“Who is the woman sitting opposite me now?” Massimo asked. “Is she the social-climbing gold digger, or the girl with the golden heart?”

“What if I am both?” she asked, a fleeting shadow of sadness in her gray-blue eyes as they returned to his. “What if they are one and the same?”

The waiter appeared at that moment to take their order, giving Massimo time to reflect on her answer. Massimo had waited so long for revenge. He had thought of nothing else for five long years. Each punishing day working at building his investment empire had been for this chance to turn the tables on her. He had been ruthless in his pursuit of wealth and power. His anger toward his stepfather had become almost insignificant as he had planned his revenge on her.

He was not going to be lured in by her innocent act all over again.

This time he would have her where he wanted her, where he had dreamed of having her for the past five years.

In his bed.

MILLS & BOON

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MELANIE MILBURNE read her first Harlequin® novel when she was seventeen and has never looked back. She decided she would settle for nothing less than a tall, dark and handsome hero as her future husband. Well, she’s not only still reading romance, but writing it as well! And the tall, dark and handsome hero? She fell in love with him on the second date and was secretly engaged to him within six weeks.

Two sons later, they arrived in Hobart, Tasmania—the jewel in the Australian crown. Once their boys were safely in school, Melanie went back to university and upgraded, receiving her bachelor’s and then her master’s degree.

As part of her final assessment, she conducted a tutorial on the romance genre. While she was reading a paragraph from the novel of a prominent Harlequin® author, the door suddenly burst open. The husband she thought was working was actually standing there dressed in a tuxedo, his dark brown eyes centered on her startled blue ones. He strode purposefully across the room, hauled Melanie into his arms and kissed her deeply and passionately before setting her back down and leaving without a single word. The lecturer gave Melanie a high distinction and her fellow students gave her jealous glares! And so her pilgrimage into romance writing was set!

Melanie also enjoys long-distance running and is a nationally ranked masters swimmer in Australia. She learned to swim as an adult, so for anyone out there who thinks they can’t do something—you can! Her motto is “Don’t say I can’t; say I CAN TRY.”

Androletti’s Mistress
Melanie Milburne

~ UNEXPECTED BABIES ~

ANDROLETTI’S MISTRESS

To my mother-in-law, Joyce, and my late

father-in-law, Alf Wilkinson. I dedicate this book

to you for the very special gift you gave me in

producing the most adorable man in the world—

your son. Thank you from the bottom

of my heart. Love you.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS the sort of funeral where no one shed a tear.

Nikki accepted everyone’s condolences with a composed expression on her face, even though in spite of everything she still felt a sense of deep sadness as the coffin was lowered into the cold, dark soil.

‘So sorry about Joseph,’ one of the sales managers said as he shook her hand a few minutes later. ‘But he wouldn’t want to have lingered on any longer.’

‘Thank you, Henry,’ she said, even managing to crack a small, grateful smile. ‘No, indeed he wouldn’t.’

‘Mrs Ferliani?’ A journalist pushed through the small knot of mourners. ‘Have you any comment on the successful takeover bid of Ferliani Fashions conducted by your late husband’s stepson Massimo Androletti?’

Nikki felt a shockwave go through her body at the mention of that name. She’d already scanned the small congregation repeatedly, in case he’d had the audacity to appear, but so far she hadn’t caught sight of him. ‘No, I haven’t,’ she said coolly. ‘Now, please leave; this is a private ceremony.’

‘Is it true there is nothing left of your late husband’s estate?’ the journalist persisted. ‘That Massimo Androletti now owns the business and even the house you live in?’

Nikki set her mouth. ‘I have no comment.’

Another reporter joined the first. ‘Our sources say Joseph Ferliani lost a fortune on the stock exchange, and in an effort to recoup the losses gambled away everything he and you owned.’

‘Mrs Ferliani has already told you she has no comment to make,’ a deep male voice said from just behind Nikki.

She swung around to look a long way upwards into the black, diamond gaze of Massimo Androletti. She fought hard not to reveal how seeing him after all this time affected her, but Nikki was almost certain he had noticed the tiny up-and-down movement of her throat. His expression was mask-like, but there was a glint of steely purpose in his eyes that secretly terrified her. Her stomach hollowed out, her legs began to tremble and her chest felt as if something hard and thick had lodged itself halfway down, making it almost impossible to draw in the air necessary to breathe.

‘Come this way,’ he said, putting a hand beneath her elbow, the touch of his fingers sending a current of tingling awareness right through the thick sleeve of her winter coat.

Nikki considered resisting his attempt to lead her away, but thought better of it when she felt the subtle tightening of his hold, as if he’d already sensed her intention. As she felt his latent strength, her heart began to thump behind the wall of her chest as she thought of being alone with him.

He led her to his waiting limousine parked outside the cemetery. ‘Get in,’ he commanded curtly. ‘We have things to discuss.’

Nikki sat on the plush leather seat, her legs pressed tightly together as he joined her, the huge car now seeming far too small with his long legs and six-foot-three frame taking up most of the available space. Even the air inside the car seemed to have been reduced; it physically hurt to take in each breath as she tried to steady her growing panic with deep, calm breaths.

‘To the house, thank you, Ricardo,’ Massimo said as he leaned forward to speak through the panel.

Nikki shifted even further away as he sat back in the seat, her nostrils flaring slightly as the spicy fragrance of his aftershave drifted towards her. Her stomach gave a little flutter as her eyes went to the long, hard length of his thighs within touching distance of hers. She had once felt those strong legs entwined with hers, had felt his hard male body drive into her silky moistness, his hot, commanding mouth wreak havoc on all of her senses.

‘So,’ he said as he swung his cold, hard gaze towards her. ‘Your plans to land yourself a fortune failed in the end, did they not?’

Nikki tightened her mouth without responding to his embittered jibe. He had a right to be bitter, she had to admit. She would have felt the same, if not worse, if he had done the same to her. But explaining her actions five years down the track would be pointless. Given the choice, she would have done the same thing again in spite of all it had cost her.

‘It is true what the journalist said. I now own everything,’ he said into the silence, which was taut as a violin bow. ‘But then I expect the lawyer has already explained that to you.’

‘No,’ she said, stripping the one word of any trace of emotion. ‘I haven’t yet met with him, but I plan to do so tomorrow.’

His dark brows rose slightly. ‘I would have thought that would have been your very first priority,’ he said with a cynical glint in his eyes. ‘A sluttish little gold-digger like you would surely check to see what has been left to her on her husband’s death?’

Nikki refused to show the despair she was feeling at his comment. Instead she elevated her chin and sent him an arctic look. ‘Joseph was far more important to me than his money,’ she said. ‘I don’t care if he’s left me nothing.’

His mouth tilted into a calculating smile. ‘Such wifely devotion,’ he drawled. ‘But then you are very good at acting when it suits you, are you not?’

She turned her head away to stare sightlessly out of the window.

‘He has left you nothing,’ Massimo said into the strained silence. ‘Nothing except debt, that is. Even the house is now mine.’

This time it was harder not to reveal how his statement affected her. She fought to control her expression, but she could feel the tensing of her jaw regardless as she turned back to glare at him. ‘I don’t believe you. Joseph promised he would provide for me.’

‘The way I see it, you are in a rather precarious position,’ he went on evenly, although his coal-black eyes still shone with hatred. ‘You have no income unless I choose to give it to you, no car, no house, and as of a week ago, no sugar daddy.’

Nikki really loathed that term. It demeaned everything she had come to admire and respect in Massimo’s stepfather.

Joseph Ferliani had had his faults; he had been a hard-nosed businessman for most of his life. But for all that, she had come to know him in a way she suspected few people ever had. The long, agonising months of his terminal illness had shown a side to him that he had kept well hidden, and most particularly from his stepson and arch-enemy Massimo Androletti.

‘Your stepfather was not my sugar daddy,’ she said in a clipped tone as she faced his obsidian gaze head-on.

His top lip lifted in disdain. ‘What was he, then?’

‘He was my husband and my friend,’ she answered with quiet dignity.

Something flickered in his eyes at the word ‘husband’, for which again Nikki couldn’t really blame him. It would gall most men to think they had been replaced by someone much older and richer than they were, and Massimo was clearly no different. She could feel his blistering rage in the air that separated them; her skin felt tight and prickly, and the hairs on the back of her neck lifted one by one as his eyes clashed with hers.

‘You forgot to mention he was your lover,’ he pointed out with another curl of his lip. ‘Or did he not come up to scratch in the bedroom?’

Nikki turned away again so he wouldn’t see the way her face flamed with colour. ‘I don’t wish to discuss my private details with you,’ she said. ‘It’s disrespectful, considering Joseph is not even cold in his grave, and to be quite frank it’s none of your business.’

‘It was my business five years ago, wasn’t it, Nikki?’ he reminded her. ‘But little did I know then that one drink would lead to a one-night stand with my stepfather’s future child bride.’

She ground her teeth together and bit out, ‘I was nineteen years old, surely old enough to know my own mind?’

‘You went from my bed straight to his,’ he said, his dark eyes flashing with livid sparks of fury.

Nikki felt her insides twisting with anguish. ‘I didn’t know who you were,’ she said. ‘Joseph never mentioned your name to me prior to our…marriage.’

‘So what are you saying?’ he asked with a cynical twist to his features. ‘That if you had known who I was you would not have fallen into my arms at all?’

How could she defend herself? Nikki wondered. Was there any way she could package what she had done to make it more palatable? At nineteen, she had been so very young and so heavily traumatised. She had wanted something different for herself, something so far removed from the dark, spreading stain of her childhood that she had accepted Joseph Ferliani’s offer of a lucrative marriage contract without really looking into the details as closely as she should have. As the enormity of what she’d been committing herself to had begun to dawn, she had insisted on a few days to call her own before she signed away her future into his hands.

One last week of freedom.

And on the very first day of it Massimo Androletti had been the right man at the wrong time….

CHAPTER TWO

‘CAN I buy you a drink?’ Massimo said as she walked up to the bar the first night of her stay at the city hotel Joseph had paid for as part of their agreement.

Nikki turned her head and looked at the tall, dark, handsome man sitting with a glass of spirits half finished in front of him. He was dressed in a suit, but not just any old off-the-rack suit, one that fitted him superbly. She could tell he was taller than average by the way she had to raise her head to meet his brown, almost-black eyes as he got to his feet. She was five-foot-nine without heels, so it was a bit of a novelty to have to crane her neck for a change.

He had a thick head of curly dark hair but it was cut close to his scalp, as if he was a person who liked control. His jaw and chin were determined, if not a little forceful, and yet his smile was easy and involved his dark eyes in a totally compelling way.

‘Why not?’ she suddenly found herself replying. What had she got to lose? After the harrowing afternoon she’d just been through visiting her younger brother, a drink with a perfect stranger who knew nothing of her past was just what she needed. Besides, what was that quote: ‘Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’?

‘What would you like to drink?’ he asked, leading her to one of the plush chairs in a quiet corner.

Nikki vaguely registered the hint of an Italian accent in his slightly formal use of English. How incredibly ironic, she thought. ‘Champagne,’ she said, and because she was feeling uncharacteristically reckless added, ‘But not the cheap stuff, it gives me a headache. I want the best there is.’

‘Then the best you will have,’ he said, and signalled for the bar tender.

A couple of glasses later, Nikki ended up agreeing to have dinner with him, enjoying his company in a way she hadn’t expected. She had been on very few dates; she hadn’t been all that comfortable in the company of men other than her brother. But Massimo was charming and polite, amusing and attentive, and she couldn’t help lapping it up while it lasted. But whenever the subject drifted into the territory of her background she papered over the cracks of her conscience with the parcel of lies she had constructed ever since the day her mother had died and her brother’s life had been changed for ever.

‘I’m a personal assistant,’ she said, which at least was true. ‘I’m having a week off. I thought I’d do some shopping, have some beauty treatments—you know, pamper myself a bit, that sort of thing.’

‘You do not need beauty treatments,’ he said, running his dark gaze over her. ‘You are the most naturally beautiful woman I have ever met.’

A flicker of uncertainty momentarily flashed across her features. ‘Do you really think so?’ she asked in a soft, breathless whisper.

He leaned forward to take one of her hands in his, the curl of his fingers around hers sending shooting sparks of heat to her most secret place. ‘Of course I think so,’ he said. ‘I have never met a more beautiful or desirable woman in my life.’

Nikki pulled her hand out of his to reach for her champagne glass, her stomach still flip-flopping all over the place. ‘I’m sure you’ve met plenty of women much more attractive than me,’ she said, her mouth going down at the corners.

‘On the contrary, I have met very few that compare with your translucent beauty,’ he said. ‘Your blonde hair is like a skein of silk. Your eyes are the most amazing grey-blue and you are tall, slender and graceful. You are any man’s dream.’

She looked at him searchingly. ‘You don’t think I’m too tall?’

He gave her a reproving look. ‘You are surely not going to apologise for being tall, are you? You are doing my neck a huge favour. I do not have to bend down to hear what you are saying.’

Nikki giggled, which in itself was a novelty. She couldn’t remember the last time she had found anything or anyone amusing. ‘You’re the first man in ages that I’ve looked up to,’ she said, still smiling. ‘It’s quite a change, I can tell you.’

‘Is there a current man in your life?’ he asked.

Nikki hesitated for a fraction of a second. How could she tell him she was engaged to be married to a man twenty-five years older than her? A man who was offering her a passport out of the shame that had haunted and hunted her for so long.

‘No,’ she said, rationalising that for a week at least there was no one. She was a free agent until the following Saturday, and after that she was off the market for who knew how long.

‘I find that hard to believe,’ he said. ‘What is wrong with all the young men in Melbourne?’

She smiled at him again, and took another sip of her champagne. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Are you currently unattached?’

‘Yes,’ he said on a little jagged sigh. ‘I was involved with a woman in Sicily a few months back, but it did not work out.’

‘Have you recently arrived from Italy?’ she asked.

‘I have dual citizenship,’ he said. ‘I travel back and forth a lot on business.’

‘What sort of business?’

‘I am building up an international investment portfolio. My plan is to seek ailing companies to buy and then resell them for a profit,’ he said. ‘With proper management teams in place, a flagging business can be turned around within a year or two, or even a few months.’

‘It sounds very interesting, but rather expensive and extremely risky,’ she commented.

‘It is,’ he agreed. ‘I have a meeting later this week to hopefully organise financial backing for a company takeover I have planned for years.’

‘You sound very determined,’ she said, reaching for her glass and taking a little sip.

‘I am.’ A frown brought his dark brows together as he reached for his glass. ‘The company I want to take over was launched using money defrauded from my father. He was swindled by someone he trusted as a friend. I am on a mission to get every cent of it back.’

Nikki felt a faint shiver run up her spine at the determination in his tone. His expression had darkened, his eyes losing their playfulness, and instead they had begun to glitter with hatred. ‘So you’re after revenge?’ she asked.

He nodded grimly. ‘It is all I think about. I want to take my father’s enemy down, and I will do so, even if it takes me a lifetime to achieve it.’

‘How will you take him down?’ she asked, her heart beginning to thud with alarm. ‘You’re not going to do anything…er…underhand, are you?’

He smiled at her worried expression. ‘Of course I am not going to do anything illegal. I am simply going to outwit him in business. It should not be too hard. The best tactic in any sort of successful campaign is to know your enemy. I know all his weak spots, and so it will be relatively simple to disarm him when the time is right.’

‘He sounds like a truly horrible person,’ Nikki said, suppressing a tiny shudder. ‘Is that why you’re here?’

‘Yes and no,’ he said, his expression clouding slightly. ‘I have some meetings to attend…’He appeared to give himself a mental shake and exchanged his serious expression for a smile. ‘But enough about my troubles,’ he went on in a lighter tone. ‘Tell me about your family.’

Nikki felt her stomach drop with all-too-familiar panic. ‘M-my family?’

‘Yes; have you any brothers or sisters?’ he asked.

She concentrated on the bubbles in her glass rather than meet his gaze. ‘I have a brother two years younger than me.’

‘What about your parents? Are they still married?’

‘Yes,’ she said, reflecting wryly that it was more or less true. Her mother had still been married to her father on the day he had taken her life and ruined Jayden’s for ever.

‘You are lucky to have come from such a loving and stable background,’ Massimo said as he refilled the glasses. ‘My parents divorced when I was sixteen.’

Lucky? Nikki almost laughed out loud. The last word she would ever use to describe her background was ‘lucky’. Each day had been a fight for survival, each night an agonising wait for disaster to unfold as soon as her father had walked through the door.

‘Losing the business was bad enough, but losing my mother tipped him over.’ He paused, as if searching for the words to continue, the flash of pain in his dark eyes all the more evident.

‘What happened?’ Nikki prompted gently.

His gaze meshed with hers. ‘He took his life a few months later,’ he said. ‘I came out to the garage and found him unconscious. He had killed himself—the fumes had poisoned him, and he was unable to be revived.’

Nikki felt tears burn in her eyes for what he must have suffered. ‘I am so sorry,’ she said, reaching for his hand, her fingers curling around his. ‘No wonder you are after revenge. This ghastly man took everything away from you.’

Massimo gave her another grim look. ‘But I am going to get it all back, every single cent of it. I do not have the money to do it yet, but I will do it eventually. I know I will.’

‘Do you know something, Massimo?’ she said with an encouraging smile. ‘I believe you will, too.’

He squeezed her hand. ‘I have never met anyone like you before,’ he said, his dark eyes melting as they held hers. ‘I feel this amazing connection with you. Our backgrounds are very different, but I feel as if I have known you for a very long time—and yet we have only just met.’

Nikki felt her belly start to quiver as his long fingers stroked the underside of her wrist, the slow, sensual movement stirring her body into a whirlpool of feeling. Her breasts tightened, her nipples pressing against the lace of her bra as she held his dark-as-night gaze. ‘I feel it too,’ she said, her voice coming out low and husky.

A shadow of regret passed over his features. ‘I am only here for a week,’ he said. ‘I have to go back to Italy first thing on Sunday. But, when I return, can I see you again?’

Nikki hoped he couldn’t see the panic in her eyes as they came back to his. ‘I’m sure you will have forgotten all about me by the time you return,’ she said with a weak smile.

‘No, Nikki,’ he said, his fingers strong and determined around hers. ‘I will not forget you.’

She moistened her lips with her tongue. ‘I—I should have told you earlier,’ she said, dropping her gaze as she hastily composed her lie. ‘I don’t come from Melbourne. I’m just here on a little holiday. I won’t be here when you get back.’

‘Where will you be?’

‘Umm…Cairns.’ She said the first place that came to mind.

‘Then I will come and see you in Cairns,’ he said. ‘We can go to the Great Barrier Reef together, eh?’

‘Massimo…’ She forced her eyes to meet his. ‘I’m not sure I’m the person you—’

‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’ he asked before she could finish her sentence.

A few hours ago Nikki would have answered a resounding ‘no’, but after spending the evening in Massimo’s company she was now not so sure. She was attracted to him in a way she had never been attracted to anyone before, but it wasn’t just a physical thing—although that in itself was as overwhelming as it could ever be. It was more a sense of being in the company of a man who stood up for what he believed in. His loyalty to his father’s memory was truly admirable. It was so far removed from what she had experienced in her childhood she couldn’t help but be impressed, and indeed incredibly moved.

She thought then what a wonderful husband and father he would make. His sense of family was so strong that no one would be hurt, while under his protection. He was quite simply the most amazing man she had ever met.

‘You are taking a long time to answer.’ Massimo sent her a rueful look. ‘I have made a fool of myself, yes?’

‘No,’ she said, shivering all over again as he brought her hand up to his mouth. ‘I’m not sure about love at first sight, but I definitely feel something I’ve never felt before.’

He pulled her to her feet, bringing her to stand in front of him. ‘We have the next six days to explore and get to know each other,’ he said. ‘I do not want to rush you, but I cannot bear the thought of finding someone so special and wasting time in case we do not get this chance again.’

Nikki drew in a wobbly breath and did her best to smile. ‘If it’s meant to be, then we will get our chance,’ she said as his mouth came down to hers.

CHAPTER THREE

NIKKI spent the happiest six days of her life in Massimo’s company. She stalwartly refused to think about her wedding on Saturday. It was as if by not thinking about it she could really be the person Massimo believed her to be. She was a young carefree woman in love for the first time, relishing every moment of being truly adored and treated like a princess.

She knew it would have to end when the week was up, but she tried not to dwell on it too much. She comforted herself that Massimo was a man of the world. He would forget about her as soon as he boarded the plane back to Italy; his brief fling with the tall, blonde Australian girl would no doubt be a distant memory as soon as the first drink was served on the flight back home.

They explored the sights of Melbourne together, walking through the Bourke Street Mall to window shop, dining at some of the restaurants along the Southbank complex, and even spending some time at the world-famous Crown Casino where Nikki watched in awe as Massimo won a small fortune at one of the black-jack tables.

Later in the week they hired a car and visited the beautiful Yarra Valley, notorious for its picturesque vineyards, where the rolling green hills and valleys they passed prompted Massimo to say how much it reminded him of Sicily.

‘I would love to show you my homeland,’ he said as they drove back after spending a wonderful afternoon at Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary. ‘We do not have koalas and kangaroos and wombats, of course, but there are many wonderful historic buildings and artifacts.’

‘I would love to travel the world one day,’ Nikki said dreamily, looking out of the window as the verdant fields went by. ‘I’ve only ever been to…’ She stopped, her heart thumping at how close she had been to revealing how she had lied about where she had originally come from.

‘You were saying?’

‘Er…I’ve only ever lived in Australia,’ she said. ‘I know it’s a big and diverse continent, but I haven’t seen much of it really…’

He sent her a smile. ‘You have no need to be ashamed, cara,’ he said. ‘You are young. You have plenty of time to see the world.’

On the last day Massimo arranged to meet her after he had his meeting in the city. As soon as she saw him walking towards her outside the art gallery, where she had spent the morning filling in time, she knew things had not gone well for him. His handsome face looked pinched and his mouth tight.

‘Are you OK?’ she asked, touching him on the arm.

He placed his hand over hers and gave it a tiny squeeze. ‘I do not want to spoil our last afternoon and evening together talking about my business. Suffice to say things did not go according to plan.’

‘I’m so sorry.’

He gave her a strained smile. ‘I will just have to wait a little longer to achieve what I want, but then the best things in life are worth waiting for, no?’

‘I guess…’ she answered, looking down at their linked hands.

They walked past the Shrine of Remembrance through to the Botanic Gardens, stopping to have afternoon tea at the café overlooking the lake, where ducks waddled in search of crumbs and cheeky sparrows darted in amongst the chairs and tables in spite of the shooing actions of the staff.

Massimo smiled indulgently as she surreptitiously bent down to scatter some crumbs from the coconut cake he’d bought her. ‘You are not supposed to encourage them,’ he said, indicating the DO NOT FEED THE BIRDS sign nearby.

‘I know, but I can’t help feeling sorry for them,’ she said, a fleeting shadow of sadness moving across her face. ‘They’ve probably got little babies to feed.’

He reached across the table for her hand and brought it up to his mouth, kissing each fingertip in turn, his intense gaze holding hers. ‘You have such a kind and tender heart,’ he said in a deep, gravelly tone. ‘I have waited a long time to meet someone as sensitive to the needs of others as you are.’

Nikki gently pulled her hand out of his, her whole body tingling with awareness. As each day had passed, she’d found it harder and harder to resist him. He had not pressured her to sleep with him, which surprised her. She had assumed, like many men with his jet-setting lifestyle, that he would have leaped at the chance of a one-week fling with a woman he had singled out for his attention. His kisses had been passionate and tender, enthralling and tantalising, and yet each time their mouths had touched he seemed to be keeping himself in check.

‘You are feeling nervous and uncertain, cara?’ he asked into the little silence.

‘W-what do you mean?’

He reached for her hand again and began stroking the sensitive skin on the underside of her wrist in slow, sensual movements that sent a riot of sensation to her toes and back. ‘I want you,’ he stated bluntly. ‘I have wanted you from the first moment I saw you but something about you made me realise you are not a one-night stand sort of girl. I deeply respect that about you.’

Somehow she found her voice in time to croak out, ‘T-thank you.’

‘I have a bit of a reputation for working hard and playing harder,’ he confessed. ‘I can assure you, it is highly unusual for me to have spent more than three dates with a woman before bedding her.’

Nikki swallowed.

He smiled at the twin flags of colour on her cheeks. ‘You are a virgin, yes?’

Her eyes fell away from his. ‘No,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I wish I still was. My first and only time was horrible…’

He frowned, and his hand encircling her wrist tightened protectively. ‘You were…’ he paused over the word ‘…raped?’

Her eyes came back to his, her colour still high. ‘No, I just didn’t realise it would be so…so one-sided, if you know what I mean.’

His fingers began their sensual magic against the satin surface of her skin. ‘You did not experience pleasure, Nikki?’

‘Not really.’ She gave a little wry grimace and added, ‘Not at all, actually.’

His eyes darkened with tenderness as he pulled her to her feet. ‘We have one night left, cara,’ he said, linking her arm through his. ‘I want to make it as memorable as possible.’

Nikki had not dreamt how truly memorable it would be. They went back to the hotel hand in hand, the silence that hung between them heavy and pulsing with promise.

She felt it all through their last dinner together in the hotel restaurant. Each time his eyes caught and held hers, she sensed the sexual tension building in him. She could feel it thrumming in her own body, a deep and low pulse that begged to be assuaged.

She felt it in the lift as they silently climbed the floors to his room, each number showing above their heads like a countdown to paradise.

And she felt it in the thudding pulse in his fingers as they tilted her face to receive his kiss, the self-control he had been reining in all week finally slipping as the door of his room closed behind them.

‘I should not be doing this,’ he said, pressing hot kisses to the side of her neck as he lifted her hair out of the way. ‘I told myself I would wait until I return from Sicily, but I want you so much I am burning inside and out with it.’

Nikki raised her face for more of his drugging kisses. ‘I want you too,’ she whispered against his lips. ‘I want you to make love to me. I want to feel pleasure…Your pleasure as well as mine.’

He held her from him, looking deeply into her eyes. ‘Are you absolutely sure, cara? I can wait for you. I will make myself wait for you if you do not feel ready to take this step.’

She pulled his mouth back down to hers. ‘Don’t make me wait,’ she pleaded desperately. ‘I don’t want to wait another minute.’

He undressed her, the slow movements of his hands belying the true state of his arousal. She felt it against her, the hard surge of his body and how he fought to control it in order to prepare her properly for his passionate possession. His mouth was on hers, and then on each of her breasts, sucking gently at first, and then harder until her back arched with intense longing.

He laid her carefully on the king-sized bed, trailing a hot blaze of kisses all over her body, her mouth, her neck, her breasts and the tiny cave of her belly button before moving lower. She totally melted under the sweep and stroke of his tongue as it separated her feminine folds, the sensation of such an intimate caress sending her pulse skyrocketing. Her body began to convulse, the earth-shattering release beyond anything she had ever imagined.

He waited until she was calm once more before reaching for a condom. She watched with wide eyes as he came back to her, taking his time again in kissing and caressing her, until she was begging him to fill her. ‘Oh, please…oh please…’

‘You are getting impatient, Nikki,’ he said playfully, kissing her lingeringly, the sexy saltiness of her own body on his lips inciting her to grab at him greedily, her pelvis rising to meet the downward thrust of his.

Nikki heard his deep groan of pleasure as the small, tight sheath of her body grasped at him, the honeyed warmth enveloping him totally. He tried to control his thrusts to keep them slow and not too deep, but she was having none of it. She clung to him, her fingers digging into the tautness of his buttocks to keep him where she wanted him.

She felt herself begin to climb the mountain again, the pinnacle getting closer and closer with each surging movement of his body within hers.

The overwhelming power of his release surprised her, as did her own. It was like an earthquake rumbling between them, rocking them back and forth, shaking them, shattering them into a thousand tiny pieces.

She held him against her as his breathing gradually came back to normal, the skin of his back raised in tiny goose-bumps, under the soft pads of her fingertips.

He lifted himself up on his elbows to look at her, his dark eyes full of wonder. ‘Do you realise what you have just done, Nikki?’ he asked.

‘W-what?’ she asked, a shadow of uncertainty flitting across her face.

‘You have made me fall in love with you,’ he said. ‘For ever.’

Nikki felt her throat tighten. Oh God! What had she done? This should not have happened. She should not have let it happen. She had no right to sleep with a man to whom she could offer nothing but a one-night stand, for that was all it could ever be.

He reached past her to take something out of the bedside drawer. ‘I have something for you,’ he said.

Nikki tensed as he retrieved the small package. Throughout the week he had bought her gifts—not expensive ones, which had made it easy for her to accept them, with perhaps not an entirely clear conscience, but she’d reasoned she wanted something to keep as a reminder of what she could have had if life had dealt her a different hand of cards.

She took the tiny package from him, her fingers beginning to tremble slightly as she felt the cushioning of velvet beneath the tissue wrapping. ‘What is it?’ she asked, her voice sounding rusty.

‘Open it and see,’ he said, smiling at her.

She began to undo the tiny silk ribbon, each movement of her fingers meticulously slow. The tissue fell away, and the red velvet box lay in her hand like a square of blood. She knew what was in it before she opened it, knew too that she should have handed it straight back and told him the truth, but instead she slowly lifted the lid.

A diamond solitaire ring gleamed up at her, its sheer brilliance taking her breath away.

‘Put it on,’ he said into the silence.

Nikki had never hated herself more than at that moment. The shame of her past was nothing to what she was experiencing now. But as if her fingers had a mind of their own they lifted the ring from its velvet home, and slid it on her ring finger where Joseph Ferliani’s ring was supposed to be. But, unlike the heavy, cumbersome cluster Joseph had insisted she wear, Massimo’s ring was exquisitely delicate, suiting her slim hand perfectly.

‘Will you marry me, Nikki?’ Massimo asked as he took her hand in his. ‘I know this is terribly rushed, but I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you.’

Nikki bit her lip in anguish, tears springing in a crystal stream from her eyes as she met his. ‘I don’t know what to say…’ she began. ‘It’s been so sudden…so totally unexpected.’

He brought her closer to the warmth of his body and, holding her hand to his heart, smiled down at her. ‘It looks like I will have to be patient and wait for your answer on my return,’ he said. ‘That will give you time to talk it over with your family. I am forgetting how very young you are. I am nine years older than you, so it is reasonable to expect you to be feeling a bit overwhelmed—especially now, after we have made love for the very first time.’

She was overwhelmed, but with guilt. It prodded and poked at her from every angle like a thousand pointed daggers. How could she have let things get to this stage? What had she been thinking? She should have known from the beginning that a man like Massimo Androletti would want more than a quick fling. She should have had one drink with him that first night and left, then he would not have had to suffer the pain of rejection, and she would not have known what it felt like to be truly in love, only to have to walk away because of circumstances beyond her control.

‘Massimo, there’s something I need to tell you…’

He bent his head to press a soft kiss to her mouth. ‘No, cara,’ he said. ‘Do not give me your answer until we meet again. I am flying to Palermo on Sunday. I am sorry I cannot spend the day with you tomorrow, but I have an engagement to attend which I cannot get out of.’

‘It’s all right,’ she said, inwardly blowing out a breath of relief. ‘I have something on as well.’

He held her close, his arms strong and protective around her. ‘I will miss you, Nikki. Every day we are apart I will miss you.’

‘Me too,’ she whispered, her heart breaking into a million pieces.

He put her from him. ‘I will not say goodbye, but vederla presto.’

She looked up at him in puzzlement. ‘What does that mean?’

‘It means “see you soon”,’ he said, and sealed his promise with a burning kiss.

CHAPTER FOUR

NIKKI arrived at the church in her stiff-as-meringue dress, the lace itching her all over as she walked up the aisle, her bouquet feeling as heavy as her heart in her hands. She didn’t recognise any of the faces, but then it wasn’t as if she had a large circle of friends to invite. Ever since she’d moved from Perth with Jayden, there hadn’t been time to socialise even if she had felt inclined to do so. Holding down a job in order to pay for her brother’s care had taken up every bit of available time.

She just wanted this bit to be over so she could help her younger brother get the extra support he needed. Joseph had offered her a large sum of money in exchange for her hand in marriage. He had told her he needed a trophy wife, and was prepared to pay her a wage on top of the amount he’d promised for as long as she lived with him. He had assured her he was not interested in consummating the union due to his health problems, which he’d insisted no one was to know about. To all intents and purposes, their marriage was to appear normal, and Nikki had only agreed because she knew it would be worth it to see Jayden settled into Rosedale House where he would receive the twenty-four-hour care he so desperately needed.

Finally the vows were over, the register signed and the organ playing as they came out of the church to a cloud of confetti.

It was only then that Nikki saw him.

She stumbled in her tracks, her hand digging into Joseph’s arm to steady herself as Massimo Androletti stepped from the crowd to stand in front of them, his black gaze glittering with a rage so intense she felt as if her skin was going to peel away layer by sensitive layer under its scorching heat.

‘I would like to be introduced to your new wife,’ he said, addressing Joseph in a seemingly polite tone, although the way he said the word ‘wife’ made it sound more like an insult.

‘Nikki,’ Joseph said, ‘this is my stepson, Massimo Androletti, who has graced us with his presence this afternoon, after telling me for weeks he wouldn’t be seen dead at any wedding of mine. Massimo, this is Nikki, my new wife.’

‘Il piacere è tutto mio,’ Massimo said, and with a sardonic curl of his lip translated, ‘The pleasure is all mine.’

Nikki felt the heat of his fingers as he took her hand, the hint of steel in them as they brought it up to his mouth sending a tremor of terror through her body. She knew her face was every shade of red, but there was nothing she could do about it. She had never dreamed that such a fateful coincidence could occur, but, thinking back over the last week, she realised there had been a hundred clues if she had taken the time to reflect on them. But then she hadn’t wanted to think about anything, but that precious time with Massimo, for she’d known it had to end.

‘So you decided to come after all,’ Joseph said to Massimo. ‘What changed your mind?’

‘I had heard you were marrying your new secretary,’ Massimo said, swinging his hardened gaze to Nikki, running it up and down her body insultingly. ‘But I had no idea she was so very young and beautiful.’

Joseph’s arm came around Nikki’s waist in a territorial manner. ‘She is to be the new face of the Ferliani Fashions advertising campaign. She is delightful, is she not?’

‘Exquisite,’ Massimo drawled insolently. ‘But then you always want the best, and do whatever you can to get it.’

Joseph gave him an imperious smile. ‘Get over it, Massimo. This is one time you are not going to win. I have it all—a beautiful wife, a business that is thriving, and money to play with.’

‘What a pity none of it is really yours,’ Massimo ground out, his eyes flashing. ‘Even your angelic-looking wife is a slut. Why don’t you ask her what she was doing all last week?’

Nikki felt the colour of her shame brand her from head to foot. She wanted to sink to the ground at their feet, but a last vestige of pride made her hold her head high.

‘Nikki was having a well-earned rest before the wedding,’ Joseph said, but even she could see the doubt in his hazel eyes as they came to rest on her. ‘Weren’t you, Nikki?’

‘T-that’s right,’ she answered, lowering her gaze slightly.

‘Yes, well, she certainly spent a lot of time relaxing,’ Massimo said with another venomous glance in her direction. ‘But perhaps you had better ask her whose bed she was in last night.’

‘I think it might be time for you to leave,’ Joseph said, indicating for one of his burly staff members to come forward. ‘Gino, please show Signore Androletti the way out.’

‘You lying little whore,’ Massimo said to Nikki as he brushed off the man’s hands as if they were pieces of lint. ‘I will make you pay for this. I will not rest until I have you begging for my mercy, I swear to God.’

Nikki swallowed convulsively as he stalked out of the church grounds, the tolling of the bells ringing in her ears like an omen for the future…

The car coming to a halt jolted Nikki out of the past. She felt Massimo’s burning gaze still pressing against her in accusation. ‘You knew who I was that first night, didn’t you, Nikki? It was all a game to you, to make me appear a lovesick fool, while you were busily planning your marriage to another man—the one man I hated more than any other.’

‘You are entitled to your opinion, but I can assure you it is wrong. Anyway, it was a long time ago,’ she said with carefully measured calm. ‘It can hardly have any relevance to here and now.’

‘It has everything to do with here and now,’ he returned with chilling determination. ‘You see, Nikki, the time has come for my revenge.’

Nikki refused to allow him the satisfaction of seeing how much his words frightened her. She sat casually in her seat, one finely arched brow lifting in scorn. ‘This is the twenty-first century, in case you hadn’t noticed. The days of an eye for an eye, and what have you, have long gone.’

‘We will see,’ he said, and unfolded himself from the car. He turned to offer her a hand, but she ignored it as she too exited the vehicle on legs that were not as steady as she would have liked.

She looked up at the imposing mansion before throwing him a questioning glance. ‘I take it this is your house?’ she said.

‘It is.’ He turned to the driver. ‘Ricardo, you can take the next couple of hours off. Mrs Ferliani and I have business to discuss. I will call you when I need you.’

‘Right, boss.’

Nikki pulled her mouth tight as the limousine drove away.

‘I have no desire to discuss anything with you,’ she said. ‘I have things to see to at home, in any case.’

His dark brows lifted expressively. ‘Home?’ he asked. ‘Now, which home are you referring to, I wonder?’

She ground her teeth. ‘Even if what you say is true, that the house is now yours, by law I don’t have to move out with out notice.’

‘On the contrary, as the new owner I can evict you at a moment’s notice,’ he said. ‘You have already been living there for several months rent-free—or did your husband not inform you of that?’

Nikki swallowed against the solid lump of dread in her throat. ‘What are you talking about?’ she asked, her heart stumbling in her chest.

He gave her a cool smile. ‘Your husband approached me for financial help in the months before he died. He begged me to dig him out of trouble—but of course I refused.’

‘You unfeeling bastard,’ she bit out. ‘How could you twist the knife like that in a dying man?’

‘As you know, I had a score to settle,’ he said. ‘He took it very well, all things considered. He handed me everything—the house, the cars, the business, and…’ He paused deliberately, his gaze locking meaningfully with hers.

Don’t ask, Nikki told herself firmly. You already know the answer, so what would be the point?

‘You do not want to know what else your husband put up for purchase?’ he asked.

She met his sardonic gaze with a flare of resentment in hers. ‘If by any chance you are presuming to lump me in with the goods and chattels, then forget it—I am not for sale.’

His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes as he came to stand right in front of her. ‘He paid you to marry him,’ he said. ‘He even told me how much. You put quite a high price on yourself, did you not?’

Nikki ran her tongue over her dry lips as his eyes burned into hers. She refused to answer out of a mixture of pride and anger. Let him think what he liked. What did it matter now? Joseph was dead, and if what Massimo had said was true she was going to have to find a way to scrape what she could together to keep Jayden in care. She’d been down on her luck before and pulled herself out of it. It would be hard, but she’d damn well do it for her brother’s sake.

‘Of course, I will be very generous in my payment for your services,’ he said. ‘Very generous, indeed.’

She clenched her fists at her sides, her chest heaving against the tide of anger raging within her. ‘I am not going to sleep with you,’ she said. ‘Not for any price.’

The look he gave her was full of icy disdain. ‘You are very convincing, but I know what you are up to, Nikki. You are used to a high standard of living. You want to make sure it continues, do you not?’

Nikki felt as if her heart was being crushed between two solid bookends. ‘Joseph would not have left me with nothing,’ she said again, dearly hoping it was true. ‘He told me I would be left well-provided for on his death.’

‘I already told you, Nikki. Were you not listening? He left you with nothing. Nothing but debts that will take you years to clear, but fortunately for you I have come up with a plan to help you offload them more or less immediately.’

Nikki moistened her lips again, panic beating like a primitive tribal drum inside her chest. ‘What p-plan would that be?’ she asked, wishing her voice didn’t sound so thin and scared.

He gave her one of his inscrutable looks. ‘I want you to be my mistress of convenience.’

She frowned as she tried to make sense of his statement. ‘I’m afraid you’ll have to explain what you mean,’ she said after a heart-chugging pause. ‘I’m unfamiliar with the term.’

‘I have recently ended a relationship,’ he informed her in a dispassionate tone. ‘The woman I was involved with is not finding it easy to let go. I have always found the best way to deal with such stubbornness is to have physical evidence that I have now moved on with my life.’

‘I’m still not sure what it is you want me to do,’ she said guardedly.

‘You are being deliberately obtuse, are you not?’ he asked. ‘I want you to do everything for me that you did for my stepfather.’

Nikki couldn’t imagine Joseph revealing the unconsummated nature of their relationship, and wondered if he had told Massimo a mountain of lies instead in an effort to maintain his sense of male pride.

Massimo waved a hand towards the mansion behind him. ‘You see this house?’ he asked.

She looked past his shoulder at the huge, two-storey mock-Georgian building before bringing her gaze back to his. ‘Yes…’

‘I want you to move in with me.’

Her eyes widened. ‘I’m afraid that’s out of the question,’ she said. ‘I can’t possibly live with you.’

He gave her an ironic glance. ‘You find the position I am offering beneath you?’

She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What’s this about, Massimo? Some petty payback scheme to make me regret our stupid little fling five years ago?’

‘I need a trophy mistress,’ he said. ‘You need a job—it is as simple as that.’

Nikki felt her stomach lurch sideways in alarm. ‘I already have a job, if you remember,’ she said, moistening her bone-dry lips again. ‘I am still the face of Ferliani Fashions. I only took off the last six months to nurse Joseph.’

His eyes were unreadable as they held hers. ‘As the new owner and CEO of Ferliani Fashions, I have decided not to renew your contract,’ he said. ‘I have other plans for you.’

She gave him a fiery glare. ‘What do you want me to do, scrub your floors and fold your socks?’

‘That, and a whole lot more.’

Her eyes narrowed into wary slits. ‘How much more?’

‘I have a busy life,’ he said. ‘I do not have time to cook proper meals or maintain an immaculate house. Joseph told me what a wonderful wife you were in that respect. He told me how you refused to have a housekeeper—that you preferred to do it yourself. I need someone running things here twenty-four-seven. I am willing to pay you generously for each month the arrangement continues.’ He named a sum that sent her brows winging upwards, and added, ‘It is twice what you were earning from the Ferliani contract.’

‘There are hundreds of women who would give anything to have this job,’ she said. ‘But I’m not interested.’

‘Ah, but you have no choice, Nikki,’ he said. ‘For if you do not agree you will have to pay back every cent of the money your husband borrowed from me in your name a month before he died. Your signature is on the documents.’

Nikki stared at him, cold fear trickling into every one of her veins like a flow of ice. She vaguely remembered Joseph pushing some papers under her nose, mumbling something about advertising expenses. It had been an astonishing amount of money, she recalled with another quake of apprehension. But she had signed her name and felt grateful that he was taking care of the business side of things while he still could, never realising it would lead to this.

‘You’ve been planning this for months, haven’t you?’ she bit out caustically. ‘You’ve been watching and waiting like a vulture circling overhead for your stepfather to die.’

‘I told you five years ago when we met that I would have my revenge on what he did. He stole my father’s money and launched the Ferliani label using it,’ he said. ‘But I must say my motivation increased even more after our brief assignation. There’s a certain irony in it, don’t you think? We have come full circle. You are the face of Ferliani Fashions only because my stepfather gave you the leg up you needed, but I now own the company. You do not have a future without me. You need me, Nikki, whether you like it or not. You need me.’

Her grey-blue eyes glittered with sparks of fury. ‘You’re asking for my degradation, that’s what you’re doing.’

He gave her a cool, composed smile in return. ‘I am not asking anything of you, Nikki. I am telling you what is going to happen.’

‘And I am telling you to go to hell!’ she said and, spinning on her heels, began to stalk down the long crushed-lime-stone driveway.

‘If you take even one step outside that gate, I will activate legal proceedings immediately to recoup the money you owe me—every last cent of it,’ Massimo said in an indomitable tone.

Nikki’s right foot hovered over the boundary line as she thought about her choices. There was so much she didn’t know. Joseph’s business affairs had always seemed to her to be a little on the complicated side. He’d had money coming in from various local and international investors to float the label, and, while she had been quite content to leave him to it, so she could do her part in fulfilling the modelling contract, she’d known it was quite possible debts had mounted up over the months before he’d finally succumbed to the cancer that he’d been valiantly fighting ever since she’d met him.

The modelling meant nothing to her; it had always been a means to an end. She had hidden behind it, enjoying the benefits of financial security in order to rise above her impoverished background. No one knew that the glamorous Nikki Ferliani was actually Nicola Jenkins, the eldest child of Kaylene and Frank Jenkins, brought up surrounded by poverty, violence and crime. And certainly no one knew her father was serving a life sentence for murder, with ‘never to be released’ stamped on his file.

Not even Joseph had known about that.

And then there was Jayden.

He was happy at Rosedale House, or at least as happy as someone with permanent and severe physical and mental disabilities could be. The level of care he received there was the best that money could buy. If she had to move him away from the dedicated staff who had grown so fond of him, she would never be able to forgive herself. After all, wasn’t it her fault he had been injured in the first place?

She slowly turned around, her expression stripped of all emotion as she faced her nemesis. ‘I need some time to think about this.’

‘You have the next ten seconds,’ he said, lifting his wrist to look at his watch, and began to count them. ‘Nine, eight, seven six, five—’

‘All right,’ she said, her stomach somersaulting in dread at what was ahead. ‘I will be your…er…trophy mistress.’

His eyes came back to hers, his inbuilt cynicism glinting in their smoky depths. ‘I knew you would see sense. You are far too mercenary to throw away a fortune such as this.’

She ran her tongue over the desert dryness of her lips. ‘When do you want me to…to start?’

He reached into the pocket of his trousers and brought out a set of keys. He walked to where she was standing, took her clenched fist and, unpeeling her stiff fingers, placed the keys in her palm. ‘You started five minutes ago,’ he said.

Nikki closed her fingers around the cold metal of the keys, wincing as they bit into the soft flesh of her palm.

Now, there’s another irony, she thought as she followed him a moment later into the Toorak mansion. Within her very own hand lay the keys to her new prison…

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