One Passionate Night: Her Brooding Italian Boss / The Heiress's Secret Baby / Best Friend to Wife and Mother?

She lifted her hand to the start button again, but paused halfway and bit her lip. The computer software would probably be in Italian—

Though Antonio had been raised in the US—

She shook her head. It was one thing to look at a few pieces of mail, quite another to actually write letters for him without his permission.

But how else would she prove herself?

* * *

Antonio stopped his motorcycle at the front door of his father’s country house. He didn’t knock. He just entered the foyer and walked back to his father’s game room. Sure enough, there he was, playing pool.

“I see the nap you had on the plane gave you energy too.”

He set down his cue stick. “Antonio! Why aren’t you home?”

“With the PA you hired for me?” He shook his head. “Because I don’t want a PA and because your meddling in my life has to stop.”

“I don’t meddle. I anticipate.”

Antonio groaned. “You meddle, Dad. And I can’t have it anymore. Not just because it infuriates me, but because this time you’re hurting an innocent woman. She’s going to be devastated when I send her home.”

“So if you’re the one sending her home, how can you say that I’m the one hurting her?”

“Because you’re the one who brought her here under false pretenses!”

“I did no such thing. You need her.”

Antonio groaned again. “There’s no reasoning with you. You always see what you want to see.”

“True. But that’s also why I win so much.” He walked to the wall of pool sticks, chose one and offered it to Antonio. “Here is a place you sometimes beat me.”

Antonio snatched the stick away from his dad. “If you win, I keep her. If I win, she goes home after a few weeks of rest. But you pay her severance and you let her stay in your penthouse in New York.”

Constanzo grinned. “You’re on.”

They decided on best out of three. Constanzo played pool constantly in his spare time, and was very, very good. But Antonio needed to prove a point, to get it across to his dad that he couldn’t take every matter into his own hands. He didn’t just want to win. He had to win. In the end, he beat his dad by one shot.

Constanzo sighed. “This is a big mistake. You need her. And she needs a break.”

Antonio headed for the door. “That’s why I’m going to let her stay a few weeks. It’ll give her time to relax enough that she can think through her problems.” He turned and faced his dad. “And you pay her a big enough severance that she can get a decent apartment.”

Constanzo sighed. “It is wrong to send her home. But I lost the bet and I agree. If she must go, I’m the one who owes her severance.”

Antonio got back on his bike feeling only slightly better. He didn’t want to hurt Laura Beth, and he didn’t like the fact that he’d had to gamble to get his way in a situation that his father shouldn’t have interfered with. But he’d won.

Revving the bike’s engine, he shot along the hills, past the green fields to his house, the wind blowing his hair and teasing his face. By the time he got home, darkness had fully descended and he noticed a light coming from his office. Confused, he parked in the garage and entered through the series of doors that took him from the garage, through the butler’s pantry and kitchen to the main living area.

Because there were no lights in the pool area, he thought Laura Beth must have been more tired than she’d thought and retired to her room. Glad he didn’t have to face her until the next day, he headed back to the office to turn off the light.

But when he stepped inside, he stopped dead in his tracks. There, behind the stacks of unopened mail and the wide computer monitor, was Laura Beth.

He raced to the desk. “What are you doing?”

She looked up at him. “I’ve been sitting here fighting the temptation to read your mail.” She pointed at one open fan letter. “I know you well enough that I could answer that for you. And any letter like it.”

Fear collided with anger. But the stacks appeared to be untouched. The computer hadn’t been turned on. She couldn’t have seen anything.

His head began to pound anyway. Still, he calmed his voice before he said, “You went into my office without permission.”

“I didn’t touch anything but this one letter that was already open.” She met his gaze. “Plus, it’s my job to get you organized.”

He sucked in a breath. Memories of finding his wife’s itineraries and the matching itineraries of her lovers swam through him, making him shake with anger. Not at Laura Beth, but at his wife. At her shameless audacity. And his just plain stupidity. Add to that the abortion information. The appointment on the calendar. The payment in her check registry. The way she hadn’t even tried to hide the fact that she’d taken his child from him.

How the hell could he face that? How could he face another person knowing that his wife hadn’t even told him of the pregnancy?

It took great effort for him to soften his voice, but he did it. “I’m not ready for this.”

She pointed at the stacks of papers again. “You don’t have to be ready. If most of this is fan mail, I can answer it. I can create lists of requests for charitable events. I can coordinate your schedule with Olivia,” she said, referring to her friend, who was also his manager. “And I think that’s Constanzo’s point. A smart PA could do a lot of this work for you.”

“I don’t want you in here! I don’t want anybody in here!”

His shout echoed off the walls of the quiet office. Laura Beth shrank back, her big green eyes round and frightened.

He ran his hand along his nape. “I’m sorry. But this will not work for me.” He motioned for her to rise. “Please come out from behind the desk.”

She rose and stepped away from his desk.

“You are welcome to stay for the next two weeks. Rest in the sun. Be a tourist. Hell, I can take you around to see the sights. But I do not want a PA.”

To his great dismay, her lower lip trembled.

“Seriously. When you return to New York, you can stay in Constanzo’s penthouse. And Constanzo is writing a check for a huge severance.”

The lower lip stopped trembling as fire came into her green eyes. “What?”

“This is Constanzo’s mistake. He will pay for it.”

“I don’t want your severance! I want a job. I’m insulted by your charity when it’s pretty clear I could earn my keep, and even more clear that you need me.”

To his surprise, she propelled herself toward him and stood directly in front of him. The tinge of flush in her cheeks matched the glitter of anger in her green eyes. Heat poured from her, triggering his attraction. He’d always loved the way she could stand up for herself.

“I don’t want to go home! I want this job. I need this job!”

She stepped closer. The raw power in her glittering eyes hit him like a punch in the gut. He hadn’t seen this kind of passion in years. Hadn’t felt it himself in forever. It was everything he could do not to pull her to him and kiss her senseless to capture it.

He stepped back. “You think you want this job. You think living in Italy will be a grand adventure. But trust me. You will miss your city and your family.”

She eliminated the distance between them again. The fire in his belly spiked. He caught her gaze. Was she daring him to kiss her?