The Italian's Christmas Proposition (HQR Presents) Read online

  ‘The only reason I’ve told you what I have,’ he stated, ‘Is because you have a point. Relationships aren’t built on two people knowing absolutely nothing about one another, and this has to be a credible relationship until all the paperwork is done on the deal I’m working on with Bob and Margaret.’

  ‘You haven’t told me why it’s so important.’

  ‘Nor will I. And I should tell you that you should save the questions if any of them involve further delving into my past. I’ve given you sufficient information for us to pull this charade off. The confidences end there. The fact is we are not in a relationship. This is a temporary and fictitious arrangement and all we need to establish is a sufficiently credible basis from which we can answer the most straightforward questions.’ He opened the door and they walked in silence to the lift, then rode down to the busy foyer.

  All the while, thoughts were buzzing around in her head like wasps. He had opened a door and, having peered in, she wanted to have another look.

  As soon as they were back in the public domain, he slung his arm over her shoulders, only breaking apart to sign himself out.

  There was a background hum of Christmas carols being played which followed them out of the hotel onto the snow-covered slopes.

  Rosie had been to many ski resorts with her family over the years but they had fallen in love with this one and had made it their annual destination. The ski resort was situated in the heart of the Southern Alps in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. From here, Venice was a couple of hours away, and she figured that Matteo had probably arranged for his clients to come to this particular resort because it had suited him. He couldn’t have picked a more beautiful spot for the uninitiated.

  The mountainous, pink and orange backdrop of the Dolomites was picture-postcard perfect, soaring up, commanding the valley and everything nestled inside it. The vista never failed to impress and Rosie stopped and stared at the sight.

  ‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’ She turned to him impulsively.

  ‘Meaning?’

  ‘You should learn to ski. I could teach you.’ She laughed at the horror etched on Matteo’s lean face and slowly he grinned.

  ‘You don’t give up, do you?’ he murmured, staring out at the panoramic view with her. Out here, everything was shrouded in silence, and the hue from the rising mountains was quite special. He had always used his Venetian villa as a bolthole. It had never occurred to him that this glorious place existed. But then again, he didn’t ski, so why would it have?

  He gazed back down to her upturned face. She had dimples when she smiled. She had stuffed a woolly hat on her head and her tangled white-blonde curls trailed in disarray from under it. Wrapped up in countless layers, her small, curvaceous body was tempting beyond endurance and Matteo spun around on his heels, indicating that they should make for her car now.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Rosie tripped alongside him, keeping some distance but feeling the impact of his presence slamming into her at every step.

  ‘I mean, others would have tactfully retreated once I warned them off trying to get to know me.’

  ‘That’s very egotistical of you.’ She swerved into the hotel car park, heading towards the four-wheel-drive car that was kept on permanent standby, as the villa was used by the family out of season as well.

  ‘Egotistical?’

  ‘I don’t want to get to know you,’ Rosie lied, beeping open the doors and hoisting herself into the driver’s seat. She waited until he was sitting in the passenger seat before turning to him. In the late-evening light he was all shadows and angles, and he sent a shiver of fierce excitement racing down her spine. ‘I just thought that, if we’re going to be stuck with one another for days on end, it might give us something to do aside from arguing, and anyway, it’s a shame to be here and not try your hand at it.’

  She started the engine and the car shuddered into life.

  ‘I’ve never had any woman tell me that she has to think of things to do if she’s going to be stuck with me,’ Matteo said, amused in spite of himself. ‘Sure you know how to handle this thing in snowy terrain?’

  ‘The road to the chalet is clear and gritted, Matteo, so there’s no need to be nervous—and of course I know how to handle it.’ She glanced across at him. ‘Don’t tell me that you think women can’t drive as good as men?’

  ‘Can they, though?’

  Rosie heard the lazy teasing in his voice and she burst out laughing.

  Her heart skipped a beat. A thread of something beyond excitement suddenly sparked and sizzled in her veins.

  ‘Probably better.’ She was focused one hundred percent on the road ahead of her, taking it very slowly, but she didn’t want to lose the moment. She liked this. ‘Are you scared of giving it a go? The skiing, I mean?’

  ‘Terrified,’ Matteo drawled.

  ‘I’ll make sure you’re all right.’

  ‘Will you, now? That’s an offer that’s almost too good to pass up.’

  They were nearing the chalet—a left-hand turn off the main road and then just a short drive to the warmth of the ski lodge. The drive was short but hazardous, but the car was equipped for all conditions and handled the steep climb to the chalet with aplomb. Ahead, the bright lights were welcoming.

  Candice was waiting for them, dressed to go out but making sure she stayed put to ask questions. Having shaken off the snow, hung various jackets and coats and dumped shoes and boots and all the other paraphernalia, Rosie faced her elegant, glamorous sister with a strength of purpose she had never really experienced before.

  From behind, she was aware of Matteo approaching, but the touch of his hand on her waist, curving to rest just under her breasts, still made her flush. She hesitantly slipped her arm around him to complete the picture she knew he was striving to convey. The pressure of his palm on her rib cage and the crazy tingling of her nipples in heated response fogged up her brain and she knew that she was beetroot-red.

  She wanted to moan and chewed down on her lip in horror, especially when he lazily circled his fingers on the woolly jumper, applying just the right amount of pressure.

  She had whipped off the woolly hat and in a matter of a few heart-stopping seconds he sifted his fingers into her hair and tilted her chin so that she was gazing up at him. Then he lowered his mouth to graze over hers...and all those things she had read about in magazines suddenly made complete sense. Lust...desire...whatever you wanted to call it...

  She had had one serious relationship that had, in retrospect, been nothing more than the optimism of youth to be loved and a need to be rescued from her abortive university career. It had lasted a matter of months and had certainly not prepared her for the high-voltage charge of craving that shot through her body when his lips met hers. Nothing she had ever experienced had. Confusion tore into her, darkening her eyes, sending a slight tremble through her body.

  Her vocal cords seemed to have dried up, but it didn’t matter, because Candice was smiling and Matteo had eased into charismatic gear and was saying all the right things, asking all the right questions, giving her cool, contained sister little chance of asking questions back.

  ‘I’d really love to hear about the two of you and how you met.’ She glanced at her watch, while from the sidelines Rosie breathed a sigh of relief. ‘But I’m going to catch up with some friends I haven’t seen for ages. Before the family descend tomorrow evening. By the way, they can’t wait to meet you. Hope you don’t mind but I couldn’t help but share the news with everyone—and get them to hold off on trying to set you up with Bertie.’

  ‘Actually,’ Rosie heard herself say, ‘I do mind, Diss. It was my place to tell them that Matteo and I are...er...going out.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose so but...’ Bright colour poured into Candice’s cheeks. For the first time in living memory, she was discomfited by her much younger sister, and Rosie realised that
this was what she should have been doing all along. Taking control of her life and owning her decisions.

  ‘It’s done now,’ she said quietly. ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Oddly, Matteo’s hand cupping the nape of her neck gave her a certain amount of strength.

  ‘I do apologise, Rosie. I was just so excited that you’d actually met someone...’

  Candice shifted, aware that she was treading in unchartered waters, accustomed as she was to compliance from her younger sister.

  ‘Socially acceptable?’ Matteo interjected coolly. He tightened his hold on Rosie and she leant against him, loving the strength he imparted. He was as solid as a rock.

  ‘That’s not quite what I meant.’ Candice reddened.

  ‘My track record hasn’t been great,’ Rosie said appeasingly.

  Candice gave her a bright, relieved smile and moved towards her for a quick hug before standing back and looking at them both with her head to one side.

  ‘You two make a fantastic couple,’ she said. ‘I was quite prepared to thump you when Rosie told me that you’d let her down. I can’t tell you how happy I am for the both of you that whatever misunderstanding you had has been sorted. I can just tell that you’re meant for one another.’ She winked at her sister.

  ‘Hang on, Candice,’ Rosie interjected, horrified and embarrassed that ‘holiday fling’ was morphing into ‘marriage on the cards’. ‘We’ve really only just met! We’re still getting to know one another.’

  Candice was laughing, heading for the door. ‘That’s how all relationships begin, Rosie! Anyway, don’t wait up for me, guys. That car could pull a sled in an avalanche, but if I feel too tired to head back then I’ll just stay over with Mick and Carol. They’ve already invited me and they’ve got oodles of room. I’ll text and let you know.’

  With which she left in a flurry of air kisses, slamming the door behind her, leaving Rosie alone with Matteo.

  ‘So...’ He looked around him. ‘Nice place, Rosie.’ It was open-plan, big but not huge, and with all the clutter of hectic family life left behind from one holiday to the other—well-thumbed books, games, toys and all sorts of bits and pieces collected over the years. The floors were deep, rich wood and there was a clutter of artwork on the walls, pictures done by Rosie and her sisters. In the sitting area, colourful throws were tossed onto the deep, comfortable sofas, and in the corner the television was rumbling on, volume low, because Candice had forgotten to switch it off.

  Looking around her, Rosie saw the place through his eyes. It was the essence of upper-middle-class comfort.

  ‘Can I ask you something?’ She waited until he had turned full circle to look at her.

  ‘Ask away.’

  ‘I know you said you didn’t want me prying into your private life...’

  Matteo realised that her prying was a lot less objectionable than expected. He wondered whether that was because, for the first time in his life, he had opened up about his past with another human being. Of course, he had had very little choice, given the situation, and none of it mattered anyway, because they would be parting company before Santa dropped down the chimney with his sack of goodies, but it was still a little unnerving.

  He wasn’t the confiding sort and he grimly told himself that he wasn’t going to change any time soon. A leopard never changed its spots and his reticence was solidly ingrained. He had always lived his life with the assumption that, when it came to other people and his private life, information was purely on a need-to-know basis.

  Like now, was what sprang to mind.

  ‘Then don’t,’ he informed her silkily.

  ‘I was just curious to find out how you...ended up where you did.’

  ‘Rich and powerful?’ He sat on one of the squashy sofas, which was a lot more comfortable than the pale leather ones in his place in London. He thought of that halfway house and the boisterous fun he had had there all those years ago. He’d never thought he would ever laugh again after he’d been put into foster care, but he had. The place had been designed to broaden the horizons of the underprivileged kids who went there and it had worked, at least for him.

  ‘There’s that modesty of yours again,’ Rosie teased lightly, but her curiosity was getting the better of her fast and she joined him on the sofa, opposite end, but close enough to hear every word he was saying.

  ‘When you’re a kid in care, you have to make an effort not to slide down to the lowest common denominator,’ Matteo told her conversationally. ‘No one has any dreams for you. You have to make sure you have dreams for yourself or you sink to the bottom fast. I was lucky. I was bright. I learned the value of education.’ He shrugged. ‘I studied. I never skipped class. I set my sights on the only thing that mattered.’

  ‘What was that?’

  ‘Freedom. When you grow up without any advantages, money is the only thing that buys freedom, and by the age of eighteen I’d come to the conclusion that I would just have to make money and a lot of it. I was gifted at maths and got into Cambridge University. Got a first-class degree and was lucky enough to get taken on by a burgeoning investment bank. By twenty-five I’d made my first million. The bonuses were insane, but that life didn’t suit me. I don’t like taking orders or working for other people. So I jacked it in and began scouting around for companies to buy. Small IT companies, mainly. That’s the long and short of it. Rags to riches.’

  ‘Your opinion of me must be very low.’ She thought of her cosseted background, the trust fund that kept her going, the university career she had jettisoned because she had been bored stiff.

  Matteo looked at her. She had such a transparent face. Yes, he really should have a low opinion of her, but there was something about her...

  ‘You’re not the sort of woman I would normally be drawn to,’ he was forced to concede.

  She raised aquamarine eyes to his, and his jaw tightened, because she was hurt.

  ‘That’s not meant to be an insult, Rosie,’ he said roughly.

  ‘I know that. It’s the truth. What sort of women are you drawn to, just out of interest?’

  ‘Career women,’ he admitted.

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘We’re poles apart,’ he reminded her. ‘I’m sure you wouldn’t, under normal circumstances, go for someone like me.’

  ‘Definitely not.’ Rosie tilted her chin at a mutinous angle, pride coming to her rescue, because it cut to the quick that, whether he found her sexy or not—and she hated herself for dwelling on that stupid, throwaway compliment—he would never have given her the time of day if he hadn’t been dumped into playing out this charade. ‘I’m just shocked at how easily Candice fell for the charade,’ she mused truthfully.

  ‘People believe what they want to believe,’ Matteo said with a shrug. ‘Human nature. Your family want what they think is best for you and someone rich, powerful and wearing a suit fits the narrative.’ He looked at her. ‘And here’s another reason why no one will question this too deeply...’

  Matteo looked at her flushed, pretty face ,but then his eyes drifted down to the tightness of her jumper straining over full breasts and the curve of her hips.

  The atmosphere shifted. He could feel it and he knew that she would as well. He was just looking, he thought, because he wasn’t going to encourage any further complication to an already complicated and annoying situation. He was going to be sticking around for a handful of days and then he would be off, leaving her to assert her independence and damn him for the bastard he really wasn’t at all.

  ‘What’s that?’ Rosie asked breathlessly.

  ‘The most obvious reason of all. Opposites attract...’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ROSIE COULD ONLY concede the truth behind that statement. Matteo was sinfully good-looking but he wasn’t her type. Take away the dark good looks and the perfectly honed, intensely masculine physique, and what you had was your basic busines
sman, the sort of guy to appeal to her entire family but not to her.

  It was true that she had never met any businessman quite in this one’s league but he was still nothing like the free-spirited adventurers towards whom she always gravitated. She shouldn’t be attracted to him at all but she was.

  But then, he wasn’t exactly Mr Typical Business Tycoon, was he?

  That background in foster care...

  Not exactly your run-of-the mill CEO...

  And those cool, cool eyes...seeing everything and revealing nothing...also not typical.

  And that thread-like scar...where had that come from? Surely not filling out profit and loss columns with his fountain pen?

  ‘She took it for granted, your sister,’ Matteo said conversationally. ‘That it was okay to break the news about us in a group family chat without asking whether you might have preferred to do the news-breaking yourself. That par for the course? Because, if it is, then you did well to put her in her place.’ He settled his gaze on her.

  ‘I know,’ Rosie said simply. She didn’t add that his presence had given her backbone. ‘The problem is that Candice wouldn’t have relayed the information the way I would have.’

  ‘Explain.’

  ‘You heard her. She thinks this is some great romance and that’s what she would have told everyone. I would have been a little more realistic. I would have prepared them for the fact that there was a chance this wasn’t going to work out. It feels as though things are getting more and more difficult to control.’

  ‘That’s the problem when a lie begins to spiral out of control.’

  She was hovering.

  Things had taken an unexpected turn and he could see that she was uncomfortable with the situation. Her edginess was apparent in the way her gaze was flicking towards him, then flicking away...in the way her whole body seemed alive with restlessness even though she wasn’t actually moving around. Underneath the feisty, open exterior, real apprehension was creeping in. The consequences of that little white lie were dawning on her.