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CHAPTER ONE A TEAM had flown over to Naples to bring Andreo up to speed on his latest acquisition, Venstar.Tensions were running high for there was not a single Venstar executive present who did not feel that his job might be on the line. The ruthlessness that distinguished Andreo D’Alessio’s brilliance in the business world was a living legend.‘This should help you to fit faces to the senior staff when you come over to visit us,’ one of the directors said with a rather nervous laugh as he passed over a company newsletter adorned with a photograph of key personnel.Andreo D’Alessio studied the front page with keen dark eyes. Only one woman featured in the line-up and he only noticed her in the first instance because she messed up the picture. She was very tall and her stooped and self-effacing stance shrieked all the awkwardness of a very skinny baby giraffe striving in vain to hide its overly long limbs. Heavy framed spectacles dwarfed her thin, earnest face. But what had caught Andreo
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO DISCONCERTED, Andreo frowned down at the woman maligning his reputation as a fair employer. His ebony eyes glinted with golden highlights. He stifled an instinctive urge to slap her down so hard verbally that she would never again dare to make such an unjust charge against him. ‘Dio mio… That’s a loaded accusation to make against a man whom you can know virtually nothing about.’Pale as death and almost as taken aback as she could see he was by her angry outburst, Pippa dropped her head and muttered, ‘Excuse me…’As she began to move away Andreo swung round to effectively bar her passage. ‘Don’t rush away,’ he urged.What the heck had come over her? Pippa was asking herself in consternation. Only a mad woman would hurl an accusation like that about the boss at a work function! That wretched brandy had gone to her foolish head and loosened her tongue. Naturally she was bitter about the reasons why she had been passed over for promotion but, if she had no intention of making a f
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE ANDREO dealt Pippa a level challenging appraisal. ‘That’s entirely your decision.’Colour swept Pippa’s face and she could have bitten her tongue out in embarrassment. Of course that was her decision! It was a good half-century since women had been raised to think that what a man expected a woman should invariably try to deliver. She walked over to the tall windows that overlooked the spectacular city skyline but she could only think of how foolish she must have sounded to him. Like a nervous virgin who had never been alone with a man in a hotel suite before? All the heat drained from below her fair skin to leave her pale.Unfortunately, Hilary had only managed to make her over on the outside with a smooth sophisticated façade and inside she was still the same old Pippa Stevenson, she acknowledged. Pippa, who had attended an all girls’ school and whose evenings and weekends had been filled with extra classes and academic study, rather than social events and flirting. Boys h
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR SHOCK was rolling over Pippa in a suffocating, chilling tidal wave: her Andreo was Venstar’s president, the fabulously wealthy Italian entrepreneur and womaniser, Andreo D’Alessio!Gutted by that revelation and much too devastated to immediately react, Pippa listened dully to Andreo giving a short, witty speech about his plans for Venstar. Her Andreo? Since when? Sick with shame and the most terrible sense of hurt and betrayal, she shivered, cold to the very centre of her bones, even her skin clammy. Why had he lied to her? Why had he let her think that he was just another employee? How could he have done that to her? What sort of sick, perverted sense of humour did the guy have?Only then did she remember that she had made the first error in mistaking the small, portly man at the podium for Venstar’s new owner. She had then made critical remarks about Andreo D’Alessio. Was that why he had slept with her? The ultimate put-down? Her tummy gave a nauseous roll. How very funny
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE ANDREO almost laughed out loud. In asking him that question, could Pippa be serious?Sexual desire was like a juggernaut inside him, driving him back to her with relentless force and determination. Lean dark face taut, he raked his incisive gaze slowly and carefully over her. He had to admit that she was a far cry from the sultry beauties he usually took to his bed, women who devoted much of their day to the maintenance of a groomed and flawless appearance. Her cinnamon mop of explosive curls was tousled and curiously appealing to him. She wore not a scrap of make-up and she was barefoot. Not even her nails were painted. Her T-shirt and shorts were not of the designer variety either.But her candid eyes were bright as sapphires against her flushed skin and her soft pink mouth was vulnerable and full. Well washed and faded, the T-shirt moulded her supple curves and delineated pouting breasts rounded as apples and crowned with stiff little nipples.His all-male body responding
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX ANDREO had taken a penthouse apartment for the remainder of his stay in London.He opened the door on the vast impressive hall, linked his lean fingers with Pippa’s and walked her down to a bedroom as big as the entire ground floor of her home. She hovered in the centre of the carpet, suddenly desperately shy, realising that alcohol had blunted her inhibitions on the night of the party.‘Every time I look at you, I want to take your clothes off,’ Andreo confided, shedding his tie and his jacket and tossing both aside with flattering enthusiasm.She blushed to the roots of her hair. ‘I’m glad I didn’t know that at the meeting today. You seemed so distant.’Andreo laughed huskily, strolling forward with easy assurance. ‘Now you know why…I have a very active imagination. All guys are the same, cara mia.’He untied her wrap top, took it off and tugged her closer. She kicked off her shoes, felt her skirt give at the waist as he unzipped it. When she stepped out of the skirt, he flipp
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN PIPPA leant on the ancient stone balustrade bounding the shaded terrace at Duvernay and tried to suppress all her unhappy and self-pitying thoughts in appreciation of the wonderful views stretching in every direction.The château’s glorious formal gardens were surrounded by rolling green fields that in turn gave way to apple orchards said to produce some of the best cider in the world. The remainder of the vast Duvernay estate, the ancestral home of Tabby’s husband, Christien Laroche, was the equivalent of a densely wooded nature reserve. But only a few miles to the west lay the jagged Breton coastline of rocky cliffs, sandy coves and picturesque fishing ports.Her fabulous bedroom suite was worthy of a five star hotel and she had been royally entertained. For two long weeks she had done her best to put on a cheerful front for her hosts’ benefit, for who wanted to entertain a miserable, weepy guest? Unfortunately, being in the company of a very happy married couple had only
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT HAVING lain awake for half the night, Pippa drifted off around seven and woke with a start an hour later. Her nostrils flared on the rich, aromatic smell of fresh coffee and her stomach instantly rebelled. Eyes flying wide in dismay, she threw herself off the bed, hurtled past Andreo where he stood with a laden breakfast tray and raced at all possible speed into the bathroom. She was sick but, mercifully, it was over quickly and she felt fine in the aftermath.‘Are you OK?’ Andreo enquired from the doorway.Her embarrassment intense, Pippa stalked across the bathroom and slammed shut the door in his face, snapping, ‘Can’t I even be ill in peace?’After a lengthy shower, an even slower drying-off of her curls into fluffy childish bangs that infuriated her, she emerged and found the bedroom empty, which, oddly enough, annoyed her even more than a barrage of questions would have done. When she went downstairs, Tabby took her into the dining room for breakfast.‘Andreo said you w
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE ‘I ASSUMED you were still in bed. I lifted the hall phone to call Marco. Is it true?’ Andreo demanded.Pippa was very pale but reluctant to accept that he knew her secret. ‘Is what true?’Andreo dealt her a raw look of derision. ‘Is it true that you’re pregnant?’Pippa breathed in slow and deep to steady herself and laced her hands together in a nervous motion. ‘Yes…’‘And is the baby mine?’She reddened. ‘How can you ask me a question like that?’‘Easily. This is not how I expected to hear that kind of news from you. Since it’s clear you’re not the very honest woman I thought you were, what else might I have got wrong?’ Andreo fielded harshly, lean, strong face rigid with the same tension that was holding her taut.‘Not that anyway…the baby is yours,’ she stated in driven reproach.Stunning golden eyes veiling, Andreo swung away from her so that she could not see how he had taken that blunt confirmation of his paternity.Had he had some wild hope that he might not be the male resp
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN PIPPA opened shaken eyes.The Citroën was nose down in a ditch. Berthe was sobbing in shock. But neither of them appeared to be hurt and there was no sign of the lorry, which had apparently speeded on past without deigning to notice the car that had almost come to grief below its enormous wheels.Pippa reached across with an unsteady hand and switched off the car engine. Checking that the older woman was indeed uninjured, she persuaded her that it would be safer to get out of the car. As Pippa clambered out into the dusty ditch the sleeve of her jacket snagged on the wire attached to the fence post that had been torn down by the crash. The fabric ripped and Pippa gritted her teeth as she attempted to free herself without success. Exasperated, she shrugged out of her jacket and, leaving it where it fell, moved with some difficulty over the rough ground to the driver’s side to help Berthe.By the time she had assisted the heavy older woman to climb out of the Citroën, a battered
CHAPTER TEN
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