The Salvatore Marriage Deal

‘It’s Lily Chase, actually,’ she said, holding out her hand to him. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you, Mr D’Ambrosio.’

‘Decided to send in the big guns, did they?’ D’Ambrosio asked. He let his beady eyes slide over her in assessment, and held onto her hand for far too long.

‘You could say that.’ Lily smiled. One of the most important rules in sales was always to appear bursting with confidence, even if it sometimes went against the grain. She retrieved her hand and resisted the urge to rub it vigorously on her straight skirt. ‘L&G Enterprises is potentially a very important customer, and it was felt that I have the necessary experience to explain our product fully.’

‘Hmm.’ D’Ambrosio looked unimpressed. ‘Let’s get started,’ he said, sitting down at the immense glass table as another group of suited people came in. One of them, a woman wearing scarily high heels, was talking on her mobile phone in a loud, insistent voice. Another, a young man in his twenties, sat down, opened his laptop and started scrolling through his emails.

Lily looked at the assembled executives, wondering if she should let the woman finish her phone call before she started. They were an arrogant bunch, and she’d long since learned not to expect much common courtesy from this type of person—if she didn’t catch their attention quickly, it wouldn’t be long before they were all talking on their mobile phones or looking at their laptops.

‘What are you waiting for?’ D’Ambrosio barked. ‘We haven’t got all day.’

Lily straightened her shoulders, smiled brightly, and started her pitch.

Vito Salvatore strode through the building in a thunderous mood. He couldn’t get his recent visit to his grandfather out of his mind.

Giovanni Salvatore had always been such a force in his life—a formidable head of the family, an important role model and, most importantly, a dependable father figure when Vito’s parents had died in an accident.

But now he was a sick old man, clinging tenaciously to the last months of his life.

‘Make me happy before I die, Vito,’ Giovanni had said.

‘Nonno, you know I would do anything for you.’ Vito had sat beside him and had taken his grandfather’s frail hand in his own. It shocked him to feel the weakness of his grip, feel the constant tremor in his fingers.

‘Let me know my name will continue.’

Vito had squeezed his grandfather’s hand in reassurance, but he hadn’t been able to speak. He’d known what was being asked of him—but how could he promise something that was never going to happen?

‘You’re thirty-two years old. It’s time to settle down,’ Giovanni had urged, fixing him with a surprisingly sharp stare. ‘You run through women like there’s no tomorrow, but you need to stop and think about the future. My days are numbered. Before I die I want to know my great-grandchild is on the way.’

Vito had stood up and turned to look down out of the high-arched window at the many boats on the Grand Canal below. His grandfather was a stubborn old dog. Even as his health declined he’d refused to leave the baroque palazzo in one of the busiest parts of Venice.

It had been his home for more than seventy-five years, and he’d declared the constant noise of tourist and business traffic beneath his windows didn’t bother him—what would finish him off would be putting him out to pasture in one of the family’s rural estates on the Veneto plain. And in truth Vito liked having him in the city where he could oversee the care he was receiving.

He only hoped that he would be able to live out his days at home. Certainly his fortune would cover the necessary costs of medical professionals to attend him.

‘Everything will be all right, Nonno,’ he’d said, turning to place an affectionate kiss on the old man’s cheek. How could Vito break his heart by telling him that the Salvatore line would stop with him?

He pushed the memory aside and continued to stride along the carpeted corridors of the executive floor, unaware of how his expression was scattering employees in front of him. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with the directors of L&G Enterprises, but nevertheless he would attend the board meeting.

Suddenly he stopped in his tracks and stared through the glass wall of the meeting room. He could not believe his eyes.

Lily Chase.

Seeing her standing there felt like a sledgehammer blow to the guts. Her betrayal was still a fresh wound and, as he looked at her, he could almost feel her twisting the knife. His heart started to thud furiously beneath his ribs, and he clenched his fists at his sides.

No one betrayed Vito Salvatore and got away with it—but that was exactly what Lily Chase had managed to do. The night he’d discovered what she had done, he’d been so shocked that he had simply thrown her out. It was so much less than she’d deserved.

And now, as if to rub further salt into his wounds, it was obvious that she’d fallen on her feet. Because here she was, bold as brass, coolly making a presentation to his communications team—as if she didn’t have a care in the world. And as if she had nothing to fear from him.

He looked her up and down, automatically checking for signs of pregnancy, but there was no evidence of her condition yet. If anything she’d lost weight, making her look incredibly thin. The linen suit she was wearing was unflatteringly loose and baggy, and her hair was tied back in an uncompromisingly severe style.

But, even though she wasn’t looking her best, he simply couldn’t take his eyes off her. With her light-blonde hair and her pale clothing she stood out like a beacon against the dark-suited executives in their dark and gloomy conference room.

Why had she done it?

The question thrust itself forcefully into his mind.

He gritted his teeth, trying not to let his thoughts continue down that path. He was always in control. He was the one who called the shots, in his private life as well as in business.

All the women in his life understood how it was. Nothing permanent. No strings attached. But always absolute fidelity on both sides while it lasted. Up until the blow Lily had dealt him, that had never been an issue. He was man enough for any woman. Or so he’d thought.

He stared at her through dangerously narrowed eyes, watching her behind the glass. It only took a moment to figure out she’d gone back to her old job, selling web-conferencing software.

Although she looked pale and tired, she appeared calm and in control of the meeting, but he knew she was punching above her weight with this lot. He didn’t like the head of Corporate Communications at L&G, and he knew he’d never invest in a new system, even though it was exactly what was needed to bring the company into the twenty-first century.

Why had Lily been unfaithful to him?

The question hammered persistently in his head.

Things had been good between them, both in and out of the bedroom. The time they’d spent together had been a wonderful counterpoint to the cut and thrust of his business life. And the sex…The sex had been nothing short of incredible.

She’d given him her virginity—something he’d considered a truly special gift. But that just made it all the more shocking that she’d fallen into another man’s bed so quickly.

The thought of Lily with another man was unbearable. A vein throbbed in his temple and he surged forward, opening the door into the meeting room with a crash.

Lily looked up in shock.

Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.

Her worst nightmare had come true—Vito was here.

‘What…?’ D’Ambrosio started to bluster at the interruption, but the second he realised it was his Venetian boss he fell silent.

Lily dragged a shallow breath into her lungs and felt her heart jolt back into life after the shock of seeing Vito. It began to beat painfully hard as she stared at him.

She’d missed him so much—but he’d hurt her so badly. Looking at him produced a physical ache in her chest. She longed to dash across the room and lose herself in the warm strength of his embrace—but she knew there was no warmth there any more. He’d made that clear when he’d thrown her away.

Despite the pain of seeing him, her eyes roamed urgently over his body as he stood in the doorway. He looked absolutely magnificent. His hand-tailored suit fit him to perfection, but did nothing to conceal his raw, masculine power. She recalled the athletic strength of his lean body only too well. Remembered exactly how it felt to be held close to his hard-muscled form.

But now she shuddered as she saw how intense his expression was. His bronzed skin was pulled taut across his high, slashing cheekbones, and a muscle was pulsing on his strong angular jawline.

And his blue eyes were fixed on her, in a way that made her blood run cold. She looked straight back, matching his gaze with her own. An icy shiver skittered down her spine as she recognised the steely anger in his eyes. Apart from her final day in Venice, he had never looked at her like that. It was a nasty reminder of how brutally he had ended things between them.

‘Tell me why L&G Enterprises should invest in your product.’ Vito spoke suddenly.

Lily gripped her shaking hands together tightly and stared at Vito in surprise. She hadn’t expected that. She’d thought he would throw her out, or perhaps call Security to do his dirty work for him. She didn’t know what game he was playing, but she had no choice but to play along. She certainly wasn’t going to turn tail and run from him.

Suddenly a strong smell of coffee assailed her nostrils and a wave of nausea washed over her. She looked down to see a steaming lake of black coffee spreading across the smoked-glass table from D’Ambrosio towards her laptop computer. Vito’s dramatic arrival had obviously startled him into spilling his drink, but he was making no move to clean it up.