‘I think I might have the fish.’
Alessandro didn’t bother to glance at the menu. He responded by keeping his eyes firmly fixed on her face while he beckoned with a slight raising of his hand and was rewarded when someone sprang to attention and hustled over.
How did he do that? Was there some poor sap hovering in the corner somewhere, waiting until the Mighty One beckoned him across?
Of course there would be. Money talked, and Alessandro Preda had a lot of it. Vast amounts.
People changed when they were around money. Common sense flew through the window. Subservience, slavishness and an awestruck inability to just act normally set in.
So she might feel something—a little insignificant twinge of awareness about the man—but that was natural. He was drop-dead gorgeous, especially when she was receiving the full, undiluted blast of his forceful personality. But she wasn’t and never would be one of those simpering airheads who turned to mush around him. And actually not just airheads. Lots of clever women—definitely two in the legal department—giggled at the mention of his name and projected crazy fantasies about him over lunch in the office restaurant. Several times Kate had had to stop her eyes from rolling skywards.
Her body might be a little rebellious, but thankfully she had her head firmly screwed on.
She politely waited as he ordered, said no to a top-up of wine, and then relented because at least it made her relax.
‘So, about George...’ She flicked open the file and felt the weight of his hand over hers.
‘In good time.’
‘Sorry. I thought you might have finished relaxing.’ Her heart was thumping so hard that she wondered if she might be having a mild panic attack. Or, worse, turning into one of those simpering airheads. Or even worse than that, one of those clever women whose brains went missing in action the second he came too close.
‘Only just beginning.’
He dealt her a slashing smile that did nothing to steady her disobedient body and she pursed her lips in response.
‘Perhaps I should have taken more of an interest in your career before...considering you’re one of my rising stars...’
‘I didn’t think you got involved in doing appraisals on anybody in your company,’ Kate responded politely. Boss/employee, she reminded herself. The boss got to ask all the questions and the employee got to ask none whatsoever.
‘True,’ Alessandro conceded.
He didn’t look at the waiter as he placed their food in front of them and then did some annoying perfect positioning of their plates. All he wanted the man to do was disappear. Because he was pleasantly invigorated and didn’t want to lose the moment. They were few and far between as it was.
‘I like to think that’s what my human resources people are all about. Although, in fairness, they probably work to rule like the rest of the occupants of your floor.’
‘Everyone works overtime in the winter months. It’s just that it’s summer and it’s baking hot outside—I guess they want to leave on time and enjoy the sunshine.’
‘But not you?’ Alessandro pointed out. ‘Nothing urgent out of hours waiting for you?’
‘I don’t think what I do outside work is actually any of your business—and I apologize right now if you think I’m being rude when I say that.’
‘No need for apologies. I just want to make sure. Do you feel the need to live in the office in order to get on?’
‘I...’
She tried to imagine living a life in which that mythical other half was right now whipping up something in the kitchen for her, anxiously consulting his watch if she was running late. She would have to do something about that—turn the passing thought into reality. She didn’t miss having a guy in her life now, but she would eventually. She wasn’t meant to be an island, and if she wasn’t careful she would wake up one day and find herself alone because she had sacrificed everything to her quest for security.
‘Tell me what you’re thinking.’
‘Huh?’
‘You’re a million miles away,’ Alessandro drawled drily. ‘Simple question, really. I didn’t think it would have required that much deep thought.’
‘I...’
For a few seconds she nearly told him just how much deep thought that ‘simple question’ required. More than he could ever imagine because—like it or not—this man who saw his vast empire as a family affair was a man who came from money. How could he ever understand the drive inside her to fill all the gaps her upbringing had left?
‘Sorry... No. Of course I know that there’s no need for me to work long hours to get on—although, in fairness, I probably work fewer hours in winter than my colleagues.’
‘Ah, yes. Because you’re a creature of the night?’
And just like that Kate thought of her mother, of those jobs in dark bars earning money from tips, dancing and showing herself off in whatever nonsense she was told to put on. A creature of the night doing night-time jobs. Nothing like her.
‘Don’t you ever say that to me!’ she blurted out before she could stop herself. She was shaking with anger and stuck her hands under the table on her lap so that he couldn’t see that they were shaking.
‘Say what?’ Alessandro asked slowly, his sharp eyes narrowed on her flushed face. ‘Did I say something wrong?’ He frowned and saw her make a visible effort to gather herself. ‘Tell me what the problem is.’
‘There isn’t a problem. I’m sorry. I overreacted.’
‘Firstly, stop apologizing for everything you say that you think might offend me. I don’t take offence easily. And secondly...there is a problem. You went as white as a sheet and now you’re shaking like a leaf. What provoked that sudden bout of outrage?’
Curiosity dug deep. Underneath the calm surface, she was a hotbed of emotion and that intrigued him. He leaned forward, elbows on the table, crowding her.
‘You’re trying to think of a polite way of telling me that it’s none of my business, aren’t you?’
Kate shied away from his searching narrowed stare. She could feel the full force of his powerful personality like something raw and physical and it appalled and mesmerized her at the same time. This was evidence of the driving tenacity that had propelled him into the stratosphere of wealth and power and it went far, far beyond his formidable intelligence and his ambition.
She averted her face, her heart beating wildly. ‘My mother worked in a cocktail bar,’ she said flatly.
Why had she just come out with that? She never, ever went there with other people. Her past was a closed book to prying eyes.
‘Amongst other things. I have no idea why I’m telling you this.’ She looked at him accusingly from under lowered lashes. ‘I don’t usually confide in other people. I’m not usually a confiding kind of person. I know you think I’m strange, working long hours, but...’
‘But you crave financial security?’
‘Crave is a strong word.’ She smiled tentatively. ‘But maybe it’s the right one.’
She felt a weird sense of release at unburdening herself. When she was growing up, those sensitive teenage years had been an agony of embarrassment. She had made sure never to get too close to anyone. She hadn’t wanted them to find out that her mother worked as a cocktail waitress, brought men home who used her because of the way she looked, was a sad, desperate woman who knew only how to barter with her body to keep them going.
She’d