A Night In His Arms: Captive in the Spotlight / Meddling with a Millionaire / How to Seduce a Billionaire

His look turned baleful. His voice when it came was a lethal whisper scudding through the silence. ‘Is that a threat?’

‘No threat, Signor Volpe. An observation.’

His eyes pinioned her and her breathing grew shallow. But she refused to be intimidated.

‘I want peace for my family.’ Yet his eyes didn’t plead, they demanded. ‘You can’t say the offer isn’t generous.’

‘Generous?’ The money on the table was stupefying. Enough to fund that new start in life she’d longed for. Enough to establish herself immediately, even though what was left of her family rejected her. Looked at that way, it was tempting.

‘On condition that I don’t talk about your brother, his wife, their son, their household, you or anyone associated with your family or the court case.’ She ticked the list off on her fingers. ‘Nor could I discuss my time in jail or the legal proceedings.’

Indignation settled like a burning ember, firing her blood. ‘I’d be gagged from making any comment, ever.’

‘You have to earn the money I’m offering.’ He shrugged those powerful shoulders, leaning back behind the massive desk, symbol of the power he wielded.

‘Earn!’ Lucy was sick of being the one ground down by those in authority. The one forced to carry the blame.

Searing anger sparked from that slow burning ember in her belly. She pushed the document across the desk.

‘No.’

‘Pardon?’

Lucy loved his perplexed expression. How many people said no to this man? She bet precious few women ever had.

‘I’m not interested.’

‘You’ve got to be joking. You need money.’

‘How do you know that?’ She leaned forward. ‘Don’t tell me you managed to access my private bank details.’ She shook her head. ‘That would be a criminal offence.’

His teeth bared in a grimace that told her he fought to retain his temper. Good. Goading him was the closest she’d get to revenge and she was human enough to revel in it.

‘If you expect a better offer you’ll have a long wait. My price is fair.’

‘Fair?’ Her voice rose. ‘No price is fair if I can’t tell my side of the story. You really expect me to forget what happened to me?’ Disbelief almost choked her. ‘If I took your blood money it would be tantamount to admitting guilt.’ The thought made her sick to the stomach.

‘And so?’

‘Damn you, Domenico Volpe!’ Lucy shot from her chair and skewered him with a glare that should have shrivelled him to ashes in his precious executive chair. ‘I refuse to soothe your conscience or that of your sister-in-law.’

He rose and leaned across so his face was a breath away from hers.

‘What are you implying?’

‘Don’t play the innocent.’ She braced her hands on the table, firing the words at him. ‘Your family’s influence was what convicted me.’

‘You have the temerity to hint the trial wasn’t fair? Because of us?’

She had to give him credit. He looked so furious he’d have convinced anyone. Except someone who’d been behind bars for years because of his precious family.

‘Come on! What chance did I stand with an overworked public defender against your power and influence?’

‘The evidence pointed overwhelmingly to you.’

‘But it wasn’t true.’ Her breath came in uneven pants as she faced him across the desk.

‘You’d be well advised to sign.’ His look sent a tremor of fear racing through her.

But he couldn’t hurt her. Not now. She was free. She had no one and almost no money, but she had integrity. He couldn’t take that.

‘Now who’s making threats?’ She stared into eyes that glowed like molten steel.

Deliberately she leaned across his desk, her lips almost grazing his cheek, her nostrils filling with the heady spice scent of him. His eyes widened in shock and she wondered if she’d looked like that out in the garden when he’d come close enough to kiss her.

‘I don’t respond to threats,’ she breathed in a whisper that caressed his scrupulously shaved jaw. ‘The answer is still no.’

CHAPTER FIVE (#u83a98ce1-24dc-5133-bc01-e47119cd4372)

DAMN THE WOMAN.

Domenico paced his study, furious he hadn’t broken the deadlock. Lucy Knight still rejected his offer.

It stuck in his craw to give her anything but it was the only way to stop her selling her story. Then what privacy would Pia and Taddeo have? The scandal could go on for years, dogging Taddeo as he grew.

Money was the obvious lever to get what he needed. She was desperate for cash. If she’d had funds she’d have spent it on a top-flight defence team.

A splinter of discomfort pierced him, remembering her inexperienced, under-prepared lawyer. Watching his ineffectual efforts had made Domenico actually consider intervening to organise a more capable defender.

To defend the woman who’d killed Sandro!

Perhaps if he hadn’t known she was guilty he would have. But how could he doubt the overwhelming evidence against her?

A mere week before Sandro’s death Lucy Knight had bumped into Domenico, literally, at an exhibition of baroque jewellery. He was supervising the inclusion of some family pieces but had been distracted, outrageously so, by the charms of the delightful young Englishwoman who’d blushed and stammered so prettily. She’d looked at the gems with unfeigned delight and at him with something like awe.

Yet it was her hesitation to accept his spur of the moment invitation to coffee that had hooked him. How long since a woman had even pretended to resist him?

Coffee had turned into a stroll through the Forum, lunch at a tucked away trattoria and an afternoon sightseeing. He’d enjoyed himself more than he could remember with a woman who was just Lucy to his Domenico. A woman whose eyes sparkled with unconcealed awareness, yet who trembled with innocent hesitation when he merely took her hand. She was smart, fun and refreshingly honest. Enough to make him believe he’d found someone special and rare.

She’d evoked a slew of emotions. Passion, delight and a surprising protectiveness that had kept him from sweeping her off to his bed then and there. For the connection between them had been sizzling, each touch electric.

She’d been different from every other woman, her impact so profound he’d suggested meeting again when he returned to Rome.

In New York he’d counted the hours to his return.

Till he’d seen Lucy in a news report, doused in his brother’s blood as she was led away by the police.

His heart stuttered at the memory.