Too Cold To Love (3 page)

****

Marco stopped on the landing outside the nanny's
room. Feminine laughter, mixed in with Mimi's giggles, brought a brief smile to
his grim features, before the insistent ring of the doorbell made him swear
under his breath.
Great, the bitch is early.

"Ah hello, Agnes, you always look so pleased
to see me. Where is Marco? We have things to discuss…. Well go get him, will
you? … I don't like waiting!"

The door to the nanny's room opened, and Marco
took a step back at the vision in pink holding his daughter. By all the saints
of all that was holy, he would need sunglasses in his own house soon. She
looked like a giant patisserie, straight out of his shop and those leggings
ought to be banned. She looked good enough to eat, and he involuntarily stepped
closer, inhaling her sweet scent.
Dannazioni, what am I doing?
Mimi
beamed at him, and Elise watched him warily, her breathing heavy.
Interesting.
If only he had the time to
explore that further, but the shrill tones of his ex-wife made him draw his
eyebrows together in disgust at what was waiting for him downstairs. His voice
was gruff, barking at Elise.

"Keep Mimi upstairs until she's gone."

He almost groaned at the woman's confused
expression. May the saints preserve him from ditzy females, especially ones who
made him wonder whether her skin would taste as sweet as she looked?
Man,
what is wrong with you?
He prided himself on keeping his emotions firmly in
check, and he was not going to give in to his suddenly reawakened dick!

"Marco, honey, don't make me come and get
youuu," Jennifer's honey drawl, coming up the stairs made him groan out
loud. His ex-wife reached the top of the landing, shaking her bleached blonde
hair seductively, her bright red lips curved in a saccharine smile.

"Ah there you are. Not hiding from me, are
you?"

"Hardly, Jennifer. Get back downstairs.
I'll be with you in a moment."

"Ah, and who have we here? You must be the
new nanny. Hello, Mimi, how are you today?"

She bent forward to take Mimi from Elise, but to
Marco's surprise and grudging gratitude, his pastry pink nanny frowned at
Jennifer. She took a step back, turning her body slightly, so that Mimi was
shielded from her mother. He mouthed a thank you at a still rather confused
looking Elise, who nonetheless kept a firm grip on his trembling daughter,
whilst glaring at him. Like this was his fault.
Damn females!

Elise's actions were not lost on Jennifer;
neither were Mimi's reaction of burying her face into Elise's neck as she shut
out the world. Jennifer's blue eyes narrowed speculatively.

"Mimi is fine, Jennifer; now let's get this
over with. I have it all ready in my office, so…" Marco gestured towards
the stairs.

Jennifer pouted, but mercifully decided to go
back down to his office, not without throwing one last venomous look at Elise.

Marco sighed. He ran a hand through his hair
and, throwing a rueful smile towards his nanny, stalked after his ex-wife.

****

Elise released the breath she had been holding,
looking down on little Mimi who had her in a strangle hold. The little girl
trembled in her arms.

"It's okay, baby. She's gone; relax."

Mimi lifted her head and fixed her with one of
those long stares of hers, before jumping at the suddenly raised voices that
drifted up the stairs.
Oh heck
. It seemed Mimi's parents were having a
hell of an argument. Not that Elise could understand a word they were saying as
they were jabbering away in Italian.

"Come on, little one. Let's go and see
Agnes. She may have some of those pastries left that you like."

Elise all but raced down the stairs, mindful of
the tense way Mimi was holding herself.

Agnes stood in the kitchen, her pensive
expression softening into a smile, when she spotted the two of them.

"Always the same when she turns up, eh?
Now, Mimi, breakfast, right? What would mah wee princess like?"

The front door slammed shut a little while later
with such force that Elise could feel the vibrations under her still-bare feet.

A furious string of Italian curses followed
before a scowling Marco marched into the kitchen. He grabbed a startled Elise
by the arm and dragged her with him into the study.

He waved a letter under her nose.

"What the hell is the meaning of this,
woman?"

Something was very, very wrong here, and Elise's
heart started racing at the murderous expression on Marco's face.

Chapter Three

Oh he had to give it to her, she did the
innocent act very well, but then what female didn't? Had he not learned the
hard way never to trust a woman? But this, this….. Oh she was going to pay for
this,
big
time.

"Mr. Giovanni, I'm sure I don't know what
you mean, and please refrain from shouting at me. I am not deaf and you will
frighten your daughter. Quite frankly, she has heard enough of your shouting
for one morning. If you must argue with your ex-wife perhaps you could do it
out of earshot of Mimi."

The pink vision of his nanny actually stood
scowling at him, her brown eyes frosty, full of righteous indignation, and
Marco swore loudly in Italian. The nerve of the lady.

"Leave my daughter out of this, woman. This
is about you!"

"I beg to differ, Mr. Giovanni. After all
the only reason I'm here is to care for Mimi, so this is indeed all about her.
I'm simply doing what you're paying me for, looking out for Mimi's interests,
and quite frankly someone has to."

That did it. How dare she? He ground his teeth,
and he had to remind himself to breathe evenly. There was no way he was going
to let some scrap of Italian pastry lookalike dictate to him in his own house.

"Don't you think it's a bit late for you to
remember your responsibilities? I have seen little evidence of it so far after
all. All you have achieved is throwing the house into uproar and giving me a
permanent headache."

He pointedly looked down on her strange clothing
assembly and took a menacing step towards her. To his surprise she held her
ground, hands on hip, glaring up at him.

"You will be pleased to accept my
resignation then." She spat the words at him, before turning around as if
to leave.

Oh no lady, that's never going to happen.
Not when the solution to all of
his problems suddenly hit him in the gut. It was so simple, really.

Marco put himself in front of the door, his arms
crossed.

"Back to that again, are we? I've told you
before there will be no resignation, not until you've paid off what you owe me,
and this," he waved the offending letter in front of her nose again,
“means you'll be here for some time yet. Besides, for some reason I'm sure I
will never figure out Mimi likes you, so you're staying, lady, even if I have
to chain you to me."

Now there was a thought, but why the hell had he
just said that out loud? Marco shifted uncomfortably in his suddenly tight
jeans, remembering that part of last night's dream with unwanted clarity. Why
now, and why her? She was completely and utterly wrong for him on so many
levels. He had no business wondering what colour her eyes would turn if he gave
in to the sudden impulse to suck that full lip she was worrying with her teeth,
into his mouth.

Instead he swore again, watching Elise rise on
tiptoes, shoulders squared, cheeks flaming as she took one step towards him.

"If you think for one minute that you can
intimidate me into staying, then you have another thing coming. There are laws
against sexual harassment!"

****

Elise's heart hammered so loudly, she was
surprised the man couldn't hear it. She shouldn't have stepped so close to him;
she really shouldn't have. She could feel the heat emanating off his tightly
coiled body, and his clean male scent surrounded her. He looked mean and sexy
as hell, stood there, clad in tight jeans and a cut off shirt, his arms
crossed, his eyes boring into hers, still clutching that letter.

"Indeed there are, but it's only harassment
if the other party is not willing, my dear, and we have an agreement
remember."

Oh what the hell had Jemima done? Had she been
lying about not sleeping with him, too? The mere thought made Elise feel faint,
and her voice was not as collected as she would have liked when she replied.

"I don't care about any agreement. I will
not sleep with you, if that's what you mean."

The harsh laugh that followed chilled Elise to
the bone.

"Don't flatter yourself, lady. Folks will
just need to believe that we are. As deception comes naturally to your kind,
that shouldn't be too difficult."

"My kind? What exactly is that supposed to
mean, Mr. Giovanni?"

"Marco, cut the formality crap, lady. It
doesn't wash, and what do I mean? Oh let's see, females in general, and you and
my ex-wife in particular. Tell me, did you have a good laugh at my expense over
this?"

And he threw the letter at Elise with so much
force; she winced when it hit her in the face.

"If you think for one minute I'm going to
do this then you are sadly mistaken. A slave for a day, that woman is not going
to have the satisfaction. She's taken enough of me over the years. No more, no
more…" His voice faded to a low whisper as he stared on the floor.

Elise scanned the letter in disbelief. Jemima
had put him up for auction on Ebay of all places, and it seemed his ex-wife had
won him for an obscene amount of money. Elise felt faint looking at the amount.
Twenty thousand pounds to go towards Headway, the head injury charity.
Good
lord, Jemima, what have you done?

Elise closed her eyes as painful memories
assaulted her again.
Hell, not now
.
She would forever associate Headway with the smell of hospitals, the hope, the
despair, the pain and the soulless eyes that would haunt her forever.

"I will pay the charity, of course, but
there is no way I am being anyone's slave, and you will work for me until you
have paid every last penny off. You can add that to the money you already owe
me for those tickets, and stop the act."

Marco's voice was ice cold, but the arm that
went round her waist was warm and strong even as he was swearing again. Elise
found herself held against his hard body as she struggled to find her way back
out of the painful grip the past had on her, the blood rushing in her ears, her
knees buckling.

Marco shook her none too gently, muttering in
Italian. He lifted her clean off the floor and dumped her on the low couch in
the corner of his study. His hand pushed her head between her knees firmly, his
voice a low rumble in her ear.

"Breathe, dammit, woman."

Elise did just that, and slowly the rushing in
her ears subsided, her heart rate slowed down, and the room came back into
focus. She struggled to sit up, and Marco let go of her immediately, watching
her through narrowed eyes.

"What the hell was that all about?"

Elise shook her head, too confused to make any
sense of anything.
Oh shit
. She had thought she was over her panic
attacks, but clearly not.
Damn you, Jemima, for putting me into this
position.

"I'm waiting for an explanation,
Elise!"

From somewhere Elise found her voice, a shaky
impression of it, but hey, she had to say something.

"Nothing, I'm sorry. It won't happen
again." She made herself look into the cloudy eyes which were studying her
with a mixture of contempt and concern.

"Make sure that it doesn't. By the way I
hope your
friend
is enjoying his trip. "

"Urm, trip?"

"The tickets you put on my credit card,
remember those? You said you were helping out a
friend
."

Oh no, had Jemima fleeced his card for her
boyfriend? No wonder she needed to leave so suddenly. Marco’s harsh laugh made
her wince.

"Having trouble keeping the lies
straight?"

"I do not lie!"

Another taunting smile. "You do surprise
me, Miss Donovan. Next you'll be saying you were not in on the auction thing
with my ex-wife."

"Of course I wasn't! I would never—"

"Never what? Are you denying that you put
me up for auction like some piece of meat, the day after I took the card off
you and confronted you about those tickets? The day you were more than willing
to do anything to pay me back? After all, your
friend
only has weeks to
live and all that."

The sneer on Marco's face said it all. Elise was
going to really and truly ring Jemima's neck this time. She had gone too far.

"You think I did this out of spite? I would
never…"

"Spare me, Elise, not more lies!"

Elise shook her head in frustration. "I.
Do. Not. Lie! And I would never do something that spiteful." Jemima
clearly had though, damn her. "And if you don't believe me, why will you
not accept my resignation?"