Cinderella and the Brooding Billionaire
Autore
Michelle Douglas
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11
CHAPTER ONE
THE BABY WOULD not stop crying.
Luca Vieri paced the floor of his motel room, dragging a hand through his hair. He’d made sure the baby wasn’t hungry, that his nappy was dry, that he wasn’t running a temperature. And yet the boy continued to cry.
Luca completed a full circuit of the room, which, given the room’s size and the length of his legs, took no time at all. The room lacked both the size and luxury he was used to. Though he suspected the spectacular view of the beach from the open front door more than made up for it in most guests’ eyes. He cared for neither the lack of luxury nor the view. All he wanted was to be able to comfort his son.
‘Luca, are you still there?’
The voice at the other end of the line recalled him to the task at hand. Covering his other ear with his hand, he did what he could to focus on the report his assistant had just given him. ‘Sì.’
The baby continued to cry.
His son, it seemed, had a healthy set of lungs.
His son.
He closed his eyes but forced them open again a moment later. Once his phone call was finished, he could again give his full attention to the baby.
Perhaps he could step inside his bedroom, close the door, and finish his phone call in semi-quiet, before reapplying himself to the task of soothing his son.
But he didn’t have the heart to abandon seven-month-old Benito for even the few minutes that would take. He wanted his son to trust him, to realise he was going to be there for him, that just because things might be hard at the moment he had no intention of letting them scare him off.
‘There is no issue with any of that,’ he said, striding back into the main part of the motel room, his heart plunging to his feet at Benito’s red-faced misery. Soon that misery would give way to hiccups and exhausted sleep.
Luca’s hand clenched so hard around his phone it started to ache. With a force of will he loosened his grip. ‘Reschedule it all to next week.’
‘Already done.’
‘Good.’ He approached the child’s cage—playpen—but when Benito’s cries grew louder, he backed off, his heart burning. He so badly wanted to comfort his son, but they’d known each other for two days. The child didn’t know him, didn’t trust him...was still a little frightened of him.
Benito only let him feed him when he became desperately hungry and only fell asleep in his arms when he was desperately exhausted. But he’d woken from a nap earlier, had allowed Luca to give him his lunch...yet now whenever Luca tried to give him the bottle of cool boiled water, he batted it away. Whenever he tried to give him the dummy, he turned his head away. Whenever he picked him up, he struggled to be free.
He wanted to find a quick fix for his son’s distress, but there was no quick fix for grief. Benito missed his mother.
This wailing, it was grief for the woman Benito would now grow up without and would never remember. Luca’s throat thickened. He wanted to wail against the fates too.
‘Luca?’
His assistant’s voice snapped him back. ‘Sorry, Piero. As for my mother...tell her I will speak to her when I return to Rome.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Luca made a note to give his assistant a substantial Christmas bonus at the end of the year. ‘I know it is asking a lot. I will also text her the same message, but I fear she will continue to hound you.’
‘No matter. I can deal with Signora Conti.’
Very few people could, but Piero was one of them. ‘Grazie, Piero.’
‘You need time with your son.’
His lips twisted. ‘Except a business empire like The Vieri Corporation refuses to wait patiently while I do that.’ He’d only been CEO for two years. Today, though, it felt like twenty.
‘Your cousin, Signorina Rosetta Vieri, has stepped in to pick up what slack she can. She is doing an admirable job.’
Luca’s gut clenched. Rosetta was the only one of his cousins he fully trusted. They’d recently discovered that the corporation had a traitor in its midst, and he hated leaving her to deal with it on her own. ‘Have there been further financial irregularities?’
‘Sì. Nothing too significant but troubling all the same.’
Hunting down the source of those irregularities would be his top priority when he returned to Rome.
Benito’s continued crying filled Luca’s head, making it throb, making it increasingly difficult to focus on anything else. He seized the teddy bear he’d bought as a gift and danced it along the railing of the playpen, but Benito merely flung himself to the other side, almost falling against the wooden bars in his haste to avoid his father.
Luca’s throat thickened. He loved his son. From the very first moment he’d clapped eyes on Benito, a fierce protectiveness had taken up residence inside his chest. He would create a strong unbreakable bond with his son, would make sure Benito knew he was loved and cherished.
He dragged a hand down his face. It was unreasonable to expect that to happen immediately. These early days were always going to be difficult.
He just hadn’t realised they’d wring him so dry. He was used to solving problems, not feeling so...helpless.
‘There is something else,’ his assistant said. ‘Signor Romano has been calling. He demands you speak to him personally as soon as you can.’
Dio! How had the other man found out about this so quickly?
The baby’s wailing was reaching a crescendo in his head. Keeping one eye on his son, he opened the glass sliding door onto the back balcony of his room, welcomed the fresh bite of the breeze on his face. ‘You think I need to call him before I return to Rome?’
‘Sì.’
Cavolo! He would need to tread carefully, bring into play all his tact and diplomacy. And even then it might not be enough. ‘Leave it with me.’
He’d promised Bella he would find a way to break off their engagement. Discovering he had an unknown son provided them with a plausible enough excuse. Luca could claim he needed time to adapt to this new reality. Bella could claim she did not wish to become a stepmother so soon.
Except Signor Romano would argue that Benito’s existence made no difference. He would argue for the children of Bella and Luca’s marriage to become the legitimate Vieri heirs, rather than Benito, and if that could be settled Bella would become reconciled to raising Benito.
What the older man didn’t know, however, was that Bella was in love with another man.
And Luca had no desire to marry a woman who did not wish to marry him.
And while he sorely wanted the union between their families, he had no intention of treating Benito differently from any other children he might one day have.
Given time, without Luca on the scene, Bella might possibly reconcile her father to her chosen man. Still, Signor Romano had a fiery temper, and a merger between the two families was his dearest wish. Luca had to find a way to keep the older man onside, while reconciling him to the fact that Bella and Luca would not marry.
His shoulders sagged at the Herculean task Bella had set him. He would not be able to settle the issue, appease Signor Romano and restore peace in a single phone call, but he could begin to lay the groundwork.
If only Benito would stop crying. If only Luca had managed some sleep in the last three days. If only he’d known about his son seven months ago!
‘Okay, Piero—’ he ground back a sigh ‘—give me your impressions of the situation.’
He forced himself to concentrate on his assistant’s voice, but a movement inside the motel room caught his attention. The black skirt, white shirt and sensible shoes informed him it was a member of the housekeeping staff. He hadn’t heard her call out to identify herself over Benito’s cries.
He went to move into the room and ask her to come back later, but the smile that stretched across her face when she glimpsed his son halted him in his tracks.
She swooped down towards the crying child. ‘Hello, Benny boy! What’s all this fuss you’re making?’
Benito immediately stopped crying to swing around and stare at the maid. And then his little arms lifted to be picked up, his urgency evident in the way he bounced on his bottom.
Luca’s heart stuttered in his chest.
She picked him up, two tiny arms went about her neck and she cuddled him close, rocking him as he snuffled into her shoulder and neck. She crooned to his son in a low voice, but Luca caught, ‘Poor, poor baby,’ and ‘You miss her too,’ and ‘Beautiful Benny boy.’
This woman had known Anita?
He shook himself. Of course she had. This town was no bigger than a postage stamp. Everyone here would know everyone else.
He stared at the woman and child and an ache rose inside him.
She glanced around at him with clear amber eyes. He blinked and straightened. He hadn’t realised she’d known he was there. She gestured towards the sofa and he nodded.
Prising her caramel-coloured hair from Benito’s fingers, she started to sing a children’s song Luca knew from his own childhood. Benito stared up at her with tear-streaked eyes as if she were the answer to all his prayers, and renewed energy began to trickle into every tired atom of Luca’s body.
He longed for his son to look at him like that.
‘Aren’t you going to sing with me, beautiful boy?’ this lovely smiling woman said to the child, and Benito broke into the biggest smile that Luca had ever seen.
His son’s smile... Dio! It was like sunshine and holidays and the Mediterranean in spring.
‘Luca, are you still there?’
‘I’m sorry, Piero, I have to go. I will call you back.’ He pocketed his phone and stepped back into the room.
The maid sang, Benito made cooing noises as if he were trying to copy her and clapped both of his little hands against her larger one—so happy at that moment it made Luca’s heart ache.
Without warning, those amber eyes glanced up into his again. Though heaven only knew what he meant by warning, just...such eyes should come with a warning, surely?
Sing, she mouthed.
So he sang along with the song too. The baby jerked to stare at him, but the magician of a maid bounced her charge on her lap to make him laugh again. When the song came to an end, she clapped her hands. ‘Yay! High five!’
Benito slapped his hand to hers.
‘And yay!’ she repeated. ‘Daddy knows the song too! High five, Daddy!’
Luca held his hand up immediately and Benito smacked his hand to Luca’s palm with something midway between a smile and a frown.
But the maid—this glorious, wonderful woman—didn’t give her Benny boy a chance to ponder, worry or otherwise regret the presence of the man who’d taken a seat beside them on the sofa. Instead, she tickled him until he was a writhing mass of giggles.
When Benito was contentedly sucking his dummy and growing sleepy in her lap, the woman made as if to rise, but Luca touched her wrist. ‘Please, stay, just for a little longer.’
She stared at his hand and he immediately pulled it back, suddenly aware of how warm and soft her skin felt beneath his fingertips, like silk and sun. The tips of his fingers throbbed, and he curled them into his palm. She smelled like vanilla and lemon, and perturbingly enticing.
He shot to his feet and moved away. ‘You knew Anita?’ It wasn’t really a question.
‘We were good friends. She worked here at the motel as well.’
Anita had been a maid? If he’d known she’d borne his son he’d have made sure she’d lived like a princess.
‘I’ve babysat Benny many a time.’ She smiled down at the slumbering child. ‘We’re the best of friends, Benny and me.’
‘Sì, I can see that.’
She glanced back up at him quickly and he shrugged. ‘He will allow me to give him his bottle. He will suffer me to change his nappy. He will only fall asleep in my arms when he is completely exhausted and can fight sleep no more. He does not smile at me.’
‘Mr Vieri, it will take time.’
She knew his name? Of course she knew his name. Everyone in Mirror Glass Bay probably knew his name.
She glanced around the motel room. ‘This is all so new and unfamiliar to him. And he misses his mother.’
He should have stayed at Anita’s cottage, rather than dragging Benito to the motel. It was just... He’d felt as if he’d been invading Anita’s privacy. His own discomfort, though, shouldn’t have mattered. What mattered was what was best for Benito.
And what was best for Benito was this magician of a maid.
He studied her left hand, noticed she bore no sign of a wedding ring. In fact, she wore no adornment at all other than a pair of silver studs in her ears. ‘You have me at a disadvantage,’ he said. ‘You know my name, but I do not know yours.’
That generous mouth widened into a smile, and she held out her hand. ‘Monique Thomas. It’s nice to meet you, Mr Vieri.’
He liked her easy frankness, the innate egalitarian attitude that seemed so much a part of the Australian culture. She must know he was one of the richest men in all of Italy and yet she treated him as she would any other person. He liked that.
He shook her hand. ‘Please, call me Luca. And the pleasure is all mine.’
The faintest pink tinged her cheeks. She pulled her hand from his and glanced back at Benito. ‘I really should get to work.’
‘I have a proposition for you, Monique.’
She swung back, her eyebrows disappearing beneath her fringe.
‘A business proposition,’ he assured her. Though it suddenly occurred to him that such a lovely-looking woman must get other kinds of propositions all the time.
Sexual interest momentarily flared, but he ruthlessly extinguished it. Not the time and certainly not the place. To all intents and purposes, the world thought him engaged to be married. While it wasn’t true, he couldn’t afford to create speculation or scandal.
Monique tried to quell the ridiculous racing of her heart. Anita had told her Benito’s father was handsome, but Luca Vieri wasn’t just handsome, he was dynamic, devastating...and drop-dead gorgeous.
She swallowed. ‘A business proposition?’
Of course he’d meant a business proposition. She wasn’t the kind of woman who received indecent propositions from rich, powerful, gorgeous men. And even if she were, she wasn’t the kind of woman to accept them.
Little Miss Perfect. Miss Manners. Stuck up and buttoned up.
She ignored the childhood taunts to focus on the man in front of her. He’d moved to stare out of the glass door at the motel’s pool and gardens, his shoulders tight. The discovery that he had a son looked to have turned his world upside down.
Either that or he was a very good actor.
The jury was still out on that.
A business proposition? She’d bet he was going to ask her to babysit Benny for the duration of his stay in Mirror Glass Bay. She calculated the number of occupied rooms in the motel at the moment and nodded. That could be arranged. Eve and Cassidy would do all they could to accommodate him.
And it’d give her a bit more time to say goodbye to Benny. Obviously Luca hadn’t made the connection yet that she was his son’s godmother.
He swung from the window, those dark intense eyes fixing on her again. They made her swallow...and for some reason feel guilty. She had no reason to feel guilty. If anyone should feel guilty it should be him!
She frowned. Except she wasn’t sure about that either and she wasn’t jumping to conclusions.
‘Monique, I would like you to come and work for me. In Italy. As Benito’s nanny.’
She stared. She shook herself. ‘You know nothing about me.’
‘I know that my son loves and trusts you. I suspect Anita did as well if she allowed you to babysit her child. That’s a good enough reference for me.’
When she said nothing, he gestured towards Benny fast asleep in her lap. ‘I just saw how good and kind you were to him. You love my son, I think.’
Tears filled her eyes. She ducked her head, but suspected he’d seen them anyway. He had the kind of eyes that rarely missed a thing. He named a salary that made her sag. Dear God. With that kind of money she could...
‘What do you say, Monique Thomas?’
She pulled in a breath, blinking hard, and then lifted her head. ‘Are you aware that I’m Benny’s godmother?’
He fell into the sofa opposite as if her words had knocked the breath from his body. ‘Godmother?’
She nodded.
‘But...’ his face lit up ‘...this is perfect!’
He had an arrogant confidence that should’ve irked her, but she found it strangely comforting—he wanted what was best for his son, he wanted his son to be happy. That made him powerfully attractive.
She laughed at herself. A man showed a modicum of interest in a child’s welfare and she turned to mush?
Really, Monique!
‘I’d love to be Benny’s nanny and it’d be beyond exciting to visit Italy—’ she started to reply.
‘Then this is perfect! Let us shake hands on it. I will square everything with your employers, and we can leave as soon as the arrangements can be made. Benito has a passport so we can be quick.’
He rose, tapping a finger against perfectly sculpted lips, his mind racing behind dark eyes that hadn’t noticed the sagging of her shoulders or seen the way she’d started to shake her head.
‘How long will it take for you to be ready to leave? You will have my entire apparatus at your disposal.’
‘I’m sorry, Luca, but as much as I would love to accept your proposition, I can’t.’ She swallowed down the lump in her throat. ‘I’m sorry.’
He sat again, staring at her with those throbbing eyes. It was like being in the eye of a storm—all eerie quiet before the wind picked you up and flung you every which way.
‘You say you love my son; you tell me you would like to travel, and I know that financially my offer is an attractive one.’
‘Correct on each count.’
‘Are you married or in a relationship?’
‘It’s nothing like that.’ At least, not in the way he meant.
He pursed his lips. ‘You have a child?’
She hesitated. Not exactly. At least, not yet.
‘Your child would be most welcome. He or she would be a playmate for Benito.’
That was a lovely sentiment. However... ‘I’m afraid it’s not that simple.’
He leaned towards her. ‘Can you not tell me why?’
If she weren’t Benny’s godmother, nothing would compel her to expose her family’s dirty linen to a complete stranger. But Benny was her godson and she owed it to both him and Anita to maintain as much contact with him as possible. She might not be able to accompany Benny to Italy, but perhaps Luca could be prevailed upon to let her have video calls with the little boy...and maybe real face-to-face visits in the future.
But that wouldn’t happen if Luca didn’t think her invested in his son’s future. And she would hate for Benny to ever think all of his friends in Australia had forgotten about him.
‘Monique?’
Dear Lord, when the man said her name in his beautiful Italian accent like that, it could melt a mere mortal to marshmallow. Absurdly, then, she found herself having to blink back tears.
Except it wasn’t absurd.
Rising, she took Benny through to the bedroom and placed him in the cot that had been set up in there. She made sure he had his special favourite plush animal nearby—a giraffe with a long neck perfect for little fingers to hold onto. Anita had dubbed the giraffe Colin. She made a mental note to tell Luca about Colin—the comfort and sense of security it gave Benny—and to warn him to always make sure Colin was near...to be careful not to lose him.
She touched a hand to Benny’s hair. ‘Oh, Anita,’ she whispered. ‘We miss you.’
When she returned to the main room, Luca held a cup of tea out to her. ‘I did not know how you took it.’
‘White, no sugar. But black is fine. Thank you.’
She went to take a grateful sip, but her cup was whisked away before she could. ‘There is milk.’
It was returned to her a moment later. She sipped, closing her eyes in appreciation. ‘Perfect.’
When she opened them again, she found him staring at her with an arrested expression on his face. He shook himself and gestured her to the sofa again.
‘Now tell me why you cannot be Benito’s nanny, when it is clear that you would like to be very much. And when I would do anything I could to provide my son with the continuity he needs to settle into his new life.’
She smothered a sigh but pasted on a smile. ‘If you want continuity then you need to know about Colin.’
He listened intently as she told him about Benny’s favourite toy. ‘A comfort toy? Yes, I have heard of such things.’ That dark head nodded, the expression a little fierce. ‘I will buy another—no, I will buy several—and put them in a safe place in case the original ever meets with a mishap.’
That fierceness pressed into the service of his son’s happiness gave her pause. It didn’t gel that a man like that, someone so protective of his child, would ignore that child’s existence for seven months. Which meant someone else in the Vieri family had to have known. And had kept it from him. Who would do such a thing?
Not that she had any intention of posing the question. It was all just conjecture anyway.
‘Now, come, tell me what is preventing you from accompanying Benito to Rome?’
At that moment she almost believed he’d slay any dragons that needed slaying—for his son’s benefit, of course. Despite the fact it had more to do with Benny than herself, it was still devastatingly attractive. What a shame, then, that the fire-breathing dragon threatening her peace of mind couldn’t be conquered so easily.
She set her tea down and forced her shoulders back. ‘I recently started proceedings to contest custody of my young niece.’
His gaze darkened. ‘Go on.’
‘My sister is an addict—drug and alcohol. So is my mother.’
‘I see.’
She doubted that. She doubted drug or alcohol addiction had ever touched this man’s rarefied world. And she was glad of it. She wished to God they’d not touched hers either.
‘I had guardianship of Fern, my niece, while my sister served a custodial sentence for drug dealing. From the moment she was born, though, Fern spent more time living with me than her mother. Skye would occasionally make noises about becoming more hands on, but...’
She trailed off and he nodded, his mouth grim.
‘I really thought that she meant to turn her life around when she was released from prison. I thought she’d learned her lesson. She came to stay with me, and I got her a job here at the motel.’
‘You had high hopes?’
She nodded.
‘What happened?’
Their mother had happened. She’d blown into Mirror Glass Bay with her insults and her challenges, and with that inexplicable hold that seemed to seduce Skye every single time.
‘Did she return to drugs?’ Luca asked.
It took all her strength to not drop her head to her hands. ‘She stole my credit card and disappeared.’ She was still paying off that debt.
‘Did you not report her?’
She should have. She could see that now.
He must’ve read the answer in her eyes. He shook his head. ‘Monique...’
Her chest burned. ‘My sister was once my world, Luca. When I was a child, my mother couldn’t be relied on. But when I was four, she came home from the hospital with Skye. That changed my life, gave me someone to love and something to fight for. Having Skye in my life stopped me from becoming just like my mother.’
He rested his elbows on his knees, the action angling him closer to her. For no reason at all, her heart picked up speed. She took a hasty gulp of her tea. ‘She left Fern with me, though, so I figured I’d just keep looking after her and be able to keep her safe.’
‘What changed to make you contest custody? You have involved your local authorities, yes?’
She nodded, staring down at her hands. ‘Skye and my mother came, with a policeman, and took Fern away.’
His quick intake of breath told her what he thought of that. ‘How old is your niece?’
‘Three and a half.’
‘And how did she react to this?’
The question made her flinch. She shook her head. She refused to put that scene into words. Every time she recalled the way Fern had screamed and cried and clung to her, the hot scald of tears made her throat ache.
She forced her chin up. ‘Because I’m not Fern’s mother, I have no rights.’
His eyes flashed. ‘You have the rights of common decency and to protect those weaker than you.’
She’d not been able to protect Skye from her mother’s influence when they’d been growing up. Maybe that was why she was so determined to do all she could to protect Fern now.
‘What has happened since this time? How long has it been since this happened?’
‘Four months.’
She saw his protest before he could utter it and she held up a hand. ‘Please, Luca, I know.’
He snapped his mouth shut.
‘I don’t believe in taking a child away from their parent except in the direst of circumstances. I hoped rather than believed my sister meant to build a proper relationship with Fern, but the truth of the matter is she and my mother are simply holding Fern to ransom.’
‘Explain this to me, please.’
‘My sister tells me she will give me custody of Fern in exchange for two hundred thousand dollars.’ Her lips twisted. ‘I don’t have that kind of money. And the bank won’t lend it to me.’
‘You cannot pay this blackmail because it will not stop! Unless you have legal papers drawn up and—’
She held up her hand again and he halted mid-sentence. ‘There’s a more pressing concern, Luca. My mother, sister and Fern all live in the same house, and while they’re not unkind to Fern they neglect her.’
‘You are frightened for her safety?’
Terrified.
‘I visit as often as I can.’ Surprise visits. She never told them when she was coming. ‘They live in a larger town forty minutes away. I take groceries so that Fern has something to eat.’ And just so she had a chance to hug her little niece and tell her she loved her and was doing everything she could to make sure she could come and live with her for good.
Her heart started to thud. ‘Three months ago, when I dropped in unannounced, the house was wide open, but my mother and sister had both passed out in the lounge room and there was food burning on the stove. Fern had been locked in her bedroom.’
Luca’s entire body stiffened. He muttered something in Italian. It sounded like an oath. Whatever it was, she found herself nodding. She hated to think what would’ve happened if she hadn’t shown up. They could’ve burned the house down, with everyone inside it. ‘That’s when I called Social Services. They’ve been investigating ever since.’
‘But that was three months ago!’
‘My mother knows how to play the system. And it’s a big thing to take a child from its mother.’
‘But—’
‘I know. And I’ve given up hoping that Skye will become a proper mother. I’ve had to harden my heart against my sister for Fern’s sake. Fern deserves to be safe and she deserves to be loved.’
She knew this man agreed with her. She hesitated, but then stood and pulled her right arm from her cardigan. She angled her body so he could see her arm, could see the scar that ran down its length. ‘I don’t want this happening to my niece.’
