Читать книгу The Correttis (Books 1-8) - Эбби Грин, Кейт Хьюит - Страница 32

‘I’VE BEEN CALLED before the board, no doubt to answer for my sins. This promises to be a gripping meeting, Jeannie, the general tone of which will be that I’m a very bad boy who can’t possibly be trusted with the company even though my brother has just very inconveniently gone AWOL and another of my disgruntled cousins is trying to take over our flagship hotel.’ Hiding his bitterness beneath layers of boredom, Luca leaned back and put his feet on his desk, earning himself a reproving look from his long-suffering PA.

‘You could try not to be so shocking all the time.’

‘Where would be the fun in that?’

‘I’m just saying it might help if you were more…’ She hesitated and he lifted an eyebrow to prompt her.

‘More?’

‘More conventional.’

‘Conventional?’ Just saying the word made Luca shudder. ‘In the fashion business that word is death. And talking of death, whose idea was it to put lilies in my office? Get rid of them. They remind me of funerals.’

She put a strong cup of coffee in front of him and glanced at the extravagant display of fresh flowers that dominated the centre of the table he used for internal meetings. ‘I’ll have them changed. Gianni is having a meltdown. He wants to know if you’ve approved the location for the fashion shoot? The agency is driving him mad. He wanted me to remind you the theme is nautical, using unexpected twists on classic elements.’

Luca rolled his eyes. ‘Roughly translated from designer-speak to normal language, that means the sea, yes?’

‘The agency wants to use your yacht but Gianni wants something more edgy.’

‘I don’t want them on my yacht. It’s my bolt hole from press madness.’

‘Talking of press madness, they’ve been calling all morning about your latest—’ she cleared her throat ‘—indiscretion. Is there anything you want me to say to them?’

‘Yes. You can tell them to mind their own business.’ Irritated, Luca swung his legs off the desk. ‘Don’t look so shocked about it. You’ve worked for me for ten years. I know nothing shocks you.’

‘I just get upset when I read bad things about you.’ Jeannie’s voice was fierce and Luca frowned slightly.

‘Don’t let it bother you. I don’t.’

‘That’s why I let it bother me. One of us has to care, and it doesn’t seem to be you. I could strangle that Portia woman with my bare hands. How dare she tell those terrible lies.’

‘Ah, yes, Portia. I underestimated her.’ He wondered how Taylor was coping with the publicity and then shrugged it off. If anyone was capable of dealing with a media feeding frenzy, it was Taylor Carmichael. Her past was almost as messy as his. ‘The lawyers are dealing with it. I’m not worried.’

‘I’m worried enough for both of us. Between you and your brother, you keep the media going—’

‘Talking of my brother, I don’t suppose anyone has heard from him since he ran off with the bride?’ Shaking with laughter, Luca checked his phone for messages while Jeannie gave a despairing shake of her head.

‘It isn’t funny! What about poor Alessandro?’

‘“Poor” Alessandro had a narrow escape. He’s been saved from a miserable marriage followed by an expensive divorce. He should be celebrating his good fortune.’

‘You don’t really think that.’

‘I try to think about marriage as little as possible.’

‘Your parents were married for years.’

Luca stilled. If there was one thing worse than thinking of marriage in general then it was thinking of his parents’ marriage. ‘Did I miss the memo about introducing boring topics into office conversation?’

‘Sorry.’ Jeannie flushed. ‘But where do you think Matteo is?’

Luca shrugged. ‘Holed up somewhere enjoying wild honeymoon sex with his cousin’s almost-bride, I suppose, which makes it all the more galling that the board are proving so intransigent. They need a Corretti to run the company in his absence to stop that snake Angelo getting his claws on the company. They should be embracing me.’

‘Judging from the pictures of you and Taylor Carmichael, they probably think there’s been more than enough embracing.’

Taylor Carmichael.

He could still feel the silk of her hair against his fingers and the soft slide of her tongue against his mouth. In those few moments before she’d pushed him away, they’d created enough heat and energy to power a small country. The blaze of sexual chemistry had shocked him as much as her, the only difference was that he hadn’t wanted to fight it.

Before he could respond to Jeannie, the phone on his desk rang and she leaned across to answer it.

‘Signor Corretti’s office—no, he is currently out of the office….Which rumour?’ She paused, her calm professionalism visibly disintegrating as she listened to the person on the other end of the phone. She lifted shocked eyes to Luca. ‘No, I don’t have any comment to make….Yes, I’ll tell him you rang.’ Her hand shook as she replaced the phone and it immediately rang again. Luca clamped his hand over hers as she reached for it.

‘Leave it—it’s just the press wanting more details on that kiss. Don’t feed the frenzy.’

‘They didn’t want details of the kiss.’ Jeannie looked at him nervously. ‘You’re not the sort of guy who would shoot the messenger, are you?’

His radar for trouble on full alert, Luca released her hand and leaned back in his chair. ‘That,’ he drawled slowly, ‘depends on the message.’

She swallowed hard. ‘They want to know when you’ll release a statement on your engagement.’

‘I’m sure when he said that no one was to disturb him, he didn’t mean me.’ Taylor shot a dazzling smile at the security guard who was left blinded.

‘Well, er, he hasn’t mentioned you as such, Miss Carmichael—’

‘Of course he hasn’t. We agreed not to speak about each other.’ She stepped closer and lowered her eyelashes just enough to ensure he wouldn’t be able to think about anything but her all day. ‘If he talked about me, our relationship wouldn’t be a secret, would it?’

‘I suppose not.’ Sweating, he slid a finger around his collar. ‘Knowing Mr Corretti, I’m sure he’ll be only too pleased to see a beautiful woman walking into his office.’

‘Good.’ Striding into the express elevator before he could change his mind, Taylor hit a button and closed the doors. Safely inside, she switched off her megawatt smile and checked her reflection in the mirror.

She was going to kill the bastard.

First she was going to rip his elegant suit from his perfect body and then she was going to injure him in places that would ensure he’d remember her for ever.

It had proved difficult to persuade Santo to give her a few hours off from filming, but in the end he’d decided that they’d be more productive if they dealt with the media first.

Taylor hadn’t revealed that the only person she was going to be ‘dealing with’ was Luca.

The doors opened and Taylor stepped out into a contemporary office space like no other she’d seen. The walls were lined with photographs. Famous models in various poses pouted at her, their razor-sharp cheekbones accentuated by the powerful beam of sunlight pouring from an atrium above. It was a shrine to beauty and elegance.

The wide glass reception desk was unoccupied and she looked through the open door beyond and saw Luca Corretti at the same moment he saw her.

Their eyes locked.

Just for a moment she was back in the maze with his hand pressed to her bare thigh but then she remembered that was the reason she was here and her temper spurted.

‘Well, well—’ his sarcastic drawl carried across the open space between them ‘—it’s my fiancée. What an unexpected pleasure, angelo mia.’

‘In the circumstances, how could I stay away?’ Head held high, in full battle mode, Taylor stalked across the marble floor and into his office wondering how on earth they were going to unpick this mess.

She was going to kill him and how was she going to explain that to the press?

‘Leave us, Jeannie,’ Luca ordered in a silky tone. ‘It’s not every day a man gets engaged. I need to savour the moment. I might even indulge in desk sex so better not come in without knocking.’

The woman sent him a troubled look and then retreated from the office and closed the door behind her.

Taylor went straight into attack mode. ‘How dare you? How dare you play with my life just because you don’t care about yours! You should have paid that woman.’

‘If I paid every woman who threatened to take stories of me to the press I’d be broke.’

‘Maybe you should stop seducing women and then the problem would go away!’ She paced the length of his office, her attention caught by yet more black-and-white photographs on the walls. ‘You have photographs of women everywhere. You just can’t help yourself, can you?’

‘I run a fashion house. What do you expect?’ He looked effortlessly sophisticated in a suit designed to accentuate his physique and dark good looks. ‘Is that jealousy I hear in your voice?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. I couldn’t care less whose picture you have on your wall or who you kiss.’

‘Really? Isn’t that rather a liberal attitude for someone who only recently decided I was the only man in the world for her?’

Livid by his flippant response, she glared at him. ‘Right now the only thing standing between you and death is the fact that I don’t want more negative headlines.’

Dark brows rose above eyes that glinted with mockery. ‘So much passion so early in our relationship. Not that I’m complaining. I love a woman who isn’t afraid to show emotion.’

‘Damn you, Luca, are you ever serious? Do you know how hard I’ve worked over the past few years to get people to take me seriously? This was a fresh start and then you—you…’ Her hands curled into fists and she turned away from him, hating the loss of control. Hating the attraction she felt towards him. Hating him.

‘And then I—what?’

‘You know what! You—you kissed me. You had your hand on my—’ Just thinking of the photograph made her close her eyes in horror. ‘It looked as if we’d—’

‘Do you ever finish your sentences? You’re like a walking crossword and I’m too lazy to fill in the blanks.’

‘I’m—I’m just so mad with you.’

‘Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it will be good for you to express honest emotion once in a while.’

‘Don’t mess with me, Luca.’ Furious, she stabbed her finger into his chest and then wished she hadn’t because all she felt was muscle. ‘Be careful. I haven’t eaten carbs for three months and I’m always dangerous when I’m hungry.’

‘For what it’s worth, I’m mad with you too, and my diet is fine. My taste has never run to women who suppress their real selves. And now let’s get to the point.’ The snap of his voice raised the tension in the room several more notches. ‘Why the hell did you announce that we’re engaged?’

‘Because, thanks to you, I was about to be fired from the job I haven’t even started yet!’

That drew a frown from him. ‘Why would you be fired?’

‘Because the director refused to work with someone with my reputation.’

He looked bemused. ‘That’s crazy. So you like sex and you’re not afraid to show it. What’s wrong with that?’

Her cheeks burned. ‘What’s wrong is that I want the focus to be on my skills as an actress, not on my ability to make a fool of myself with a man.’

She’d done that before and she’d lived with the mistake ever since.

He’d left another message on her phone but this time she hadn’t even opened it.

It was a relief to be in Sicily, far from California.

Far from him.

Luca was watching her curiously. ‘So you are afraid to show it. You really need to get over that. Who you choose to kiss in your own time is no one’s business but your own.’

She felt like telling him it wasn’t that simple. That a kiss could be used and used again. ‘I didn’t choose to kiss you. You grabbed me.’

‘I don’t remember you struggling.’ He was maddeningly cool. ‘It takes two people to make a kiss look like that, tesoro.’

‘I never would have started it.’

‘But you finished it.’ His voice was low and threaded through with a sensuality she found off-the-scale disturbing. ‘Don’t be too hard on yourself. It was an understandable slip.’

‘You’re so full of—’

‘Now, now, Miss Carmichael—’ he placed his fingers over her lips ‘—you don’t want to give the press another quote, do you? I’m sure they have a lens trained at this office even as you shriek.’

‘You’re finding this funny. I don’t even know why you did it—why did You do it? Why the hell did you kiss me?’

He gave a careless shrug. ‘You were there.’

‘That’s all it takes for you to kiss a woman? She just has to be there?’

‘Unlike you, I don’t try and deny my true nature.’

‘Nice to know you’re discriminating.’

‘Have you played Katerina?’ One dark eyebrow lifted. ‘Taming of the Shrew? Because you’d be a natural. Do I need to remind you that you kissed me back?’

‘I was stressed out. I hadn’t eaten for two days.’

He smiled. ‘So that was why you were so hungry for me.’

‘Don’t flatter yourself.’

‘Why not? A moment ago you were telling the world you intend to spend the rest of your life with me.’

‘I didn’t know what else to say.’ Taylor paced over to the window of his office, her heels tapping on the floor. ‘I don’t need all the adverse publicity right now. It was a spur of the moment thing. I didn’t even think people would believe me, but they did. Apparently people are captivated by the thought of us together.’

‘Of course they are. I’m the man who has publicly said on numerous occasions that he never intends to settle down and you’re the wild child with a bad attitude. It’s a match made in hell. How can the public not be fascinated? If you’d kept quiet the story would have died by tomorrow. As it is, you’ve ensured it’s kept alive.’

‘Stories don’t die.’ The words tumbled out of her mouth along with years of anxiety and pressure. ‘They never die. Sometimes they lie dormant and that’s even worse because you have no idea when they’re going to explode in your face.’

He stared at her in bemusement. ‘I have no idea what the hell you are talking about.’

Of course he didn’t. And she had no intention of enlightening him. ‘This is all your fault.’

‘You kissed me back.’

‘I wasn’t talking about that, I was talking about the fact that you treated that woman badly and she sold her story to the press! If you were more sensitive, this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘You kissed me back.’ His voice was dangerously soft and suddenly her mouth was dry and her heart was thundering.

‘Or if you’d just paid her—’

‘You kissed me back.’

‘Yes, all right, I kissed you back!’ Her head full of images she didn’t want to see, her voice rose. ‘But I wasn’t thinking at the time.’

‘I know. You were stripped down to the most basic version of yourself. The real you. I like that version much better, by the way.’

‘Well, I don’t,’ Taylor snapped. ‘I’ve left that version behind.’

‘You might want to look in the maze. I’m sure I had my hands on that version yesterday.’

And that version of her wanted to grab him and haul his mouth back against hers. That version wanted to rip at his clothes and explore those parts of his body she hadn’t already explored. That version was burning up with sexual awareness and a need so strong it took her breath away.

That version was driving her mad and had to be buried.

Just to be sure she couldn’t be tempted to follow her instincts, she kept her hands locked behind her back. ‘This is a joke to you, isn’t it?’

‘Surprisingly enough, no. There is nothing amusing about marriage or anything that goes with it.’ The phone on his desk rang and then immediately stopped as his PA intercepted it from her office. ‘That is about the seventieth call I’ve had from journalists on my private line since you so kindly announced our engagement a few hours ago. It’s not working out for me. It’s time we broke it off.’

‘No!’ Anger turned to desperation. Trying to ignore the chemistry, Taylor lifted her fingers to her temple and forced herself to breathe. ‘Please. You have no idea how badly I want this job.’

His gaze was cool and unsympathetic. ‘Buy cheaper shoes or, better still, wear one of the thousands of pairs you already own.’

She lowered her hand slowly. ‘You think this is about shoes? About money?’

‘What is it about then?’

It was about acting, but it didn’t occur to anyone that she loved her job. They thought it was all about the publicity and that was her mother’s fault. She’d made a name for herself as the pushiest parent in Hollywood and Taylor’s reputation had suffered as a result.

Not just her reputation.

Her decision making.

‘I want to be taken seriously as an actress, that’s all you need to know.’ She’d learned the hard way to guard the private side of her life and she did it with the tenacity of a warrior. ‘I need this job to go well.’

‘And for that I’m expected to marry you?’

‘No, not marry me. But I thought maybe we could keep the whole engagement pretence up, just until filming is finished.’

‘You thought wrong. So far we’ve been engaged for about ten minutes and that’s ten minutes too long as far as I’m concerned.’

The thought of having to walk out there and admit that she’d fabricated the engagement pushed her close to the edge of panic. ‘You travel a lot,’ she said desperately, ‘we wouldn’t need to see each other much. Just the odd photograph of us looking happy together would do it.’

‘It wouldn’t do it for me. I have no desire to tie myself to one woman, fictitious or not. It would cramp my style.’ He glanced at the expensive watch on his wrist. ‘I’m late to a board meeting. When I come out of that meeting I’ll be behaving like a single guy so unless you want the next headlines to say I’m cheating on you, I suggest you break the news to them fast.’

‘I just told them we were engaged.’

‘Your problem, not mine. Tell them you came to my office and found me with another woman. Tell them anything you like—unlike you I have no problem having the real me presented to the world. But by the time I come out of my meeting I want calls asking me for a comment on how I feel about being dumped and if that doesn’t happen then I’ll be making a statement about dumping you. Your choice, dolcezza.’

With that he strode out of the room and left her standing there.

Women.

Unsettled by the depth of the chemistry and even more upset by overexposure to the word engaged, Luca strode towards the boardroom like a man trying to escape the hangman’s noose.

He genuinely couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to get married. The thought of committing to one woman for the rest of his life made him break out in a rash. Where was the pleasure in tying yourself to one woman? He could cope with female insecurity for the duration of a photo shoot, or even a single night of passion—providing it wasn’t the whole night—but the thought of a lifetime of ego stroking made him contemplate entering a monastery. Or maybe not a monastery, he mused as he was momentarily distracted by the chairman’s pretty executive assistant, but certainly a place where marriage was banned.

She blushed prettily. ‘The board is waiting for you, Luca.’

Boring old fossils, Luca thought, suppressing a yawn. They needed blasting into the twenty-first century and he was perfectly happy to be the one to do it if only they’d let him but there was no chance of that.

As he entered the room, he estimated that the meeting would take four minutes. One minute for them to stare at him gravely and comment on how his appalling behaviour left a stain on the Corretti name and the company as a whole, another minute while they told him he wasn’t going to have a seat on the main board and a further two minutes while he gave them an uncensored, unvarnished account of what he thought of them. That part promised to be entertaining.

Prepared to make full use of his two minutes, it threw him to see the chairman rise to his feet, tears in his eyes.

Tears?

Luca executed a perfect emergency stop. He was used to women crying over him, but men crying over him? That was taking things a step too far.

‘Luca…’ Hands outstretched, the man who had been a close friend of his grandfather’s walked round the table towards him.

Preferring all physical contact to come from the opposite sex, Luca backed away hastily, crashing into a chair in the process. ‘No need for the drama. I’m the sort of guy who prefers the truth without embellishment.’

‘I’m not going to lie to you, we didn’t see this coming.’

‘Didn’t see what coming?’

‘Your engagement.’

The word felt as if someone was rubbing sandpaper over raw skin. ‘Ah, yes. About that—’

Bursting into a stream of Italian, the man hugged him and Luca stood rigid in that embrace, thinking that if becoming engaged triggered so much uncontrollable emotion in people then he was doubly relieved he’d chosen never to do it. ‘Look, there’s something I need to—’

‘It changes everything.’

‘Marriage? Yes, I know, that’s why I’ve never—’ Luca broke off, horrified as the older man took his face in his hands.

‘If you’re responsible enough to take that step then you’re responsible enough to have a seat at this table.’

‘Scusi?’

‘We’re voting you in as Matteo’s successor at least until the fuss dies down and he returns. Angelo thinks he can just walk in here and take over our hotel—we’ll show him a united front. You’re a family man, now. A true, loyal Corretti.’

Biting back the observation that the words loyal and Corretti went together about as well as lion and baby gazelle, Luca extracted himself carefully from the man’s grip, thanking his lucky stars that he hadn’t actually been kissed. ‘So what you’re telling me,’ he said slowly, ‘is that my track record with the House of Corretti meant nothing to you but now that I’m engaged, I’m suddenly fit to run the hotel group?’

‘Running a hotel group takes more than brain power.’ One of the other directors spoke up. ‘It takes dedication. You have to demonstrate responsibility not just to your employees, but to your shareholders. We saw no evidence of that in your life, but it seems we were wrong. Not only that, but you’ve proved yourself capable of discretion. You and Taylor Carmichael are both highprofile people and yet somehow and we can’t imagine how—’ he beamed approvingly ‘—you have managed to keep this relationship a secret until now. Frankly, this has come as a shock to us, Luca.’

‘It came as a shock to me too,’ Luca confessed with perfect honesty. ‘I didn’t see it coming.’

‘So what are your plans?’

Plans? He’d planned to kill the engagement rumours and move on with his life, unrestricted, but now he was rethinking fast. Being engaged seemed to have afforded him a status within the board that impressive profits and innovative thinking had failed to produce.

If that was what it took to prove to this bunch of dinosaurs that he could add value to their company, then maybe it was worth considering.

He tested the water. ‘The wedding itself isn’t going to happen for a while.’

That statement was met by more beams of approval.

Encouraged, Luca elaborated. ‘And right now we’re both so busy we’re not managing to see much of each other.’

Approval turned to sympathy and Luca decided that maybe he could be the first engaged man on the planet who never actually saw his ‘fiancée.’ Pondering on that thought, he decided that the situation could actually be turned to his advantage. All he had to do in return for the responsibility he wanted was resist the urge to throw himself under the wheels of a passing car every time someone said the word engaged.

As his mind gradually emerged from the vice-like panic that came from thinking about weddings, he realised that Taylor Carmichael was probably already announcing to the world that she’d dumped him.

Knowing he had to act quickly, Luca spread his hands and smiled at the board. ‘I just came here today to share the happy news, but I’m afraid I can’t stay. Gutted though I am not to spend more time with you, I’m sure you understand. It’s Taylor’s first day of filming down at the docklands and I want to just go over there and be supportive, because—because—’ never having been supportive before, he floundered for a plausible reason for his actions ‘—because that’s what engaged people do.’ Truthfully he had absolutely no idea what engaged people did. All he knew was that he had nothing in common with them. ‘I want to be there for her.’

Fortunately the board seemed impressed. ‘Of course. After Matteo’s behaviour at the wedding that demonstration of loyalty is just what the public need to see. Who would have thought you would be the one to add sobriety to the Corretti family name.’

Sobriety?

Luca recoiled in alarm. He was prepared to live behind a facade of respectability just to prove to these old codgers that he could do more for the company than a whole boardroom full of men in suits, but being accused of sobriety made him wonder if it was worth it.

‘Go.’ Visibly moved, the chairman waved his hand towards the door. ‘We’ll have a meeting of the hotel executive committee tomorrow evening and we look forward to hearing your ideas for boosting the hotel business then. Bring your fiancée!’

Biting back the comment that his ideas would have been the same whether he were engaged or not, Luca left the room not sure if he were in the frying pan or the fire.

Whichever, there was no doubt in his mind that he needed to get to the docklands where filming was taking place before Taylor ruined everything. He’d tell her he was willing to go along with this whole engagement thing just as long as it got him a seat on the main board.

How hard could it be?