“I’m significant and Jack has many ‘others’, but I’m not one of them,” Maddie retorted.
“Excellent news. I’m Max Valentine.”
“Jack’s brother?” she guessed.
“Indeed.”
“Maddie Ford,” she said. “Jack’s assistant as opposed to his significant other. Upon occasion, to my dismay, I’ve dutifully smoothed the ruffled feathers of his significant others. Which I guess would then make them insignificant.”
Max grinned. “You’re a feisty one.”
Jack was taken by surprise when an unreasonable flash of resentment ripped through him. “You’re not her type, Max.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“Max actually has a personality.”
Maddie finished off the champagne in her glass. “Then maybe I should get to know him and his personality better,” she shot back.
Before Jack could figure out how he could be so pleased to see his brother at the same time he wanted to wring his neck for flirting with Maddie, his father joined them.
The older man rested his hand on his Max’s shoulder. “And so,” Robert Valentine said, “the prodigal son returns.”
CHAPTER TWO
THE last time Jack had been face to face with his father, Robert Valentine had been enraged. Now he showed no emotion, not even surprise. He was still handsome, the silver flecks in his black hair giving him a distinguished look. His black eyes revealed nothing about his feelings for the son who had spent eighteen years trying to get his notice. The son who had struggled to control his natural enthusiasm. The son who now controlled the fate of this restaurant.
The irony of that almost made him smile.
Jack had literally looked up to his father twelve years ago, but now he looked him straight in the eye. He’d made himself a powerful man and was no longer that unsure boy who craved his father’s good opinion.
“Hello, Dad.”
“Jack.” Robert smiled his practiced smile. “It’s been a long time. To what do we owe this unexpected surprise?”
“Emma called.”
Something flickered in Robert’s eyes. “Did she now?”
“Yes. To tell me she got married.”
“Did she say anything else?” A muscle jumped in his father’s jaw.
In anyone else that tightening of the mouth would be nothing. For his stiff-upper-lipped father it signaled nervousness in the man Jack had once thought invincible. Satisfaction surged through Jack. If it made him a bastard that he took pleasure in the old man’s problems, so be it.
“She said she wanted me to meet her husband,” Jack answered.
“Sebastian. Nice chap.”
Jack shrugged. “Hard to tell in a few minutes, but my sister seems happy.”
“She’s blossomed, our Emma has, into a beautiful, self-confident young woman.”
“She has, yes.”
Funny how leaving Robert Valentine’s shadow had that effect.
“I hear you’ve done well for yourself, Jack,” Robert said.
“Does that surprise you?”
Instead of answering, Robert turned his gaze to Maddie. “And who’s this, then?”
She held out her hand. “Maddie Ford. Jack’s assistant,” she added before his father made the “significant other” assumption.
“Robert Valentine,” he said, shaking her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Bella Lucia.”
“Thank you.”
“Have you been to England before?”
She shook her head. “This is my first visit.”
“And Christmastime in London is a fine introduction.” Robert smiled at her.
“I have business,” Jack said.
“I do hope work won’t keep you from seeing some of London.” His father’s voice oozed charm.
“It won’t. Jack promised.” Maddie smiled brightly, a clear indication that the Valentine charm was working on her. “It would be a shame to come all this way and not take in the sights. Traveling has always been on my list of things to do.”
“Don’t put things off, Maddie,” Robert warned, “All work and no play…”
Hypocritical bastard! Vibrating with anger, Jack took a step forward and stopped inches from his father. “And how would you know about balancing work and play? For all the time you gave your family, we might have been pet frogs. When you weren’t buried in work, you played with women who were not your wife.”
Maddie put a hand on his arm. “Jack—”
He barely felt the touch, but her tone got his attention. The shocked expression on her face cleared the red haze of rage from his head. He blew out a long breath. “We’re leaving, Maddie.”
Shock turned to surprise and there were questions in her eyes. “But it’s just been—”
“We can’t stay,” Jack interrupted.
Robert frowned. “You’ve come a long way. Surely you can have dinner—”
“We have other plans,” he snapped.
Jack had come because of Emma, but he didn’t owe this man a thing and this place held no good memories for him. Right here the world as he’d known it had come apart. He’d rebuilt his life, but no one would be that important to him again.
As Jack hustled Maddie back out into the cold he acknowledged irony for the second time and didn’t appreciate it. Just like that night a dozen years ago, he couldn’t get out of Bella Lucia fast enough.
The difference was that this time he was leaving with Maddie, the only woman he trusted.
After checking into a suite at Durley House, Maddie couldn’t wait to get out of her travel clothes and into something more comfortable. If only she could get out of her thoughts as easily. The scene at Bella Lucia had really shaken her.
She’d never seen Jack like that. The repressed violence she’d felt in him had shocked her because she was accustomed to his easygoing charm, a trait she suspected he’d inherited from his father after meeting the man. This darker Jack with an aura of danger hanging over him was someone she didn’t know at all. And she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
She didn’t like thinking about Jack outside of business because, by definition, outside of business meant personal. On a personal level, men like Jack were toxic to her. After getting to know him, she’d filed him in the well-to-do womanizing wastrel category. But after seeing his volatile reaction to his father, it was harder to keep him there. The little he’d said revealed that Jack had probably inherited his father’s fondness for women as well as the charm to reel them in.
And here she was sharing a suite with the man. He had the master bedroom with a living room in between, but suddenly it was too close.
Damn it. She should have told him what he could do with his Christmas in London.
An unexpected knock on her door made her jump. She walked over and opened it. “What?”
“I’ve taken the liberty of ordering dinner.” He indicated the dining table behind him set with linen, china, candles, flowers and two plates.