The Italian's Christmas Housekeeper

‘Thanks.’ Molly took the brandy Salvio was offering her, wondering if she’d been crazy to accept his invitation to have a drink with him, because now she was in his room she felt hopelessly embarrassed and out of place. She noticed his half-packed open suitcase lying on the far side of the room and, for some stupid reason, her heart sank. He obviously couldn’t wait to get away from here. Awkwardly, she shifted from one foot to the other.

‘Why don’t you sit down over there, beside the fire?’ he suggested.

Lowering herself into the chair he’d indicated, Molly thought how weird it was to find herself in the role of visitor to a room she had cleaned so many times. Just this morning she’d been in here, fluffing up the new duvet and making sure the monogrammed pillowcases were all neatly facing in the right direction. Over there were the neat stack of freshly ironed newspapers Lady Avery had insisted on, and the jug of water with the little lace cover on top. Yet it was funny how quickly you could get used to the dramatic change from servant to guest. The soft leather of the armchair felt deliciously soft as it sank beneath her weight and the warmth of the fire licked her skin. She took a tentative sip from her glass, recoiling a little as the powerful fumes wafted upwards.

‘Not much of a drinker?’ observed Salvio wryly, as he poured his own drink.

‘Not really.’ But even that minuscule amount of liquor had started to dissolve the tight knot of tension in the pit of her stomach, sending a warm glow flooding through her body. Molly stared out of the windows where clouds were racing across the silvery face of the moon. Outside the temperature had plummeted but in here it felt cosy—in fact, she might even go so far as to say she was starting to feel relaxed. Yet here she was in a strange man’s bedroom in her black uniform and heavy-duty shoes as if she had every right to be there. What on earth would Lady Avery say if she happened to walk in? Anxiety rippled through her as she glanced at Salvio, who was replacing the heavy stopper in the bottle. ‘I really shouldn’t be here,’ she fretted.

‘So you said,’ he drawled, his tinge of boredom implying that he found repetition tedious. ‘But you are here. And you still haven’t told me why you were crying.’

‘I...’ She took another sip of brandy before putting the glass down on a nearby table. ‘No reason really.’

‘Now, why don’t I believe you, Molly Miller?’ he challenged softly. ‘What happened? Did you get into more trouble about dinner?’

Her startled expression told Salvio his guess was correct. ‘I deserved it,’ she said flatly as she met his gaze. ‘The meal was rubbish.’

Briefly he acknowledged her loyalty. She would have been perfectly justified in moaning about her employer but she hadn’t. She was a curious creature, he thought, his gaze flickering over her dispassionately. Totally without artifice, she didn’t seem to care that the way she was sitting wasn’t the most flattering angle she could have chosen. Yet her abundant hair glowed like copper in the firelight and as she crossed one ankle over the other he was surprised by how unexpectedly erotic that simple movement seemed. But he hadn’t brought her here to seduce her, he reminded himself sternly. Tonight he had cast himself in the role of the good Samaritan, that was all. ‘And that’s the only reason for your tears?’

Molly gave an awkward wriggle of her shoulders. ‘Maybe I was feeling sorry for myself,’ she admitted, shifting beneath his probing gaze. Because no way was she going to tell him the real reason. He wouldn’t be interested in her wayward brother or his habit of accumulating debt, but more than that—she was afraid of saying the words out loud. As if saying them would make them even more real. She didn’t want to wonder why Robbie had rung up just an hour ago, asking her if she had any spare cash for a ‘temporary’ loan, despite his promises to find himself some sort of job. Why hadn’t he got any money of his own? Why was he asking her for more, after all his tearful promises that from now on he was going to live his life independently and free of debt? She swallowed. She couldn’t bear to think that he’d got himself into that terrible spiral yet again—of playing poker and losing. Of owing money to hard-faced men who wouldn’t think twice about scarring his pretty young face...

‘Call it a touch of self-pity,’ she said, meeting the black fire in his eyes and realising he was still waiting for an answer. ‘Not something I imagine you have much experience of.’

Salvio gave a mirthless smile. How touching her faith in him! Did she think that because he was wealthy and successful, he had never known pain or despair, when he had been on intimate terms with both those things? His mouth hardened. When his life had imploded and he’d lost everything, he remembered the darkness which had descended on him, sending him hurtling into a deep and never-ending hole. And even though he’d dragged himself out of the quagmire and forced himself to start over—you never forgot an experience like that. It marked you. Changed you. Turned you into someone different. A stranger to yourself as well as to those around you. It was why he had left Naples—because he couldn’t bear to be reminded of his own failure. ‘Why do you stay here?’ he questioned quietly.

‘It’s a very well-paid job.’

‘Even though you get spoken to like that?’

She shook her head, her long hair swaying like a glossy curtain. ‘It’s not usually as bad as it was tonight.’

‘Your loyalty is touching, signorina.’

‘I’m paid to be loyal,’ she said doggedly.

‘I’m sure you are. But even taking all that into account, this place is very isolato...isolated.’ He gave a flicker of a smile, as if begging her to forgive his sudden lapse into his native tongue. ‘I can’t imagine many people your age living nearby.’

‘Maybe that’s one of the reasons I like it.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘You don’t like to socialise?’

Molly hesitated. Should she tell him that she always felt out of place around people her own age? That she didn’t really do the relaxed stuff, or the fun stuff, or the wild stuff. She’d spent too many years caring for her mother and then trying to keep her brother from going off the rails—and that kind of sensible role could become so much a part of you that it was difficult to relinquish it. And wouldn’t that kind of admission bring reality crashing into the room? Wouldn’t it puncture the slightly unreal atmosphere which had descended on her ever since she’d walked in here and settled down by the fireside, allowing herself to forget for a short while that she was Molly the housekeeper—so that for once she’d felt like a person in her own right?

‘I can take people or leave them,’ she said. ‘Anyway, socialising is expensive and I’m saving up. I’m intending to put my brother through college and it isn’t cheap. He’s in Australia at the moment,’ she explained, in answer to the fractional rise of his dark brows. ‘Doing a kind of...gap year.’

He frowned. ‘So you’re here—working hard—while he has fun in the sun? That’s a very admirable sacrifice for a sister to make.’

‘Anyone would do it.’

‘Not anyone, no. He’s lucky to have you.’

Molly picked up her glass again and took another sip of brandy. Would Salvio De Gennaro be shocked if he knew the truth? That Robbie hadn’t actually got a place at college yet, because he was still ‘thinking about it’, in spite of all her entreaties to get himself a proper education and not end up like her. She licked her lips, which tasted of brandy. She didn’t want to think about Robbie. Surely she could have a night off for once? A night when she could feel young and carefree and revel in the fact that she was alone with a gorgeous man like Salvio—even if he had only invited her here because he felt sorry for her.

Putting her glass down, she stared at him and her heart gave a sudden lurch of yearning. He hadn’t moved from his spot by the window and his powerful body was starkly outlined by the moonlight.

‘What about you?’ she questioned suddenly. ‘What brought you here?’

He shrugged. ‘I was supposed to be discussing a deal with Philip Avery.’ He twisted his lips into a wry smile. ‘But that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.’

‘He’ll be much more receptive in the morning,’ said Molly diplomatically.

‘It’ll be too late by then,’ he said. ‘I’m leaving as soon as it’s light.’

Molly was aware of a crushing sense of disappointment. She’d wanted... She stared very hard at her brandy glass as if the dark amber liquid would provide the answer. What had she wanted? To see him at breakfast—their eyes meeting in a moment of shared complicity as they remembered this illicit, night-time drink?

‘Oh, that’s a shame,’ she said, sounding genuinely disappointed.

He smiled, as if her earnestness had amused him. ‘You know, you’re far too sweet to be hiding yourself away somewhere like this, Molly.’

Sweet. Molly knew it was a compliment yet for some reason it offended her. It made her sound like the cake he’d caught her eating. Because sweet wasn’t sexy, was it? Just as she wasn’t sexy. ‘Am I?’ she questioned tonelessly.

He nodded, walking over to the desk and writing something on the back of a business card before crossing the room and handing it to her. ‘Here. Take this. It will get you straight through to my assistant. If ever you decide you want a change, then give her a ring. She knows plenty of people, and domestic staff are always in short supply.’ He met her eyes. ‘You could always find something better than this, you know.’

‘Despite dinner being such a disaster?’ She tried to sound jokey even if she didn’t feel it, because she realised she was being dismissed. Getting up from the comfort of her fireside seat, Molly took the card and slid it into the hip pocket of her dress.

‘Despite that,’ he agreed, his words suddenly trailing away as his gaze followed the movement of her hand.

Molly became aware of a subtle alteration in the atmosphere as Salvio lifted his eyes to her face. She’d wondered if the attraction which had sizzled between them earlier had been wishful thinking, but maybe it hadn’t. Maybe it had been real. As real as the sudden thrust of her nipples against the soft fabric of her dress and the distracting heat between her thighs. She held her breath, waiting, instinct telling her that he was going to touch her. Despite him being who he was and her being just Molly. And he did. Lifting his hand, he ran the tips of his fingers experimentally over her hair.

‘E capelli tuoi so comme a seta,’ he said, and when she looked at him in confusion, he translated. ‘Your hair is like silk.’

It was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to her and when she heard it in Italian it made her want to melt. Was that why he did it, knowing it would push her a little further beneath his powerful spell? Molly told herself to move away. She should thank him for the drink, for his kindness and for giving her his card and then hurry back to her little room to mull over her memories and hug them to her like a hot-water bottle. But she didn’t move. She just carried on gazing up into the rugged perfection of his looks, praying he would kiss her and make the fairy tale complete—even if that was all she was ever going to have to remember him by. ‘Is—is it?’ she questioned.

Salvio smiled, letting his thumb drift from the fire-warmed strands, to hover over the unmistakable tremble of her lips. He felt a tightness in his throat as he realised what he was about to do. He had invited her here because he sensed she was lonely and unhappy—not because he intended to seduce her. Because there were rules and usually he followed them. He no longer took physical comfort just because it was available—because it was pretty much always available to a man like him. Just as he no longer used sex to blot out his pain, or his anger.

But the little housekeeper had touched a part of him he’d thought had died a long time ago. She had stirred a compassion in his soul and now she was stirring his body in a way which was all too obvious, if only to him. He could feel the aching hardness at his groin, but the urge to kiss her was even more overwhelming than the need to bury himself deep inside her body. He told himself he should resist—gently shoo her out of the door and send her on her way. And maybe he would have done—had she not chosen that moment to expel a shaky breath of air, the warmth of it shuddering softly against his thumb.

How could something as insignificant as a breath be so potent? he marvelled as he stared down into her wide grey eyes. ‘I want to kiss you,’ he said softly. ‘But if that happens I will want to make love to you and I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. Do you understand what I’m saying, Molly?’

Wordlessly, she nodded.

‘And the only thing which will stop me, is you,’ he continued, his voice a deep silken purr. ‘So stop me, Molly. Turn away and walk out right now and do us both a favour, because something tells me this is a bad idea.’

He was giving her the opportunity to leave but Molly knew she wasn’t going to take it—because when did things like this ever happen to people like her? She wasn’t like most women her age. She’d never had sex. Never come even close, despite her few forays onto a dating website, which had all ended in disaster. Yet now a man she barely knew was proposing seduction and suddenly she was up for it, and she didn’t care if it was bad. Hadn’t she spent her whole life trying to be good? And where had it got her?

Her heart was crashing against her ribcage as she stared up into his rugged features and greedily drank them in. ‘I don’t care if it’s a bad idea,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe I want it as much as you do.’

Her response made him tense. She saw his eyes narrow and heard him utter something which sounded more like despair than joy before pulling her almost roughly into his arms. He smoothed the hair away from her cheeks and lowered his head and the moment their lips met, she knew there would be no turning back.