in other circumstances it would have been wonderful to work for him.