His Sicilian Cinderella

CHAPTER TWO

HER LONG BLACK hair was falling out of her ponytail and covering her face, but nothing could have stopped him from recognising her, and Matteo watched her hands still as he said her name.

She bit her nails, Matteo noticed.

He remembered that she hadn’t.

That night, with him, her nails had been short but neat.

Every inch of her body held the potential for such vivid recall yet he fought it even now.

‘I said, get up.’ This time his voice was harsh but better that than dropping down to his knees and taking her back in his arms.

He waited for her to apologise again, to plead for forgiveness, but instead she looked up and beneath the sheet Matteo grew to her gaze as for the first time in many years their eyes met again—how he wished that the rare mossy green of her eyes that had enthralled him might leave him cold now.

Not a chance.

‘Mi scusi...’

‘Stop apologising, Bella. We both know that that was no accident...’

‘But of course it was,’ Bella insisted, still on her knees and looking up. ‘I did knock. I thought I heard someone call out for me to enter. I got a fright when I saw the sheets move and I tripped...’ She looked at the empty bottle of champagne that had fallen to the floor. ‘I am so sorry to have upset your fiancée. Was the water very cold?’

‘It did its trick,’ Matteo said. He was starting to lose his patience and taking her forearm he hauled her up to stand. ‘Get up, Bella.’

The dousing of water certainly wasn’t doing its trick now, for her skin was warm beneath his fingers and the scent of her, even after all these years, was familiar. Only how could that be, for that night she had been doused in cheap perfume?

He had bathed that scent away, Matteo recalled, even as he fought not to remember.

Instead, he inhaled the starch from her maid’s uniform.

It did not help.

Possibly, Matteo decided, Bella was the only woman who could wear pale green with a cream apron and still make it look sexy. Her legs were bare but even the flat lace-up shoes failed to detract from the beauty of her long limbs. Her body was just as slender as yesteryear, her eyes were still so big in her face and those lips that should not be smiling, given the chaos she had just created, still melted him.

There was, even with Shandy in the bathroom, a want and a need to kiss the smile from Bella’s face...

‘Are you surprised to see me, Matteo?’

‘Not really.’ He shrugged as if facing her again was the easiest thing in the world, as if he hadn’t spent the best part of the night locked in sensual dreams with her. ‘I heard at dinner last night from Sophie that you worked here...’ That would account for dreaming of her, Matteo decided, and then he remembered why they could never be.

She preferred her work to him.

‘Are your clientele richer here, Bella?’

‘They are.’ Bella smiled. ‘I wonder if even you could afford me now.’

‘Oh, but I’m sure that I could,’ Matteo said. ‘Given that I’m looking to buy this hotel. In a few months’ time I may well be your boss...’

‘Never,’ Bella spat.

‘Why are you suddenly so cross?’ Matteo asked, his voice low and husky, his face far too close to hers, so close that he could feel her soft, rapid breaths on his cheek and it reminded him of her first orgasm. ‘From what I remember, we parted on very friendly terms.’

The slight tickle of her breath halted.

He looked down at her lips and then back to her eyes and they were both beyond turned on. His eyes then drifted down. Her nipples were erect and Matteo could smell the scent they made and he told her the truth. ‘I could take you now and I wouldn’t even have to pay you.’

She gave him the slowest smile. ‘Of course you wouldn’t have to pay me. I would do you for free, Matteo.’ She dropped her voice from low to a throb. ‘Do you want me in my uniform? That’s very tame. Do you want a personal turn-down service or would you prefer to wake up to me? The choice is all yours.’

His fists bunched to hear her speak like that.

‘Are you going to hit me again, Matteo?’

‘Don’t twist what happened then to suit you now.’

‘I’m not.’ Bella smiled wantonly. ‘But you must know that if he is gentle, if he is considerate then a woman always has a soft spot for her first...’ As the duty manager knocked on the door of the suite she continued her soft taunt. ‘A tender spot...’ Bella said. ‘A sweet, warm spot...’ And then she told him a truth of his own. ‘Were you thinking of me as she sucked you?’ Bella asked, and laughed out loud. ‘But of course you were—I assume that you got my bedside note, warning that tomorrow would be stormy and hot.’

‘Jealous, Bella?’ Matteo demanded, as there was another knock on the door to the suite. ‘Is that the reason you threw water over us...?’ He released her arm to go and get the door as she spoke on with a sneer in her voice.

‘I wasn’t jealous at all—my mother used to do the same to dogs in the street.’

He had been about to let the manager in but instead he turned and fronted her, his anger pushing her up against the wall.

‘Shandy and I are not dogs and we were not out on the street. I was in bed with my lover...’

It was Bella’s turn to be doused but it felt as if it was by acid as Matteo shrugged off the sheet and picked up his robe.

His words made her face go pale and she shrank against the wall. It hurt so much to hear that and the enormity of what she had done was just starting to hit.

And then she glimpsed again his beauty.

He wasn’t bashful, there was no point, there was nothing of him that Bella hadn’t already seen, and so as he dressed she was taunted by one last glimpse of Matteo Santini naked.

One glimpse was enough to reveal that his thighs were more muscular, his arms just as toned. One glimpse was too much for she saw him, half-aroused, lifting from his thigh, and she knew it would never be hers to hold again.

Matteo strode off to let the manager in and the angry blonde came out of the bathroom. Her hair was wrapped in a towel and Bella could not bring herself to look at her.

‘Your maid...’ Shandy shouted, as she brushed past Bella and into the lounge room, loudly voicing her complaint. ‘She has completely ruined our morning...’

Matteo glanced over as Bella came through—the witch who had been in the bedroom had now turned her expression from seductive to contrite. Hell, she even managed to produce tears.

He could never have guessed that they were real.

‘I said that I was sorry,’ Bella attempted.

‘Oh, it’s way too late for that,’ Shandy shouted, and then turned to Alfeo, the duty manager. ‘Fire her.’

‘There’s no need for that,’ Matteo said, and then he cleared his throat. ‘It was an accident.’ He was used to putting out fires, massive ones, yet it was taking everything he had to put out this tiny one and to treat Bella as if he didn’t know her. ‘It was a simple accident,’ he reiterated, ‘and no one got hurt.’

‘Your maid threw a bucket of water over us!’ Shandy shrieked. ‘She didn’t just trip, she actually took aim. This is going to hit the papers if I have my way. Do you have any idea who I am?’

The duty manager couldn’t care less that Charlotte Havershand, or Shandy as she preferred to be known, was the daughter of some English politician. His concern was more for Matteo Santini’s reaction. Alfeo well knew that he was, along with his business partner Luka Cavaliere, considering purchasing this hotel. The room had been meticulously prepared, the staff had all been fully briefed and told that all the stops were to be pulled out for this most esteemed guest.

Alfeo knew too a little of Santini’s dark past and so he swallowed nervously as he weighed his options. Yes, Santini might appear to be being reasonable but he had meted out many a silent punishment in the past and so Alfeo came to a rapid decision.

‘You’re fired,’ Alfeo said to Bella.

‘Alfeo...’ Bella’s tears were flowing now. ‘Alfeo, please...’

‘Go and wait in my office and I will give you your papers.’

‘Alfeo...’ Bella begged. ‘I’ve worked here for five years and with one mistake you would—’

‘Out!’ Alfeo snapped, and with a sob she fled.

She offered no final plea to him, Matteo noted.

No parting shot either.

She simply turned and fled.

He should feel relief that she was gone.

He should snap to attention and resume the perfect life he had created but instead he just stared at the door she had run out of as the duty manger attempted to right her wrongs. ‘Now, I will attend to the mess she has made myself but first, please, take a seat and I will have breakfast brought to you here in the lounge. I cannot apologise enough—’

‘There was no need to fire her,’ Matteo said, and then he looked at Shandy, who was smirking as she sat down. ‘You just cost someone their job. Does that not bother you?’

‘What bothers me,’ Shandy retorted, ‘is that I have to get my hair done now when I was hoping to go shopping this morning. I do love the shops here...’ she examined her nails, no doubt, Matteo thought, toying between coral or nude. He recalled Bella’s bitten ones, as, despite his best attempts, the past finally, fully invaded, he could not live the lie a moment longer.

Breakfast was promptly delivered but Matteo waved away the new maid that had been sent and he also asked Alfeo to leave but said he would like to speak with him later, before he dealt with Bella.

He poured the coffee with a completely steady hand and as he did so Matteo dismissed his latest lover from his life.

Shandy didn’t go quietly, but he was more than used to that.

She pleaded, she sobbed and the room was slightly trashed again, but finally Shandy was in his company jet and on the way back to London as Matteo sat in a hotel that Bella had given five years of her working life to.

Five years.

Matteo had assumed that her arrival here had been recent, a year or two perhaps.

Five years, though, must mean that she had left Bordo Del Cielo around the same time that he had.

It made no sense.

Matteo called for the duty manager to come up to discuss the morning’s events.

‘It really is most irregular,’ Alfeo said, once Matteo had invited him to take a seat. ‘We only have our best staff working on the top floors.’

‘And Bella is one of your best?’ Matteo checked.

‘She’s one of our more experienced staff,’ Alfeo flushed.

‘You’ve had problems with her before?’ Matteo pushed. He had worked in hotels for a long time and knew when the duty manager was being evasive.

‘Not problems as such...’ Alfeo ran a worried hand through his hair and Matteo wondered if the manager’s sudden discomfort possibly had something to do with his maid’s extra-curricular activities. ‘Despite our best preparations for your visit, it would seem there was a mix-up with the staff rosters. Bella doesn’t usually work the top floors.’

Matteo was quite sure there had been no mix-up, he was quite sure that Bella had been busy meddling.

‘I don’t want her fired,’ he said. ‘You are to give her a warning but tell her that she has a second chance...’ Matteo hesitated. ‘After I check out, though. I leave here on Sunday for Dubai. Once I’ve gone, she can resume work.’

‘Of course,’ Alfeo said. ‘You can tell your fiancé that she has nothing to worry about, she shan’t be seeing Bella again—’

‘That’s all,’ Matteo said, choosing not to correct Alfeo.

Shandy wasn’t the problem.

With Bella in the same building, it was Matteo’s willpower that might not hold out.

But it would not prove so easy to avoid her, Matteo found out just as the manager left and he took a call from Luka.

‘It would seem you were right with what you said last night,’ Luka sighed. ‘Sophie has told her father that we will marry in Bordo Del Cielo this weekend...’

‘And you said yes?’

‘I told her that she had better hope that her father dies before the service on Sunday. I will go through the motions and make the right noises but it is all just a charade. No way will I go through with a marriage just to appease her father.’

‘Finally you are speaking sense.’

‘Will you be there?’ Luka asked, and Matteo was about to say that he would but then Luka spoke on. ‘One problem, though—Sophie is going to ask Bella Gatti to be bridesmaid.’

Matteo remembered getting to the airport, Luka waiting. He remembered his tension as he’d looked out for Bella and her mother, ready to explain them if they showed.

They hadn’t.

And so he hadn’t told Luka that he had planned to take Bella with him.

But Luka had heard from a couple of people about that last wild night in Bordo Del Cielo.

‘I just wanted to warn you in case it makes things awkward for you and Shandy. Will you be there?’ Luka asked again.

‘I shall be,’ Matteo said. ‘I’m not sure about Shandy, though.’ For reasons of his own he did not, even to his friend, reveal that he and Shandy were over.

‘We’re flying out early Saturday,’ Luka said.

‘I’ll make my own way,’ Matteo said. ‘I have an appointment that morning, but I can only stay till the Sunday evening, though. I have to get to Dubai.’

‘Can you reschedule that? Given that I’m not going to go through with the wedding it’s going to be a helluva mess. It would be good if you could—’

‘Sorry. I can’t.’

Matteo hung up the phone.

Of course he could have rescheduled but it was safer not to.

He had kept her away for the next few days.

It would be impossible after that.

Oh, before the wedding there would be plenty to keep them busy, but by the Sunday night...

Even if it meant letting down his best friend, Matteo would not be staying for Luka’s wedding night.

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