Million Dollar Christmas Proposal

But putting on a show to get the job? Easy.

After all, how many people in Boston believed Carol Miller was an adoring and proud parent? Audrey was only too aware of how easy it was to put on that kind of show.

She’d been taken in herself, once upon a time.

The two women discussing what Audrey considered Mr. Tomasi’s very personal business hadn’t bothered to make sure no one was using the toilet stalls and could overhear them.

While the stalls had actual interior wooden doors that reached the floors, they were all open air a foot from the ceiling for ventilation purposes.

Sound carried. Words carried. And Audrey had heard an earful.

* * *

Palms sweaty, heart beating faster than a rock drummer’s solo, Audrey stood outside Vincenzo Tomasi’s office.

Was she really going to do this?

She’d spent the last three nights tossing and turning, her brother’s future and Mr. Tomasi’s outrageous plan vying for attention in her brain. Somewhere in the wee hours of that morning she’d come up with a pretty brash plan of her own.

Unquestionably risky, nevertheless if it worked she could give her brother the best Christmas gift ever. The realization of the dream he’d worked so hard for.

Going through with it could also result in her immediate dismissal.

But despite the lessons of the past six years, or maybe even because of them, she had hope. She and Toby had made it this far when their parents had been sure they would crash and burn, returning to the family fold repentant and willing to toe the line.

They’d said as much when she’d gone to them to ask for help for Toby’s schooling.

So hope burned hot in her heart.

Hope that maybe fate had smiled on her and Toby for once. That maybe destiny had put Audrey in that bathroom stall at just the right time to overhear the conversation between Gloria and the other staff member.

Hope that maybe Audrey could make a difference not only in her own life, and that of her brother, but for two orphaned children. Maybe she could give them the kind of loving upbringing she’d longed for, the kind that their uncle clearly wanted for them.

It was insane, this plan of hers. No arguing that. And probably Mr. Tomasi was going to laugh her out of his office. But Audrey had to try.

If for no other reason than to impart to him just how easily his scheme could end up backfiring and hurting the children he was so obviously trying to protect.

Audrey had considered long and hard about whether to approach Gloria first or Mr. Tomasi directly, but eventually she realized she didn’t have a choice. Not if she wanted to give her crazy, dangerous plan a chance of succeeding.

Approaching Gloria meant giving the PAA the chance to turn Audrey down before Mr. Tomasi even heard about her. She couldn’t let that happen.

Audrey couldn’t ignore the semi-public nature of the discussion in the bathroom, either. After that lack of prudence on Gloria’s part in keeping her boss’ information private, Audrey had no confidence in anything like real discretion on her own behalf.

After all, Gloria’s loyalty to her employer was legendary. She had no such allegiance to Audrey and even less impetus to keep Audrey’s brazen suggestion to herself.

So Audrey had had to figure out a way to see the CEO without his PAA present. It wasn’t as hard for her as it might have been for someone else who hadn’t spent the last four years fixated in hopeless fascination on the man who owned the company where she made her living.

She’d seen pictures of him before transferring to the company headquarters from the bank, but the first time Audrey had caught a glimpse of the gorgeous, driven man herself she’d stopped breathing and that part of her that used to dream became captivated.

She’d watched, paid attention to everything she heard about the CEO. And every fantasy between wakefulness and dreaming Audrey had had in the last four years had starred Vincenzo Angilu Tomasi.

Her hand froze on the door handle as she had the sick worry that maybe this plan of hers was just another one of those.

Only she fulfilled every single one of the requirements the PAA had said Mr. Tomasi had for the job candidates. Even so, Audrey was fairly certain Mr. Tomasi was in no way expecting an applicant from the lower floor offices of his own building.

While she’d been born into a family that were themselves considered high society, Audrey couldn’t begin to lay claim to that now. She’d attended Barnard for three years, but her degree was from SUNY and the only one of her friends from those days who still kept Audrey in her orbit was Liz.

The roommate who had saved Toby’s life.

Besides, while Mr. Tomasi might not want a super-model like his late sister-in-law Johana for the position, he probably wasn’t interested in a woman as average as Audrey.

Her long hair the color of chestnuts was several shades lighter than his more exotic espresso-brown, and arrow-straight besides. While the drop-dead gorgeous CEO had Mediterranean-blue eyes, an exciting and unexpected combination with his almost black hair color, Audrey’s were the same chocolate-brown as her brother’s.

And they didn’t shine with Toby’s zest for life, either. The responsibilities and work of her adulthood had taken that from her.

She was average in height as well, with curves that weren’t going to make any man stop and do a double-take. Not like the six-feet-four-inch corporate king, who looked more like an action movie hero than a CEO.

Audrey knew she wasn’t the first or last woman to fall for him at first sight.

He didn’t need to settle for average.

Oh, crap. All she was doing was psyching herself out and that wasn’t going to help. Not at all. Either she was going to do this, or she wasn’t.

Okay, so she had a crush on the man. So sue her. She wasn’t applying for the position because of it.

She was here because she wanted to make life better for three children who deserved something better than the hand dealt to them. Her brother might be eighteen, but he was still her child in every way that counted. Even if he didn’t see things that way.

For his sake, and that of the little ones, Audrey had no choice but to take this chance.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open to Mr. Tomasi’s office without knocking.

He was sitting behind his desk, reading some papers spread out in front of him.

“I thought you weren’t going to be back for another thirty minutes,” he said without looking up from the papers, clearly believing the intruder in his office was his PAA.

Just the sound of his voice froze the breath in her chest, making it impossible to speak.

His head came up when his comment was met with silence. At first his eyes widened in surprised confusion and then narrowed. “It is customary to knock before entering the office of your CEO.”

Funny he had no doubt she was an employee, not a client or business associate.

“My name...” She had to stop and swallow to wet her very dry throat. “My name is Audrey Miller, Mr. Tomasi, and I’m here to apply for a position with you.”

CHAPTER TWO

ENZU FOUND HIMSELF nonplussed and that never happened.

It had been years since someone had made it past Gloria to importune him for a job or a promotion. In this case promotion it had to be. None but an employee would have made it to this floor in the building without an escort.

It was sheer luck that this woman had come during the one time a week he was in his office and Gloria was not at her desk.

Reading the intelligence in the chocolate-brown eyes gazing at him from lovely, delicate features made him revise that thought. Maybe not luck at all.

This had been planned. He doubted Miss Miller knew about his little-known weakness for chocolate, though. Her beautiful eyes and the determination tinged by vulnerability he saw in them were unexpectedly compelling.

Regardless, he couldn’t let this blatant disregard of company policy go unanswered. “There are procedures for applying for a promotion. None of them include importuning your extremely busy CEO.”

She flinched at the ice in his voice, but did not let her shoulders slump, or step backward with an apology. “I’m aware. But this particular job isn’t on the internal promotion and transfer database.”

Disappointment coursed through him. It was like that, was it? She was hoping to apply for the job of his lover. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but it hadn’t happened here at work in a very long time.

“I do not keep a mistress on my payroll.” He used the insulting word to remind them both exactly what kind of calculation had brought Miss Miller here.

Because he found her tempting, and that was shocking enough to make his usually facile brain sluggish.

Besides his love of chocolate, Enzu had a secret passion for old movies. This woman, breaking every company protocol, not to mention good manners, to accost him in his own office, could be the spitting image of his favorite classic movies film star, Audrey Hepburn.

Elegant and refined. Beautiful in an understated way, Audrey Miller had been aptly named.

“I do not want to be your mistress.” The quiet vehemence in her voice was hard to mistrust.

He simply raised one brow in question. He could not believe he was prolonging this conversation. He should have sent her packing with a promise to report her actions to her division supervisor already.

“You told Gloria to find you a mother for your children. I’m here to apply for the position.”

Shock kept him from speaking for long seconds. “Gloria told you? She thinks you would be an acceptable candidate?” he demanded.

This was not his efficient PAA’s style at all. He’d expected a couple of weeks to pass and then a dozen or so dossiers on appropriate candidates to show up on his desk.

This blunt approach to the situation was entirely out of character for Gloria.

“Not precisely, no.”

“Then what, precisely?”

“I would prefer not to tell you how I know about the job you hope to fill.”

That was the second time she’d put an odd, almost disapproving emphasis on the word job. Now he knew what she referred to he could almost understand it, but wasn’t she here to apply for the position? If so, she couldn’t find his methods as unacceptable as her tone seemed to imply.

“Does Gloria know you are here?”

Miss Miller bit her bottom lip and admitted, “No.”

“I see.”

“I doubt it.”

“You do?”

“If you were that insightful you would realize the very real risk to your children in attempting to buy them a loving mother.”

“And yet you are here to apply for the job?” he asked with unmasked cynicism.

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that hypocritical?”

“No.”

Disbelief filled him. “No?”

“I know I am prepared to give them what another woman might only promise for a luxurious lifestyle and multimillion-dollar payoff.”

“I assure you I did not build an empire without an ability to read people.”

“But you are going about this emotionlessly.”

“Which should make me even more capable of making the best decision for Franca and Angilu.” And why was he having this discussion with a stranger standing uninvited in his office?

“Not when that decision is about the emotion you are hoping to provide for them.”

“A woman does not have to love them to be loving toward them.”

“That you believe that only shows how little you know.”

“Excuse me?” Ice laced his tone.

She closed her eyes, as if gathering her thoughts. When she opened them he read frustration, even disappointment, but that determination he’d seen there at first hadn’t dimmed. “May I sit down?”

What the hell? “You have fifteen minutes.”

Something like anger washed over her features, but she crossed the room and sat in one of the sleek leather armchairs facing his modern, oversized executive desk.

When she didn’t speak immediately, he found himself demanding impatiently, “Well?”

“You are looking for someone who will make your children the priority in her life, is that right?”

“You keep calling them my children, but you do realize I have custody of them only because their parents are dead?”

“I know, but your desire to give them a loving mother has made me believe you want to fulfill the role of dedicated father. I guess I shouldn’t have assumed.” She said the last as if she was talking to herself.

“You are not wrong.” He would be a better father than Pinu, who had been borderline indifferent to his two offspring.

“Then they are your children?”

“Sì.”

She nodded, as if in approval of his admission. He should not care, but he found himself pleased by that.

“So back to my question: you want a woman who will put Franca and Angilu first?”

“Yes.”

“And you do not think she has to love them to do that?”

“Financial compensation will ensure it.”

“Will it?”

“Of course.” He understood money and how to wield it.

“And if something comes into her life that is more important than the money you are paying her to pretend the children are a priority?”

He did not like her description of the job. “She will not be pretending.”

“If it is for the sake of the money, how can it be anything but pretense?”

“Regardless, I doubt very much that something will come up that would make someone lose sight of ten million dollars.”

“Really? What about a husband who is worth thirty million?”

“I am a billionaire.”

“Presuming you are married to this woman, there would be an ironclad prenuptial agreement that only provides her with a yearly stipend and a ten-million-dollar payout nearly two decades down the road.”

“You are so certain there would be a prenup?” He hadn’t mentioned it to Gloria.

“It only makes sense. A man like you isn’t going to offer a woman half of your empire under any circumstances, but particularly if she comes into your life as part of a business proposal, no matter how personal the terms might seem.”

He inclined his head in acknowledgment of her insight. “There aren’t that many marriage-minded multimillionaires out there.”

“But moving in your circles will increase her chances of meeting them exponentially.”

“I’m not going to get hoodwinked by a gold digger.”

“Maybe. But even if you don’t, you must realize that while money can be a very compelling motivator, it isn’t always the most important one.”

There was something about her tone that made him think she not only believed this, but had personal experience. “Few things trump it.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Audrey—he found it difficult to think of her as Miss Miller—sighed with the kind of weariness that came from a lot more than a single conversation.

“Tell me, do you think Johana Tomasi married your brother primarily for the lifestyle she could enjoy as his wife?”

Enzu shocked himself by saying honestly, “Yes.”

“And yet, by all accounts, she was not a loving mother.”

“You investigated my family?” he asked dangerously.

“Are you kidding?” she asked, with a genuine laugh he found altogether too charming. “I’m a senior specialist in your customer service department; I’m hardly in a financial position to hire a private detective. Johana’s exploits were tabloid fodder as much after she became a mother as before.”

He could not deny that. “What is your point?”

“She had to know that you would pay her handsomely to be a more involved parent.”

Both his brother and sister-in-law had known that, but they’d refused his offers of increases in their allowance in exchange for a quieter lifestyle. “She and Pinu saw no point in having access to money if they couldn’t spend it on the lifestyle they enjoyed.”

“Exactly.”

“Whatever you may think of me, I am not an idiot. I have no intention of bringing a woman like that into the children’s lives.”

“I do not think you’re an idiot at all, just maybe naïve.”

“I am far from naïve.”

“Oh, you are very worldly and brilliant about money and business...”

“But?” he prompted, knowing that was not all to her assessment of him and inexplicably unable to let it lie.

“But you don’t understand emotion.”

“Emotion is a weakness I cannot afford.”

“That might be true, but do you really want to withhold it from Franca and Angilu?”

“I will give them everything they need.”

“You will try. But if you hire them a mother, you are almost guaranteeing the best they will ever know is kindness born of duty to the job.”

“You came here to apply for that job you are so disparaging of. Are you trying to convince me you wouldn’t be doing it for the money?”

“No.”

“Exactly,” he said, with much less satisfaction than he should have felt at her admission.

“But I am also offering to love your children, not just treat them lovingly out of duty.”

“You cannot promise to love them.”

“Of course I can. They are innocent children, left without their parents. How could I not love them?”

He stared at her, incomprehension washing over him. She believed what she was saying, and yet... “You claim another woman would not do the same?”

“I am not other women. I am me. Sure, there are women out there that would love them, too, but would they be the women your PAA finds to offer as candidates?” There could be no question that Audrey didn’t believe it.

“Why?”

Audrey’s head went back, an impatient sound coming from her. “I’ve tried to explain it. You and Gloria, you’re approaching this whole thing without any emotion. That’s almost a guarantee that the women she puts forward and the one you eventually choose will be every bit as emotionless.”

“I still do not see the problem with that.” Emotion was volatile, impossible to predict with consistent accuracy.

“No, I don’t suppose you do.” She stood. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

“On that at least we can agree.”

This time Audrey’s shoulders slumped and the wince was more pronounced. Without another word she turned toward the door and crossed his office, an air of defeat surrounding her as she made the long trek.

She stopped with her hand on the door handle. “Do I need to start looking for another job?”

“No.”

She turned the handle.

“Audrey.”

“Yes?” She didn’t turn.

“I assume you had more reasons for believing you were an appropriate fit for the position than your self-proclaimed affinity for emotion?”

She tensed, but nodded. “I meet the requirements.”

“Tell me how you know what those requirements are.”

She just shook her head, and he got the impression that even if he threatened the job she clearly wanted to keep she wouldn’t give in.

Gloria had to have shared her assignment with Audrey in a moment of indiscretion, but the younger woman wasn’t about to throw his PAA under a bus. He had to appreciate the loyalty.

“I will not tell anyone about this discussion,” he offered.

She had been misguided, but he had no wish to see her pay with her livelihood for what he was certain was an honest attempt to protect his children.

“Thank you.” Her voice was flat, lacking the passion that had infused her arguments for her point of view during their conversation.

She went to leave, but he said her name again.

She stopped without replying.

“Look at me,” he ordered, unwilling to be ignored.

She turned, her face as blank as a statue. No weakness, no emotion showed there, and he couldn’t help but respect that. She had to be disappointed, even a little afraid that he would go back on his word and get her in trouble with her divisional supervisor.

“It was a pleasure to meet you.” They might not agree, but he’d found talking with her more invigorating than with any other woman in a very long time.

“Thank you.”

She left, with the door closing quietly behind her, as he tried to make sense of the fact he was more than annoyed she hadn’t returned the sentiment. He was bothered.

Gloria checked in when she returned a few minutes later. Their afternoon went much as he had planned for it to. Enzu would have been surprised if it didn’t.

But throughout his meetings and other work parts of his discussion with Audrey kept popping up to distract him. The way she’d looked when she said she shouldn’t have come to his office, like she was disappointed. In him.

It was not a reaction he was used to. That had to be why he couldn’t put it out of his mind.

And it had nothing to do with him putting a note with Audrey Miller’s name on Gloria’s desk before she left for the evening. Audrey had claimed she fit all of his requirements. If that was true, it would be a poor business decision not to include her in the pool of eligible candidates.

His PAA looked up at him quizzically. “What’s this for?”

“I want her on the list.”

“List?” Gloria asked.

“Women who would make a suitable mother to Franca and Angilu.”

Comprehension dawned in Gloria’s pale grey gaze. “That list. Will do.”

“I expect dossiers for a minimum of six women with complete background checks on my desk next Friday.”

“That kind of rush on the background investigation is going to cost.”

“And?”

“Nothing. I just didn’t want you having a fit when you saw the expense report.”

“I do not throw fits,” he said with great dignity.

“Call it what you like. So long as you don’t have one of them when you see how much this little plan of yours is going to cost.”

“Fine.”

“If you don’t mind me asking...?” Gloria said before he could return to his office for an evening of work.

“Ask.”

“Who is Audrey Miller?”

“You do not know?” Suddenly the sinister implications of Audrey knowing what she did were at the forefront in his mind. “She does work here?”

“She might very well. I don’t know every employee of Tomasi Enterprises. Even I am not that efficient.”

“Look her up in the employee database.”

Gloria gave him a strange look, but did as he asked. An employee file popped up on her screen. The picture wasn’t all that recent, and there were shadows of fear in the young woman’s eyes that he had not seen today, but it was the same one.

He didn’t let his relief show.

She’d been hired six years ago by the bank for their call center. That explained how young she looked in the picture. She’d been twenty-one, which made her twenty-seven now. So, she did fulfill that particular requirement.

But how she knew about them was still a mystery.

“You don’t know her?” he asked Gloria again.

“No. She doesn’t even look familiar. But she works on the third floor.”

And employees on the top floors rarely interacted with those on the lower floors.

He opened his mouth to demand how Audrey knew about the position if Gloria hadn’t told her, but snapped it shut. That question would lead to more and reveal Audrey’s visit to his office, which he’d promised not to do.

Enzu didn’t consider a security breach. Like all cautious men in his position, he had his office scanned for listening devices on a weekly basis by a security team he trusted implicitly. No business rival was getting sensitive information from Enzu’s own lips.

Gloria must have told someone and that someone had to have passed the information on to Audrey. He would look into it further after his search for a wife...and mother to his children...was over. Someone had shown an egregious lack of discretion, but that could be dealt with later.

After he’d made his choice about the woman he would marry.

He ignored the way his mind returned again to Audrey Miller. She would be one of several candidates, not the candidate.