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Di Marcello's Secret Son
Rachael Thomas
The challenge: to leave your billionaire lifestyle behind for two weeks…Italian tycoon Antonio Di Marcello relishes the challenge—but running into Sadie Parker while working undercover as a mechanic rocks him to the core. Four years after their fevered fling stripped away his iron guard, he’s confronted with the shocking consequences…Sadie has given up hope in her desperate attempts to contact Antonio. Now she has to face the day she’s both dreaded and longed for! And Antonio’s claim over her and her son is hard to resist—especially as he’ll use a sensual onslaught to get what he wants!


The challenge: to leave your billionaire lifestyle behind for two weeks...
Italian tycoon Antonio Di Marcello relishes a challenge—but running into Sadie Parker while undercover as a mechanic rocks him to the core. Four years after their fevered fling stripped away his iron guard, he’s confronted with the shocking consequences...
Sadie gave up hope on her desperate attempts to contact Antonio. Now she has to face the day she’s both dreaded and longed for! Yet Antonio’s claim over her and her son is hard to resist—especially because he’ll use a sensual onslaught to get what he wants!
‘I want my son, Sadie, and I will do all it takes.’ Antonio had lowered his voice, the deep tones full of control and determination.
‘He is not a possession. A thing to be coveted. He is a child. My child.’
She turned and walked away from him, exasperated by the circles they were talking in. All it came back to each time was that he wanted Leo. How she wished she could paint over that weekend as easily as she could cover the blank canvas on her easel.
She stood looking down on the street from the small window, her back to Antonio as if that would make him disappear, make all this go away. She’d once foolishly dreamt of him turning up to claim his son and declare his love for her, telling her that he couldn’t live without her, but now she knew that was never going to happen. The man who stood so arrogantly in her small apartment was as cold as ice. He was as unfeeling and uncaring as his parents. Did she really want Leo to grow up like that?
‘He is my child too.’
Antonio’s voice reached her through the fog of hurt and disappointment.
‘And you leave me no alternative but to do this.’
‘I’ll wager that not one of you can go two weeks without your credit cards…’
The Secret Billionaires
Challenged to go undercover—but tempted to blow it all!
Tycoons Antonio Di Marcello, Stavros Xenakis and Alejandro Salazar cannot imagine life without their decadent wealth, incredible power and untouchable status—but neither can they resist their competitive natures!
Dared to abandon all they know, these extraordinary men leave behind their billionaire lifestyles and take on ‘ordinary’ lives.
But disguised as a mechanic, a pool boy and a groom, they’re about to meet the real challenge…
Conquering the women they’ll meet along the way!
Di Marcello’s Secret Son by Rachael Thomas
May 2017
Xenakis’s Convenient Bride by Dani Collins
June 2017
Salazar’s One-Night Heir by Jennifer Hayward
July 2017
Di Marcello’s Secret Son
Rachael Thomas


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
RACHAEL THOMAS has always loved reading romance, and is thrilled to be a Mills & Boon author. She lives and works on a farm in Wales—a far cry from the glamour of a Modern Romance story—but that makes slipping into her characters’ worlds all the more appealing. When she’s not writing, or working on the farm, she enjoys photography and visiting historical castles and grand houses. Visit her at rachaelthomas.co.uk (http://www.rachaelthomas.co.uk).
Books by Rachael Thomas
Mills & Boon Modern Romance
The Sheikh’s Last Mistress
New Year at the Boss’s Bidding
Craving Her Enemy’s Touch
Claimed by the Sheikh
A Deal Before the Altar
One Night With Consequences
A Child Claimed by Gold
From One Night to Wife
Brides for Billionaires
Married for the Italian’s Heir
The Billionaire’s Legacy
To Blackmail a Di Sione
Visit the Author Profile page at millsandboon.co.uk (http://millsandboon.co.uk) for more titles.
To Jennifer Hayward and Dani Collins, for the fun time we had creating our secret billionaires and their heroines.
To my editor Megan Haslam, for her guidance and support in helping me achieve this, my tenth book.
Finally a big thank-you to my readers, without whom my dream wouldn’t be possible.
Contents
Cover (#u35a8dbf5-180f-518b-a3b4-3f270a923e9d)
Back Cover Text (#u720439bb-fad4-5178-a95e-7a7f59271a05)
Introduction (#u89ca402c-2c8a-53e0-b6e9-f96c1ec2902a)
The Secret Billionaires (#ua541e398-d316-558f-839f-3eee8743eb03)
Title Page (#ub25b2b82-85d4-54b6-958f-cdee70e9a57e)
About the Author (#uc0590b0b-691e-5a0b-a610-a956ef7585a7)
Dedication (#u752949cb-f2d3-5fe6-9edb-8ca40c87423b)
PROLOGUE (#u16e29c77-1e59-5fef-ba30-76eb8af846d0)
CHAPTER ONE (#u8d449149-9592-5f47-a8b9-4512ccd6fac4)
CHAPTER TWO (#u08c1b3ab-bdd7-5eb8-84df-5f0ea1e0b371)
CHAPTER THREE (#u42494d6b-794e-55a1-a97e-aa9a6510faae)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
PROLOGUE (#u798b43c1-c315-5ed3-9154-3b7042668d8c)
St Moritz—February 2017
ANTONIO DI MARCELLO SAVOURED the Macallan 1946 as it blended perfectly with the adrenalin which still held power over him after the para-skiing challenge he, Sebastien Atkinson, Stavros Xenakis and Alejandro Salazar had completed. It had been the ultimate challenge, but now it seemed Sebastien, the founder of their elite global extreme sports club formed while he was at Oxford, had something even more testing in mind.
Sebastien, older by several years, had taken on the role of mentor long ago, but a near tragedy had changed him, changed each of them. Digging a friend out of the depths of an avalanche on the Himalayas would do that to any man. It certainly had changed Sebastien—he’d done the unthinkable soon after and had married. Happily married.
Antonio looked at the three men, the crackle of the fire suddenly deafening as the tension notched up. What the hell was happening? Normally, they’d be indulging in the company of women such as the trio of sexy platinum blondes who kept looking enticingly their way. But tonight was different and not just because Sebastien was living the life of a happily married man.
‘How’s your wife?’ Stavros asked Sebastien, inadvertently ratcheting up the tension even higher.
‘Better company than you. Why are you so surly tonight?’ Sebastien seemed to be goading the other man, as if he knew he was pressing buttons normally off limits.
‘I haven’t won yet. And my grandfather is threatening to disinherit me if I don’t marry soon. I’d tell him to go to hell, but...’ Stavros glowered and took a deep swig of whisky in an attempt to put his issues aside. Antonio knew just how much pressure his friend was under from his grandfather—and the underhand threats used to exert that pressure.
He himself had succumbed to the same tactics and pressure from his family when he and Eloisa had married. A marriage to link two great families, it had been doomed from the outset and now he found himself the only divorced one among them. The whole experience left a bitter taste he hadn’t yet swallowed.
‘Your mother,’ Alejandro said, his hand tight on the whisky glass, his expression one of deep concentration. Like himself and Stavros, he had inherited his wealth and taken it to a higher level, but now he regarded Sebastien, a self-made billionaire who’d come from nothing, with caution. Did he too sense that something was far from right?
‘Exactly,’ Stavros said sharply.
‘Do you ever get the feeling we spend too much of our lives counting our money and chasing superficial thrills at the expense of something more meaningful?’ Sebastien looked from one to the other, the game of poker forgotten.
‘You called it,’ Antonio said to Alejandro, tossing over a handful of chips. ‘Four drinks and he’s philosophizing.’
‘I said three.’ Stavros shrugged without apology. ‘My losing streak continues.’
‘I’m serious,’ Sebastien injected. ‘At our level, it’s numbers on a page. Points on a scoreboard. What does it contribute to our lives? Money doesn’t buy happiness.’
Sebastien’s chips jangled as he lifted them slightly before letting them drop back to the table, the sound overpowering in the sudden tense silence as his gaze held Antonio’s before moving his attention to Stavros and Alejandro. Whatever it was Sebastien had to say, Antonio knew it was big. He knew him well enough to say it would be far more than the apparent casual comment on money which stemmed from being the only self-made billionaire in the room.
‘It buys some nice substitutes.’ Antonio took another swig of whisky, allowing it to heat his throat, then sat back in his chair, the game the last thing on his mind now.
Sebastien’s mouth twisted. ‘Like your cars? Your private island? You don’t even use that boat you’re so proud of, Stavros. We buy expensive toys and play dangerous games, but does it enrich our lives? Feed our souls?’
‘What are you suggesting?’ Alejandro drawled. ‘We go and live with the Buddhists in the mountains? Learn the meaning of life? Renounce our worldly possessions to find inner clarity?’
‘You three couldn’t go two weeks without your wealth and family names to support you.’ Sebastien’s voice hardened.
‘Could you?’ Stavros challenged. ‘Try telling us you would go back to when you were broke, before you made your fortune. Hungry isn’t happy. That’s why you are such a rich bastard now.’
Sebastien looked from one to the other. ‘As it happens I’ve been thinking of donating half my fortune to charity, to start a global search and rescue fund. Not everyone has friends who will dig them out of an avalanche with their bare hands.’
‘Are you serious?’ Alejandro injected. Sebastien had their attention now. ‘That’s what? Five billion?’
‘You can’t take it with you,’ Sebastien philosophized. ‘Monika is on board with it, but I’m still debating. I’ll tell you what. You three go two weeks without your credit cards and I’ll do it.’
Sebastien silenced the chink of the chips, the sternness of his expression a warning in itself.
Although he’d directed the statement at all three of them, Antonio had the distinct impression it was aimed specifically at him.
‘Starting when? We all have responsibilities,’ Alejandro said as he looked at Stavros, then to him and Antonio nodded in agreement.
‘Fair enough. Clear the decks at home. But be prepared for word from me—and two weeks in the real world.’ Sebastien looked at each of them in turn, the silence in the room heavier than the weight of snow they’d dug through to drag their friend out from the claws of death.
Antonio sat back again, trying to shake off the sense of impending trouble. This wasn’t what the evening should be about. They’d just pulled off the wildest challenge yet, but what Sebastien was suggesting was far more than their usual challenge, more than the normal show of bravado. This was the ultimate dare.
‘You’re really going to wager half your fortune on a cakewalk of a challenge?’ Alejandro put in, the game of poker now the last thing on anyone’s mind.
‘If you’ll put up your island, your favourite toys?’ Sebastien began, his deep voice as calm as ever. ‘I’ll say where and when.’
‘Easy,’ Stavros spoke first. ‘Count me in.’
Antonio exchanged glances with Stavros and Alejandro and saw the same suspicion mirrored in their eyes. What the hell was Sebastien planning and how was it connected with going two weeks without their credit cards, family names and wealth?
CHAPTER ONE (#u798b43c1-c315-5ed3-9154-3b7042668d8c)
FOUR MONTHS AGO Antonio had accepted Sebastien’s challenge and today it began. Two weeks without his wealth and all that went with it. The only contact he’d have with life as he knew it for the next fourteen days would be through Stavros and Alejandro, who were still waiting to find out just what it was that Sebastien had planned to challenge them with and where.
Antonio closed the apartment door behind him. The sounds of Milan’s streets filtered in, seeming to bounce around the compact but sparsely furnished room, which was the main living area of the apartment Sebastien had sent him to.
He glanced round the room. This had to be some kind of a joke. What the hell was Sebastien playing at? He saw a note on top of a pile of clothes and a pair of boots which had been left neatly on the black seats running along one wall to serve as a sofa. He damn well hoped it wasn’t the bed too.
His designer shoes tapped hard on the white tiled floor as he crossed the small room in a few strides and picked up the envelope addressed to him. No mistake, then; this was the right place. He glanced down at the clothes and boots and frowned, cursing in Italian.
Apart from the fact that Milan was too close to his estranged parents, and it was where he’d lived with his ex-wife for the few short months their so-called marriage had lasted, it was also where he’d met the one woman who’d tested his family duty and honour to the limit. She’d almost driven him mad with desire, but duty had won. His passion and desire had been overridden, but that brief weekend affair with Sadie Parker had made him wish things were different—that he was different, that he hadn’t already had his future mapped out by a family who thought more of their family name than anything else.
Irritation coursed through him as he opened the note.
Welcome to your home. For the next two weeks Antonio Di Marcello does not exist. You will be known as Toni Adessi and you will report to Centro Auto Barzetti, across the road, as soon as you have changed, your undercover job for the next two weeks.
You may only contact me, Stavros or Alejandro on the phone provided. You will not make contact with anyone else via any method for the next two weeks. You have two hundred euros on which to live. Under no circumstances are you to blow your cover. If you succeed, I will make the promised donation of five billion dollars to set up a global search and rescue.
Use your time wisely. This challenge is not about fixing cars, Antonio. It is about fixing your past.
Sebastien
Antonio refused to focus on that last sentence and instead picked up the worryingly old-fashioned phone and checked the contacts. There were just three: Stavros and Alejandro, who’d taken up the bizarre challenge also, and Sebastien himself.
A furious expletive tore from Antonio’s lips. How the hell was he supposed to conduct his business without a decent phone and from such a primitive room? Hell, there wasn’t even a laptop, just the smallest television he’d ever seen. Sebastien was serious. There was to be no contact with his real life.
His instinct was to walk out and return to normality, but doing that would mean much more than a failure of his personal challenge. It would be even more than Sebastien not creating the global search and rescue charity as he had promised he would if they all successfully completed their challenges. Such a charity was meaningful to all of them, after the avalanche which could all too easily have snatched Sebastien from them. Yet still this challenge was far greater than that. It was about a code of honour so strong that not one of them would ever question it—or break it.
He looked at the overalls, vest T-shirt and jeans which were complete with authentic grease stains and bit back further words of fury as the need to succeed surged. Failure was never an option he tolerated. He’d show Sebastien he could do this ridiculous undercover job and whatever it was his challenge entailed. He might have been born into wealth, but he’d amassed a far greater fortune since taking over the family business, turning it into a global success within the world of construction. He’d fought every bit as hard as Sebastien had in his business. Family wealth and an ancestry which went back generations were not as beneficial as the club’s founder member thought.
Again a harsh expletive tore from him. Whatever it was that Sebastien had engineered for him to face, he needed to warn Stavros and Alejandro just how serious Sebastien was about the challenge. He had to let them know it was far more than proving they could survive without their wealth and everything that went with it. All those superficial things Sebastien had scorned just months ago.
A quick inspection of the phone revealed it did at least have a camera and he took a photo of the pile of clothes and money and sent it to Stavros and Alejandro.
This is me for the next two weeks, Toni Adessi, a mechanic, complete with grease-stained clothes, in Milan of all places. Be warned. Sebastien means business!
He took off his top-quality, made-to-measure suit that he hadn’t quite been able to relinquish that morning, despite Sebastien’s earlier warning of needing to be undercover and disguised for this challenge before arriving. He hung it over the back of a chair, then pulled on the jeans and T-shirt and, over the top, the overalls. He slipped on the provided sunglasses—he always wore a pair, but never this cheap or tacky—and pulled the cap on. The work boots completed the outfit and when he looked in the small mirror hanging by the door he hardly recognised himself.
He had at least heeded Sebastien’s warning enough not to have shaved for the last two weeks, something which had alarmed his PA, and now he had much more than the stubble he was used to. The dark growth of a beard was as uncomfortable to look at as it was to wear. His thick, unruly black curls were hidden beneath the cap and even to his own eyes he was unrecognisable as Antonio Di Marcello, heir to the Di Marcello fortune as well as a businessman in his own right.
He strode across the room, the boots heavy and strange on his feet and not even new, something he tried hard not to dwell on. He looked out of the narrow window onto the street below and saw the garage where he was to work. A small laugh escaped him. Sebastien really had done his homework for this challenge. Not only had he sent him to a garage to work, and therefore indulge his passion for motor engines, but it was in Milan, the home of his parents. He hadn’t been back since his divorce.
That had been over three years ago. Was this the real challenge? The past he had to fix? The marriage was not fixable. Sebastien was the only one who knew the truth of that and the weight of the promise he’d made his ex-wife. So why Milan? If not to repair his damaged relationship with his parents?
Briefly the image of his ex-wife floated into his mind, but as always it was pushed aside by Sadie, the one woman who’d threatened to capture his heart for good. He and Sadie had had a wild and hot weekend over three years ago, here in Milan, only weeks before he’d succumbed to the pressure of his tyrannical father and married Eloisa. From the moment he’d first kissed Sadie and made her his, she had become the woman he really wanted, if only family honour and tradition hadn’t been bearing down on him like a wild bear. If he’d known what he knew now about his ex-wife, he’d never have let Sadie go—at least not until he was ready to do so.
He pulled off the cap and resisted the urge to fling it at the wall and walk away from this ridiculous situation and the memories it stirred. Such thoughts were of no use to him now and he savagely discarded them.
He had two weeks of living as a different person to get through and he’d show Sebastien he could rise to this and any challenge he threw his way. Determination fizzed inside him as he left Antonio Di Marcello in the small apartment and became Toni Adessi. He crossed the street, shaded from the morning sun by the height of the buildings, and headed to the garage where he was to work. At least it was a job he could convincingly do. His love of cars and engines had been with him since he was a young boy, thanks to an unlikely friendship with the estate’s gardener, who’d had a passion for motor racing.
* * *
He hadn’t been working more than two hours when he saw exactly why Sebastien had sent him not just to Milan but to this garage. He glanced up to the upper level, to what was obviously the office window, and at first he thought he was seeing things, that just being in this area again had brought Sadie Parker to the front of his mind. Like a ghost of what could have been, tormenting him for the ill-fated decision he’d made to put family honour and duty above his wants and desires.
Sadie Parker was the only woman who’d made him want things he couldn’t have. The only woman he’d walked away from before he was ready to do so. Unsure how to deal with this unexpected twist to his challenge, he turned his attention back to the customer, hiding his shock behind his usual charm.
He glanced up again to see Sadie had turned and was talking to someone else in the office. He took advantage of her distraction to study her, to remember the softness of her hair and the eagerness of her lips.
The customer spoke to him, dragging his mind back to the present and the fact that he was undercover. If Sadie recognised him, he was done for. His challenge would be over before it had even begun and there was no way he was going to let a pretty face from the past do that. He refused to contemplate losing. There was no way he would be the one to fail at something which didn’t involve hurtling off the side of a snow-covered mountain or surfing the Pipeline in Hawaii.
* * *
Sadie watched the new mechanic from the small office window which looked down on the workshop. She’d never seen him before, but there was an air of familiarity about him. As he set about his first job of a tyre change on a woman’s car her curiosity deepened and the way he moved untangled memories she’d rather not have disturbed.
Even from this distance he had an uncanny resemblance to Antonio Di Marcello, the man who four years ago had stolen her heart in just two days, making loving any other man impossible. She’d never forgotten him, no matter how hard she’d tried. Not when each day she looked into the dark eyes of her young son, the child Antonio had turned his back on.
‘That is Toni Adessi,’ her colleague Daniela said as she joined her at the window. ‘Very attractive—and hot.’
‘Possibly.’ Sadie couldn’t stop watching, even though he stoked the memories of a wonderfully romantic weekend, bringing them to life. She slammed the door shut on them. She couldn’t allow herself to be dragged back into the past by a bearded stranger who bore a passing resemblance to Leo’s father. ‘But dangerous.’
Daniela laughed. ‘What do you mean, dangerous?’
‘Look at him. Charm is oozing from him, as if he thinks he is so much better than he is, as if every woman will rush to be on his arm.’ She knew she was guilty of projecting Antonio Di Marcello’s flaws onto the new mechanic, but it was hard not to when he had the same mannerisms as the man who had not only abandoned her to marry another woman, one far more suitable for his position in life, but had ignored the fact that their weekend affair had made him a father.
No, it couldn’t be Antonio, she reassured herself as she watched the mechanic work. He would never lower himself to the standard of an ordinary working man, just as he would never marry an ordinary girl. A fact his mother had made painfully clear.
‘Whatever it was that Leo’s father did to you, you have to forget it and move on. Otherwise you will never find love and romance.’ Daniela’s warning echoed her mother’s and she knew they were both right. She’d even thought she might be able to do that, thought she was beginning to move on from the one weekend which had forced her life down an unexpected path. She’d thought she was finally ready to give up hoping Antonio Di Marcello would want to know his son—until the new mechanic had shown up, reminding her, tearing open old wounds once more.
‘Leo and I are fine as we are.’ Sadie couldn’t keep the impatient snap from her voice. She didn’t appreciate being made to remember what it had been like to carry Antonio’s child knowing he’d left her and married another woman. She’d tried to let him know he was to be a father, had sent messages to the big imposing house she’d discovered belonged to his family. She’d taken the dressing-down from his mother, who had looked at her with nothing but stony silence, but had heard nothing from Antonio.
‘Well, it won’t hurt to have a bit of fun,’ Daniela goaded her. ‘Flirt a little, enjoy yourself. You’re only twenty-three and far too young to give up on fun—or men.’
‘I’ll do no such thing.’
‘You will and here’s your perfect chance. He’s coming up.’ Daniela giggled mischievously.
To Sadie’s horror, Daniela turned and left just as the door to the workshop floor opened. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at the new mechanic, trying to remember what Daniela had said his name was.
The way he’d tied the top half of his overalls at his waist with the sleeves, leaving him in only a white vest T-shirt, showcasing amazingly toned and tanned arms, was so distracting she blushed. Or was it the memories of two hot sultry nights this man had dragged from her past—a past which belonged to a very different Sadie?
‘What can I do for you?’ she said officiously, forgetting her beginner’s Italian and reverting to her native English. Since when had a man muddled her so much she couldn’t think straight? The reply which resounded round her head was instant. Not since Antonio Di Marcello.
‘You are English?’ The heavily accented voice was so gruff and completely unlike Antonio’s she relaxed—just a little. This man might look similar to the father of her child and had certainly stirred the past, bringing it back to the surface, but, with an unshaven face and unkempt hair breaking out beneath his cap, he could never be Antonio.
Antonio had always been immaculate. Even in that short weekend, she’d witnessed his attention to detail crossing from business into his personal life and she knew without a doubt that Antonio would never consider a beard, especially one so scruffy.
‘Do you have a problem with that?’ Irritation at the way his gaze roved blatantly over her made each word sharp. He didn’t have the manners and grace Antonio had possessed. Something which made him stand out from any other man she’d met before or since those two nights of bliss.
As she stood behind her desk she took the opportunity to study this strong male specimen who was as rough round the edges as Antonio had been refined. This man’s hair was unruly and his beard wild and untamed. His white T-shirt was far from clean and his arms were smeared with grime. He might resemble the man who’d stolen her heart, the father of her three-year-old son, but that was as far as the similarities went. He was most definitely not the kind of man she wanted a bit of fun with, no matter what Daniela thought.
‘No, cara,’ he said and casually dropped the worksheet onto her desk and then stepped away. When he got to the door, he turned again and smiled, or at least she thought he did, but his unruly beard was making that difficult to decipher. ‘I enjoy the challenge of any woman, no matter her nationality.’
Sadie dragged in a sharp breath, hardly able to believe the audacity of the man. If he thought she would be his next challenge, then he’d got it all wrong. She went to the window and looked down at him as he returned to the workshop floor and, to her horror, he turned and blew her a kiss, as if she was a done deal.
Angrily, she turned on Daniela. ‘If you think I’m having a bit of fun with that, then you are so far off the mark it’s not true.’
‘I’m not suggesting marriage.’ Daniela grinned at her. ‘Just a bit of fun.’
‘No, absolutely no. I have Leo to think about.’
Sadie returned to her desk and tried hard to focus on the figures before her. Whoever that man was, in one short morning he’d undone all she’d achieved over the last three years since Leo’s birth. He’d brought Antonio Di Marcello right back into the centre of her mind and for that reason alone she wanted nothing at all to do with Toni Adessi.
* * *
Antonio poured all his annoyance into the next job, unable to believe he’d got away with that little encounter. As he’d entered the office he was sure Sadie had recognised him. Her sexy green eyes, rimmed with the darkest of greens, had held suspicion and he’d sent up a silent prayer of thanks that he’d taken Sebastien’s advice and adopted some sort of disguise.
She might be the one woman he still wanted, but his challenge had to come first. There was no way he was going to jeopardise the success of his, Stavros’s and Alejandro’s challenge just for a woman. She would, after all, still be here in two weeks. He could have his fun before resuming his identity as Antonio Di Marcello.
Several hours later, after helping with an engine replacement and resisting the urge to take control and tell the older mechanic how to do it, Antonio looked up to see Sadie, jacket over her arm and bag on her shoulder, walking towards the large main door of the garage.
She looked amazing, the sundress accentuating her figure. She was more beautiful than the image in his memory, the one which haunted him like an unsettled spirit of what could have been. She’d been nineteen the weekend they’d shared those passionate hours, but now, four years later, she looked more desirable, sexier—and it was killing him that he couldn’t assume his identity and continue where they’d left off. After all, he no longer had family duty and honour hanging over him. He would never bend to the manipulations of his parents again.
He’d been Sadie’s first lover—a fact he’d told himself was the reason why he hadn’t been able to shake off the memory of those two nights—and now he was here, undercover and completely unable to do anything to let Sadie know who he was. If she discovered the truth before his two weeks were up, he would lose his challenge. He’d let them all down and prove Sebastien right, prove they couldn’t last two weeks without their fortunes and everything that went with it. Even in the face of such a personal challenge, that scenario was unthinkable.
No. Sadie Parker would have to wait until Antonio was back in play. But for now Toni Adessi could indulge in a little flirtatious mischief. Test the water.
‘Going somewhere nice?’ he goaded and smiled smugly as she turned to look at him, a grimace of distaste on her face. His rough and ready manner certainly helped to keep in character, maintaining the disguise.
‘Yes, I am. To collect my son from the nursery.’
She had a child?
The news crashed into him. His Sadie and another man? The idea didn’t sit comfortably at all. But what right did he have to feel aggrieved when he’d ended the affair before it had even begun? He’d known all along he had no option but to make the marriage that was expected of him, the duty his family had always pressed on him. He hadn’t foreseen any problems, not when he and Eloisa had known each other since childhood, although for some reason he’d never thought of her as more than a friend. His mother and Eloisa, however, had been so close, already like mother and daughter, and he too had wanted the best for the business as well as the family name. What could go wrong, he’d thought, when he knew he didn’t want to indulge in the elusive emotion of love?
His childhood had been barren and loveless, so a marriage based on friendship for duty hadn’t seemed wrong. It had been the perfect way to avoid the dire consequences he’d seen when marriages were made out of love and then fell apart, often played out on the stage of the media, so he’d eventually agreed. He’d wanted none of that.
That agreement to make the marriage had meant that after just one weekend he’d had to set Sadie free and it appeared she’d done exactly what he’d hoped she would do—move on and find someone new. So why did it spike at him so cruelly?
He glanced down at her left hand. No ring. ‘And what is your son’s name?’
‘Leo,’ she said flatly, but still she didn’t walk away and again he wondered if she recognised him. ‘Not that it’s any of your business.’
‘His father must be very proud,’ he said, needing to know more about the man who’d taken his place in Sadie’s life, the man she’d settled down with, the one who’d been more than the passionate weekend affair they had shared.
‘I’m a single mother.’
Her words charged at him like a high-speed car. She hadn’t found the long-term happiness they’d glimpsed that weekend—just as he hadn’t when he’d married Eloisa.
Her gaze met his and he briefly forgot all about the challenge, the need to be a different man. All he could think about was how another man had left her in such a situation. He never had anything to do with a woman who had a commitment such as a child, but the need to protect Sadie, to look after her and her child was so strong it made any other thought temporarily impossible, as did the desire to give the other man a stern talking-to.
‘I’m finished here,’ he said as he wiped his grease-smeared hands on a cloth, forgetting to deepen his accent and become the brash man he’d invented that morning to complete his disguise. ‘Can I walk you somewhere?’
She looked at him and he knew he’d let the façade of brusqueness and bravado slip too low. He’d spoken as he would normally and he could almost see the questions racing across her face.
‘There’s no need,’ she said, but still she didn’t turn away. Was she tormenting him?
‘I am new to the city,’ he said, laying on the charm thickly and resuming his cover. ‘A pretty woman by my side would be a good end to the day, no?’
‘I don’t have far to go,’ she said, this time turning from him, but he wasn’t about to allow her to slip away so easily and he looked over at his manager for the go-ahead to leave, something he was completely unused to doing. Nobody ruled Antonio Di Marcello. Not any more.
‘Then I will walk with you as far as you go.’
Sadie walked out of the garage without accepting his offer and onto the bustle of the street. He tossed the cloth away and quickly followed her, eventually falling into step beside her, recalling a night when they’d walked hand in hand around the centre of Milan before returning to his hotel room for the most memorable night of his life.
‘You remind me of someone.’
Inside he froze. He was playing a dangerous game getting close to Sadie when she could discover who he was at any moment. If she did, she’d spoil everything, not only for him but for Stavros and Alejandro, who were yet to go undercover for their challenges. The temptation she presented now was even more tantalising than it had been just weeks before his marriage, but Antonio Di Marcello would have to be patient.
Sadie Parker was unfinished business. Unfinished business he fully intended to resume.
‘Someone good, no?’ He laughed as she walked briskly, hardly looking at him at all. Just when he thought he’d blown it, she stopped outside a tall, narrow townhouse, shuttered against the afternoon sun of early summer.
‘This is as far as I go. I will see you at work.’ If that didn’t tell him she didn’t want his company, nothing would.
He looked down at her lips and could taste them against his as a powerful memory of their first kiss, the one which had sealed their fate, rushed back at him. He wanted to kiss her again, to claim her as his once more, but he wasn’t Antonio Di Marcello, the man who had made love to her so wildly; he was Toni Adessi, the rough and ready mechanic she’d only just met.
Would Sadie really be interested in the kind of man he was now?
Did he really want an affair with a woman who had a child? It had been one of his main rules. Single women without any ties or commitment. He didn’t ever seek out complications with women.
‘I will look forward to it.’ He smiled at her, using the famous Antonio Di Marcello charm, and he saw her brows furrow into a frown of suspicion. Thank goodness he’d grown the beard and could hide behind his sunglasses. He was walking a line perilously close to discovery.
‘I am not looking for a man in my life, Mr Adessi,’ she said, startling him with her forthright honesty.
‘I’m not asking to marry you.’ Hell, that was the last thing he’d want, after his previous experience of the state of matrimony. ‘A bit of fun, that’s all.’
‘Single mothers don’t do fun. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my son is waiting.’
With those sharp words she turned and went inside the building, leaving him standing on the street unable to comprehend what had just happened. Antonio Di Marcello had just been turned down by exactly the type of woman he’d vowed not to become entangled with. What was the matter with him? Just because he had to live two weeks as Toni Adessi, it didn’t mean he had to abandon his real identity completely.
Sense prevailed. The challenge had to come first. Nothing else mattered—at least not until the two weeks were up. After that it would be very different.
CHAPTER TWO (#u798b43c1-c315-5ed3-9154-3b7042668d8c)
AFTER TELLING THE overeager and dominating new mechanic she was a single mother, Sadie had spent the remainder of the week feeling more relaxed as he kept his distance. He hadn’t spoken to her once since that first day. Although they had exchanged a few glances across the workshop, his suspicious frown reminding her ever more of Leo’s father, something she wasn’t at all happy about.
As today was Sunday and the sun was shining with the promise of summer, all she’d wanted to do was put the new mechanic’s uncanny resemblance to Antonio to one side and spend time with Leo at the local playground. She didn’t want to be lured into thinking about the man who had turned his back on her and his child with such cold-hearted disregard.
‘Mamma!’ Leo squealed in delight as she turned the roundabout gently for him, but his attention became fixed beyond her. Apprehension rushed over her and she turned quickly.
‘Buon giorno.’ Toni’s deep and rough voice visibly jolted her. His dark brows pulled together and even behind his sunglasses she knew he was making more assumptions about her. Was he accepting she hadn’t been telling him lies, that she did have a child and therefore he wasn’t interested any longer in flirting so outrageously with her? Perhaps he’d go now he’d seen the proof and leave her and Leo to get on with their day.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded hotly in English. He made her feel so confused she couldn’t keep her mind straight enough to use a foreign language she was still trying to master. The fact that she’d enrolled in an Italian course when she and her parents had relocated to Italy when she was almost eighteen had earned her nothing but praise from the man she’d foolishly lost more than her heart to. But this man wasn’t Antonio and she’d do well to remember that.
‘I missed speaking to you at work this week.’ He took a step closer, his long jeans-clad legs making him appear tall and powerful and the sleeves of his T-shirt stretched over muscled arms evoking yet more sensual memories. Hot memories, of lying in the strength of Antonio’s arms after he’d so passionately taken her, making her completely his for evermore.
She pushed the vivid images aside and chastised herself for studying this man so intently. Only once had she fallen for such charm, allowing herself to be seduced by the moment and the man, and look what had happened. A short passionate fling she would be reminded of for ever. She’d never be able to completely escape Antonio and the memories.
He’d calmly walked away, suddenly developing a conscience that he was due to marry another woman, an heiress more suited to his position. A marriage his parents wanted, he’d explained. One that would unite two families which for the last two generations had sought such an alliance in marriage. It was his duty and as the Di Marcello heir he would always do his duty. He had scorned the very idea of love, killing hers for him and destroying her dreams of a happy future with the man she’d fallen in love with so easily.
She’d been so hurt, so utterly devastated by his rejection she hadn’t at first been able to accept what her body had been trying to tell her. She hadn’t wanted to know she carried the child of a man who’d made loving him all too easy before walking away without a backward glance.
‘I was busy working,’ she said, irritated by the way this mechanic made her think of a man who had no regard or feelings for her. His harsh rejection and inability to subsequently own up to being a father rushed back at her from where she’d hidden it away for the last four years, making her heart break all over again.
‘Then I hope you will not be so busy next week,’ he said, his brows lifting suggestively behind the sunglasses he permanently favoured. In fact she hadn’t seen him without them and with that beard it was almost impossible to see his face. Not that you want to. She reminded herself sharply of her vow to never let a man hurt her again and especially not to let Leo ever know that pain of rejection.
‘I will always be too busy, Mr...?’ she declared so hotly she couldn’t recall his full name.
‘Mr Adessi,’ he put in quickly.
‘As I said, I will always be busy, either with work or with Leo.’ She looked at Leo as the roundabout began to slow, horrified that for the briefest of moments Toni Adessi had made her forget her little boy, that he’d dragged her back to the past and the passionate weekend Leo had been created.
‘He is a fine boy.’
‘He is.’ She didn’t want to discuss Leo with this man, not when he’d already made her feel so uncomfortable, so caught up in emotions that wouldn’t help her at all.
Toni looked at her and she was irritated by the fact she couldn’t read the expression in his eyes. She stood there between him and Leo like a defensive lioness. She and Leo didn’t need anyone, even though he had begun to realise he was different from his friends, that he didn’t have a father. She wasn’t about to put her son’s heart on the line just because this man possessed the same charm as Leo’s father. And, as for her, she would never be that foolish again.
‘He is like his father, no?’
Toni’s question as he glanced at her, then at Leo, prised open the door to her past a little bit more and she felt the barrier she’d built around her and Leo strengthening in response, keeping out the threat. Although what exactly that was she couldn’t decipher, but, whatever it was, she wasn’t about to let it near Leo.
* * *
Antonio stood watching the young boy as shock sent coldness through him, followed by hot anger. The calculations he’d just made would put the little boy around three, not that he was familiar with young children. But it wasn’t that which gnawed at him like sand grinding into a wound. His calculations brought the little boy’s birth to around nine months after that wild and passionate weekend he, as Antonio Di Marcello, had shared with Sadie, a young woman who’d newly moved to Italy and had been easy to sweep off her feet.
As the shock sank in he realised exactly what Sebastien’s challenge had been—not to mend his relationship with his estranged parents, or even to try to mend bridges with his ex-wife. It had been all about this woman, the one he’d spoken of with Sebastien after the avalanche in a rare moment of unguarded emotion.
It had been a time of bearing souls, letting out secrets, and he’d declared that Sadie had been the right woman, just at the wrong time in his life. Had Sebastien sent him here knowing Sadie worked at the garage? It was too much of a coincidence to be anything else.
It was all very clear now. His challenge wasn’t anything to do with living on two hundred euros in a cramped and basic apartment. This was about what could have been, about putting right the past—that was what he’d said in the note. Sadie Parker was his challenge, the woman he’d told Sebastien about, who had made him want different things in life.
Sebastien intended that he face the only woman who’d made him want more than the cold compromise marriage he’d entered into out of duty to his family name. But had Sebastien known of the child? Could Sadie’s little boy be a consequence of those few snatched days of passion together? Was he the next generation and Di Marcello heir his parents had longed for from his marriage? He could just imagine the contempt of his mother if she discovered he’d fathered an illegitimate child and, worse than that, the mother wasn’t Italian. He almost laughed.
‘He does not know his father.’ Sadie turned from him and pushed the roundabout again and the dark-haired little boy squealed with delight. The sound snagged at Antonio’s heart, as if someone or something clenched around it, pulling tighter and tighter.
‘That is sad.’ He injected more accent into his words in a bid to hide the rush of unfamiliar emotions which assailed him from every side. ‘A boy should have a father.’
It was exactly what he’d wanted while he was growing up. He had known his father but from a great emotional distance which eventually shut down any feelings for the man he was supposed to love and honour. As a child all he’d ever wished for was a father who cared, a man to look up to, one who’d take time out with his son. Because he hadn’t had that, he’d vowed he would never have children unless he could be the father he himself had wanted but never had, someone like the gardener he’d known as a boy, the only man to show any kindness towards him.
That gnawing hole had gone with him into his marriage and Antonio had been relaxed about his ex-wife’s refusal to sleep with him, glad he didn’t have to bring children into such a cold marriage when he doubted he could be the kind of father he wanted to be.
‘I agree,’ she said, sad resignation trembling in her voice as she turned to look back up at him, Leo happy to sit and go round and round. ‘His father, however, felt very differently about it.’
‘How old is Leo?’ The question had to be asked. He had to know.
Sadie frowned at him, but he couldn’t stand back and do nothing. If this was his child, his son and heir, then he wouldn’t be able to walk away from here without him. Challenge or no challenge.
Antonio looked again at the boy, who chose that precise moment to squeal and demand the roundabout be stopped. Instantly he leapt forward and grabbed the roundabout, stopping it dead, and found himself looking down into sad dark eyes. It was like looking in the mirror and seeing himself as a young boy.
He spoke in Italian, but the little boy’s lips trembled and he reached for his mother. Inwardly Antonio cursed his disguise, cursed the rough and ready appearance of Toni Adessi.
‘He’s not used to men,’ Sadie said, scooping him up and holding him tightly, giving Leo the opportunity to look accusingly at him.
Guilt raced through him. He didn’t need a paternity test to confirm this was his child. Just one look into the little boy’s eyes told him all he needed to know. Leo was most definitely a Di Marcello.
‘Do you choose to bring him up alone?’ Anger stabbed at him. This child was his and only now was he seeing him for the first time. Dio mio, he hadn’t even known of his existence. Who did Sadie think she was to keep something like this from him? And why?
‘His father walked out on me. That hardly fills me with any kind of wild desire to bring another man into our lives. Your charm would be better used elsewhere, Mr Adessi, because it’s wasted on me.’
* * *
Sadie stood her ground, holding Leo tightly and glaring at this man who’d opened the doors of the past she’d thought tightly sealed. All she could see was the reflection of herself in his sunglasses, which only heightened her irritation.
Why was Toni so interested in her and Leo? An uncomfortable sensation slithered down her spine.
‘That is sad—for the boy,’ he said, looking towards Leo once again, who promptly buried his face in her shoulder to avoid the unwelcome scrutiny. ‘If Leo were my child, I’d want to know all about him.’
Sadie sighed in exasperation. Why was she having this conversation with this man? Guilt. The word slithered like a serpent into her mind. Guilt because although she had tried hard to tell Antonio Di Marcello he was to be a father, it hadn’t been enough. She’d just meekly accepted his mother’s horrified denial as she’d slammed the door in her face. She should have done more, tried harder—for Leo’s sake, not hers or Antonio’s.
Pain from the day she’d gone to the grand house that was his family home still jarred her as she looked up at Toni and saw her anger bouncing back from his sunglasses, intensifying it further. ‘I was informed that a child, or I should say an illegitimate child, was not a welcome addition to the mighty family of...’
She cut the words short just in time but thought back to those early days of pregnancy, when she’d tried to get a message to Antonio through his parents, the only way of contacting him she had. They hadn’t wanted to listen to her, a woman who was intent on securing her financial future with such wild claims. They had taken great relish in informing her that their son was to be married and that they wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise such a sought-after union. The marriage of childhood sweethearts, they’d told her.
When she’d seen the photographs in the local papers, she’d known she could never try again, that she had to move forward with her life and bring up her child alone. Antonio Di Marcello had married his childhood sweetheart just weeks after their passionate weekend. It had been nothing more than a pre-marriage affair for him. A final fling. The scandal of a love child would be unwelcome and she hadn’t been able to put herself or the baby through that. Especially after the threats made to her family by his.
‘Are you sure?’ His accented voice growled with irritation and a dark thought clouded in on her, like an approaching storm.
‘Why are you here, Mr Adessi? At the garage, I mean.’ She plucked up the courage to ask the question which had been niggling at her conscience since he’d first looked at Leo. There had been shock on his face for the briefest of seconds that even his sunglasses had been unable to conceal.
Did Antonio Di Marcello have a brother or cousin? Had he sent someone to check out her claims and, if so, why now? Why wait this long?
Four years she’d wasted, hoping and dreaming, but she’d finally been persuaded by her mother that a life in Milan wasn’t what she or Leo needed. She’d given up on the notion that she had to remain close to Leo’s father and was preparing to return to England with her parents in just a few weeks’ time. Had that been what had prompted this? Was she even now being watched and information relayed back to Antonio of the child he so obviously didn’t want? Just what did he have to gain, though? Confusion muddled her thoughts.
‘I took this job to prove a point.’ Toni’s voice had a calm steadiness in each word and he sounded suddenly very different. He spoke in the same way Antonio had spoken to her when he’d told her it was over. He was using that same decisive and totally in control voice.
Antonio’s words surged from her memory, playing again in her mind as if he stood before her right now.
Our weekend, fun as it was, has finished and we must go back to our normal lives.
Except she hadn’t been able to. That luxury was taken from her before he’d even walked out of the door. The legacy of their affair had changed her life from that moment on.
‘And what point is that?’ Sadie asked as suspicion and unease battled for supremacy inside her.
Toni stepped back a pace and looked at her, then at Leo, which only added to the unease. ‘To prove that I can.’ He looked back at her and a sensation of outrage lingered in the air. ‘And I will do exactly that.’
CHAPTER THREE (#u798b43c1-c315-5ed3-9154-3b7042668d8c)
AS THE FIRST week turned into the second, Antonio was forced to admit it was going to be even harder than the first and it had nothing to do with the tiny apartment or the work. It had everything to do with Sadie.
Last weekend in the park he’d almost come clean, almost blown his cover. The temptation had been huge. As soon as he’d realised that Sadie’s little boy was almost certainly his child, he’d wanted to insist they return to Rome with him right there and then. It was only his loyalty to Sebastien, as well as Stavros and Alejandro, which had halted that impulse. That loyalty had been far stronger than the need to prove Sebastien wrong. Now he knew for sure their challenges had nothing to do with surviving without their fortunes. Sebastien had more than done his homework setting this challenge for him and no doubt had something of a similar nature planned for Stavros and Alejandro.
Now, at the end of his last week, he wiped his hands on a cloth and tossed it impatiently aside, eager to leave Toni Adessi behind, eager to put into motion what he needed to do.
As he slipped on his sunglasses he didn’t have to turn around to know that Sadie was coming down the steps from the office to the workshop. Every nerve cell in his body alerted him to her presence.
‘I understand you are leaving today.’ Sadie’s silky-soft voice so close to him caught him unawares after she’d spent the last week avoiding him. ‘Is this not the job for you after all? Have you failed in your mission to prove you can?’
Antonio channelled the gruff mechanic he’d been concealed behind for the last two weeks and turned to look down at Sadie’s face, her beautiful green eyes sparkling with mischief. Was she flirting with him, emboldened by the knowledge he was leaving?
‘I never fail, Sadie, but I am leaving today. I have much more important matters to deal with.’ Finally he was able to say something truthful to her.
‘So where are you going?’ A hint of anxiety sounded in her voice, despite her light and playful tone. Why was she suddenly so interested? She’d barely glanced his way since that afternoon in the park. The day he’d nearly blown it all, risked everything he, Stavros and Alejandro had agreed to, in order to claim what was his. Leo. The dark-haired little boy whose eyes were the intense black which all Di Marcellos seemed to possess.
‘I think I’m more suited to living in Rome.’ He had to stifle the smile which threatened to form at her obvious shock.
‘You live in Rome?’
‘Sì.’ He could feel Antonio sliding back into place as he thought of his modern offices and the luxury apartment with views across the city he’d made his home. From the city he would often drive out in one of his highly collectable cars and enjoy the freedom of the road. He longed to get back to all of that, back to normality. Except what he’d discovered whilst working here undercover had changed things—changed him.
Sadie’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, highlighting those deliciously long eyelashes. ‘So why are you here, Mr Adessi? Why work here in a small garage in Milan for just two weeks?’
The accusation in those questions was as clear as the sparkle on the Mediterranean Sea in the summer. Did she know who he was? A frisson of panic rushed through him. He couldn’t blow it now on the final day, not when so much more was at stake. This went far beyond Sebastien’s donation to the search and rescue charity, far beyond the need to prove anything to anyone.
‘I was helping out a friend.’ He had to force the roughness he’d adopted for the last two weeks to stay in his voice. He was so close to completing Sebastien’s challenge and there was no way he’d risk it all now. Not when Stavros was about to start his two weeks and Alejandro was yet to discover where he would be sent. Besides, Antonio Di Marcello never failed—at anything.
That thought infused him with the strength he needed to see this challenge to its conclusion. Once he’d got there he could deal with the reality of Sadie and the little boy he was almost certain was his.
‘When do you go back to Rome?’ Sadie seemed anxious, glancing around them as if looking for something or someone.
‘Not for a few days. I have some business to attend to first.’ That business involved seeing his parents, finding out just what they knew of Leo. Before he could tackle Sadie, he had to know if she’d gone to his family—and been turned away by them. Once he knew for sure that she had been there, that she had tried to contact him, he would be back—and this time it wouldn’t be as Toni Adessi.
* * *
Sadie looked at Toni, annoyed he’d once again chosen to hide behind his sunglasses. It didn’t help the unease that had grown with each passing day and when she’d learnt he was leaving after only two weeks of starting work. It only convinced her further that he’d been sent by Antonio to check up on her—or Leo. His mother must have finally passed on her message and a man as powerful as Antonio Di Marcello would have no problem finding her. But why now?
Was this the day she’d dreaded since the door of his parents’ grand imposing house had been slammed in her face? The day she would have to face up to the might of Antonio Di Marcello drawing closer? Toni Adessi worked for him, of that she was certain, and she fully intended to let Antonio know he was not welcome in her life, not when he wasn’t man enough to face her himself.
‘You have business here?’ she prodded gently, keeping her voice light and teasing. Being defensive, she decided, wouldn’t help her find out what Toni was up to, or even if he was working for the man she had no wish to see again. Even so, she would love to tell him exactly what she thought of his philandering playboy ways.
‘Sì, sì, I do. But first it is time for something to eat. As it is my last day, would you care to join me?’
Beneath the untidy black beard she could see him smiling and briefly wondered if she’d got it all wrong. Could it simply be that he liked her? Did her conscience and anger at the way the power of the Di Marcello family had disowned her and Leo make her see things that weren’t there? There was only one way to find out.
‘Yes, I’d love to.’ She smiled warmly at him.
‘You do not have to fetch your little boy today?’ The question froze the smile on her lips.
‘No, he’s with my mother today.’
‘In that case, there is a nice restaurant on the next street I’d like to try.’
‘Perfect.’ Sadie smiled up at him, acutely aware that the other mechanics were showing interest in their prolonged conversation. She glanced back up at the office window to see Daniela grinning madly at her and waving her away, which just spurred her on to abandon her usual caution. ‘Let’s go, then.’
Together they walked down the street to the restaurant Toni had mentioned. She’d been here before with friends but never with a man. In fact she’d never been anywhere with a man since Antonio had walked out on her, determined not to get caught up in things she and Leo just didn’t need.
‘So, you are here in Milan with your parents?’ The question caught her off guard as they sat outside, the early summer sunshine bright, but at least now she too could hide behind sunglasses.
‘Yes, we moved here when I was almost eighteen because of my father’s job, but we will be returning to England soon.’ Was she telling him too much? Should she have kept that to herself? If there was even the chance that her suspicions were right and he was working for Antonio Di Marcello, she would have to guard what she said.
He sat back and glanced around him as the bustle of Milan continued. He didn’t seem at all perturbed or even interested in what she’d said. Again she questioned if she’d got it wrong.
‘Will you miss Milan?’ he asked as their drinks were put on the table and she looked at him, at the way his overalls were open at the front, revealing a white T-shirt which showed off his tanned skin and the firm muscles of his chest.
Quickly she averted her gaze. Since when did she take such an interest in a man?
‘I will, but there is nothing to keep me here.’ She awkwardly rearranged the cutlery and condiments, hating the way she would be giving away her nerves to a man she still thought had ulterior motives for being here with her right now.
‘What about your little boy? Is his father in England?’ The casual question was loaded with suspicion and her unease notched up a level.
‘His father is here, in Italy—for all the good that does Leo.’ She couldn’t help the bitter anger which sounded in her voice, unable to keep the hurt of Antonio’s neglect from her tone.
‘And is he happy you are moving away with his son?’ Toni’s question hit her hard and she pressed her palm against her chest, as if she’d been physically touched. This was all getting too close to the doubts she’d battled with over recent months since her parents had announced they were moving back to England, desperately trying to persuade her to do the same. They had wrapped the move up in the need to retire closer to family, but she secretly wondered if it was more to do with her and Leo.
‘It’s none of his business,’ she snapped a little too sharply as Toni’s question hit on the root cause of her worry.
‘Does he not have a right to know?’ Behind those sunglasses she was sure Toni’s eyes were piercing her accusingly. She could feel it with every fibre of her body.
‘The only man who has a right to make any contribution to the decisions I make regarding my son is the man who puts a ring on my finger.’ Sadie couldn’t help the spark of anger which must show in her words and on her face. When she’d discovered she was pregnant, she’d hoped that man would be Antonio, the man she’d fallen in love with so easily, but she’d quickly learnt to accept that would never happen.
* * *
Antonio had a moment of panic before his usual control kicked back in. Marriage was something he’d tried once and never wanted again. It might have been based on lies, but it had only reaffirmed his long-held opinion that marriage wasn’t for him. Despite this, he knew he had a duty to the continuation of his family name—if there was no heir, that meant the end of the Di Marcello family. A duty he had shrugged off since his six-month marriage had spectacularly exploded in the most unpredictable way. That had been a marriage based on duty and now Sadie Parker had enlightened him to another duty and, whatever he thought of marriage, he was going to have to accept and honour that duty. His son had to come first, not because he was the Di Marcello heir, the next generation, but because he was his son and he didn’t want his son to have an empty childhood like his own. Could he put all he believed aside and love his son?
For his son he would do anything.
‘Strong words,’ he teased and sat back, forcing his limbs to relax in a way he was far from feeling. He couldn’t afford to blow his cover, not now. He was still Toni and would have to remain on alert. There was the rest of the day to get through before he could reveal himself and even then it would be too soon.
No, that particular revelation would have to keep for a little while longer. He had the small matter of his parents to deal with first. A visit he was not looking forward to. They would have to accept Leo. It was his turn to manipulate and use emotional blackmail.
He could sense Sadie’s suspicion, feel her doubt, and he knew this would have to be handled very carefully. He needed to give her space and time to let her guard down, because right now her defensive barrier was almost impenetrable, a mechanism he knew all about.
‘It’s what I feel, Mr Adessi.’
‘Toni, please.’
Sadie frowned at him, then sat back and smiled. ‘Okay, Toni, tell me a bit about you. What is it you are rushing back to in Rome?’
‘Who said I was rushing?’
She pushed her sunglasses up onto her head, pulling her hair from her face and allowing him to see those expressive green eyes. ‘You are leaving work today after only two weeks.’
There was lightness to her voice and he sensed her relaxing. Could it be that she was letting him closer? Or was she toying with him again?
‘It’s not what really interests me.’ There was a game of cat and mouse being played out across the table and it wasn’t yet clear who was which—or who was in charge. He suspected she was not as relaxed as she would have him believe.
‘What does?’ she asked, looking down as her meal was placed in front of her.
‘I’m more of a builder than a mechanic,’ he said, bending the truth to fit his double persona. If he told her he was in the construction industry, that his company built ground-breaking designs around the world, it would surely give him away—or confirm her suspicions.
She looked at him for a moment and he thought he’d gone too far, then she shrugged slightly and began her meal. ‘This is delicious. Thank you for bringing me here.’
He looked around at the simple restaurant and then back at her. Once he’d resumed the identity of Antonio Di Marcello he’d be taking her to much more glamorous places than this. His life was played out on a world stage and flying from one continent to another in his private jet was commonplace. For now, though, he accepted her change of subject.
‘I would have done this before if you hadn’t been so against the idea of being friends.’ He watched as she looked at him, saw the confusion enter her eyes and the uncertainty on her lovely face.
‘Is it possible for a man and a woman to be friends?’
He became distracted by memories of a passion-filled weekend and studied the way Sadie’s soft hair fell around her shoulders and the creamy pale skin of her throat, the plumpness of her lips. It certainly didn’t seem possible to be just friends with this woman. Despite her deceit in keeping his son from him for the last three years, he still wanted her. His body could still feel the heat of hers, the swell of her breasts against his chest as they’d tumbled naked in blazing passion over the large bed in the hotel room.
He bit down on the spike of lust and looked directly at her, speaking far more truth than she’d ever know. ‘A man and a woman can be whatever they want.’
* * *
Sadie began to feel uncomfortable. The suspicion deepened that this man was digging for information on her and Leo, that he had ulterior motives for being here. Why had she spoken so frankly and openly to him? If he was here working for Antonio, hadn’t she just given him all the ammunition needed to attack?
‘That depends very much on the man and woman, don’t you think?’ She took a sip of water and then sat back, the desire to eat any more gone, as had the pleasure of a little time out with a man. She still wasn’t ready to move on from Antonio’s betrayal; she wasn’t ready to trust another man, even though she wanted to.
Toni’s brows rose in surprise and she knew she sounded angry, knew that she was pushing away a chance to try to rebuild her life, to have fun again now that Leo was growing up. But what was the point when this man was about to leave for Rome and she was on the brink of returning to England? Quite apart from the fact that she still longed for the man she’d lost her heart to almost four years ago. She just had to face facts. She wasn’t over Antonio Di Marcello yet.

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