The Flaw In Raffaele's Revenge

Lily almost dropped the phone.

Suggestively sexy?

He had to be kidding! No man had ever called her sexy.

Of course he’s kidding. He’s playing with you, searching for your weak spots.

And finding them!

Curiously, the realisation calmed her, despite the burn of annoyance.

‘There are reasons I can’t work for you in New York, Signor Petri, but—’

‘Name three.’

‘Sorry?’

‘I want to know why you reject my offer. Come on, three sound reasons.’ The words shot out, quick and demanding, and before she knew it, Lily was answering.

‘I don’t have a passport for a start.’ She winced. That made her sound like some country hick to a man who travelled the world as easily as she travelled it vicariously via the internet.

‘That’s one. What else?’

‘I can’t afford to rent a place in New York.’

‘Not even with the bonus I’m offering?’

‘I have commitments here. Any money I earn goes to those.’

‘And the third? What’s your third reason?’

Because she couldn’t stand the thought of working in an office with other people? Because she wouldn’t put herself through all that again?

Because she preferred solitude? She had a good life and an exciting business plan and no bullying magnate was going to disrupt those on a whim.

‘You don’t answer, Ms Nolan, which makes me think it’s the most important reason of all. Or you don’t have one.’

Sheer strength of will stopped Lily from blurting a response. He wasn’t going to goad her again.

‘Is it a lover holding you back?’

‘You have no right to quiz me like this.’

‘I have every right when it stymies my most important deal.’

Despite his monumental arrogance, Lily’s ears pricked up. She was fascinated by this man’s business acumen, his ability to see opportunities before anyone else. She’d love to know what this secret project was.

‘You want my advice?’ She was in the process of saying ‘No’ when he spoke over top of her. ‘Ditch him, Ms Nolan. Find yourself a man who won’t obstruct such a brilliant opportunity. You’ve got real talent. You shouldn’t let him stand in the way of it.’

For a second Lily gawped. Raffaele Petri was beyond belief. If she had a partner she’d never leave him on the say-so of some self-important stranger.

‘I wasn’t aware you were an expert on relationships, Signor Petri. Aren’t your girlfriends famous for being short-term?’

Lily gasped as she heard her thoughts slip out. She’d just scuttled her future with his company. But his behaviour, his whole attitude, was offensive.

A crack of laughter sounded on the line, resolving into a warm chuckle that did strange things to her insides.

Lily stiffened as fire tongued her sensitive flesh. A hot shiver ripped through her as if a warm masculine hand, rather than a disembodied voice, caressed her. She swallowed hard, horrified at her instantaneous response.

Wasn’t it enough that the man looked like a Greek god come to life? Did he have to sound irresistible too? Lily pressed the heel of her palm to her sternum, trying to ease her heart’s wild pounding.

She detested bullies. Her response was inexplicable.

Except it wasn’t. She was a young, healthy woman, with the physical urges that went with that. Her hormones didn’t care if he was a saint or the devil incarnate. All they cared about was that they’d been deprived of anything like excitement or satisfaction for far too long.

‘Don’t laugh at me!’ Her words rapped out, too short, too sharp.

In the sudden silence she realised what she’d revealed. He knew he’d got to her.

Raffaele Petri might be a bully but he was clever. All the world knew he came from the backstreets of some large Italian city. His business success was a commercial miracle.

‘What if I’m laughing at myself? Finally being called on my defects.’ His voice held an edge but she couldn’t tell if it was amusement or banked fury. ‘My decrepit age. My lack of emotional staying power. What else, I wonder?’ He paused. ‘Have you been investigating me, Ms Nolan?’

Despite the rich cadence of his voice, Lily heard the threat in that low purr of sound.

‘I haven’t, Signor Petri. Your business, yes, before I agreed to work for it. But as for a personal profile...’ She shook her head, her hair swirling. ‘That wasn’t necessary.’

‘Because the paparazzi do such a thorough job of portraying someone’s life, don’t they?’

Lily frowned. Was that emotion? Had she hit a nerve?

‘The passport can be fast-tracked. I’ll get my people onto it. Accommodation will be arranged. Plus I’ll have the contract altered to include the increased salary and bonus.’ He paused, which was as well, because her head was spinning. His abrupt change of subject left her floundering. ‘Appealing enough for you?’

The silence that followed was thick with expectation. He was waiting for her to agree before he hung up and dealt with whatever issue was next on his list.

Except Lily wasn’t some problem to be fixed.

‘I appreciate the offer, the very handsome offer,’ she choked out, her fingers clamping the phone. ‘But it won’t work for me. I’m happy to do whatever I can from here—’

‘But that won’t work for me.’ His voice sent a trickle of foreboding down her backbone.

For ten seconds there was silence. For twenty. But Lily refused to back down. What he asked was impossible for her and she had too much pride to explain why.

‘You leave me no choice, Ms Nolan. We’ll find someone else to be principal researcher.’

Lily eased back against her pillow, shaky as the tension gripping her body finally began to abate.

‘And my company won’t hire you again.’

Lily couldn’t stifle a hiss of shock. Air locked somewhere between her throat and her lungs as her body froze. Stars scattered her vision, dimming to pinpricks till, with a sagging release, her lungs began pumping again.

Without his business, hers was dead in the water. Four months ago she’d have weathered the setback but not now. Not since the loan and the expansion.

If she couldn’t meet the repayments she’d lose everything—her work and her home. The life she’d so painstakingly built.

‘Did you say something, Ms Nolan?’

Lily gulped to clear her throat but couldn’t think of a thing to say.

‘It won’t take long for my dissatisfaction with your service to get out, either. You’d be surprised how fast news spreads. Continental boundaries don’t mean anything and I have contacts around the world. From Melbourne to Mumbai, London to Los Angeles.’

Again that lethal pause, allowing her time to process the bleak scenario he’d painted. Her name would be mud with the really big enterprises, the internationals she’d set her sights on to make her expanded business a success.

‘You’ll go out of your way to blacken my name?’ Her voice was a thin scratch of sound but at least it was steady. Unlike the rest of her. She shook as if with fever.

‘I’ll be sure to mention it whenever appropriate.’ In other words he’d take delight in savaging her reputation.

Hatred coiled, tightening in her belly. Hatred as she’d only ever felt once before, for the guy who’d changed her life in an instant—from carefree to a grim round of medical treatments. Her hand lifted to her face.

Swallowing hard, Lily turned the nervous gesture into a defiant flick of the wrist, sending her long hair flying back from her face. Deliberately she set her chin, staring at her face reflected in the window.

One thing Raffaele Petri didn’t know—she was a fighter. She’d survived far worse than he could dish out and emerged stronger as a result.

She lowered her hand, smoothing the quilt as she dragged in aching breaths. She opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.

‘Of course if you were to change your mind...’

Fury swamped her. He knew she had no choice.

Even so, part of her brain noted that the snake in the Garden of Eden must have sounded like this. No hissing, no sharpness. Just a lush, seductive roll of sound that invited her to go against everything she knew and trusted. To take the plunge, even though it must end in disaster.

‘You’re nothing if not predictable, Signor Petri.’ She pressed the phone to her ear but heard no response. ‘Textbook bullying, in fact.’

Still nothing. His silence infuriated her but she refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing her rant. She looked at her hand, fisted so tight in her lap it was hard to prise open. When she did she saw scarlet crescents where her nails had scored.

‘Very well, Signor Petri. I’ll work for you.’ Her lungs ached as she released the breath crammed in her chest. ‘But you can change the contract to three times the original salary. Ditto with the bonus. Have it in my inbox tomorrow and if it’s satisfactory I’ll sign.’ She paused, trying to control her sharp, shallow breaths.

To her astonishment he didn’t disagree.

‘I’ll see you in New York, Ms Nolan.’

Not if I see you first.

She might be stuck working for him but she had no illusions he’d be part of the project team. He’d be sunning himself in the Bahamas or skiing in Switzerland or whatever the wealthy did when they weren’t harassing ordinary people. Somehow she’d deal with the travel and all those people. She’d do the job, take his money and come back to build her future here as she’d planned.

She’d get through this.

‘Goodbye, Signor Petri.’

‘Not goodbye. Arrivederci, Ms Nolan.’

CHAPTER TWO

RAFFA GOT TO the office after a breakfast meeting.

Across the large room he saw an unfamiliar figure—long hair, loose shirt, loose trousers and flat shoes. The clothes were resolutely unfeminine but the body beneath all that unflattering drabness wasn’t. Femininity was there in the way she moved, despite her rigid back and high shoulders.

It had to be Lily Nolan. The area was off-limits to all but his hand-picked team.

She’d been tense on the phone that night too. Uptight and angry, yet that husky, just-awake voice had done things to him no woman had in years.

He frowned at the unwanted memory.

Raffa’s eyes narrowed on the rhythmic swish of hair down her narrow back as she walked away. It all but reached her waist. Not blonde or black or even dark but simply brown. A brown so ordinary and unremarkable it looked uncompromising, as if she spurned most women’s desire to improve on nature with eye-catching colour.

He turned into his private office and took a seat, gesturing for his assistant to do the same. Through the glass walls he saw Lily Nolan talking with someone by the door to the conference room. Her body language radiated stress, right down to the fist clenching at her side.

Had he made a mistake bringing her here? He’d wanted her because of her talents, her often brilliant insights and her professionalism. He knew she’d go the extra mile to meet his needs.

But that night on the phone her obstinacy, the way she challenged him as no one else dared, had piqued his interest. He’d accepted her outrageous terms because every refusal she gave made him more determined to win.

The knowledge he’d acted on a whim had annoyed him ever since. He never allowed himself to be sidetracked. He’d got where he was by grabbing every opportunity to build his wealth and success. Even if some of those opportunities were unpalatable, they’d been necessary. He was never impulsive.

‘How’s our newest staff member fitting in? Any problems?’

‘No, nothing like that.’

Was that a flush on Pete’s boyish face? Raffa felt his eyebrows cinch together. The woman had been here less than a day. Surely she hadn’t seduced his PA already?

‘She’s hit the ground running. She must be jet-lagged but she’s already got acquainted with our set up here. Now she’s meeting the rest of the team.’ Pete swivelled his head towards the conference room, his gaze fixed.

Raffa realised it wasn’t adoration on his assistant’s face but something he couldn’t read.

‘Yet she makes you uncomfortable?’

Pete’s face mottled red. Embarrassment? Lust?

‘Of course not.’ The words tumbled out too quickly. ‘She’s very professional.’

Professional. It sounded like faint praise. Especially since in the past he’d overheard Pete laughing with the woman over a long-distance connection.

‘But?’ Raffa fixed him with a stern gaze. His policy was to remove problems the instant they arose. If this woman disrupted the smoothly oiled workings of his team he’d take action immediately.

Pete shrugged. ‘You know how it is when you know someone only from a distance. You build up a picture in your mind. The reality can be...different.’ He gestured abruptly to the tablet he carried. ‘About the review of the Hawaiian hotel. Will I bring that forward? You’d mentioned a snap inspection to keep them on their toes.’

Raffa surveyed his PA, reading his discomfort. It was probably as Pete said—the deflating reality of the first face-to-face meeting. But Raffa never left anything to chance.

He’d planned to leave the rebellious Australian alone today to get on with the job for which he was paying such an exorbitant salary. And he would—after he’d checked her out.

* * *

‘We’re busy wrapping up some other projects but anything you need on the legal side, let me know.’ Consuela Flores gave a brisk nod and smile from the end of the conference table and Lily felt herself sink back in her seat, a grateful answering smile on her face.

Among the group she’d be working with, the middle-aged lawyer had proved the easiest to deal with. Her severe demeanour, magenta power suit, expensive pearls and stiffly lacquered hair had made Lily wary. Here was an imposing woman for whom appearance as well as performance was important. Yet after a millisecond of silence when they met and that brief, predictable widening of the eyes, Ms Flores had treated Lily like everyone else around the table.

Lily had wanted to hug her for that.

This morning had been tough, every bit as difficult as she’d feared. Her hands were clammy, her chest weighted and her pulse still too fast. Forcing herself into the office had been a major test of nerves already strung out from the stress of travelling.

‘Thanks, I appreciate that. For now, though, I suspect it won’t be legal expertise I need. There’ll be a lot of digging first.’

Consuela nodded. ‘I’m glad it’s you doing the digging. Your reports for the Turkish deal made our work much easier. There’s nothing like heading into negotiations well-prepared, with no lurking pitfalls. Now you’re onsite we can touch base as anything arises.’

Lily’s smile grew, the clamp on her chest easing a little.

Only the knowledge she was up to this job, more than up to it, had got her across the Pacific, across the United States and into this building, when all she wanted was to lock herself inside her home and not budge.

She could do this, no matter how horribly far out of her comfort zone she felt.

No, she wouldn’t just do the job. She’d excel! Her work meant everything. It was the one part of her world where she had complete control, complete confidence.

Which made it all the more infuriating that she’d been nauseous with nerves today. Fronting up at the office was the most difficult thing she’d done in years.

See what happens when you lock yourself away all the time?

Now it’s you with the problem, not them.

Lily banished the voice in her head. She didn’t have time for self-doubt.

‘I’m looking forward to working with you too, Consuela.’

She darted a glance around the table. The woman from finance in retro-trendy glasses quickly turned her head as if she’d been watching the lawyer, not Lily. But she was too slow. Besides, the distressed twist of her lips, as if she felt ill, betrayed her.

Further down the table the guy from acquisitions flushed as Lily turned to him. Like Pete, Raffaele Petri’s PA, he found looking at her embarrassing. Beside him the older man from systems management didn’t even try, instead staring past her shoulder.

Lily sat straighter, determined not to be daunted.

Yet that didn’t stop the sick feeling in her stomach, or the churning memories of her previous forays into office work. Each one a disaster. Eventually she’d given up trying and decided to work from the seclusion of home.

The fingers of her right hand twitched but she repressed the urge to raise her hand to her face. It had taken years to cure herself of the habit and she wasn’t starting again now. No matter how exposed she felt before these strangers.

‘I appreciate you all making time to meet me on my first day. I’ll look forward to working with you.’

Liar!

‘I have a question, though.’ Lily looked to Consuela. ‘We all have different areas of responsibility, but is there a team leader? Without coordination we’ll have problems.’

‘That would be me.’ The masculine voice curled around her like warm smoke.

Her heart jolted and a prickling spread across her skin.

She’d only heard that voice once but its echo had lurked in her subconscious since, visiting in those moments between waking and sleep when she was most vulnerable.

Was that heat flushing her cheeks?

It couldn’t be. She’d spent half her life being gawked at. She’d lost the ability to blush in her teens.

Reluctantly she turned her head.

It was a good thing she was sitting.

Raffaele Petri’s face was known around the globe. Yet the photos hadn’t prepared her. Tall, taller than she’d expected with his Italian heritage. Wide shoulders, slim hips, long legs—the epitome of masculinity in its prime. Oddly his casual jacket and open-necked shirt emphasised rather than detracted from the power she sensed in him. He didn’t need a three-piece suit to stamp his authority.

Chiselled features that looked too close to perfection to be true. She’d assumed those photos had been airbrushed. Yes, there were crinkles around his eyes, as if from time in the sun, but perversely that only made him more attractive. Hair the colour of dark old gold, tidy but hinting at tousled. Enough to make her fingers twitch at the thought of touching. The hooded cast of his eyes looked languorous until you met that piercing blue stare.

Lily swallowed over a ball of sandpaper in her throat. Meeting his gaze was a palpable experience, as if he’d reached out and taken her hand. Sizzling heat ran through her as those eyes held hers—compelling, electric.

It wasn’t just that he was ridiculously handsome, she realised as she forced a slow breath out. He was...more. Even from the other side of the conference table she felt the crackle of energy, the sense he was a man who made things happen.

Unhurriedly he surveyed her, cataloguing everything from the hair brushing her cheeks to her face, her throat and down as far as was visible above the table.

The old resentment rose, that he should scrutinise her like some animal in a cage. Till she realised she’d done the same—taking in his appearance in minute detail.

The knowledge sapped her anger, leaving her winded as his gaze lifted.

‘At last we meet, Ms Nolan.’

* * *

So that explained it.

Realisation slammed into Raffa like a fist to the chest, so strong it felt like recognition. An unexpected hit of adrenaline.

But recognition implied a link with the woman on the far side of the table. That was nonsense, even if the memory of her husky voice and feisty attitude had intruded at the oddest times these past weeks. The pulse of energy he felt could only be satisfaction at getting to the bottom of his PA’s discomfort.

Lily Nolan’s long hair framed an oval face that should have been, at best, ordinary. Brown eyes, a mouth neither thin-lipped nor lush, an unremarkable nose. Beautiful she wasn’t, but she might have been pretty if it weren’t for the wide swathe of tight, shiny skin that ran from her temple down one cheek to her jaw.

Scars faded with time. How long had she had this? The colour wasn’t livid and she’d had plastic surgery. It must have been a hell of a sight before that.

Not a knife wound. He’d seen enough in his youth to realise no knife marked like this.

A burn? Some other trauma?

‘Signor Petri.’ That familiar voice stirred something unaccustomed that for a heartbeat distracted him.

He circled the table, arm extended.

She hesitated then pushed her chair back to stand. Her long, buttoned-up shirt fell loose around her slim frame. Again her choice of clothes hit him. A deliberate attempt not to fit in? To make the point she was here under sufferance? As if he cared what his staff wore so long as they did their work.

Her hand clasped his. Smooth and cool and small.

She just topped his shoulder in her flat shoes, tilting her head to meet his eyes. At the movement her hair slid back off her cheek, revealing more of that shiny, scarred flesh. But it wasn’t the blemish that drew his attention, it was the bright challenge in her eyes.

‘I believe this is where I’m supposed to say it’s a pleasure to meet you, Signor Petri.’

A gasp from the other side of the room reminded him of the staff still there.

Raffa held her hand in an easy grasp, not ready to let go.

‘That’s right,’ he murmured, bestowing a small smile. He’d won their little contest of wills and could afford to be gracious.

Yet he saw no softening in that stern expression, no easing in her rigidity. Not even a hint of response in those serious eyes.

Surprise flickered. It was rare to find someone genuinely unresponsive to his charm.

Lily Nolan grew more interesting by the moment.

‘It’s definitely a pleasure to meet you, Lily.’ He widened his smile just a fraction, lingering on her name. ‘I’ve been looking forward to having you here as part of the team.’

Silence for just a moment too long. ‘So I gather, since you went to such lengths to get me here.’

Another muffled sound came from nearby but Raffa didn’t turn. He didn’t care what anyone thought.

‘You were certainly elusive.’

He waited, expecting her to pull her hand from his. Instead she stood, unmoving but for the fine vibration coursing from her hand to his. She was wound up tight, bottling in strong emotion.

Yet her eyes met his directly, nothing but challenge to be read there.

This woman would make a hell of a poker player. She betrayed no hint of weakness or discomfort.

His gaze zeroed in on a minuscule movement at the corner of her mouth. For a moment he wondered if it could be the scar pulling at her mouth, till he remembered there’d been no distortion of her lips when she spoke. The tiny flicker of movement was what then? Her biting her cheek?

‘Did you want me for something now?’ She looked pointedly at their joined hands and Raffa felt amusement bubble. She was so patently determined to be unimpressed. So ostentatiously unaffected by his looks or position. Perversely he liked it.

How long since he’d done anything, gone anywhere, and been treated like an average Joe?

It was a novelty he hadn’t known he craved till a slip of a woman with muddy brown eyes looked at him as if he wasn’t anything special.

‘As a matter of fact, now is the perfect time to brief you in more detail about my expectations.’ He turned and nodded to Pete. Moments later his stalwart PA had emptied the room and closed the door on them.

If Lily Nolan was intimidated she didn’t show it. Her hand lay unresisting in his, as if making the point his touch was immaterial to her.

Who was this woman? She’d intrigued him from their first contact.

Raffa’s world and the people in it were predictable. Mostly they wanted something from him—reflected fame, an ‘in’ to the best circles, business opportunities, sex. Everyone wanted something.

Except this woman who didn’t want him at all.