VITTORIO'S LOVER (Vittorio Series) (25 page)

“Alessandro DeLuca,” Jillian said with a breathless sigh. “He’s the head of their accounting department. It’s easy to see why you misunderstood, considering his last name. Anyway, after we…um…made love, I fell asleep. I can’t explain why I slept with him when I’d only met him that night, but somehow it just seemed right.” Her voice took on the same dreamy quality that was reflected in her eyes. “Being with Alessandro was the most wonderful experience of my life. 

When I woke up and discovered I was alone, I was crushed. I thought
he left because he was disappointed. I mean, from the instant we met, there was this powerful attraction neither of us could resist so I just assumed that I hadn’t…um…lived up to his expectations. If only I hadn’t raced out of there and come crying to you two, none of this would have happened. I’m so sorry, Jen. If it wasn’t for me, you never would have met that horrible man and had your heart broken.”

Irrational as it was, Jenesa had to fight the
urge to defend Raffaele. White washing the enormous pain gnawing at her chest, she listened while Jillian told her what happened. It seems Alessandro hadn’t slinked out of there to avoid a messy scene afterwards. In fact, it was just the opposite. He was so enamored of her sister that he’d dashed out to buy flowers and order up champagne, but took longer than he’d anticipated because he had to coerce the Concierge into opening the flower shop. By the time he returned to the room, Jillian was gone.

“The poor man was beside himself,” Jillian blushed with pleasure. “He ran down my
afterhours business number, but I’d left my cell phone at home. Alessandro said he was desperate to find out where I lived but it wouldn’t have made any difference because I was staying with Linette. He tried to reach me at the office too, and the receptionist took the messages, but I didn’t get them until I returned to work the morning after you had gone off with
that man
.”

She
was supremely happy for Jillian. It was obvious that Alessandro DeLuca was head over heels in love with her, and it wouldn’t have surprised Jenesa in the least if there was a marriage announcement in the near future. The flip side, of course, was that seeing the two of them together and witnessing that same spark of physical awareness that she’d shared with Raffaele sucked the life right out of her. 

“What are you afraid of, Jenesa?” Grady’s question reeled her back to the present.

“I’m not afraid of anything. It’s been a long week and I was looking forward to a nice quiet evening at home, that’s all.”

“Is that really what you want, to sit in solitude with nothing to do except be alone with your thoughts for hours on end?”

When he put it that way, her idea seemed more masochistic than relaxing. “Just as friends, right? You’re not secretly carrying a torch for me, are you?”

Grady’s hearty laughter made Jenesa laugh too. He’d told her often that she reminded him of his little sister and that any feelings he had were forever trapped
somewhere between brotherly love and that of a very dear and treasured friend. Jenesa was glad she didn’t have to worry about her relationship with Grady changing on his part because she needed his strength in her life. Maybe she wouldn’t always need to lean on him as heavily as she had up until now. After all, this period of mourning had to end sometime, didn’t it? God, she hoped so because she wasn’t sure how much longer she could live with this incessant hollowness inside.

There was no getting over Raffaele
. She’d known that for quite some time now.  But Grady was right; she needed to get on with her life and stop wallowing in self pity and sorrow.  The pain of losing Raffaele would always be with her, but going out and having a little fun might help deaden it so it wasn’t quite so bad. Maybe then she wouldn’t walk around feeling like a broken vase that had been glued back together.

“All right, you win,” she said when Grady finally stopped laughing. “What time do you want to pick me up?”

                                                    *** 

Raffaele glanced up in surprise when Grady Thorpe walked into his office unannounced and slapped a manila envelope on his desk.

“What’s this?”

“The report Luca ordered six months ago on JLJ and the Harding sisters.”

The muscle in his jaw flexed,
though he was careful to keep his tone even. “I didn’t ask for it then and have no interest in reading it now. File it, shred it, I don’t care what you do just as long as you take it with you when you go.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that
,” Grady replied. “For months, it has chapped my hide that you didn’t have the decency to give Jenesa a chance to explain her side of the story. At first I thought you’d get over your initial anger and dented pride and read the report, if for no other reason than to prove you were right about her all along. But it didn’t happen.”

“
Leave it alone, Grady. I’m not in the mood for this right now,” Raffaele warned.

Grady stood his ground. 
“I’ll leave
after
you’ve read the report.”

Raffaele had a great deal of respect for the man, but after coming to the conclusion he wanted the one woman he would never lower himself to have again, he was
more than ready to take his frustration out with his fists. Watching Grady firmly plant his feet as if he was bucking for a fight only encouraged Raffaele to work out his aggression here and now.

“Get out,” he ordered.

A slow grin spread across Grady’s face. “I came as your friend, not your employee. As your friend, I’m telling you that unless you plan on physically removing me yourself, I’m not going anywhere until you read the report.”

Raffaele wasn’t fooled by the broad grin. He’d seen that look before many times and knew Grady wasn’t bluffing.
In the dangerous mood they were both in, it could very easily come to blows and destroy a friendship he valued greatly. His glance migrated to the envelope. What difference did it make whether he read it or not? Nothing in the report could possibly change his low opinion of Jenesa Harding and her sisters.  Without a word, he turned the envelope over and pried the sealed flap open.

The stony expression on Raffaele’s face didn’t change as he read
each page thoroughly. Inside, however, his stomach was churning up acid and threatening to send the meager lunch he’d eaten back up his throat. Luca had tried to tell him what the report contained on more than one occasion, but Raffaele refused to listen. Even when Luca managed to squeeze in a comment that there was nothing negative in it, he’d cut his brother off and advised him never to speak her name in his presence again.

JLJ was a rapidly growing company
with an admiral list of respected and influential clientele. The three sisters were known for their honest business ethics and creativity in planning events. That, along with their reliability and efficiency, had quickly catapulted them into the category of services most coveted by high society. As for their personal lives, it seemed that none of the woman had much time for dating and rarely socialized outside of the events they coordinated. Nothing in their past indicated they were anything but honest, hard working business women whose morals were irrefutably above reproach.

In Grady’s summary notes, he highly recommended contracting their services because employing anyone else could only be considered second best. In his opinion, Vittorio Enterprises would be extremely remiss to pass up the opportunity to do business with the Harding sisters. Raffaele finished reading and slipped the report back into the envelope. Just because there was no proof Jenesa attempted to set him
up for a blackmailing scheme, didn’t mean it wasn’t true, he stubbornly reflected. 

H
e pushed the envelope towards Grady. “Are there more demands, or is the extent of it?”

“That’s it,” Grady shrugged.

Raffaele studied him for a moment, his eyes narrowing.
Like hell, that was it. 
“Just out of curiosity, you seemed pretty damn determined to make me read this and now you act as if doesn’t matter one way or the other. You care to explain?”

“The short and sweet version: I wanted to make sure you weren’t harboring any feelings for Jenesa that might cause a problem down the line.”

“Down the line? What exactly does that mean?”

“It means I’ve been seeing a lot of Jenesa over the past six months. When you tossed her out like last night’s garbage, I assumed any feelings you had for her were dead and buried, but I wanted confirmation before taking our relationship to the next level.”

Raffaele sprang out of his chair so fast, it flew backwards and hit the wall with a loud thud.  His hands curled into fists, rage boiling up inside him like lava in a live volcano. Grady didn’t even flinch, which only infuriated Raffaele more.

“You’ve been seeing her behind my back?” he demanded.
“Why? Why would betray my trust like that?”

“
Oh, come on,” Grady said with a derisive laugh. “It’s not as if you had any
real
feelings for her. You deliberately seduced Jenesa without any regard as to how it would affect her when you decided it was safe to dump her. She didn’t deserve it and you know it. I had you read that report because I wanted you to realize just how poorly you treated her and hoped you would show a little remorse.”

“Remorse for what,” Raffaele said heatedly, “she lied to me right from the beginning.”

“You lied too.”

“To protect my brother!”

“And she did it to protect her sister,” Grady shot back.

“Maybe so, but you knew how much I despised the woman and you still pursued a relationship with her.
”

“I didn’t think I needed your permission. I’m merely telling you now out of respect
because I didn’t want you to hear it from anyone else.”

“Hear what?” Raffaele said between clenched teeth.

“I’m going to ask Jenesa to marry me tonight.”

Air hissed from Raffaele’s lungs. He felt as if he’d been sucker punched and had to struggle to push his words out. “You can’t do that!  What I mean is…you said…the next level. You wanted to take it to the next level.  I thought...”

“You thought I meant I wanted to sleep with her? I do, and if everything goes like I hope it will, Jenesa will accept my proposal for marriage and then consummate her promise to be my wife by spending the night with me.”

Raffaele’s
big body shook with anger. The idea of Grady touching Jenesa, kissing her, making love to her…it was agonizing. Uncontrollable rage burned deep in his gut, searing him from the inside out until nothing remained but a fierce single-minded determination to rip Grady apart with his bare hands. He came around the desk with the stealth of a panther stalking its prey.

“Keep away from her, Grady. I’m warning you
” he growled, “if you lay one hand on her…”

Far from feeling threatened, Grady seemed highly amused by his show of
predatory hostility. “It’s too late to play the role of jealous lover, don’t you think? Face it, buddy, you had your chance and you blew it. She would have done anything for you, but you treated her like dirt and nearly crushed her spirit in the process. I’m done,” he said and turned to leave. At the door, he looked back at Raffaele with a sympathetic shake of his head. “You have no one to blame but yourself, Raffaele. You took her love and threw it away with both hands.”

Raffaele’s eyes
blazed with fury. “And now you think you can just swoop in and claim her heart?”

“
I’m going to do my damnedest. I’m picking her up at nine for a cozy dinner and popping the question then.” Grady opened the door, leaving one last parting shot. “You may have been her first lover, Raffaele, but after tonight I guarantee Jenesa won’t give you another thought.”

Raffaele lunged at him, but Grady was out the door before
he could reach him.  His fists slammed against the door, rattling the solid wood as it splintered and dug into his flesh. Furious didn’t even begin to cover the way he felt at that moment. He would kill Grady before he let him take advantage of Jenesa’s vulnerability.
There’s still time to stop him
, he thought, checking the clock on the wall. But how? Jenesa probably wouldn’t even open her door to him, let alone listen to him explain why it would be a huge mistake to marry Grady.

The empty ache inside his chest began to ease at the thought of seeing Jenesa again.
Grady was a good man, he grudgingly admitted, and he would treat Jenesa right, the way a woman you cared for
should
be treated. But he could never make her happy no matter how hard he tried. How could Grady ever hope to make her happy when she’d already given her heart to another man?

A strange sensation surged through Raffaele as he returned to
the desk and scooped his phone up on the way to the ensuite bathroom. With the phone propped between his shoulder and ear, he made an urgent call while tending to the minor cuts on his hand. Thirty minutes and several phone calls later, Raffaele stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the parking garage. The odd feeling he’d experienced in his office persisted throughout the drive home. As he pulled into the driveway, it finally hit him. 
Warmth.