Lucy Gordon - Her Italian Boss’s Agenda

And in future he would ‘go straight’. It was less tiring.

They swept into the Atelli, arm in arm, and were ushered to their table. It was good to be treated like a queen, she thought. This man knew how to entertain a woman and make her feel valued.

It flitted briefly across her mind that if only he were Primo Rinucci, how perfect everything would be. But she shut off the thought. That way lay weakness. Tonight was ‘time out’ with a delightful acquaintance. No more than that.

When the wine had been poured and the caviare served he raised his glass to her and she raised hers back.

‘To a great evening and no strings,’ he said.

Such an unnerving echo of her own thoughts gave her a jolt.

‘No strings,’ she said slowly.

‘We’re going to enjoy ourselves, and to blazes with the rest of them.’

‘Absolutely,’ she said.

Solemnly they chinked glasses.

Over caviare, she asked, ‘What part of the country do you come from?’

‘North London. I’ll probably go back there for a visit. My father’s dead but some of his relatives still live there.’

‘How come you live in Italy?’

‘I go back and forth. I have some Italian family and I’m just as much at home in either country, although Italy’s warmer, especially Naples.’

‘Naples,’ she said, relishing the word. ‘I’ve always liked the sound of it. It conjures up such pictures.’

‘Urchins and cobbled streets?’ he teased. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for the romantic myth?’

‘Certainly not,’ she said quickly. ‘Myths merely get in the way of reality.’

‘Maybe one can have too much reality,’ he suggested.

But she shook her head decidedly.

‘No. Reality is what counts.’

Once he would have said the same, but now reality was seeming less important by the minute. What mattered were the spells being woven in the air about them. And what was reality, anyway?

‘I expect you’ll see Naples soon enough,’ he said.

‘I wish I could.’ She sighed.

‘If you want to get anywhere in the firm, you need to be familiar with everything. Perhaps you should start learning Italian.’

‘What do you mean, start?’ she demanded, offended.

‘Beg pardon, ma’am. How advanced are you?’

She responded with a flood of Italian words, not all of which were accurate, but it was still a pretty good effort. He was impressed.

‘How was I?’ she asked.

‘Not bad at all. You’ve been working hard.’

‘You bet I have! Not just since I knew about the take-over, but before that, since the first deal. I knew your firm was going to be important to us, and I wanted it to be me that did the wheeling and dealing.’

He was amazed at the intensity in her voice and the flashing of her eyes. Here was no ordinary ambition. There was a driven quality to her.

‘Leonate had better look out,’ he said. ‘Before they know it you’ll have taken over. Perhaps I should warn them.’

‘No need. I can make my point for myself.’

‘I’ll bet you can,’ he said with a touch of admiration. ‘The question is, would they be wise to take you on?’

She laughed, but then sighed.

‘It’s easy to talk, but I thought the prize was within my grasp this time, and look what happened.’

‘Curtis?’ He shrugged. ‘A minor prize. But now there are others, bigger, more glittering.’

‘Exactly,’ she said, brightening again. ‘It’s just a question of making the right moves and convincing the right man.’

‘And who is the right man?’

She took a deep breath. Her eyes were gleaming with the thrill of the chase.

‘Primo Rinucci,’ she said.

He stared, jolted out of the happy dream that had begun to swirl around him.

‘Who?’

‘Primo Rinucci. He’s the power in Leonate Europa, even I know that.’

‘Yes, but-you hate him.’

‘How can I when I don’t know him?’

‘Well, you sure gave a good imitation of it yesterday. “To hell with Primo Rinucci” was the kindest thing you said.’

She made an impatient gesture as if to say this was an irrelevance.

‘That was just talk. Now it’s time for serious business.’

‘And he comes under the heading of serious business, does he?’

‘Winning him over does, although it’s going to be harder than I thought, since he isn’t here.’

‘That would make it more difficult,’ he agreed solemnly.

‘I suppose he didn’t bother to come to England himself because we’re not big enough to take up his attention.’

‘You’re not doing very much for my ego,’ he complained.

‘I didn’t mean-’

‘Of course you did. Be brave. Admit it. You reckon Signor Rinucci hasn’t got time to inspect his English acquisition, so he sends the small fry, like me.’

‘Not at all,’ she said quickly. ‘He sent you because you’re an Englishman and therefore better able to understand what you find here.’

‘Thank you, ma’am. That was a very clever recovery. You don’t mean a word of it, of course, because if you thought I mattered a bean you’d be trying to impress me instead of waiting for my boss.’

She laughed and didn’t deny it.

‘I wouldn’t get far trying to impress you now, would I?’ she teased. ‘It’s too late. You already know the worst of me. But he doesn’t.’ She looked at him in sudden anxiety. ‘You won’t tell him, will you?’

‘What, that you abused him?’

‘No, that I’m lying in wait for him. I don’t want him to be one step ahead of me, always knowing what I’m doing, do I?’

‘No, you don’t want that,’ he agreed awkwardly.

‘So you won’t tell him about me?’

‘Not unless he asks me direct questions,’ he said ‘which I’m sure he won’t.’

‘Good. Then I’m going to lure the lion into my den.’

He grinned. ‘I guess I don’t qualify as a lion.’

‘I see you more as a bear,’ she agreed, giving the matter serious thought. ‘Brown and grizzly, with a growl that you have to listen to very carefully to work out what it means today. Is he ferocious or is he in a mood to have his fur stroked? Better get it right, or who knows what could happen?’

It was subtle. It was clever. It was beautifully calculated to butter him up and soothe him down and, heaven help him, he knew he was going to fall for it even while he could see her pulling the strings.

‘Congratulations!’ he said admiringly. ‘At least I’ve had my warning. You’ll use me for practice, until the real prey turns up.’

She turned on him, eyes shining gleefully, head on one side.

‘You don’t mind, do you?’

‘How kind of you to ask! Would it make any difference if I did?’

‘You could always refuse.’

Sure, he could refuse! Like a drowning man could refuse to go down for the third time!

He met her eyes.

‘I’m considering my options,’ he said. ‘But have you thought of the practical difficulties?’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Aren’t you going to find it a little hard, running a lion and a bear in tandem?’

‘Ah, but suppose the bear’s on my side and he’s helping me, discreetly of course?’

‘Helping you-how?’ he asked, with well-founded caution.

‘Inside information. Practical advice. We could be a great team.’

‘A team implies an equal bargain,’ he protested. ‘Advantage on both sides. What do I get out of it?’

‘What do you want to get out of it?’ she teased.

Suddenly his head swam. What did he want to get out of it?

When the wild dance of his senses had calmed a little he managed to speak.

‘If that means what I think it does,’ he said softly, ‘you’re a shameless hussy.’

‘Not at all. You know the score.’

‘Maybe I have my own method of scoring.’

‘That will only make it more interesting,’ she murmured, so softly that he had to strain to hear, and her breath whispered across his face.

Out of sight, he gripped the table.

‘You’re a wicked woman,’ he said appreciatively. ‘Scheming, manipulative, dishonest-’

‘No.’ She laid a finger over his lips. ‘I’m not dishonest. I’m completely upfront about what I want and what I’ll do to get it. That’s honest. It doesn’t make me a very nice person, but it does make me honest.’

‘Olympia, for heaven’s sake! What a way to talk! Anyway, what do you mean by “inside information”?’

‘What’s the best way to approach him? What kind of woman does he like?’

‘The kind he’s married to,’ he replied, straight-faced.

Her eyes opened wide. ‘He’s married?’

‘Suffocatingly married for the last twelve years. He has five children and his wife’s a dragon with gimlet eyes. She’s a jealous fiend who inspects all his female employees with a machine-gun in her hand.’

‘But Cedric says-’ She checked herself, finally seeing the glint in his eyes. She leaned back in her chair, glaring at him.

‘I ought to squirt something at you for scaring me like that.’

‘It’s all true, I swear it.’

‘True, nothing! He’s a bachelor. Cedric told me.’

‘So you’ve been pumping poor Cedric?’ he exclaimed in unholy delight. ‘I can’t wait to hear what you offered him.’

Suddenly she could no longer meet his eyes. ‘The usual,’ she murmured.

‘And just-what-is the usual?’ he asked, smothering his unease.

‘Well-you know-’

‘Tell me.’

‘Whatever his heart desires. It has to be that, or there’s no point.’

He drew a long, painful breath. If she didn’t answer soon, so help him, he was on the point of violence.

‘And what did Cedric’s heart desire?’ he asked with a deadly smile.

Olympia looked around in both directions before replying in a low voice. ‘Cedric has a particular interest. He doesn’t talk a lot about it because-well, people are so quick to make judgements-’

‘But he knew you’d understand?’ Primo said grimly.

‘Oh, yes. He’s shown me his whole collection, and I was able to complete it. He was really pleased.’

‘Complete it?’

‘Yes, he collects videos about dinosaurs, and there was one he’d never been able to get hold of. Luckily my father had it, so I copied it for him. Cedric eats out of my hand now.’

He stared at her. ‘Dinosaurs,’ he said, dazed.

‘Yes.’

‘You got him a video about dinosaurs?’ he repeated slowly.

‘That was what his heart desired.’

Her eyes were full of fun, telling him he’d been well and truly had. He tried to quell his laughter but it welled up inside him, finally bursting out loud enough to startle a passing waiter.

‘You tricky, devious-’ he choked.

‘But whatever did you think I meant?’ she asked, wide-eyed and innocent.

‘I daren’t tell you. You’d probably slap my face.’

Of course she’d followed his every thought, because she was a black-haired witch who could tease a man into her glittering snares, even when he knew he ought to run a mile. That was the sensible thing to do.

But he’d been sensible all his life, and suddenly it was impossible.

IT TOOK him a while to stop choking with laughter and sit shaking his head as he regarded her in delight.

‘You should be ashamed of yourself,’ she said sternly.

‘So should you,’ he riposted at once. ‘Now tell me, was Cedric’s information worth the price?’

‘No, I’m afraid Cedric’s knowledge is limited. He couldn’t even say what Signor Rinucci looked like, although he’s met him. “Tallish”, is the best he could do.’

‘Yes, I don’t think noticing details is poor Cedric’s strong suit.’

‘But you’ll know. Is he good-looking? What sort of things does he enjoy? Come on. Tell.’

‘Are you planning to seduce him?’ he asked, avoiding her eyes.

‘Certainly not. I’ll be far more subtle than that. Seduction merely complicates things. Besides, when you say seduction, what exactly do you mean?’

‘I’m disappointed in you, Olympia. I thought you were a strong woman, not one who backed away from facts. You know exactly what seduction means. The whole thing. Admit it. You haven’t thought this through.’

‘Not thought it through? If you knew just how many hours, waking and sleeping, I’ve spent working out this-’

‘But you’ve never gone as far as the logical conclusion.’

‘Look, there’s seduction and there’s seduction-’

‘No, there isn’t. There’s only seduction, and you’d better know what you mean by it before you set out after this man. He’ll want far more than a dinosaur video. Just how far are you prepared to go?’

‘Not that far. What do you take me for?’

‘A woman prepared to put her ambition before everything else. Before love, before happiness, before being a person.’

‘That depends on what you mean by being a person. To me it means being a success. I want to impress him with my knowledge of business, my ability to speak his language, my willingness to commit myself to the job one hundred per cent.’