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The waiter chose that moment to bring their food to the table. Once he went away again and they’d started to eat Vincenzo said, “Father won’t be cochairing anything. His cancer has come back. No one knows how much longer he’s going to live.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, putting down the iced tea she’d been drinking.
“I am, too. One good thing about the title is that it gives me absolute authority to choose the person who will cochair with me. What I need is a young outsider with business savvy and fresh vision. The company has been losing business over the last five or six years.”
“Because you left,” she stated baldly. Her confidence in him reassured him as nothing else could.
“It’s more a case of mismanagement and a bad economy. There are plenty of areas to attach blame. My way of doing things is to delegate once I’ve concluded the big contract negotiations. The detail work will be left to the others on the board who are capable of doing a good job if pointed in the right direction. Father didn’t give them that much responsibility.”
“That sounds good in theory.”
“The changes I make will cut down on my work-load. When I have to travel, you’ll go with me and we’ll turn those trips into vacations. Everything will be different.”
“Are you thinking of asking Fabbio to help you? Being your stepbrother, he’d be a natural choice and is young like you.”
Until Irena had come into his life, Vincenzo had felt like he was hurtling toward his old age at warp speed. Being with her was like finding the source of life all over again.
“There’s no question Fabbio’s an asset to the company. They all are in their own way, but after I chose to work at the plant, father did everything himself because he didn’t trust anyone. No one has been taught to act or think outside the box. As a result, they’re locked in a group mentality of business as usual. The company needs new blood for revitalization.”
“It sounds like you’ve already made your pick.”
“I have. It’s a woman.”
She looked down at her food. “In an all-male enclave?”
“Revolutionary, isn’t it?”
“One of your dozens of female cousins?” Did he detect approval in her question?
“Not a cousin, but she is a relative.”
At that revelation she lifted her head. Those dark, velvety-brown orbs had suddenly brightened. “Your father approves?”
“He doesn’t know yet. When he does, it still won’t matter. As I told you earlier, I hold the title now and can do as I please.”
“I thought you hated it.”
“This is the first time in my life I’ve had a change of heart about it. But I won’t be keeping it for long.”
She stopped eating. “Why?”
“When my father dies, I’ll bypass Dino and bequeath it to my uncle Tullio while he’s still alive. He’s the next youngest Valsecchi brother. Knowing him, he’ll think he died and went to heaven. His first item of business will be to throw me out and crown himself CEO.”
“Be serious.”
“You think I’m not? You have no idea how much my uncles have envied my father. Tullio particularly has coveted his position.”
She kept staring at him. “Then what will you do?”
“Go back as head of the plant and work around the people I like.”
Irena made a sound of exasperation. “Sometimes I don’t know when you’re being serious or not.”
“I guess you’re going to have to take this on trust.”
Her eyes moistened. “I do.”
“Bene.” He put his napkin down. “How would you like to see Valsecchi headquarters?”
“Considering you’re its head now, I guess I’d better. It would be embarrassing if someone asked me where my husband worked and I had no clue.”
“It’s only two miles from here in the marina district. Afterward I’m taking you sailing for the weekend.”
A stillness enveloped her. He hoped it was because she liked the sound of it.
“I remember you telling me you had a sailboat when I was here the first time.”
His eyes traveled over her features. “I wanted to take you out in it then, but it was in for repairs. It’s a lucky thing.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I might have sailed away with you and never come back. Once I met you, I couldn’t keep things on a professional level with you.”
“I’m afraid I couldn’t, either, especially not that last night.”
“Thank heaven for that. I was a thirty-four-year-old man you’d reduced to a besotted teenager who’d have done literally anything to get you to respond to me. I feared I didn’t have what it took to entice the most beautiful woman I’d ever met in my life to stay with me another twenty-four hours.”
Color seeped into her cheeks. “That last night with you was the result of a challenge you threw at me, one I couldn’t not answer…” Her voice trailed.
One brow quirked. “For a woman as cautious as you, you showed a breathtaking response I suspected was in there somewhere, waiting to emerge.”
“I had no idea I was that transparent.”
“You weren’t,” he said in a serious tone. “It was wishful thinking on my part because I wanted you so badly and hated the thought of you ever leaving my bed.”
“I didn’t want to,” she admitted, suddenly breathless at the memory of that night they had shared.
The chemistry between them was overpowering. Vincenzo reached over and held his wife’s hand. “I’m longing to take you out on the water and show you some of my favorite places. There are isolated beaches where we’ll relax and swim away from everyone else.” He was counting the seconds until he could be alone with her.
Chapter Seven (#ulink_e23cd8bd-c764-5b7a-b260-ed0ad6c82eae)
IRENA’S HEART THUDDED to realize he didn’t want their honeymoon to be over. Vincenzo intended to give her a true wedding night. Several of them in succession. She could scarcely breathe anticipating it.
Vincenzo fell silent as they neared La Spezia. Irena had found it perfectly charming before the way the city sprawled over the verdant mountains all the way down to the port. But this time as she looked up to take in churches and private estates clinging to the hillsides, she was aware that one of the more magnificent structures had to be Vincenzo’s family palazzo.
The Valsecchi complex turned out to be a grouping of five buildings, each seven stories tall, surrounded by immaculately kept gardens. All of it was spread out over a large area. Vincenzo parked in the VIP lot and escorted her inside the first building with the family crest emblazoned on the main doors.
He nodded to the security people and ushered her inside a private elevator. “This will take us to my suite on the seventh floor.”
When they arrived, he walked her to a door where they entered a spacious, elegantly furnished office with a superb view of the sea. Oriental rugs covered the inlaid wood flooring. It resembled a drawing room with paintings, a coffee table, matching love seats, occasional chairs and a library of books.
Vincenzo walked around the large oak desk and buzzed someone on his intercom. On the wall behind him hung an enormous oil painting dominating the room. Inside its ornate gold frame stood the full-length representation of the duke of La Spazia in his royal refinery. He was probably in his fifties when it was painted.
“What do you think?” Vincenzo had slipped his arms around her waist from behind. “See a resemblance?”
“Maybe in his body type,” she ventured, slightly breathless because she’d been craving this closeness since they’d left the doctor’s office. Whether it was unconscious or not, his hand slid to her stomach and caressed her, as if he wanted to feel proof of the baby growing inside her. The intimacy of the moment caught her off guard and made her tremble.
He smoothed the hair away and planted kisses along the side of her neck. “I’m glad you didn’t say his arrogance or swagger. Otherwise I would have been crushed.”
“Well, now that you mention it…”
He spun her around so fast, her head reeled. His blue eyes smoldered with desire before he lowered his mouth, kissing her with almost primitive hunger. This was what she’d been craving. It matched her needs that had been growing since their honeymoon.
To go to bed alone night after night in that hotel room suite knowing Vincenzo was only a wall away had been beyond hard. But she’d wanted Dino to enjoy that special time with his father and not feel threatened by her.
Voluptuous warmth filled her body. She didn’t know where one kiss ended and another one began. Irena was so far gone she didn’t realize that anyone had come in until she heard a discreet coughing sound from the other side of the room.
Vincenzo slowly relinquished her mouth. With his gaze still fastened on her he said, “Come all the way in, Papa, and meet my wife. Irena Liapis Valsecchi. This is my father, Guilio.”
The timing couldn’t have been worse. She eased away from him and turned toward the door leading to the private elevator. Her first glimpse of his father gave her some idea of what Vincenzo would look like when he reached his seventies.
Guilio Valsecchi was a handsome man with streaks of silver in his thinning black hair. Their builds were very much the same, but the ravages of illness had taken their toll. He no longer had his son’s vitality.
Vincenzo’s father drew closer. His biting brown eyes scrutinized her. Like his son he could almost make you believe he could see through you. He might be suffering physically, yet neither age nor cancer had robbed him of that aura of authority inherent in his son.
He reached for her hand and kissed the back of it. “I’ve been anxious to meet the woman who brought about this miracle,” he said in English.
“Miracle?” she inquired softly.
“I never thought the day would come when Vincenzo would change his mind and follow in my footsteps.” His gaze flicked to the painting. “My ancestor had a healthy fear of powerful women.” He eyed her again. “After talking with Dino about you, I can understand why. He believes you love him as if he were your little boy.”
Irena swallowed hard. “He’s very easy to love.”
Guilio pursed his lips. “My daughter-in-law is having a difficult time.”
Irena already knew that, but was surprised this would be the first thing he had to say to her, except that knowing Vincenzo even for such a short time, she shouldn’t have been caught off guard. Her husband had shocked her with his frank speaking every step of the way since their first meeting.
“I don’t blame her. There’s a fine line between a mother wanting everyone to love her child and accepting the fact that there’s another woman, unrelated, whose love for that child goes deeper than the surface.”
Judging by the strange flicker coming from the depths of his eyes, he didn’t know if he liked her answer or not. “What do you know about being a mother?”
The question assaulted her body, a body that was already carrying a child. Would she come to know this baby? Would the test be a success, or would she lose this precious baby growing inside her? The fear at such a loss almost overwhelmed her, but she fought to stay composed. “Only what I learned from having a wonderful role model in my mother.”
Vincenzo slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “Why don’t you ask her about business, Papa? She grew up with an illustrious father who’s one of the most revered businessmen in all Greece. Chief among his holdings is Athens’s most prestigious newspaper. She grew up with it and worked in every department.”
His father stared from one to the other without saying anything.
“Until two months ago she headed the coveted position of lifestyle editor, traveling all over eastern and western Europe. The photographer who came to Italy with her told me Irena has been her father’s right hand for years.”
Irena didn’t know the two men had shared confidences about her.
“Rumor has it that when he’s ready to step down, her father will name her to succeed him, but it’s too late for that.”
“How so?” his father finally spoke.
“Because I’ve made her my new cochair. She’s going to help me run Valsecchi’s. I’ve been single too long and do not want to be separated from my new wife now I have found her. Instead, we will work and travel together.”
Irena almost dropped on the spot. She was surprised his father hadn’t reached for a chair.
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