The Secret The Italian Claims

Coming forward, his eyes devouring every inch of her, he’d murmured, “You’re anything but invisible. What were you singing?”

“Just an Appalachian folk song.”

“It’s beautiful.” Coming close enough to touch her, he’d whispered, “So are you.”

Her cheeks had gone rosy, her lips parting in unconscious invitation as she stood beside his enormous bed.

He’d reached for her.

Cristiano knew who was at fault. He’d wanted her. So he’d taken her. Without thinking of the consequences. If he had, he would have stopped himself. It was one of his rules: never sleep with employees.

But that wasn’t the worst rule he’d broken. Hallie wasn’t just an employee. She’d also been a virgin. Virgins were off-limits. He didn’t toy with women who might mistake sex for love and become a problem later.

He’d known she was a virgin from the first time he’d kissed her, when he’d felt the tremble of her sweet lips. He’d felt her hesitation, her shyness, her inexperience. And he’d known. Somehow, this incredible woman was untouched.

It hadn’t made him stop. He was a man who put few limits on his own behavior. But he had a code of honor. In Hallie Hatfield’s case, he’d recklessly blown through his own rules like dynamite through a brick wall.

So it was no wonder he’d broken a third rule, afterward, and fired her for sleeping with him.

That wasn’t the reason he’d given her supervisor, the head housekeeper, of course. But it had been obvious to Hallie. And clearly her lawyer, too.

But now, as Hallie stood across from him in his private office, biting her full, delectable lower lip, it was hard for him to think about lawyers when all he wanted to do was pull her back into his arms.

For a year, he’d done his best to forget her. He’d told himself he had. Now he knew that was a lie.

“Why are you here?” Cristiano demanded in a low voice.

“I came to...came to tell you...”

Her husky voice trembled, stopped. She looked at him.

Turning away, Cristiano set down the crystal lowball glass heavily on the dark wood bar. He clenched his hands at his sides to keep himself from the temptation of pulling her into his arms and kissing her to see if her lips were still as delicious as he remembered. He was drawn by the sweet sin of her mouth. Of her body. Of her deep brown eyes, luring him into their depths.

Possessing her once had not been enough. After he’d had her that night, he’d just wanted more. It didn’t help that, naked and soft in his arms, she’d looked up at him in bed as if she were half in love with him already. She’d lured him like a siren to give him more than just his body. More than just his money.

But sex and money were all he could give any woman.

So he’d sent her away, tossing her from the warmth of his bed when his body was still aching for more. After she’d gone, he’d still longed for her, like a sweet, forbidden poison. First thing the next morning, he’d contacted her supervisor and arranged to have her fired. For her own good. And his.

But he had never stopped wanting her. And now, as he stepped toward her, his breathing was hard. And not just his breathing.

“Tell me what you want.”

“I need to tell you something. Important.”

“So you said.” Cristiano’s voice was low as he looked down at her. He came closer, almost close enough to touch her. His mind was scrambling for rationalizations as to why he should.

Perhaps if he slept with her just one more time...

Got her out of his system...

Stop, he told himself furiously.

Hesitating, Hallie licked her full, pink lips. He nearly groaned. Was she purposely taunting him?

“This...isn’t easy to say,” she whispered.

Gritting his teeth, he glared at her. “Let me say it for you, then. I already know why you’re here.”

Her caramel-brown eyes went wide.

“You know?”

He set his jaw. “You never cashed the check.”

Hallie blinked, furrowing her forehead. “The check?”

“The morning after.”

Her cheeks colored and she looked away.

“No,” she said in a low voice. “I ripped it into a million pieces and threw it in the trash.”

“Because you knew, even then, you could demand far more.”

Hallie looked at him sharply.

“I can?” she whispered. “You’d give me money, just for asking? Why?”

“You want me to admit it aloud?” He pulled her roughly against him. She gasped as his hands suddenly moved over her waist, her hips.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking for a microphone.” But even through the thin cotton of her sundress, touching her waist and hips without crushing her lips with his own felt like torture.

“Let me go,” she breathed, not moving.

He released her. Stepping back, he leaned against the marble fireplace, folding his arms and keeping his voice very cold. “Who is your lawyer?”

“My lawyer?”

“Don’t try to pretend you don’t have one. You knew I’d want to keep this quiet. I’m not proud of it.”

Her eyes widened. “Of—of what?”

“It would hardly improve the public image of my company if the CEO is sued for sexual harassment.”

“Oh.” Biting her lip, she looked away, staring for a long moment at the wall of leather-bound books he never read, and the leather reading chair he never sat in, both brought in by an interior designer to make his office look like a nineteenth-century gentleman’s study. And all Cristiano could think right now was that he wanted to bend her back against the enormous dark wood desk, kiss her senseless, pull off her clothes and...