The Italian Billionaire's Disgraced Fiancée (11 page)

In hindsight it was most fortunate that Izzy had admitted to Enzo that she knew the hotel and had even worked here the previous year, because her visit didn’t go unnoticed. All the employees at the Doria knew her, of course, just as she knew them by name down to the cleaning personnel.

As soon as she stepped across the threshold side by side with her new boss, the receptionist welcomed her with a warm smile.

‘What a pleasure to have you here again, Ms Jones,’ he gushed and insisted on personally guiding them to the restaurant where he left them in the capable hands of the maître d’, who greeted her with a bow and the assertion that their meal was on the house, of course, and that the manager would come to their table shortly to personally welcome her and her companion.

While Enzo watched the whole spectacle in sheer disbelief, Izzy became more and more flustered. One wrong word of one of the employees, and Enzo would find out that she was the owner of the hotel, not just a former member of Nick Hetherington’s design team.  Inconspicuously
she wiped her sweaty palms on her napkin and secretly prayed to her guardian angel to take good care of her tonight.

‘Amazing,’ Enzo finally uttered with a disbelieving glance at the caviar canapés and the
Veuve Clicquot champagne that had miraculously appeared on their table without having been ordered. ‘It seems you made a really good impression on the staff when you worked on this redesign.’

Izzy managed a weak smile. ‘I feel quite embarrassed about all this fuss, actually,’ she said, her eyes firmly set on the tiny bubbles eagerly drifting to the surface from the bottom of her champagne flute. ‘If we could just forget about it now and change the topic, I’d be more than grateful.’

‘Of course,’ Enzo said with a thoughtful glance. ‘So tell me then about the redesign of this restaurant.’

Izzy was much relieved about the change of topic and happily explained how the room had looked before the alterations, and why they had decided to go for certain improvements.

‘Believe it or not, the general outline of what needed to be changed was suggested by a team of psychologists,’ she explained. ‘I don’t have enough expert knowledge to go into the fine detail now, but they gave great advice about colour choices, the perfect distance between tables or general pet hates that should be avoided.’

‘Pet hates?’

‘The chair backs used to rounded, for instance,’ she said. ‘But when the ladies tried to hang their bags over the back rest, they constantly slipped down, which was very annoying. In the end we ordered new chairs. Now the handbags can’t slip to the floor anymore.’

Chuckling Enzo tucked into his seafood risotto.
‘So what about colour choices?’

Izzy looked across the room, her eyes pointing to several wide double doors leading to adjoining eating areas.

‘This used to be a very large restaurant, optically divided into smaller, more intimate sections by palm trees and the odd statue of a Roman goddess. But, quite frankly, it was just too extensive and not cosy at all.’ She sighed. ‘The food was excellent, but the room didn’t cater for couples in love, families with children or guests travelling on their own.’

Enzo leaned forward.
‘So all that was changed?’

‘We created several different dining rooms, leaving the largest one for families with children. The smaller areas of the restaurant are now used for intimate dinners or guests, who travel alone. Of course there are also rooms for special events and business dinners
.‘ Izzy took a sip of champagne. ‘Where the colour choices are concerned, we trusted the psychologists’ advice. Red makes you eat more and embark in conversation.  Yellow and orange are warm colours giving a feeling of happiness, but in a hot country like Italy you have to be careful not to overuse them. The colour white actually incorporates all the colours of the spectrum, but you have to gently accentuate it with complimentary colours and clever lightning to turn a predominantly white room into an intimate eating place.’

‘Let me guess,’ Enzo grinned. ‘No cool colours like blue or green?’

She answered with a smile. ‘Quite right, cool colours can be very relaxing in bedrooms or bathrooms, especially if they’re south facing, but they’re not ideal for eating rooms, if used in abundance.’

The meal went by with her happily chatting about her work at the hotel, and before she knew it the waiter served coffee and mints.

Enzo stirred sugar into his coffee. ‘So tell me about Clarissa,’ he asked unexpectedly. ‘You haven’t mentioned her once.’

‘Clarissa?’ Izzy swallowed hard. So here was her nemesis. ‘Why would I mention her?’

Enzo shrugged his shoulders. ‘Because you were her assistant, for instance. Because she is bloody well famous and a true inspiration – although you don’t seem to think so.’ The corners of his mouth curled cynically. ‘The way you spoke about the redesign tonight, your pride about it all… It almost sounded as if
you
were responsible for it, not her.’

Bugger!

They had talked so animatedly about last year’s project that she had lowered her guard around Enzo who didn’t know that Clarissa was her alter ego. Izzy twisted the stem of her wine glass between her fingers and felt tiny beads of sweat form above her upper lips. She had promised herself not to lie to him, apart from the fact that she wasn’t really his brother’s PA, but how could she possibly stick to the truth while talking about Clarissa?

‘Of course I
she
was behind the whole redesign,’ she said. ‘Clarissa is great at her job. I’m sorry if it came across as if I was responsible in any way. She came up with the ideas, and I was her assistant. A member of her team.’

‘You know her well, then.’ He leaned forward, his eyes slightly narrowed. ‘Tell me about her.’

‘She is very talented, for sure.’ Nervously Izzy’s fingers started to play with one of her locks. ‘A nice girl. Blond, tall, slim... Like me, basically.’

Izzy wished the ground would open up and swallow her. What on earth should she say to describe Clarissa, and what if Enzo realised how eager she was to avoid the topic altogether? He wasn’t easily fooled. One tiny speck of inattentiveness, and he’d instantly draw the conclusion that she wanted to hide something or, even worse, that Clarissa and she were the same person. In that very moment her whole tissue of lies would fall apart.

‘So there’s nothing more you have to say about her?’

She shook her head and fixed her eyes on the after dinner mint next to her coffee cup. ‘As I said, she is just an ordinary girl like me.’

‘An ordinary girl…’ He clicked his tongue, clearly annoyed with her reply. ‘Clarissa is incredibly gifted, warm-hearted and noble, Izzy. Even someone like you must see that.’

Izzy nearly winced under his assault.
Even someone like you.
So, although they’d chatted so amicably throughout their dinner, he hadn’t changed his views about her. Not one little bit.

‘A woman, who sets up a wonderful charity like My Greatest Wish is far removed from being
an ordinary girl like you
,’ he mercilessly went on punishing her. ‘How can you even compare yourself with her, a gold-digger with a saint? She’s one in a million, and I admire her endlessly for her kind heart and loving spirit, while… well, I guess you already know what I think about you.’

‘You don’t even know her, this… this
saint
,’ Izzy burst out. It took all her energy to hold back the tears. ‘You may be convinced that Clarissa is worth so much more than I am, but I doubt she would agree.’

He narrowed his eyes. ‘You’re right, she wouldn’t because she is kind and has more heart than you could even imagine.’

They passed the way back to the hotel in uncomfortable silence. Enzo broodily stared out of the window, and Izzy stared out of the other one. She should have marvelled at Rome’s spectacularly lit historic sites passing by outside, but she could concentrate on nothing but the man sitting next to her.

The spicy scent of his cologne engulfed her, and she closed her eyes in despair. She felt at her wits’ end and an emotional wreck. With a crystal clarity that shocked her to the core she understood now that she was still deeply in love with him, but there was no future for that love. And as for this overwhelming sexual desire she felt toward him, she didn’t even want to think about it. It was bad enough that Enzo visited her in her dreams, touching her, making love to her… Sweet tender
love, not sex, but these were dreams and far removed from the bitter reality. Somehow he didn’t even speak to her now after the catastrophic end of the dinner.

Her head held high she followed him to the lift, relieved that he didn’t touch her this time.

Someone like you. A gold-digger.

How come he could hurt her so much with his words, but her body and soul still craved for him as if he were the only man on earth? The only one, who was right for her?

While the lift glided up to the top floor, she kept her eyes firmly on the ground, avoiding his angry stare. Or would it rather be deprecating, befitting the likes of a gold-digger?

Murmuring a hasty ‘good night’ she strode across the hallway and opened the door to her bedroom, but Enzo seemed to have other ideas. With two long steps he was by her side.

‘I don’t think so,’ he bid out and clasped his fingers around her wrist. ‘We’re not finished yet.’

Shocked Izzy twisted around to face him. ‘Let me go. I don’t want…’

His lips crashed down on hers, and she forgot everything she’d wanted to say and why. In a breath her weariness melted away like butter in the sun. All she could focus on was the urgency of his kiss, the delectable war of their tongues, the hot desire pulsing at the apex of her thighs.

‘Tell me you want this as much as I do,’ he whispered against her mouth while his hands stroke down her sides and across the soft swell of her hips. ‘Tell me, Izzy. I need to hear the words.’

No way could she lie to him now.

‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘I want it, too.’

Her words were all the encouragement Enzo needed. His hungry lips never leaving hers, he opened the zipper of her dress with one swift movement and pulled it off her shoulders so that it pooled to the floor. Izzy faintly realised that she stood in front of him in nothing but her silk bra and knickers. It was the first time ever a man saw her like this, but with him this felt perfectly right, as if they were meant to be.

‘Undress me,’ he huskily demanded taking her slender fingers between his own and guiding them to his shirt front. Somehow his dinner jacket had already found its way to the floor.

Izzy shivered under his avid glance. The colour of his eyes had darkened to a deep midnight blue emanating pure desire, and in her eagerness to touch the hot skin under his shirt she struggled with the buttons.

‘Let me help you,
amore
,’ he grinned and opened the buttons himself. ‘We’ll never get there when you continue like this.’

Greedily she ripped his open shirt out of his trousers and pulled it off his shoulders.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ she whispered taking in the dark wiry ripple of hair covering his chest. Almost reverently she put her palms on his chest and touched one of his flat dark nipples with her lips.

‘You stole my line,’ he weakly protested and shuddered under her caress. While her mouth eagerly intensified the treatment of his nipple, kissing and suckling it before moving across to the other one, he cupped her bra with his hands. ‘
Dio
Izzy, you’re driving me crazy.’

Provokingly he strode his thumbs across the silky fabric until her nipples stood proud and firm in erotic invitation. Slowly he pushed the slim silk straps down her shoulders, first one, then the other, before he reached behind to open the fastening.

Izzy gasped when she felt his slightly calloused hands skim the bare skin of her breasts. Although small, they fitted perfectly into his palms, and the sensation in her lower belly caused by the soft stroke of his fingers against her erect nipples drew her almost delirious with desire.

He pressed his erection against her stomach. ‘Can you feel that?’ he breathed into her ear. ‘Can you feel what you’re doing to me?’

‘Please Enzo,’ she whispered. ‘Please, I want you naked.’

Immediately his hands went to his belt.

My God, he was huge. Izzy stared at him in awe, when she first glimpsed the sheer size of him. She had never seen an aroused naked man before, so she couldn’t compare, but surely Enzo was especially blessed in this department.

As soon as he had stepped out of his trousers, shoes and socks, Enzo joined her again. At once his kiss took her shyness away. Renewed desire instantly shot up like an all-consuming flame. Her most secret centre was wet with honeyed moisture, wet for him.

‘Touch me,’ he uttered hoarsely.

Although he hadn’t explained where he wanted to be touched, she instinctively circled her fingers around the pulsing thickness of his shaft. Carefully she moved them up and down along his length. Following a sudden urge to touch his magnificent arousal with her lips, she bent down on her knees and kissed him there. He tasted good, more than good. Eagerly she licked his engorged flesh while stroking up and down the length of his shaft and, feeling Enzo shudder under her caress, boldly took him into her mouth.