The Italian's Unexpected Baby

‘Oh?’ One dark slash of an eyebrow arched in cool amusement. ‘You surprise me with your perception, Miss James.’

‘If I’m your companion, perhaps you should call me Mia.’

Something flickered in his eyes, and Mia felt a shiver through her belly in response. She hadn’t meant to sound flirtatious, but she realised she might have…and she didn’t actually mind. ‘Very well,’ Alessandro said after a moment. ‘Mia.’ His voice, with his slight accent, seemed to caress the two syllables.

‘Where are you from?’ Mia asked. ‘It didn’t say when I looked online.’

His eyebrow arched higher. ‘You did a search on me?’

She shrugged. ‘After I heard you’d taken over the company, yes, of course. Information is power.’

‘True.’ His gaze held hers, his expression considering. ‘And is that what you want? Power?’

‘I want to keep my job,’ Mia said after a second’s pause. ‘And knowing my employer helps with that.’

‘Mia!’ A woman approached them in a flurry of cloying scent, kissing Mia on both cheeks while Alessandro stepped back discreetly. ‘Darling, how are you? I heard about poor Henry…’

Mia shot an alarmed look at Alessandro; his expression seemed dangerously neutral. ‘Diane,’ she said, after she’d returned the woman’s tight hug. ‘This is Alessandro Costa, the new CEO of Dillard Investments.’

‘New…oh.’ Diane Holley’s mouth dropped into a comical ‘o’ as she swivelled to face Alessandro, her eyes widening in shocked speculation.

‘Pleased to meet you…?’

‘Diane. Diane Holley.’ She took Alessandro’s outstretched hand, looking a bit dazed. As Diane shook his hand, Mia saw her expression change from surprise to admiration, her lowered gaze sweeping speculatively, and almost avariciously, over Alessandro Costa’s admittedly impressive form. ‘Very pleased to meet you too, of course…’ she murmured.

Mia felt a sharp tug of jealousy, a reaction which surprised and appalled her in equal measure. What on earth…? She had absolutely no reason to feel remotely jealous in any way. She didn’t care about Alessandro Costa. She didn’t even like the man. And jealousy was not an emotion she’d ever let herself entertain. It was so weak and needy. It was also dangerous.

And yet…she was wearing a beautiful dress, and he’d looked at her, for a brief second, with desire in his eyes, and for a single evening she’d felt like someone else entirely, someone transported into a fairy tale, from the shadows to the spotlight.

Perhaps one evening was too much, after all. The last thing she needed to do was lose her head, even for an evening, over Alessandro Costa. The man was too dangerous, and too much was at risk. Not just her job, but her very self. She couldn’t let Alessandro Costa affect her. Make her want. Make her weak. Not even for a moment.

Then he put another flute of champagne into her hand, and her fingers closed around the fragile crystal stem automatically. ‘You looked as if you were a million miles away,’ he murmured, his voice low and honeyed. ‘Don’t you like hearing about Diane Holley’s corgis?’

‘Corgis?’ Blinking, Mia realised Diane must have been chatting to Alessandro for a few minutes at least and she hadn’t taken in a word. The older woman, the wife of one of Dillard’s most important clients, had already moved on. ‘She told you about her corgis?’

‘I asked about them. You mentioned them this afternoon.’

‘Did I?’

Alessandro arched an eyebrow, looking more amused than annoyed—for once. ‘You really haven’t been paying attention, have you?’

‘Of course I have. I always do.’ She took a defiant sip of champagne. ‘Diane has four corgis, and one of them has digestive issues.’

‘She didn’t mention those tonight, thankfully.’

‘You were lucky, then.’ Mia’s breath came out in a surprised hiss as Alessandro took her elbow, his hand warm and dry and so very sure as he steered her towards another cluster of people. ‘Where…where are we going?’

‘To mingle, of course. That’s why we’re here. You’re going to introduce me to all these people, and then tell me their secrets.’

‘I thought I’d already done that this afternoon. Besides, I don’t know any secrets.’

‘I still need to put names to faces. And I think you know more secrets than you realise…always working behind the scenes, listening in the shadows.’

‘You make me sound like a snoop.’

‘No, someone who is smart.’ His gaze lingered on hers for a tantalising second as his hand had moved from her elbow to her waist, his fingers splayed across her hip. Heat flooded Mia’s body, and once again she was in danger of drifting along this lovely tide of feeling. ‘Mr Costa…’

‘You must call me Alessandro.’

‘You must stop acting like I’m your date.’ She knew she never would have said the words if she hadn’t had two glasses of champagne, and just chugged half of her third. If she wasn’t so afraid of how much he affected her.

‘Why? You are my date.’ He sounded utterly unruffled, like someone making a simple statement of fact.

‘No…’ Her breath came out in a rush. Her head spun. People were looking at them. Wondering. ‘I’m not. Not really…’

‘Yes, you are.’ They’d reached the group of people, and Alessandro kept his hand on her waist as he stretched out his other one. ‘Alessandro Costa, CEO of Dillard Investments.’ In turn, everyone shook his hand, with varying expressions of pleasure, speculation, or snobbery. It made Mia wonder yet again about Alessandro. What was he doing here, exactly? Why did he want her with him? Who was this man at her side? And how much did she want to know?

The chit-chat washed over her as she took in Alessandro’s easy, urbane manner. The man could be charming when he chose, a fact that alarmed her. If Alessandro Costa affected her when he was blunt and brusque, heaven help her when he was easy and affable.

She knew a few people in the group through Dillard’s, and somehow, her mind still spinning, she made chit-chat, introduced Alessandro to a few others, and stumbled through the evening, feeling as if she were acting a part in a play, desperate now to get to the end of the evening without embarrassing herself or losing her head entirely over the man at her side.

When they were alone again, and she was finishing her third glass of champagne, she rather recklessly asked him about it all.

‘I can make conversation, if that’s what you mean,’ he answered as he sipped his own champagne.

‘What do you want from these people?’ Mia asked, her tongue well and truly loosened by now. ‘Why did you buy Dillard Investments, really?’

A guarded look came over his face before he shrugged, the movement clearly meant to be dismissive. ‘Why do I buy any company?’

‘You tell me.’

The tiniest of pauses. ‘For financial gain.’

‘But you said yourself Dillard’s was operating at a loss.’

‘That doesn’t mean it always has to.’

‘Still…’ She shook her head slowly. ‘A man like you…’

‘A man like me?’ Alessandro’s voice sharpened. ‘What does that mean, exactly?’

‘Only that you must always have your eye on the bottom line.’

‘True.’ He eyed her thoughtfully. ‘So what did you learn about me, during that online cyberstalking session?’

Mia let out a choked laugh. ‘I was hardly stalking.’

‘Weren’t you?’