The Price Of Secrecy (4 page)

She
was only human, and Dominic was the kind of man she’d fantasized about her
entire adult life. It would be very difficult not to fall under his spell.

Chapter
Five

Angela
whistled softly as they walked inside. “Damn. I feel like I should be wearing a
ball gown.” Opulence didn’t adequately describe the atmosphere, with its quiet
music, dark wood, and elegant fabrics. She felt like she’d stepped back in time
to an era when only royalty enjoyed such luxury.

He
winked at her, and the gesture sent tiny contractions to her pussy. “Only if we
were here in the evening.”

A
sense of humor was
so
damn sexy. Why
couldn’t he be a boring stick-in-the-mud? That would make it easier to ignore
that smoldering dark look, and the way her body tingled when he was near.

The
maître d’ obviously knew Dominic, because he practically ran toward them. “Two
for lunch, Mr. Greco?”

“Yes,
and we’d like privacy, please.”

Is that so? Why?

They
were led to an alcove at the back of the restaurant, partially closed by a
heavy burgundy drape. No one else was close to them. Dominic ordered an
expensive bottle of wine in perfect Italian, and she didn’t bother opening the
menu. She’d puke if she looked at the prices.

“Will
you choose for me?” she asked. “I’m sure I’ll love anything they serve here.”

He
smiled at her. “How do you know that?”

“The
smell.”

His
laugh sent chills down her spine. “I’d be delighted to order for you. Any
allergies or dislikes I should know about?”

She
shook her head. “None.”

When
he ordered an appetizer of lightly breaded calamari, and entrees of pasta alla
norma
and stuffed swordfish rolls, plus salads for each of
them, Angela wondered how much work she’d get done this afternoon. She’d be
asleep from all this food. After their server left, she asked him if he ate a
lunch this lavish every day.

“No.
This is a special occasion.”

She
was about to say something else, but their wine was already there. She’d never
seen such quick service. Did he own the place? After he’d tasted it and they
each had a glass, Dominic lifted his. “To the start of what I hope is a
wonderful relationship.”

She
drank first, savoring the taste, and then she put down her glass and took a
deep breath. “Dominic, I am really grateful for the job. Honestly. But what is
all this? You take my arm inside the building, I’m in a ridiculously expensive
restaurant with you, and this feels more like a date than a business lunch.”

It
was one of the boldest questions she’d ever asked of an employer. Then again,
she’d never worked for anyone like him, and she’d never been so obviously hit
on by any of her bosses.

He
took another sip of wine while he held her gaze. It was impossible to read the
expression in his eyes, but she didn’t think he was angry. Rather that he was
carefully choosing his next words.

“All
right.” He placed his glass on the table and fixed her with a neutral stare.
“Time to stop dancing around and come clean. Angela, I have a confession. It’s
going to be very difficult for me not to want more from you than a work
relationship. I think you’re beautiful and intelligent, and I also sense
something mysterious in you that intrigues me. You’re quite irresistible.”

She
swallowed hard. There was something mysterious about her all right, but God
help him if he found out because then he’d be in danger, too.

“Surely
I’m not the first man to have told you that.”

“I’ve
um … I’ve avoided getting close enough to anyone to get to that point.” That
was the most she dared to spill her guts to him about why she kept people at a
distance.

He
frowned. “None of my business, and you really should slap my face for asking,
but are you a virgin?”

She
smiled. “I won’t slap your face for asking. It’s a legitimate question under
the circumstances. No, I’m not a virgin.” She might as well be. Did it grow
back when you didn’t have sex for close to a year?

“Why
have you avoided getting that close to anyone?” His tone changed. It was
subtle, but she caught the sudden sharpness in his voice, and the way his body
shifted slightly.

“It’s
a long story.”

He
watched her for a few moments, sipping more wine, and then she saw resignation
in his eyes, but not complete acceptance. Rather, it was as if he’d decided to
let her win the battle, but he hadn’t yet surrendered the war. This man was too
powerful to let him get that close to the truth. She couldn’t put him or his
company in danger. What the hell was she going to do here?

“I’d
like to know the answer to one question.”

“All
right.” What if it was not something she could tell him? Was she going to have
to lie to her new boss on the first day? She’d already told one tiny white lie
about why she spoke Italian.
You’ve been
lying to everyone since you were eight years old.

“Do
you find me attractive at all, or am I wasting my time here?”

What?
Was he out of his mind? She was
grateful she hadn’t taken another sip of wine or she’d be choking on it right
now. Angela blinked a few times, certain she’d misheard him, but the look on
his face told her she hadn’t. He looked like a high school boy asking his crush
out on a date, and her heart melted. “Dominic, I find you
very
attractive.” She took a quick sip of wine for courage. “If
we’re being brutally honest here…”

“It
would help if we could be.” His voice was quiet and unsure, and that shocked
her.

“Then
let me rephrase that. I think you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in
person, and you overwhelm me, but in a good way. You’re charismatic and
powerful, and that’s a difficult combination to resist. I have images of
jumping across this table to kiss you racing through my mind right now.”

That may have been a mistake to
admit.

He
covered her hand with his, and she resisted the urge to grab his arm and pull
him across the space between them. His touch sent tiny jolts of electricity up
her arm and back down again to her throbbing clit. “Perhaps we shouldn’t try to
resist it, then?”

Hellfire!
“Perhaps not.” Now, in addition to
her wet panties and all-consuming horniness, she was sweating. That might be
the effect of drinking wine before noon, but probably not. More than likely it
was Dominic’s dark gaze, full of lust and determination.
Fuck.
What the hell had she just started?

Their
server returned, and the spell was broken. She ate calamari that tasted better
than anything she’d ever eaten, and drank two glasses of water to cool off
inside. It didn’t help. She still wanted to fuck him into next week.

“Is
the sauce too hot?” he asked.

“No.
It’s fine.”
You’re too hot.
“It’s
delicious. I love the way they haven’t put too much breading on it. Usually
when you have fried calamari at a restaurant, there’s more coating than squid.”

He
chuckled softly, nodding. “I agree. Thank you for this, Angela. It’s been a
while since I’ve had such an enjoyable lunch companion.”

She
swallowed the food in her mouth. “Seriously? I mean come on. You can’t tell me
you don’t have women throwing themselves at you.”

His
gaze turned dark and thoughtful. “That may be true, but it doesn’t mean I
respond to all of them.”

“I
didn’t mean to insult you. It’s just that you’re rich, powerful, and
ridiculously good-looking.” He averted his gaze for a second, and now she was
really confused. Surely the man had been given compliments by every woman who
glanced his way. “Not it’s my turn to call bullshit. You can’t tell me you
haven’t heard that before.”

“I’ve
heard it.” He lifted his gaze. “What you just said makes me a magnet for unscrupulous
people. You’d be surprised how many women I’ve dated who don’t look past any of
that. Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised. It’s difficult to get to know anyone
on a deeper level than surface attraction when their agenda becomes all too
clear in the first five minutes.”

“They
want you for your money.”

“That,
and for the resources I control. For the power.”

“It’s
intoxicating to most people.”

He
gave her a long, searching look. “Is that why you’re here?”

“No.
I’m here because my hot boss invited me to lunch, and because my willpower is
just about gone. Your power and your money are what make your company so
successful, but they don’t define
you
.
The person inside. That’s who I want to get to know.”

“Thank
you for saying that.”

“It’s
the truth, but it’s not easy for me to be so bold. I prefer to fade into the
background and not draw attention to myself.”

He
laughed softly. “Is that why you wore a red suit today?”

Heat
rose to her face, and she took a long sip of wine. “No. I wore it because it
looks good on me, and I was hoping you’d notice.”
Can’t get any more truthful than that.

“How
in the name of all that’s holy could I not notice you, Angela?”

She
swallowed hard as their gazes locked. It would be so easy to throw caution to
the wind. Surely a man like him had layers of protection around him, so any
danger she thought she might put him in was insignificant.

The
obvious solution came to her once again, as it had every single time she’d
wanted to go deeper into a relationship with a man.
Tell him the truth.
That was against the rules, but how could she
live a lie with someone?

How
could she have a relationship that might potentially lead to marriage and
children? Legally she was Angela Davidson. According to the fake documents the
US Department of Justice and the US Marshals Service had manufactured she was,
but inside she wasn’t, and she never would be. Every single minute of her life
she lived a lie, and she couldn’t tell anyone about it. “I don’t know what to
say right now.” That much, at least, was the truth.

He
caressed her hand, and she had to bite back a moan. “You haven’t been treated
right. I can see that now. I assumed a woman with your looks and your
intelligence had men lined up waiting to be with you, but I understand now I
was wrong.”

Every
instinct screamed at her to end this now, before he talked her into going out
with him again. Before he talked her into bed with him, which wouldn’t be
difficult to do at all. But as she gazed into those expressive dark eyes, all
the years of self-imposed loneliness came crashing down. The weight of those
years was oppressive and evil. She didn’t want to hide anymore, and she was
tired of denying what should be a normal part of her life.

She
wanted to go out on dates, and she wanted to have sex. She wanted to do both
without fear or suspicion. The little girl who didn’t understand why she could
never see her father or uncles again, or why she and her mother had to move and
pretend to be different people for the rest of their lives was in the past, and
that’s where Angela wanted to keep her.

She
was a grown woman now. She had a career and a kick-ass job. Her gorgeous boss
wanted to fuck her, and she wanted to fuck him. Angela had never wanted any man
more than she wanted Dominic right now. There was no reason to deny her needs.
She had to have him. It was just that simple.

Chapter
Six

“It’s
complicated,” said Angela. “Or maybe it’s not. Maybe I just never met a man who
knew how to treat a woman?”

Dominic
was now convinced that he’d been right. Angela was hiding something, but he had
no clue what it was. One thing he knew for certain. He wanted her, but first he
had to make sure he hadn’t hired someone who could hurt him or his company. “If
you had met such a man, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Their
salads arrived, and Dominic was grateful for the distraction of eating. The
salad was perfect, just like everything he had hoped this afternoon would turn
out to be. He decided to change the subject. If he could get her talking, he
might uncover something about her mysterious past. “Why did you major in IT in
school? Was it something you always knew you wanted to do?”

“Yes,
ever since middle school when I sort of accidentally hacked into the school’s
grade system just to prove it could be done.”

He
nearly choked on a mouthful of lettuce and tomatoes. “Excuse me? Have I hired a
criminal?”

She
laughed. “No. It really was a stupid thing to do.”

“I’ll
say. Were you expelled?”

“Almost.
A group of boys in my pre-calc class were misogynistic idiots who liked to make
everyone believe they were super smart about coding and hacking already in
eighth grade. They would bait the girls by saying things like we couldn’t code
to save our lives, and that no woman would ever amount to anything in the world
of cyber security. I think they watched a lot of old movies about teens who
hacked into government computer systems or something.”

He
smiled and nodded. Even in this day and age, men outnumbered women in the
industry, and there was still an unspoken attitude that they weren’t good enough
for the work. It was pure bullshit.

“So
one day our teacher got called out of the room to take an emergency call from a
family member, and the guys were bragging about having figured out how to hack
into the grading system to change their grades. I called bullshit on it, and
they dared me to do it to show it could be done, and also because they said a
girl wouldn’t be able to figure it out.”

“Had
they actually hacked in, or were they just setting you up?”

“They
were just setting me up, but of course I didn’t see that at the time.”

“Your
pride was hurt.”

“My
girl pride, yes. Exactly. You know how it is when you’re fourteen. If someone
dares you to do something, you’re going to do it.”

“I
understand completely.” She was right. Most of the incredibly stupid things
he’d done in his life had been done between the ages of eleven and eighteen.

“So
not only did I do it, but I did it in less than ten minutes. Unfortunately the principal
walked in just as I finished, and it took my mother calling every one of those
boys’ parents and threatening them before they all finally confessed their part
in it.”

“Were
they expelled?”

“No,
but all of us had to attend a seminar on cyber security and write a paper about
what we had learned. Actually, this is going to sound really geeky, but I
thought the seminar was fascinating. It opened up a whole new world to me that
I hadn’t realized existed, and that’s when I knew I wanted to explore careers
in IT. I knew I was good at it, but I didn’t have enough basic knowledge to
also be safe about it.”

He
leaned back, impressed. “Very introspective and mature for a girl of fourteen.
I mean that.”

“Thank
you.” When she was given a compliment her entire face lit up, and the gesture
mesmerized him. She had a vulnerability that made him want to protect her.

“What
about you?” she asked. “Why telecommunications?”

“Because
it’s the one industry that will never fail. No matter how many ways we can
think of to upgrade devices, or build smaller ones, larger ones, even devices
that think for us, now that we have them we’re never going backwards. It’s a
sure thing.”

She
nodded. “That makes sense. Did you inherit your company or this something you
built on your own?”

“I
did not inherit it. I did this on my own.” He had inherited the money, but she
hadn’t asked about that. Not yet, anyway.

“What
business was your family in?”

This
information wasn’t public knowledge or he was certain she’d have already found
it, but he couldn’t discuss his family with her. That was off limits. So
instead he winked. “I have my secrets, too.”

“Ah,
I see. Forgive me for prying.”

“You
weren’t prying. It’s simply not a topic I discuss.”

“Okay.”
She went back to her salad, finishing it in three bites. “Delicious. I wish I
knew how to make dressing like this. My mother is the cook in our family. She
can make a rock taste good.”

He
tilted his head slightly. “Does she also speak Italian like you do?”

She
drained her wine glass, and he refilled it for her. “She taught me. We still
speak it to each other to keep up our skills. It’s like our secret language.”

He
watched her face blanch and knew she’d just said something she’d never meant to,
but why should it matter that she and her mother were bilingual? Or was she
thinking of the obvious lie she’d told him earlier about the college roommate?
He decided not to call her on it because he wanted her to keep talking.

“It
helps her at her job. As a medical coder. To be able to speak another language.
Actually she speaks several. She studied them in school.”

He
sensed
that
wasn’t a lie, but the
tone of her voice and the nervous way she played with the corner of her napkin
told him she was trying to recover, and that tugged at his heart. What the hell
was this girl hiding in her life that had her so damn frightened to spill even
a tiny part of it accidentally?

She
had no dating or sex life. That much he’d deduced. Which meant she kept people,
and men especially, at arm’s length. The only reasons he could imagine why
someone would do that included fear, or a secret that was life and death. “Do
you also speak other languages as well?”

“A
bit here and there, but the only one she taught me was Italian. The rest I’ve
picked up listening to her. When I was still in school, she would do extra work
at home dictating discharge instructions into charts for non-English speaking
patients.”

“I
see. So it’s always just been you two?”

A
quick flash of terror swept across her face, but then it was gone. “Yes. Just
us.” He heard the subtle change in her voice and knew she’d just told him
another big fat lie.

Dominic
hadn’t gotten this far not being able to read people, but he be damned if he
had any idea what was going on here. It unnerved him, but he was now fairly
certain this girl wasn’t out to hurt him or his company. She was definitely
terrified of something or someone, and he certainly understood that from an
insider’s view. He’d lived with that kind of fear all his life.

When
their entrees arrived, he changed the subject once more to work-related issues,
and his heart skipped a beat when he noticed how she visibly relaxed. Her voice
no longer held that note of hesitation. She was on solid ground where her work
skills were concerned, so whatever had her afraid had nothing to do with school
or her degrees. He was determined to uncover it, but he was also fighting his
hormones with each passing minute.

She
was so easy to be with when she was relaxed like this, laughing and smiling.
Her warm, smoky voice sent shivers down his spine as he imagined listening to
it in a dark room, their bodies covered in sweat and the air scented with the
remnants of hot sex. He longed to pamper her and show her how much fun sex
could actually be, because he doubted anyone had ever been able to get that
close.

The
wine bottle was empty by the time they finished, and she declined dessert. “I
swear if I try to eat one more thing I’ll burst. That was seriously the most
delicious meal I’ve ever had. Thank you.”

“You
are very welcome.” He signaled for the check. “Now if only we didn’t have to
work.”

She
giggled, and instead of annoying him, the sound was endearing. His cock was
rock hard, and he had no idea how he’d walk. “I might fall asleep.”

He
could think of more atmospheric places to fall asleep than her office or a
conference room. Like his bedroom, after they fucked each other silly. Once he’d
signed the credit card receipt for the meal, he covered her hand again. Her
skin was warm, but the touch sent chills through his entire body. “Then maybe
we should begin work in the morning instead?”

She
blinked a few times. “What, seriously? It’s my first day. I don’t want you
thinking I’m slacking off.”

Dominic
caressed her skin. Her eyes went all soft, and she took a deep breath. “I’m the
one who invited you to lunch and got you drunk.”

“I’m
not drunk.”

“All
right. A bit tipsy, perhaps.”

“Not
enough that I can’t work.”

He
had cleared all his meetings to spend the afternoon with her, but he didn’t
want to work. “I’m not in the mood to return to the office.” He took out his
phone. “It’s already two in the afternoon.”

“You’re
kidding…” She pulled out her own phone and stared at it. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why?
I’m the one who brought us here. You have nothing to apologize for. Why don’t
we blow off work and spend some time getting to know one another better? I
haven’t had a lazy afternoon in far too long.”
Try never.

“Are
you sure?”

“Absolutely.”
He rose, hoping her gaze wouldn’t go straight to his crotch, and then realizing
he hoped it would. He wanted her to know how seductive she was. “How about
this. I’ll take you back to your office so you can pick up your laptop, and
then we can spend some time in the fake outdoors. Afterwards, we’ll go back to
my place and get some work done. I’ll make you dinner.”

“Not
as much food as lunch, though. I doubt I’ll be very hungry the rest of the
day.”

“It’s
a deal. A light dinner only. Maybe we’ll skip real food and just have dessert
and coffee?”
In bed
.

Her
smile was sexy and delightful, and it was all Dominic could do not to kiss her.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”

He
stared into her dark eyes for a long time, and then he threw caution to the
wind for the first time in five years. This girl wasn’t Becca. She wasn’t after
his money, she knew nothing about his family, and she wouldn’t go poking around
to look for dirt. She had dark secrets of her own to protect. She knew how to
hide, and she was terrified of something or someone. If anything, she’d be
pushing him away way before he did the same to her.

If
he pushed her away at all.

Which
he doubted he would.

When
he leaned in to kiss her, she already had her arms up to wrap around his
shoulders. Dominic was only a man, after all. How on earth could he resist this
stunning, warm woman?