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Million Dollar Christmas Proposal
LUCY MONROE
Tycoon Vincenzo Tomasi needs a new nanny for his niece and nephew by Christmas. And the million dollar salary on offer will be more tempting than anything in Santa’s sack!Audrey Miller already works for Enzo and loves children and stepping into his family would dramatically help her own. What Audrey doesn’t know is that Enzo expects the right candidate to become his wife – and high on the requirements is sexual compatibility.While she’s lusted after her enigmatic boss for years, will innocent Audrey risk everything to explore her irresistible attraction, in the most unlikely interview process ever?
“I think you’d better kiss me,” Audrey said.
“What?” Had he heard correctly? “You want me to kiss you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I think that should be obvious.”
Vincenzo was not used to people implying he was thick. “Explain it to me.”
“Because if we don’t have the chemistry to make it through a single kiss, the rest of this interview is an exercise in futility. Since you’re so set on us being physically compatible.”
It actually made sense, and he had not considered it because he’d been so intent on not giving in to his urge to kiss her.
He nodded and stood up, away from the desk, putting his hand out to her. “That is an excellent point.”
Curling his fingers around her hand, he pulled her to her feet. Her body came within inches of his own.
Their gazes locked. Hers was filled with trepidation—and something else that he had been unsure he would find there: desire.
“You want me.”
“I want a kiss,” she corrected, but the truth was there.
Dear Reader
When I was growing up, no matter how harsh life had got, my mom always made Christmas magical for us. I have very few good memories related to my dad, but Christmas mornings are one of them. From the big sooty boot-prints he made from our fireplace to the Christmas tree, to convince us Santa had come, to the cradle and highchair he made for my baby doll when I was seven, it was the one time a year I could remember him being a real dad.
My mom insisted Christmas miracles happened, and every year he managed to be a dad for that one day I knew she was right. By the time I was ten my dad was no longer around on Christmas or any other day, but the certainty of the magic of the holidays never left me.
My husband and I have tried to give magical moments to our own children and those we’ve taken in over the years. And, while Tom is an amazing dad every day of the year, I have to say he outshines himself at Christmas.
Hoping with my whole heart that you experience a little holiday magic this year!
Much love
Lucy
Million Dollar Christmas Proposal
Lucy Monroe
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
LUCY MONROE started reading at the age of four. After going through the children’s books at home, she was caught by her mother reading adult novels pilfered from the higher shelves on the bookcase… Alas, it was nine years before she got her hands on a Mills & Boon
Romance her older sister had brought home. She loves to create the strong alpha males and independent women who people Mills & Boon
books. When she’s not immersed in a romance novel (whether reading or writing it), she enjoys travel with her family, having tea with the neighbours, gardening, and visits from her numerous nieces and nephews.
Lucy loves to hear from her readers:
email LucyMonroe@LucyMonroe.com,
or visit www.LucyMonroe.com
Recent titles by the same author:
PRINCE OF SECRETS (By His Royal Decree) ONE NIGHT HEIR (By His Royal Decree) NOT JUST THE GREEK’S WIFE HEART OF A DESERT WARRIOR
Did you know these are also available as eBooks? Visit www.millsandboon.co.uk
For my niece, Hannah, because you are a big part of my holiday magic. Thank you for helping me and Isabelle decorate for Christmas, and especially for your patience and creativity in decorating my “Mr. Monk”, color-coordinated, every ornament evenly spaced tree each year. Few teenagers would be nearly so accepting of my OCD tendencies. Your parents raised you right and I’m in awe of what a lovely and strong young woman you truly are. Love you!
And with a special hug for all the teens who find themselves scrambling for a place to sleep this holiday season. It is my sincerest hope you find warmth and safety wrapped in holiday joy. That, as my husband and I have opened our home to some, so might others open theirs to you. Blessings and love!
Contents
PROLOGUE (#ufaaaacb0-7f3f-5581-940a-ff018c311b52)
CHAPTER ONE (#uad6db17f-6d67-5201-bc29-f6652c7ba37e)
CHAPTER TWO (#u63a4d6a5-6fcc-5cc8-9d82-ac807d3a05e9)
CHAPTER THREE (#u3929a89c-a562-5e8d-a59c-b75deadc60c6)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u0d16505d-1f2e-51d1-a2fa-b682abbdeb24)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE
EYES DRY, HEART shattered, Audrey Miller sat in the chair beside her baby brother’s hospital bed and prayed for him to wake up.
He’d been in a coma since the ambulance brought him in three days ago and she wasn’t leaving him. She wasn’t letting go of him. Not like their parents had done.
Not like their two older siblings had.
How could family act like strangers? Worse than strangers? The rest of the Miller clan had cruelly rejected the incredibly sweet, scary-smart twelve-year-old boy. All because he’d told their parents he was gay.
He was twelve, for heaven’s sake. What difference did it make?
But when he’d refused to recant his words, had insisted it wasn’t some kind of phase or confusion despite his tender years, their parents had kicked him out.
Audrey couldn’t even imagine it. She wouldn’t have known what do at that age, alone and homeless. Toby had, though.
With nothing more than his saved-up allowance, his laptop, and a backpack full of clothes, he’d made his way south the two hundred miles from Boston to New York.
He hadn’t called ahead, hadn’t questioned. He’d just come to Audrey. He’d trusted her to be there for him when the rest of the family wasn’t and she would never betray that trust.
Audrey hadn’t thought it could get any worse than her parents kicking Toby out, had been sure that given time to consider their actions they would change their minds and let him move back home. They lived in one of the most progressive cities in the country, for goodness’ sake.
But Carol and Randall Miller were not progressive people. She just hadn’t realized how very steeped in narrow-minded conservatism they were.
Not until they gave her an ultimatum: remain a member in good standing with the rest of the family or stick by Toby. They’d made it clear that if she stuck by her little brother and supported him in any way they would withdraw all financial support and cut off all contact with Audrey.
Their plan to scare both of their youngest children into compliance with their strict viewpoint of the world had backfired.
Audrey had refused and when Toby had learned what that cost her, he’d tried to kill himself. Toby had used the Swiss Army knife their father had given him for his twelfth birthday to cut his wrists.
It hadn’t been a cry for help; it had been a testament to his utter wretchedness at their parents’ total rejection. He did it when the house she shared with three other Barnard students was supposed to be empty for several hours.
If Audrey’s roommate hadn’t forgotten a paper she had to turn in and gone back to the house, if Liz hadn’t investigated the running shower when Toby hadn’t answered her call, he would have died there, his blood washing down the drain of their old-fashioned porcelain tub.
“I love you, Toby. You have to come back to me. You’re a good person.” And she would tell him that as many times as it took. “Come back. Please, Toby. I love you.”
Toby’s eyelids fluttered and then a dazed brown gaze met hers. “Audrey?”
“Yes. Sweetheart. I’m here.”
“I...” He looked confused.
She leaned over the bed and kissed his forehead. “You listen to me, Tobias Daniel Miller. You are my family. The only one that counts. Don’t you ever try to leave me again.”
“If I wasn’t here you’d be okay with Mom and Dad.”
“I’d rather have you,” she promised.
“No, I—”
“Stop. I mean it, Tobe. You’re my brother and I love you. You know how much it hurts that Mom and Dad don’t love us because we aren’t exactly what they want us to be?”
His mouth twisted with pain, his dark eyes haunted. “Yes.”
“Times that by a million and then you’ll know how much I’d hurt if I lost you. Okay?”
Then she saw something in her little brother’s eyes that she would do anything to keep there. A spark of hope amidst the desolation.
“Okay.”
It was a promise. Toby wouldn’t give up on himself again and neither would Audrey. Not ever.
CHAPTER ONE
“YOU WANT ME to find you a wife? You cannot be serious!”
Vincenzo Angilu Tomasi waited for his personal administrative assistant to close her mouth and stop making sounds like a dying fish gasping for water. He’d never heard her talk in exclamation points, hadn’t been sure she was capable of raising her voice, even.
Fifteen years his senior, and usually unflappably confident, Gloria had been with him since he took over at the NY branch of Tomasi Commercial Bank more than a decade ago.
Enzu had never seen this side of her. Had not believed it existed and would be quite happy to put it behind them now.
When she didn’t seem inclined to add anything to her shocked outburst, he corrected, “I will provide these children with a mama.”
Although he was third generation Sicilian in this country, he still gave the old-world accented pronunciation to the word.
His niece, Franca, was only four years old and his nephew, Angilu, a mere eight months. They needed parents, not uninterested caretakers. They needed a mother.
One who would see them raised in a stable environment unlike what he had known as a child or had been able to provide for his younger brother. Which, yes, would mean the woman would have to become his wife as well, but that was of negligible consideration.
“You can’t possibly expect me to find them that. It’s impossible.” Outrage evident in every line of her body, shock dominated Gloria’s usually placid-whatever-the-circumstances expression. “I know my job description is more elastic than most, but this is beyond even my purview.”
“I assure you I have never been more serious and I refuse to believe anything is beyond your capabilities.”
“What about a nanny?” Gloria demanded, clearly unimpressed with the compliment to her skills. “Wouldn’t that be a better solution to this unfortunate situation?”
“I do not consider my custody of my niece and nephew an unfortunate situation,” Enzu told her, his tone cold.
“No. No. Of course not. I apologize for my wording.” But Gloria did not look like she had an alternative description to offer.
In fact, once again, she seemed to be struck entirely speechless.
“I have fired four nannies since I took custody of Franca and Angilu six months ago.” And the current caretaker was not looking to last much longer. “They need a mama. Someone who will put their welfare ahead of everything else. Someone who will love them.”
He had no personal experience with that type of parenting, but he’d spent enough time in Sicily with his family over there. He knew what it was supposed to look like.
“You can’t buy love, sir! You just can’t.”
“I think you will find, Gloria, that indeed I can.” Bank President and CEO, the driving force behind its expansion from a regional financial institution to a truly international one and founder of his own Tomasi Enterprises, Enzu was one of wealthiest men in the world.
“Mr. Tomasi—”
“She will have to be educated,” Enzu said, interrupting further ranting on his assistant’s part. “A bachelor’s degree at least, but not a PhD.”
He didn’t want someone who was driven to excel academically at that level. Her primary focus would not be on the children but her academic pursuits.
“No doctors?” Gloria asked faintly.
“They hardly keep hours conducive to maintaining the role of primary caregiver for the children. Franca is four, but Angilu is less than a year old and far from being school age.”
“I see.”
“It goes without saying the candidates cannot have any kind of criminal record; I would prefer they be currently employed in an appropriate job. Though the woman I choose will give up her current job in order to care for the children full time.”
“Naturally.” Sarcasm dripped from Gloria’s tone.
That, at least, he was used to.
“Yes, well, no candidate should be younger than twenty-five and no older than her mid-thirties.” She would have to be his wife as well.
“That narrows down the pool significantly.”
Enzu chose to ignore his assistant’s mocking words. “Previous experience with children would be preferred, but is not absolutely necessary.”
He did realize it was unlikely an educated woman in a career now, unless it was one related to children, would have experience with them.
“Oh, and while I will not immediately rule out someone who has been married previously, she cannot have her own children that would compete with Franca and Angilu for attention.”
Franca had experienced enough of that sort of neglect and Enzu was determined she never would again.
“The candidates should be passable in the looks department, if not pretty, but definitely no super-model types.”
The children had already been subjected to the beautiful but vain and entirely empty-headed Johana as mother and stepmother.
His brother Pinu’s taste in women, from his first serious affair, which had resulted in Franca and a mother who had been only too happy to walk away once Enzu met her financial demands, to the wife who had died with him in the crash, had been inarguably abysmal.
This time around Enzu would be choosing the woman and he was confident he could make a far superior decision to the ones Pinu had made in that department.
Gloria did not reply to Enzu’s completed list of requirements, so he went on to enumerate the compensation package he’d worked out for the successful candidate.
“There will be both financial and social benefits for the woman taking on this new role. Once both children have reached their majority without significant critical issues,” he emphasized, “the mother will receive a stipend of ten million dollars. Each year she successfully executes her maternal duties she will receive a salary of $250,000 paid in monthly installments. She will receive an additional monthly allowance to cover all reasonable household and living expenses for her and the children.”
“You really are prepared to buy them a mother?” Gloria was back to looking gobsmacked.
“S?.” Hadn’t he said so?
“Ten million dollars? Really?”
“As I said, the bonus is dependent on both children reaching their majority without going off the rails. It will be paid when Angilu turns eighteen. But if one of the children chooses to follow in my brother’s footsteps, she will still receive half for the successful raising of the other one.”
He did realize there was a certain amount of self-will in the path a person chose to take in life. He and his brothers couldn’t have been more different, though they’d been raised in almost identical circumstances.
“And she will be your wife as well?”
“S?. In name at least.” For the sake of Franca and Angilu’s sense of family and stability.
Gloria stood, indicating she was ready to return to her work. “I will see what I can do.”
“I have every confidence in your success.”
She did not look reassured.
* * *
Well, that could have gone better.
Audrey brushed impatiently at the tears that wanted to fall. When had crying ever made a difference?
Neither her tears nor those of her then twelve-year-old brother had made a difference to Carol and Randall Miller. Pleading had only been met with disgusted impatience and implacable resolve unhindered by any emotion, much less love.
Maybe she should have waited a few weeks until Christmas and asked then. Weren’t people supposed to be filled with charity during the Christmas season? Somehow she didn’t think it would make any difference to her parents.
Audrey should have known they weren’t going to change their minds now. She’d been an idiot to think that Toby being accepted into the prestigious Engineering School’s Bachelor of Science program at MIT would make a difference.
But she hadn’t even asked for any financial assistance, just a place for Toby to live while he attended school. If her parents didn’t want him commuting to the MIT campus in Cambridge from their Boston home they could have provided living accommodation in one of their many real estate holdings throughout the city.
They’d categorically refused. No money. No help in any way.
Wealthy and emotionally distant, Carol and Randall Miller used the carrot and stick approach to parenting, with an unwavering conviction in the rightness of their opinions and beliefs. When that didn’t work, they washed their hands of what they considered failure.
Like they had with her and Toby.
It had nearly broken her brother to be rejected so completely by his parents, but he’d come back from the abyss stronger and determined to succeed and be happy. And, at twelve, he’d had more certainty about what he wanted to do with his life than Audrey at twenty-seven.
She had no grand plan for her life. Nothing beyond raising Toby to believe in himself and to be able to realize his dreams. Audrey’s own dreams had been decimated six years ago.
She hadn’t just lost the rest of her family when she’d taken Toby in. Audrey’s fiancе had broken up with her. Thad hadn’t been ready for children, he’d said, not even a mostly self-sufficient young boy.
When her parents withdrew their financial support Audrey had been forced to take out student loans to finish her third year at Barnard, but a final year had been well beyond her means. She’d had no choice but to transfer her credits to the State University of New York and complete her degree there.
She’d had to get a full-time job to support herself and her brother. Time and money constraints meant that it had taken her nearly four years of part-time online coursework to finally get her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature.
Her parents had been right about one thing. It was a supremely impractical degree. But she wasn’t sure she would have finished university at all if she hadn’t been studying something she loved so much. Her coursework had been her one break from the stresses and challenges of her new life.
She and Toby had that in common. They both loved learning. But he was committed to excelling in a way she never had been.
With a determination her parents should have been proud of, Toby had earned top marks in school and worked on gaining both friends and confidence in his new environment. He’d said he was going to be happy and her brother was one of the most genuinely joyous people she knew.
She couldn’t stand the thought of him losing that joy once he realized they simply couldn’t make MIT happen.
It wasn’t fair. He deserved this chance and Audrey just couldn’t see any way to give it to him.
Only the best and the brightest even got considered for MIT, and those who truly stood out among this elite group were accepted. The private research university accepted fewer than ten percent of their applicants for incoming freshmen and transferring from another school was almost impossible.
Which made any plan that had Toby attending a less expensive state school to begin with and moving on to MIT such a remote possibility as not to be considered at all.
Toby hadn’t just gotten accepted, either. He’d won a partial scholarship. It was a huge deal. His high school administration and counselor were over the moon, but not Carol and Randall Miller.
They hadn’t softened their stance toward their son one bit. The one question they’d asked had been if Toby still claimed to be gay. When Audrey had told them he did, they’d made it clear they wanted nothing more to do with their youngest son. Ever.
Worse, they’d offered her both a return to the family fold and an obscene amount of money, more than she would need to help Toby go to MIT, with two caveats.
The money could not be used for Toby and Audrey had to sever all ties with her baby brother.
That so was not going to happen. They were family and to Audrey that word meant something.
But all the will in the world wasn’t going to pay for Toby to live his dream and attend MIT.
He wasn’t eligible for federal financial aid because until the age of twenty-five, their parents’ income would be used to determine his need. Even if he had been, MIT was a very expensive school. Four years of textbooks alone would pretty much wipe out what Audrey had managed to save for his college expenses over the past six years.
The cost of living in Boston or Cambridge was high as well, leaving no wiggle room for Audrey to make up for the tuition not covered by the partial scholarship.
Audrey was still repaying her student loans. Her job at Tomasi Enterprises barely covered their living expenses now that her parents had stopped making the child support payments required by the state. Toby had turned eighteen two months ago, and things had gotten lean, but she wasn’t pulling any money from his college fund. No matter what.
The New York housing market was ugly. Even outside the city, where she’d moved with Toby when he first came to live with her. And because she wasn’t in a city apartment there was no rent control. Each new lease she’d signed had included a bump in their rent. Their current year’s lease was going to be up a month before Toby graduated.
Audrey had no idea how she was going to make the new rent without the child support payments. Finding a cheaper apartment in Toby’s school district wasn’t happening, either. She’d been looking for the past three months, just to get on a waiting list.
She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she wasn’t giving up.
She might not have any dreams left, but she still had a boatload of stubborn.
* * *
Unable to believe what she’d heard, Audrey remained in her stall in the ladies’ room for several minutes after the two senior support staff who had been talking in the outer area left.
The bathrooms in the Tomasi Enterprises building were swank, providing an outer sitting area where female employees could take their breaks or breastfeed their babies in onsite daycare. Vincenzo Tomasi was known for his pro-family stance.
While the man himself was an unashamed workaholic, he expected employees with families to actually have a family life. Many of the company’s work-life effectiveness policies made that clear.
And what Audrey had just heard would seem to indicate that Mr. Tomasi took his commitment to family even more seriously than anyone could ever imagine. Seriously? Ten million dollars for raising his children acquired through the recent tragic deaths of his brother and sister-in-law? And $250,000 a year in salary besides?
It sounded too good to be true, but it worried her, too. Because Mr. Tomasi clearly believed he really could buy a loving mother. What he was a lot more likely to get was a woman with dollar signs in her eyes.
Like the one who had been listening to his personal administrative assistant complain about her new and impossible assignment. From the way she’d talked, it was obvious the other senior support staffer was more than interested in trying to become a billionaire’s wife. That didn’t mean she would make a good mother.
But putting on a show to get the job? Easy.
After all, how many people in Boston believed Carol Miller was an adoring and proud parent? Audrey was only too aware of how easy it was to put on that kind of show.
She’d been taken in herself, once upon a time.
The two women discussing what Audrey considered Mr. Tomasi’s very personal business hadn’t bothered to make sure no one was using the toilet stalls and could overhear them.
While the stalls had actual interior wooden doors that reached the floors, they were all open air a foot from the ceiling for ventilation purposes.
Sound carried. Words carried. And Audrey had heard an earful.
* * *
Palms sweaty, heart beating faster than a rock drummer’s solo, Audrey stood outside Vincenzo Tomasi’s office.
Was she really going to do this?
She’d spent the last three nights tossing and turning, her brother’s future and Mr. Tomasi’s outrageous plan vying for attention in her brain. Somewhere in the wee hours of that morning she’d come up with a pretty brash plan of her own.
Unquestionably risky, nevertheless if it worked she could give her brother the best Christmas gift ever. The realization of the dream he’d worked so hard for.
Going through with it could also result in her immediate dismissal.
But despite the lessons of the past six years, or maybe even because of them, she had hope. She and Toby had made it this far when their parents had been sure they would crash and burn, returning to the family fold repentant and willing to toe the line.
They’d said as much when she’d gone to them to ask for help for Toby’s schooling.
So hope burned hot in her heart.
Hope that maybe fate had smiled on her and Toby for once. That maybe destiny had put Audrey in that bathroom stall at just the right time to overhear the conversation between Gloria and the other staff member.
Hope that maybe Audrey could make a difference not only in her own life, and that of her brother, but for two orphaned children. Maybe she could give them the kind of loving upbringing she’d longed for, the kind that their uncle clearly wanted for them.
It was insane, this plan of hers. No arguing that. And probably Mr. Tomasi was going to laugh her out of his office. But Audrey had to try.
If for no other reason than to impart to him just how easily his scheme could end up backfiring and hurting the children he was so obviously trying to protect.
Audrey had considered long and hard about whether to approach Gloria first or Mr. Tomasi directly, but eventually she realized she didn’t have a choice. Not if she wanted to give her crazy, dangerous plan a chance of succeeding.
Approaching Gloria meant giving the PAA the chance to turn Audrey down before Mr. Tomasi even heard about her. She couldn’t let that happen.
Audrey couldn’t ignore the semi-public nature of the discussion in the bathroom, either. After that lack of prudence on Gloria’s part in keeping her boss’ information private, Audrey had no confidence in anything like real discretion on her own behalf.
After all, Gloria’s loyalty to her employer was legendary. She had no such allegiance to Audrey and even less impetus to keep Audrey’s brazen suggestion to herself.
So Audrey had had to figure out a way to see the CEO without his PAA present. It wasn’t as hard for her as it might have been for someone else who hadn’t spent the last four years fixated in hopeless fascination on the man who owned the company where she made her living.
She’d seen pictures of him before transferring to the company headquarters from the bank, but the first time Audrey had caught a glimpse of the gorgeous, driven man herself she’d stopped breathing and that part of her that used to dream became captivated.
She’d watched, paid attention to everything she heard about the CEO. And every fantasy between wakefulness and dreaming Audrey had had in the last four years had starred Vincenzo Angilu Tomasi.
Her hand froze on the door handle as she had the sick worry that maybe this plan of hers was just another one of those.
Only she fulfilled every single one of the requirements the PAA had said Mr. Tomasi had for the job candidates. Even so, Audrey was fairly certain Mr. Tomasi was in no way expecting an applicant from the lower floor offices of his own building.
While she’d been born into a family that were themselves considered high society, Audrey couldn’t begin to lay claim to that now. She’d attended Barnard for three years, but her degree was from SUNY and the only one of her friends from those days who still kept Audrey in her orbit was Liz.
The roommate who had saved Toby’s life.
Besides, while Mr. Tomasi might not want a super-model like his late sister-in-law Johana for the position, he probably wasn’t interested in a woman as average as Audrey.
Her long hair the color of chestnuts was several shades lighter than his more exotic espresso-brown, and arrow-straight besides. While the drop-dead gorgeous CEO had Mediterranean-blue eyes, an exciting and unexpected combination with his almost black hair color, Audrey’s were the same chocolate-brown as her brother’s.
And they didn’t shine with Toby’s zest for life, either. The responsibilities and work of her adulthood had taken that from her.
She was average in height as well, with curves that weren’t going to make any man stop and do a double-take. Not like the six-feet-four-inch corporate king, who looked more like an action movie hero than a CEO.
Audrey knew she wasn’t the first or last woman to fall for him at first sight.
He didn’t need to settle for average.
Oh, crap. All she was doing was psyching herself out and that wasn’t going to help. Not at all. Either she was going to do this, or she wasn’t.
Okay, so she had a crush on the man. So sue her. She wasn’t applying for the position because of it.
She was here because she wanted to make life better for three children who deserved something better than the hand dealt to them. Her brother might be eighteen, but he was still her child in every way that counted. Even if he didn’t see things that way.
For his sake, and that of the little ones, Audrey had no choice but to take this chance.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open to Mr. Tomasi’s office without knocking.
He was sitting behind his desk, reading some papers spread out in front of him.
“I thought you weren’t going to be back for another thirty minutes,” he said without looking up from the papers, clearly believing the intruder in his office was his PAA.
Just the sound of his voice froze the breath in her chest, making it impossible to speak.
His head came up when his comment was met with silence. At first his eyes widened in surprised confusion and then narrowed. “It is customary to knock before entering the office of your CEO.”
Funny he had no doubt she was an employee, not a client or business associate.
“My name...” She had to stop and swallow to wet her very dry throat. “My name is Audrey Miller, Mr. Tomasi, and I’m here to apply for a position with you.”
CHAPTER TWO
ENZU FOUND HIMSELF nonplussed and that never happened.
It had been years since someone had made it past Gloria to importune him for a job or a promotion. In this case promotion it had to be. None but an employee would have made it to this floor in the building without an escort.
It was sheer luck that this woman had come during the one time a week he was in his office and Gloria was not at her desk.
Reading the intelligence in the chocolate-brown eyes gazing at him from lovely, delicate features made him revise that thought. Maybe not luck at all.
This had been planned. He doubted Miss Miller knew about his little-known weakness for chocolate, though. Her beautiful eyes and the determination tinged by vulnerability he saw in them were unexpectedly compelling.
Regardless, he couldn’t let this blatant disregard of company policy go unanswered. “There are procedures for applying for a promotion. None of them include importuning your extremely busy CEO.”
She flinched at the ice in his voice, but did not let her shoulders slump, or step backward with an apology. “I’m aware. But this particular job isn’t on the internal promotion and transfer database.”
Disappointment coursed through him. It was like that, was it? She was hoping to apply for the job of his lover. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but it hadn’t happened here at work in a very long time.
“I do not keep a mistress on my payroll.” He used the insulting word to remind them both exactly what kind of calculation had brought Miss Miller here.
Because he found her tempting, and that was shocking enough to make his usually facile brain sluggish.
Besides his love of chocolate, Enzu had a secret passion for old movies. This woman, breaking every company protocol, not to mention good manners, to accost him in his own office, could be the spitting image of his favorite classic movies film star, Audrey Hepburn.
Elegant and refined. Beautiful in an understated way, Audrey Miller had been aptly named.
“I do not want to be your mistress.” The quiet vehemence in her voice was hard to mistrust.
He simply raised one brow in question. He could not believe he was prolonging this conversation. He should have sent her packing with a promise to report her actions to her division supervisor already.
“You told Gloria to find you a mother for your children. I’m here to apply for the position.”
Shock kept him from speaking for long seconds. “Gloria told you? She thinks you would be an acceptable candidate?” he demanded.
This was not his efficient PAA’s style at all. He’d expected a couple of weeks to pass and then a dozen or so dossiers on appropriate candidates to show up on his desk.
This blunt approach to the situation was entirely out of character for Gloria.
“Not precisely, no.”
“Then what, precisely?”
“I would prefer not to tell you how I know about the job you hope to fill.”
That was the second time she’d put an odd, almost disapproving emphasis on the word job. Now he knew what she referred to he could almost understand it, but wasn’t she here to apply for the position? If so, she couldn’t find his methods as unacceptable as her tone seemed to imply.
“Does Gloria know you are here?”
Miss Miller bit her bottom lip and admitted, “No.”
“I see.”
“I doubt it.”
“You do?”
“If you were that insightful you would realize the very real risk to your children in attempting to buy them a loving mother.”
“And yet you are here to apply for the job?” he asked with unmasked cynicism.
“Yes.”
“Isn’t that hypocritical?”
“No.”
Disbelief filled him. “No?”
“I know I am prepared to give them what another woman might only promise for a luxurious lifestyle and multimillion-dollar payoff.”
“I assure you I did not build an empire without an ability to read people.”
“But you are going about this emotionlessly.”
“Which should make me even more capable of making the best decision for Franca and Angilu.” And why was he having this discussion with a stranger standing uninvited in his office?
“Not when that decision is about the emotion you are hoping to provide for them.”
“A woman does not have to love them to be loving toward them.”
“That you believe that only shows how little you know.”
“Excuse me?” Ice laced his tone.
She closed her eyes, as if gathering her thoughts. When she opened them he read frustration, even disappointment, but that determination he’d seen there at first hadn’t dimmed. “May I sit down?”
What the hell? “You have fifteen minutes.”
Something like anger washed over her features, but she crossed the room and sat in one of the sleek leather armchairs facing his modern, oversized executive desk.
When she didn’t speak immediately, he found himself demanding impatiently, “Well?”
“You are looking for someone who will make your children the priority in her life, is that right?”
“You keep calling them my children, but you do realize I have custody of them only because their parents are dead?”
“I know, but your desire to give them a loving mother has made me believe you want to fulfill the role of dedicated father. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed.” She said the last as if she was talking to herself.
“You are not wrong.” He would be a better father than Pinu, who had been borderline indifferent to his two offspring.
“Then they are your children?”
“S?.”
She nodded, as if in approval of his admission. He should not care, but he found himself pleased by that.
“So back to my question: you want a woman who will put Franca and Angilu first?”
“Yes.”
“And you do not think she has to love them to do that?”
“Financial compensation will ensure it.”
“Will it?”
“Of course.” He understood money and how to wield it.
“And if something comes into her life that is more important than the money you are paying her to pretend the children are a priority?”
He did not like her description of the job. “She will not be pretending.”
“If it is for the sake of the money, how can it be anything but pretense?”
“Regardless, I doubt very much that something will come up that would make someone lose sight of ten million dollars.”
“Really? What about a husband who is worth thirty million?”
“I am a billionaire.”
“Presuming you are married to this woman, there would be an ironclad prenuptial agreement that only provides her with a yearly stipend and a ten-million-dollar payout nearly two decades down the road.”
“You are so certain there would be a prenup?” He hadn’t mentioned it to Gloria.
“It only makes sense. A man like you isn’t going to offer a woman half of your empire under any circumstances, but particularly if she comes into your life as part of a business proposal, no matter how personal the terms might seem.”
He inclined his head in acknowledgment of her insight. “There aren’t that many marriage-minded multimillionaires out there.”
“But moving in your circles will increase her chances of meeting them exponentially.”
“I’m not going to get hoodwinked by a gold digger.”
“Maybe. But even if you don’t, you must realize that while money can be a very compelling motivator, it isn’t always the most important one.”
There was something about her tone that made him think she not only believed this, but had personal experience. “Few things trump it.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Audrey—he found it difficult to think of her as Miss Miller—sighed with the kind of weariness that came from a lot more than a single conversation.
“Tell me, do you think Johana Tomasi married your brother primarily for the lifestyle she could enjoy as his wife?”
Enzu shocked himself by saying honestly, “Yes.”
“And yet, by all accounts, she was not a loving mother.”
“You investigated my family?” he asked dangerously.
“Are you kidding?” she asked, with a genuine laugh he found altogether too charming. “I’m a senior specialist in your customer service department; I’m hardly in a financial position to hire a private detective. Johana’s exploits were tabloid fodder as much after she became a mother as before.”
He could not deny that. “What is your point?”
“She had to know that you would pay her handsomely to be a more involved parent.”
Both his brother and sister-in-law had known that, but they’d refused his offers of increases in their allowance in exchange for a quieter lifestyle. “She and Pinu saw no point in having access to money if they couldn’t spend it on the lifestyle they enjoyed.”
“Exactly.”
“Whatever you may think of me, I am not an idiot. I have no intention of bringing a woman like that into the children’s lives.”
“I do not think you’re an idiot at all, just maybe na?ve.”
“I am far from na?ve.”
“Oh, you are very worldly and brilliant about money and business...”
“But?” he prompted, knowing that was not all to her assessment of him and inexplicably unable to let it lie.
“But you don’t understand emotion.”
“Emotion is a weakness I cannot afford.”
“That might be true, but do you really want to withhold it from Franca and Angilu?”
“I will give them everything they need.”
“You will try. But if you hire them a mother, you are almost guaranteeing the best they will ever know is kindness born of duty to the job.”
“You came here to apply for that job you are so disparaging of. Are you trying to convince me you wouldn’t be doing it for the money?”
“No.”
“Exactly,” he said, with much less satisfaction than he should have felt at her admission.
“But I am also offering to love your children, not just treat them lovingly out of duty.”
“You cannot promise to love them.”
“Of course I can. They are innocent children, left without their parents. How could I not love them?”
He stared at her, incomprehension washing over him. She believed what she was saying, and yet... “You claim another woman would not do the same?”
“I am not other women. I am me. Sure, there are women out there that would love them, too, but would they be the women your PAA finds to offer as candidates?” There could be no question that Audrey didn’t believe it.
“Why?”
Audrey’s head went back, an impatient sound coming from her. “I’ve tried to explain it. You and Gloria, you’re approaching this whole thing without any emotion. That’s almost a guarantee that the women she puts forward and the one you eventually choose will be every bit as emotionless.”
“I still do not see the problem with that.” Emotion was volatile, impossible to predict with consistent accuracy.
“No, I don’t suppose you do.” She stood. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“On that at least we can agree.”
This time Audrey’s shoulders slumped and the wince was more pronounced. Without another word she turned toward the door and crossed his office, an air of defeat surrounding her as she made the long trek.
She stopped with her hand on the door handle. “Do I need to start looking for another job?”
“No.”
She turned the handle.
“Audrey.”
“Yes?” She didn’t turn.
“I assume you had more reasons for believing you were an appropriate fit for the position than your self-proclaimed affinity for emotion?”
She tensed, but nodded. “I meet the requirements.”
“Tell me how you know what those requirements are.”
She just shook her head, and he got the impression that even if he threatened the job she clearly wanted to keep she wouldn’t give in.
Gloria had to have shared her assignment with Audrey in a moment of indiscretion, but the younger woman wasn’t about to throw his PAA under a bus. He had to appreciate the loyalty.
“I will not tell anyone about this discussion,” he offered.
She had been misguided, but he had no wish to see her pay with her livelihood for what he was certain was an honest attempt to protect his children.
“Thank you.” Her voice was flat, lacking the passion that had infused her arguments for her point of view during their conversation.
She went to leave, but he said her name again.
She stopped without replying.
“Look at me,” he ordered, unwilling to be ignored.
She turned, her face as blank as a statue. No weakness, no emotion showed there, and he couldn’t help but respect that. She had to be disappointed, even a little afraid that he would go back on his word and get her in trouble with her divisional supervisor.
“It was a pleasure to meet you.” They might not agree, but he’d found talking with her more invigorating than with any other woman in a very long time.
“Thank you.”
She left, with the door closing quietly behind her, as he tried to make sense of the fact he was more than annoyed she hadn’t returned the sentiment. He was bothered.
Gloria checked in when she returned a few minutes later. Their afternoon went much as he had planned for it to. Enzu would have been surprised if it didn’t.
But throughout his meetings and other work parts of his discussion with Audrey kept popping up to distract him. The way she’d looked when she said she shouldn’t have come to his office, like she was disappointed. In him.
It was not a reaction he was used to. That had to be why he couldn’t put it out of his mind.
And it had nothing to do with him putting a note with Audrey Miller’s name on Gloria’s desk before she left for the evening. Audrey had claimed she fit all of his requirements. If that was true, it would be a poor business decision not to include her in the pool of eligible candidates.
His PAA looked up at him quizzically. “What’s this for?”
“I want her on the list.”
“List?” Gloria asked.
“Women who would make a suitable mother to Franca and Angilu.”
Comprehension dawned in Gloria’s pale grey gaze. “That list. Will do.”
“I expect dossiers for a minimum of six women with complete background checks on my desk next Friday.”
“That kind of rush on the background investigation is going to cost.”
“And?”
“Nothing. I just didn’t want you having a fit when you saw the expense report.”
“I do not throw fits,” he said with great dignity.
“Call it what you like. So long as you don’t have one of them when you see how much this little plan of yours is going to cost.”
“Fine.”
“If you don’t mind me asking...?” Gloria said before he could return to his office for an evening of work.
“Ask.”
“Who is Audrey Miller?”
“You do not know?” Suddenly the sinister implications of Audrey knowing what she did were at the forefront in his mind. “She does work here?”
“She might very well. I don’t know every employee of Tomasi Enterprises. Even I am not that efficient.”
“Look her up in the employee database.”
Gloria gave him a strange look, but did as he asked. An employee file popped up on her screen. The picture wasn’t all that recent, and there were shadows of fear in the young woman’s eyes that he had not seen today, but it was the same one.
He didn’t let his relief show.
She’d been hired six years ago by the bank for their call center. That explained how young she looked in the picture. She’d been twenty-one, which made her twenty-seven now. So, she did fulfill that particular requirement.
But how she knew about them was still a mystery.
“You don’t know her?” he asked Gloria again.
“No. She doesn’t even look familiar. But she works on the third floor.”
And employees on the top floors rarely interacted with those on the lower floors.
He opened his mouth to demand how Audrey knew about the position if Gloria hadn’t told her, but snapped it shut. That question would lead to more and reveal Audrey’s visit to his office, which he’d promised not to do.
Enzu didn’t consider a security breach. Like all cautious men in his position, he had his office scanned for listening devices on a weekly basis by a security team he trusted implicitly. No business rival was getting sensitive information from Enzu’s own lips.
Gloria must have told someone and that someone had to have passed the information on to Audrey. He would look into it further after his search for a wife...and mother to his children...was over. Someone had shown an egregious lack of discretion, but that could be dealt with later.
After he’d made his choice about the woman he would marry.
He ignored the way his mind returned again to Audrey Miller. She would be one of several candidates, not the candidate.
Even if his libido might demand otherwise.
CHAPTER THREE
DUMBFOUNDED, AUDREY HUNG up her phone and took off her headset. Someone else could take the next few customer service calls.
Mr. Tomasi’s PAA had just made an appointment with Audrey to meet the CEO for an interview the following morning.
It had to be for the job of mother to Franca and Angilu. But the way he’d acted he couldn’t be interested in her for the position, could he?
Only tomorrow’s appointment said otherwise.
* * *
Gloria ushered Audrey Miller into Enzu’s office.
He flicked a glance to the Rolex on his wrist. Exactly on time.
He mentally marked a tick on this positives column for the customer service specialist who had shown the courage to approach the CEO of her company in an unconventional way in order to apply for an equally unconventional job.
“Ms. Miller, sir,” Gloria said.
As if Enzu would forget who the woman was after little more than a week. “Thank you, Gloria.”
He eyed Audrey as she crossed the office on unhurried feet, showing more aplomb than most of his upper level managers when called to Enzu’s office for a meeting. She wore a knockoff black sheath dress and an open cropped white sweater with black swirls. The pearls around her throat were no doubt faux, but they did not look gaudy. Modest heels raised her average height less than two inches.
It was an elegant if inexpensive outfit. Not a sexy one. But Enzu’s body reacted like she’d walked into his office wearing nothing at all.
A curse rose to his lips but he bit it back, swallowing the gasp of shock at his immediate physical response just as quickly.
He’d been hard almost the entire time they’d talked last week and it looked like he was going to experience the same phenomenon again. He couldn’t remember reacting like this to another woman in years. If ever.
Either he’d allowed too much time to pass since practicing that particular stress-reliever, or this woman was something special. Cynicism directed he lean toward the former.
Audrey moved with an unconscious grace he liked and Enzu allowed himself the minor pleasure of simply watching her finish her journey across his intimidatingly large office. It was one of the many calculated ways he used to establish his dominant role in any meeting that occurred in this room.
Audrey did not appear intimidated.
He found that reaction, or rather lack thereof, intriguing.
She stopped in front of his desk. “Good morning, Mr. Tomasi.”
Enzu did not reply immediately, his brain fully engaged with controlling his body’s unholy reaction to this woman.
“Thank you for considering me for this position.”
Typical, well-used words in an interview, and yet Audrey’s sincerity inexplicably touched him.
Her voice was soft, arousing. Not weak.
The subtle strength of a woman. His many summers in Sicily had taught him to appreciate it and never to underestimate the steel that ran through the spine of a woman who had learned to sacrifice for her family.
Unlike most of his Sicily-based family, Enzu had never once heard his great-aunt raise her voice. But there had never been any doubt in his mind who ran the family. His great-uncle could yell with amazing volume, even at eighty. And yet it was the old man’s wife whose quiet orders no one in the family dared to disobey.
Enzu’s silence must have lasted too long for Audrey’s comfort.
Uncertainty glowed in her chocolate gaze as it flicked between him and Gloria, who remained near the door, an assessing look in her pale eyes as she watched the exchange in silence.
Enzu forced himself to speak, allowing none of his response to this interesting woman to show in his voice. “Have a seat, Audrey.” He indicated the chair she’d occupied the week prior.
She nodded, silent, and then sat down in a rush as if her legs didn’t want to hold her up. The evidence of nervousness on her part surprised him.
“I assume you understand why you are here?”
“You want to interview me for the position of mother to your children?” she asked, her tone implying she found that particular eventuality very difficult to believe.
“Yes.”
A sound escaped her. “Oh. Okay.” She seemed to relax, though Enzu could not have identified exactly what gave him that impression.
He was as much an expert at reading body language as any psychologist with a PhD. It was a little unnerving to realize he could not pinpoint the change in hers that indicated her more relaxed state.
It occurred to him that this woman would be a challenging adversary across the boardroom table. He would do well not to forget it, either.
“You are still interested in the position?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I am glad to hear it.”
“You are? I was pretty sure you had no intention of considering me for the position,” she offered candidly. “I thought you’d have a stack of files on women you would find a lot more suitable.”
“You are not the only candidate, naturally.”
“No, of course not.” Her perfectly shaped lips twisted wryly.
A sudden inescapable desire to see how they would look swollen from kisses assailed him.
“I’ll bring some coffee,” Gloria inserted smoothly.
Enzu nodded his approval of that plan, but Audrey turned her head to meet Gloria’s eyes. “I’d prefer tea, if it’s not too much trouble.”
A spark of admiration shone in his PAA’s pale gaze. “No trouble at all.”
Enzu appreciated Audrey’s willingness to assert her own preferences, albeit politely, as well. His years of experience and study of business psychology had taught him that a person who was capable of that combination usually made a reasonable if strong negotiator.
“Thank you.” Audrey gave Gloria a small smile before turning back to face Enzu.
The door to his office closed quietly in Gloria’s wake.
Enzu glanced down to the interview questions he’d prepared. “Right, then, let’s get started.”
“Before we do, I have a question for you.”
He frowned, irritated. Did she not realize who was doing the interviewing here? Not that he expected her to have no questions of her own, but to insist on having the first one indicated either a lack of understanding of business protocol or significant self-importance.
Curious in spite of himself, he inclined his head.
Serious brown eyes met his. “My brother is gay and he will always be welcome in my home and my life.” There was no give in her voice or the square set of her lovely shoulders.
“That is not a question.” But it might well explain certain circumstances he had discovered on reading her dossier.
Her hands clenched in her lap. The only indication Audrey was worried about his reaction to her revelation. “Is that a problem for you?”
“Hardly.” He might be the controlling and arrogant powerbroker some accused him of being, but Enzu wasn’t a bigot.
Her eyes widened, his answer obviously a surprise to her.
“I take it your parents are not as accepting?” That would explain the fact that Audrey had been raising her brother for the past six years despite the fact their very wealthy parents were still living.
“That’s putting it mildly.”
“So, your brother came to live with you. Why not your older siblings?” She had two, both successful professionals who presumably would have found it much easier to provide for a twelve-year-old boy.
“They share my parents’ prejudices.”
“That is unfortunate.” And unforgivable, in his opinion, but he left that unsaid.
It was the job of parents and older siblings to protect. Enzu had spent a lifetime protecting his younger brother Pinu, but in the end even he could not prevent tragedy.
Audrey shrugged. “It is what it is.”
The flat line of her lips and the hardness that briefly masked her features said Audrey was not as insouciant in the face of her family’s betrayal of the youngest child as she appeared.
“Is this also the reason your parents cut you off financially halfway through your junior year at uni?” He’d been trying to figure out the dynamics that had led to that set of circumstances.
She’d been attending one of the most prestigious and one of the few remaining female-only institutions of higher learning in the country. Her grades had been good. Her behavior exemplary. Her known associates had all been from good families with no hint of scandal to their names.
There was no record or even hint of inappropriate behavior on Audrey’s part that might have caused such a move on the part of her parents.
“Yes.”
“You were forced to get a job?” At his family’s bank. For some reason the fact that his bank had given her the means to support herself and her brother pleased Enzu. “You had to transfer from Barnard to the state university in your final year and pursue your degree part-time?”
“Yes.”
“That could not have been easy.” In any aspect. “And still you chose to take Tobias in.”
For a moment anger burned in her dark gaze. “He would have ended up in foster care or living on the street. Would you have let that happen to your younger brother?”
“No.” He’d tried to protect Pinu even from himself. Grief pierced Enzu.
“I’m sorry.” Sincerity and honest sympathy infused her tone and demeanor. “I should not have said that.”
“It is truth. Tobias is a lucky young man to have you for his sister.”
“Toby. He hates Tobias.”
No doubt because it was their father’s middle name.
Enzu allowed his lips to curve in a half-smile. “Duly noted.”
“Toby is my family.” Her tone implied an only in there.
He could not blame her for the sentiment. “I find your loyalty and tenacity in the face of the many challenges you’ve faced admirable.”
“Just how detailed is that dossier?” she asked with an edge of annoyance.
“Very,” Gloria answered for him as she placed tea things on the table beside Audrey. “Tomasi Enterprises employ only the best. The investigative firm we use knows how exacting Mr. Tomasi’s standards are.”
Far from looking impressed, Audrey was clearly disgruntled. “I don’t suppose it occurred to you to simply ask me about my life?”
“You might lie. My investigator has no impetus to do so.”
“I guess most men as high up on the corporate ladder as you are cynical.” Again, Audrey didn’t sound particularly impressed by that observation.
He took his coffee, already prepared to his specifications, from Gloria. “In my experience, that is true.”
Audrey opened her mouth to reply and then seemed to think better of her words. She focused on putting sugar and just a dash of milk into her teacup before pouring the hot beverage.
“What were you going to say?” he asked, curious.
If nothing else, he had not yet found himself bored in this woman’s company. He could not say that about a great many people he was forced to spend time with in the name of business.
Her brow furrowed in thought. “It’s just that I’m not sure I see the point of this interview if you already know all the answers to your questions.”
He almost smiled, but held the expression in. She had no idea how much a simple meeting could reveal, even if the only thing discussed was the temperature outside.
“You do not think it is important to establish whether or not there could be a possible rapport between us?”
“Well, if you had the children here, that particular consideration would make more sense.”
“You do realize that being their mother mandates also becoming my wife?”
Or hadn’t she?
Was it possible that, however she had learned about the position, Audrey had not been made aware of that particular aspect? The stunned expression on her lovely features implied just that.
She jolted, setting the teacup down without taking the sip she’d planned. “What?”
“Surely you can see that you must be my wife in order to actually be their mother?”
“I hadn’t thought about that.”
“Does the knowledge mean you would like to withdraw your application for the position?” he asked, with no doubt about the answer.
Who would not want to be married to a billionaire?
To his chagrin and grudging appreciation, Audrey took several moments to consider the question.
Finally she said, “Not immediately, no.”
He frowned, less than pleased.
“I’m sorry if that offends you. I just hadn’t considered...”
Her voice trailed off and he realized Audrey was seriously rattled.
“Yes, well, consider it.”
She nodded, still looking a little dazed. “You’re not looking for a real wife, though? Right?”
“The woman I choose will share my home, my family and many aspects of my life. In what way is that not real?”
“Oh, I...uh...I just thought...” Her lovely features went an interesting shade of pink before something seemed to occur to her and they paled to an alarming level.
Nonplussed that the idea of becoming his wife was more daunting to her than parenting two small children, he asked, “Are you all right?”
“Y-ye...” She cleared her throat. “I mean, yes.”
He watched with interest as she lifted the teacup in trembling hands to take a sip.
Her eyes closed and she took another sip and several deep breaths before carefully placing the cup down again. “Um...does that mean you’re expecting...uh...conjugal relations?”
Humor vied with a vicious spike of arousal at the thought of sharing a bed with Audrey and her reaction to the concept.
The prospect did not send most women into stuttering panic. He was surprised she was reacting so gauchely to the idea. Was it possible she did not feel the passion sparking a steadily building electric current between them?
Or was it that she felt it and was overwhelmed by it? She was twenty-seven years old, not some blushing virgin, though.
“Naturally I would expect to have sex with my wife.” He did not mention that he’d actually had no intention of any such thing until this very moment.
But he’d had a sudden and inescapable self-revelation. No way could he live in the same house as this woman and not act on the desire she evoked in him.
Shortsighted of him not to realize the efficiency of such an arrangement as well, regardless of who he chose for the role. Enzu wasn’t usually a shortsighted man.
“I didn’t realize. I’m not... Well, you probably already know.” She gave him an appealing look. “I’m sure it’s in that invasive report. Your top-notch investigators wouldn’t have left something like that out. Right?”
Enzu was unacquainted with the level of confusion he experienced at her disjointed words. “What exactly are you talking about?”
“My... That I’m a...” She didn’t finish her thought.
Enzu found himself more intrigued than confused. That she was a what?
An idea came to him. One he dismissed almost immediately as impossible. She was twenty-seven, had attended university, and raised her own brother for the past six years.
Still, considering how little information on that front there was in the report, he could not help wondering. He had thought she was simply more private in this area than anyone he’d ever come across. Even himself.
And Enzu made it a policy never to get his name splashed across the tabloids for his sexual liaisons.
There was no evidence of any kind of sex life in the report on Audrey, but that didn’t mean she did not have one. An investigator would find it difficult, if not impossible, to name Enzu’s sexual partners in the past year.
“Your discretion in that area bodes well for your ability to maintain my confidences.”
Enzu had no intention of telling his wife sensitive information, but living together in the same house for at least two decades risked her being exposed anyway.
Audrey was back to blushing and looking into her teacup as if it held the secrets of the universe. “I am a very private person.”
“I had surmised that.”
“But it’s not so much a matter of discretion as there being nothing to be discreet about,” she admitted, almost as if she was embarrassed by that fact.
He was glad to hear she wasn’t promiscuous, but he did not want her to think he expected her to have no past sexual experiences. He was not a Neanderthal.
“I find sex a satisfactory stress-reliever but, like you, I do not indulge as often as some might expect.” Enzu wasn’t celibate by any stretch, but he was not and never had been a player like his brother, either.
He worked sixty-hour weeks, rarely taking days off—even on the weekend; Enzu didn’t have time for a lover, or even frequent hook-ups.
Audrey winced, cherry-red washing over her cheeks. “I don’t indulge at all.”
“Not at all?” he asked with some measure of disbelief.
“Not ever,” she admitted, as if it was painful to do so. “I’ll understand if you want to end the interview right here. It was a reasonable assumption that I would have at least some experience.”
He wasn’t sure why she thought he’d want to cut short the interview, but he was a lot more interested in her claim of total inexperience than just why she thought he would see it as a strike against her.
Strangely, the urgency of his physical attraction to Audrey only increased at the knowledge of her innocence.
“You’re saying you are a virgin?”
“Yes.”
“But you were engaged.” The relationship had ended shortly after Toby moved in with his sister. A formal retraction had even been printed in the paper.
“We were waiting until our wedding night.”
“People still do that?” he asked, bemused.
“To hear my parents tell it, anyone with a conscience does.”
“They seem to be rather narrow-minded.”
“You think?” she asked with some sarcasm. “They’re also hypocrites. My oldest sister was born seven months after their wedding day. And she was not a preemie, no matter what my mom claimed later.”
Enzu laughed cynically. “While your virginity comes as a surprise, your parents’ double standard does not.”
Audrey nodded and then rose gracefully to her feet. “Right. I appreciate you considering me. I hope you find someone suited to both you and the children.”
He stood, too, coming around his desk and blocking an easy exit from his office. “This interview isn’t over.”
“It’s not?” Her forward momentum had taken her to within inches of him before she stopped.
Her scent, a soft floral fragrance, teased his senses. Arousal spiked through him and he had to control the urge to reach out and touch. “No. Surely you realize that it is my responsibility to determine when this interview is over?”
“Yes, of course.” She stepped back.
He followed her.
Chocolate-brown eyes widened, but she didn’t try moving back again. Perhaps she realized to do so might well trip her backward into her chair in a less than dignified manner.
“I have several more things to discuss with you.”
She swallowed, her gaze stuck on his mouth in a gratifying way. The attraction was not one-sided. He smiled.
She inhaled sharply and then shook her head, like she was trying to clear it. “But I thought...”
“It would take an insecure man to be intimidated by a lack of experience in his possible future sex partner.”
“Oh.”
The breathy little sound went straight to his sex. “Do you think I am insecure man, Audrey?”
CHAPTER FOUR
“UM, NO.” HER gaze strayed up to his and then back down to his lips, as if she couldn’t help herself.
Would it be so bad to include a kiss as part of the initial interview? This position was hardly typical, or covered under usual human resources procedures.
It was only the fact that the interview had already gone so far awry from his prepared agenda that kept him from giving in to further modification to the plan. He was still in control of this meeting. And himself.
“Do I seem intimidated?” he asked, driving the point home.
Audrey licked her lips and gave a small laugh. “Definitely not.”
“Then it appears this interview is not over.” He gently but firmly grasped her shoulders and guided her back to her seat. “I will tell you when we are finished, s??”
“Yes. Okay. That would be good.”
Forcing himself to release her, he stepped back. “S?.”
“You were born here in the U.S., weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“So why do you say s? sometimes?”
“I’m not sure. I grew up visiting Sicily every summer and we did not speak English at home.”
“Is your mother of Italian descent as well?”
“No. And our family is Sicilian.”
“Isn’t that the same?”
“Not to a Sicilian.”
She grinned. “I see.”
“Bene.” He used the Sicilian for good just to make her smile again.
It worked and he was inexplicably pleased.
“So, your mother learned Sicilian?”
“Not well, but then my parents were rarely home.”
“Your grandparents raised you?”
“The answer to that question is complicated.”
“Do I get to use that reply?”
“No.”
She looked at him patiently but with clear purpose.
“You are stubborn, I think.”
“Maybe.”
There was no maybe about it. “My grandmother was from the Old Country. By the time I was born she spent most of the year visiting our family in Palermo. My grandfather ran the bank.”
“So, you’re saying no one really raised you at all?”
He shrugged. “It was better for Pinu.”
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