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‘I’ll have to, won’t I?’ she said. ‘At least until the others return.’
‘Yes, you will,’ he confirmed sharply, still trying to work out whether her manner was impudent or overly straightforward. Meanwhile, she was staring at him inquisitively, as she might study an unusual exhibit in a gallery. They were polar opposites, curious about each other—the billionaire, hard and driven, and the mystery girl who gave casual a new edge.
His groin tightened when she smiled. He liked the way her full lips curved and her ski-slope nose wrinkled attractively.
‘I’m not as helpless as I look,’ she assured him. ‘And I promise I won’t let you down.’
Her promise pleased him. ‘If you were helpless you wouldn’t be employed here.’
He turned away, knowing he should feel exhausted, but he was suddenly wide-awake.
He hadn’t slept for the past twenty-four hours as he’d wrestled a trade agreement to the table that would benefit not just his own group of companies but his country. Word of his success had spread like wildfire in the power halls of Rome, attracting lean, predatory women with crippling shoes and sprayed-on clothes—another reason he had been pleased to leave the city. He could have called any one of them to accompany him to Tuscany. They were decorative and efficient and they knew the score, but none of them had appealed. He didn’t know what he wanted, but it wasn’t that.
‘If there’s anything I can do for you?’ the girl called after him, stopping him in his tracks.
Was she referring to a cup of coffee or something more?
‘No. Thank you.’ He didn’t want company, he reminded himself. At least not yet.
Success in business rode him. It also turned him on. He’d been cramped up in the city for too long. He was a physical man, bound by convention in a custom-made suit, who was forced to spend most of his working life in air-conditioned offices when what he longed for was his wild land in Tuscany. Tucked between majestic granite mountains, his country estate was an indulgence he chose not to share with anyone—certainly not with some member of his part-time staff.
‘Anything at all?’ she pressed.
Did she have any idea how provocative she was? As he had turned to face her she had opened her arms wide, putting her impressive breasts on show.
‘Nothing. Thank you,’ he repeated irritably. ‘Get back to your gardening.’
He needed relief in the form of a woman, but this woman was too young and too inexperienced for him to waste his time on.
He ground his jaw with impatience when she started to follow him, and made a gesture to indicate that she should go back. The only conversation he was interested in was with real people like Maria and Giuseppe, and he resented her intrusion. She had changed the dynamics completely. She was an outsider, an interloper, and though she might hold appeal, was that smile as innocent as it looked?
If there was one thing he understood, it was the needs of a woman’s body and the workings of her mind, but this girl was so different it frustrated him that he had yet to make a judgement about her.
Cass shivered involuntarily. What was wrong with her? After deciding the safest thing was to steer clear of Marco di Fivizzano, she was doing the absolute opposite. It was as if her feet had a mind of their own and had decided to follow him to the house. She should know better, when he came from the same shallow, glitzy world as her parents—
‘Watch out!’ he snapped.
‘Sorry.’ She jumped back with alarm, realising he’d stopped, and she’d almost cannoned into him.
‘Have you nothing better to do than follow me to the house?’ he demanded in a tone that spoke of deals hard won and nights without sleep.
‘I’ve finished for the day,’ she explained, ‘and I just thought—’
‘I might need help?’ he queried. He stared down at her from his great height as if she were an irritation he didn’t yet have an answer to. ‘If you’re going to be here for the summer, you’d better tell me something about yourself.’
Her brain had stalled beneath the blazing stare. What could she tell him?
How much did she want to tell him?
‘Come on—keep up,’ he insisted, striding ahead. ‘Let’s start with where you come from.’
‘England—the UK.’ She had to jog to keep up with him. ‘It’s a region called the Lake District. I don’t expect you—’
‘I know the area. Family?’
The word ‘family’ was enough to spear her with ugly memories. That was what she didn’t want to talk about, let alone take her thoughts back to the day a small bewildered child had stood at the side of the family swimming pool looking down at her parents floating, drowned after a drug-fuelled fight. She settled for the heavily censored version.
‘I live with my godmother,’ she explained.
‘No parents?’
‘Both dead.’
‘My condolences.’
‘It was a long time ago.’
Almost eighteen years, Cass realised with shock. She’d been so young she’d hardly known how to grieve for them. She hadn’t really known them. She’d had one carer after another while they’d been on the road with her father’s band. Her emotions had died along with her parents, until her godmother had arrived to sweep Cass up in a hug. She’d taken Cass home to her modest cottage in the Lake District where the only drug was the scenery and her godmother’s beautiful garden. Cass had lived there ever since, confident in her godmother’s love and safe in a well-ordered life.
Maybe part of her had hidden in this security, she reflected now. That would account for a personality as compelling as Marco di Fivizzano giving her such a jolt. After her turbulent childhood, she had welcomed her godmother’s cocoon of love, but increasingly had come to realise that something was missing from her life. Challenge. That was why she was here in Tuscany. This job was out of her comfort zone, and never more so than now.
‘You are lucky to have a godmother to live with,’ Marco di Fivizzano observed as he strode ahead of her.
‘Yes. I am,’ she agreed, chasing after him.
The warmth and strength of her godmother’s love had never wavered, and when the day had come when Cass had been ready to fly the nest, she had helped her to get the job here in Tuscany.
She stood back when they arrived at the front door.
‘Come into the house,’ Fivizzano instructed when she hesitated.
She’d never been beyond the kitchen. She’d never entered the house through the front door. Her room was in an annex across the courtyard. The house was grand. She was not. She was covered in mud and she knew how hard Maria worked to keep the place spotless.
But the real reason for her hesitation was that she didn’t want to be alone in the house with him.
‘It’s Giuseppe and Maria’s day off,’ she explained, still hovering outside the door.
‘And?’ he demanded impatiently.
‘I’m sure if they had expected you—’
‘I don’t pay my staff to expect.’
She flinched when he added, ‘Do you have a problem with that?’
Yes. She had a problem. She had never met a man so rude or so insensitive. Giuseppe and Maria would do anything for him. Did he know that? And she was definitely not going inside the house. ‘I’m sure Maria must have left something in the fridge for you to eat—’
His expression blackened. ‘I beg your pardon?’
She had to remind herself that she loved this job, and that it would help to pay for her godmother’s trip to Australia, and therefore she should say nothing and just get on with it.
‘As Maria isn’t here, you’ll have to do,’ he said, giving her a scathing appraisal. ‘Clean yourself up and fix lunch.’
Her face blazed red beneath the arrogant stare. She had to remind herself that she had dealt with plenty of difficult customers at the supermarket. Sucking in a steadying breath, she told herself that for all his immense wealth Marco di Fivizzano was just another man.
Just another man?
She would have to remind herself of that several times a day, Cass guessed wryly, but she couldn’t deny that if there was one thing she loved it was a challenge.
‘My cooking isn’t up to much,’ she admitted, kicking off her boots.
‘Do what you can.’
Senna pods in his omelette sprang to mind.
Stepping inside the beautiful old house, she was silenced for a moment. Overwhelmed by its beauty, she stared around in awe. This had to be the most beautiful hallway outside a palace. It was square and elegant...beautifully proportioned, with a high, vaulted ceiling. It was decorated with burnished antiques, as well as the most exquisite rugs—rugs Marco di Fivizzano was simply striding over in his outdoor shoes on his way to the foot of an impressive mahogany staircase.
‘You can clean yourself up in the back kitchen,’ he instructed, as if she were a latter-day Cinderella. ‘An omelette shouldn’t be beyond you.’
‘I’ll pick some fresh herbs—’
Her suggestion was wasted. He was already halfway up the stairs.
So much for that challenge she’d been looking forward to!
Her first assessment of Marco di Fivizzano had been correct. He was insufferably rude and incredibly insensitive. She didn’t even register on his radar. He was hungry and he expected to be fed.
Then she remembered with a little pulse of interest that Marco di Fivizzano was always hungry, according to the scandal sheets—and she doubted they were talking about food. He was also a spectacular lover, according to the same magazines...
She definitely needed that wash down in cold water before she saw him again.
Having cleaned herself up, she went back into the garden and, selecting a clump of herbs, she slashed them with her knife.
No supressed emotions to deal with at all, Cass concluded with amusement.
As she walked back to the house she glanced at the upstairs windows. She could just imagine all that brute force naked beneath the shower. She’d always had a down-to-earth attitude when it came to men and sex, though living in the remote beauty of the Lake District with her godmother had hardly provided her with a wide pool of men to choose from. And when she had chosen, she’d got it wrong. She’d had one or two unsuccessful attempts to make a go of a relationship, but the men had disappointed her in a way she couldn’t really explain. There had been nothing wrong with them. They just hadn’t fired her imagination, and she had always dreamed of being swept away.
One thing was sure, nothing could have prepared her poor frustrated body for the arrival of a force of nature like Marco di Fivizzano.
Sheathing her knife, she wiped a hand across the back of her neck. Would he need a cold shower after meeting her? Somehow she doubted it. She guessed she was more of a wasp he’d like to swat than a beautiful butterfly he’d like to do other things with. Sex radiated from him. Even clothed in what had to be the most expensive tailoring known to man, there was something primal about him—something dark and hidden at his core—an animal energy that suggested he would consider any woman fair game.
But not this woman.
Because she had more sense?
It was time to stop daydreaming and get on with making his meal.
* * *
He took an ice-cold shower. His senses had received an unexpected jolt thanks to a most unlikely woman. He smiled grimly as he soaped himself down, imagining the type of chaos she would be creating in Maria’s pristine kitchen round about now. He could only hope she’d washed her hands. He didn’t care for soil in his food.
He shook his head and sent water droplets flying. Stepping out of the shower, he grabbed a towel. He felt refreshed—reinvigorated. Food followed by a few hours of vigorous sex would suit him perfectly, but it would take more than an untried girl to tempt his jaded palate. Pausing by the window, he stared out. His eyes narrowed with interest. Maybe he’d written her off too soon. She was sheathing a knife like a female Indiana Jones, and her capable, no-nonsense manner fired his senses.
* * *
She beat the living daylight out of the eggs. She had to do something to calm herself down before Genghis Khan arrived. It didn’t help that all sorts of wicked thoughts were parading through her head—some including a spatula and a pair of iron-hard buttocks.
What was wrong with her?
She cleaned off the egg spatter from the wall, only for her thoughts to wander off in a new direction—to the day when she had made her first omelette. She’d been six years old and hungry. She knew now that the eggs needed watching or they’d catch and become bitter and inedible. Her first omelette had been black but she’d eaten it. She’d been hungry enough to eat the pan as well. She’d seen enough domestic disruption to last her a lifetime, and had her godmother to thank for knowing her way around a kitchen now. Anyone as sensible and good-humoured as Cass could learn to cook, her godmother had insisted when Cass had expressed doubts.
Cass had lost confidence when her parents’ lives had descended into drug-fuelled chaos, but her godmother had rebuilt her brick by brick; cooking and gardening, nurturing and caring, providing the cure. These activities that were at the root of everything good, her godmother had explained, and the rewards were not only plentiful but you could eat them as well.
That had been the start of Cass finding pleasure in watching things grow. And that was why she knew she could deal with Marco di Fivizzano. Nothing he could throw at her could compare with Cass’s life before she’d lived with her godmother. There were no whirlwinds in her life now, only well-ordered certainty, and that was how it was going to stay.
Tipping out a perfectly cooked omelette, she put the plate on a tray with a bowl of freshly picked salad, timing her delivery to perfection as he walked through the door.
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_c441ba90-bb3b-516e-9434-feeb85a1ca84)
IN SPITE OF his determination to treat her like any other member of staff, the sight of Cassandra Rich leaning over the kitchen sink as she scrubbed a pan thrust his basest of needs into overdrive. The swell of her hips was so perfectly displayed, though, disappointingly, she had changed her clothes—the ripped and mud-smeared singlet having been replaced by a neatly pressed T-shirt. Though a streak of mud on the side of her neck was just begging to be licked off.
‘I hope you enjoy the omelette,’ she said with apparent sincerity.
He dragged his attention away from one potential feast to glance at the surprisingly appetising meal she had laid out on the table. ‘It looks good,’ he said approvingly, ‘but, where’s the bread?’
He noted the flash of fire in her eyes, more typical of the way she had behaved in the garden, but then she said meekly, ‘I’ll get it for you, sir.’
For some reason her unusually compliant manner annoyed him too.
‘For goodness’ sake, call me Marco.’
He couldn’t be sure if she was mocking him or not, he realised, though his best guess was yes, and blood pounded through his veins as he accepted the challenge.
‘It’s only a simple meal,’ she explained as he grunted his thanks and sat down.
Her attempt to take out her frustration on the eggs had failed completely, Cass concluded. On second viewing, Marco di Fivizzano was even more improbably attractive than the first time she had seen him. Glancing down to make sure her top wasn’t clinging to her breasts, she found her nipples were practically saluting him. In a tailor-made suit, garnished with a crisp white shirt and grey silk tie, her boss had been staggeringly attractive, but in snug-fitting jeans—she had unavoidably scanned his outline beneath them—together with a tight-fitting black top that revealed his banded muscle in more than enough detail he was an incredible sight—
‘Bread?’ he reminded her sharply.
He was also the rudest man she’d ever met.
She hacked at the bread with a vicious stab. The large, country kitchen seemed to be closing around her—no wonder with his arrogant animal magnetism taking up all the space.
‘Have you eaten yet, Cassandra?’
She was surprised by the question but had no intention of sitting down to eat with him.
‘I’m not hungry.’ She was always hungry after working in the open air. ‘I’ll have something later.’
