Scarlett bit down on her bottom lip as she looked through the folder page by page, her eyes skimming the words she had read, reread and agonised over for the last two days. She would be able to pay off all her debts and put enough money aside to pay for Matthew’s education up to high school. There was even enough for her to employ a part-time nanny to take the strain off him being in child care for such long hours while she worked.

‘I will give you carte blanche with the budget.’ Alessandro’s voice carved a deep hole in the silence. ‘I want the best that money can buy.’

She looked up from the document to meet his hazel gaze. ‘Why me?’ she asked. ‘Why are you choosing me for such a huge project?’

His expression gave nothing away. ‘You are reputed to be one of the best,’ he said. ‘And I am in the habit of only settling for the best.’

She screwed up her mouth at him. ‘That wasn’t what you communicated to me four years ago. Back then, I was the lowest of the low.’

He held her pointed glare for several pulsing seconds. ‘But you have since made something of yourself, have you not?’ he said. ‘No doubt I did you a favour by making you sit up and take responsibility for your actions.’

‘A favour?’ she spluttered. ‘Do you have any idea what it’s been like for me for the last four years?’

‘That is neither my fault nor indeed any of my business,’ he said, bending down to pick up the folder she had just dropped. He closed it, tucked it under his arm and met her gaze once more. ‘I am prepared to pay you well to do this work for me, but if you are having second thoughts I can just as easily use one of your competitors. I have several from which to choose.’

Scarlett’s eyes went back to the folder, her heart skipping a beat at the thought of some other design studio having the chance to work a miracle on this building. It was as Roxanne had said: a chance of a lifetime, and something they had both dreamed of since they had qualified as interior decorators.

‘Do you want the job or not?’ he asked after a lengthy moment.

She took an unsteady breath and put her hand out for the folder. ‘I’ll take it,’ she said, dearly hoping she wasn’t going to regret it.

He opened the folder without taking his eyes off hers, and handed his pen to her, clicking it as he did so.

Scarlett felt the warmth of his fingers on the pen as she took it from him and, to disguise her reaction, laid the folder on the table nearby, bent her head and signed all the relevant sections.

She straightened after she had finished and handed it back to him. ‘There,’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘All signed.’

‘Now all you have to do is deliver on your promise,’ he said with another one of his enigmatic smiles.

‘Umm…yes…’ she said, shifting her gaze from the mysterious intensity of his.

He stepped back into her personal space and lifted her chin with two long, strong fingers. ‘Four years is a long time, is it not, Scarlett?’

Scarlett felt the magnetic pull of his body, the heat of him so close to her reminding her of the intimacy they had shared in the past. ‘Yes.’ Her voice came out soft and whispery in spite of her attempt to sound emotionally detached. ‘Yes, it…’

‘It is too long,’ he said, placing his hands on her hips and bringing her body into closer contact with his. ‘I have never felt like this with anyone but you. I have had numerous lovers, but not one of them can arouse me with the way you do. You are doing it now—the way you tug at your bottom lip drives me wild.’

Scarlett let go of her lip and swallowed nervously as she tried to ease out of his hold. ‘Please let me go.’

He smiled crookedly as his hands subtly tightened on her hips. ‘You probably have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now, to feel your lips respond to mine as they used to do.’

She stood in the circle of his arms, her heart thumping in case he kissed her, and her stomach already twisting and turning with frustration in case he did not.

She held her breath as his head came down, the first touch of his mouth on hers making her body come to instant, throbbing life. Her breasts felt the press of his chest against them, and her thighs the full force of his arousal as it probed her with heart-stopping intimacy.

It was like coming home after a very long absence.

Everything felt so right.

The skating touch of his hands as they moved to her bottom and pulled her harder against him, the thrust of his tongue into the moist cave of her mouth, and the way he made a sound of pleasure at the back of his throat, made her feel as if the last four years hadn’t passed.

The heat of his body warmed hers to boiling point, her mouth melting beneath the pressure of his, and her inner core turning to liquid.

His tongue tangled with hers, flicking then stroking until she was clinging to him without reserve. She kissed him back, her hands snaking around his neck to keep him close, her lower body grinding against the heated trajectory of his.

He angled her face with one hand as he deepened the kiss, his other hand going to her breast in a caress that was temptation and torture rolled into one.

Scarlett wanted more.

She wanted his mouth on her, sucking hard and then softly, as he used to do. She wanted to feel the graze of his teeth, to feel his skin on her skin, to taste his essence, to feel him move deep within her in the most intimate union of all.

She wanted to feel the length and strength of him in her hand, to shape him, to feel him tense with pleasure before he exploded with release.

He pulled back just as her hands brushed tentatively against the waistband of his trousers. ‘Not here, Scarlett,’ he said. ‘We are in full view of the workmen. Why don’t we go back to my house and finish this properly, hmm?’

The clinical detachment in his tone was all she needed to get her brain back into gear. ‘I don’t think so, Alessandro,’ she said, stepping backwards, disgusted with herself at her lack of self-control. ‘I’ve told you numerous times, I am not interested in revisiting the past with you.’

His mouth tilted sardonically. ‘You did not give me that impression when you kissed me just then. What on earth would your current lover say if he saw you clawing at me so lasciviously?’

Scarlett felt as if her shame was emblazoned on every pore of her skin as she stood before him. She had no excuse for her behaviour. She didn’t even understand why she had acted in such a disgraceful way when she hated him so vehemently. She hated him for denying the existence of his son. She hated him for coming back into her life just when she thought she had finally put his rejection behind her.

She drew in an uneven breath. ‘I’m deeply ashamed of myself,’ she said. ‘I should have known this wouldn’t work.’

His eyes pinned hers. ‘You are reneging on the deal?’

She frowned at the steely glint in his gaze. ‘I’m not sure what you are getting at. I told you this was to be strictly business between us. I can’t do this any other way.’

‘If you do not want to carry through on your commitment you will have to pay a severance fee,’ he said. ‘It is in the contract you just signed.’

Scarlett felt her insides drop alarmingly. Her eyes went to the folder he had placed back on the small table. She had momentarily forgotten about the severance clause. It had been one of two that had worried her, but she had assured herself the money would be worth it. Now she wasn’t quite so sure.

He reached for the document and showed her a sentence just above the section where her final signature was written. ‘Do you want me to read it out to you?’ he asked.

‘No,’ she said through tight lips, trying not to look at the words printed there. She had practically signed her life and business away. She would have to pay, and pay dearly, to get out of the contract. She was starting to understand now why he had wanted her and only her. He would no doubt make it impossible to work with him so she would have no choice but to want out of the deal. He had used a thick wad of wordy pages to communicate one sure thing: he was going to ruin her.

She brought her eyes back to his and glared at him. ‘I suppose you’ve done this deliberately, haven’t you?’

His expression remained as inscrutable as ever. ‘If you mean to imply that I have coerced you into working for me, then I think you need to examine the wording of the contract a little more closely,’ he said. ‘The terms and conditions are all there in plain English, and I gave you plenty of time to read them.’

She ground her teeth. ‘I can see how this is going to be run. You want to pick up where you left off four years ago, and the only way you could do it was to lock me into a business deal that will ruin me if I pull the plug. Isn’t that taking revenge a little too far?’

‘It is not a matter of revenge, Scarlett,’ he said evenly. ‘About a year or so ago I came to Sydney on business and I visited a colleague who had recently had his penthouse redecorated. I was very impressed with the work and was intrigued, on asking, to find out it had been you who had done the design. I thought it would be interesting to meet you again, to see if what we had was still there.’

She flung herself away from him in disgust. ‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this,’ she said. ‘You tossed me out of your life as if I was a bit of rubbish, and never once checked up on me to see if I was all right. I could have been mugged or robbed or even murdered that night, for all you cared.’

Alessandro felt a familiar sharp needle of guilt stab at him. He had been so furious that night, he hadn’t stopped to think of anything but getting her out of his life. But, after a young female British tourist had been brutally assaulted a year or so ago a few blocks from his house, he’d realised he should have had Scarlett escorted to the nearest bus shelter or train station at the very least. It had been late, and although he lived in a respectable part of the city she very easily could have met with danger, wandering alone at night.

‘I hate you for what you did to me back then,’ she continued. ‘And I hate you for what you’re doing to me now.’

‘I am sorry,’ he said in a gruff tone. ‘I should have thought of your safety. It was wrong of me to treat you so appallingly.’

Scarlett turned around to look at him. ‘I had your child, Alessandro, your son,’ she said, her voice catching over the words. ‘Haven’t you ever wondered about him?’

His face became an unreadable mask. ‘No, for I know he is not mine.’

She balled her hands into fists. ‘If he was standing here right now you wouldn’t be able to say that with the same arrogant certainty. He has your colouring, and the same eyes and hair.’

‘I seem to recall your travelling companion had dark hair and eyes too—or have you conveniently forgotten that little detail?’

She eyeballed him determinedly. ‘I did not sleep with anyone but you the whole time I was in Italy.’

He rolled his eyes and sighed with impatience. ‘I am so tired of this conversation.’

‘I am tired of you not believing me,’ she threw back in frustration. ‘Will you at least agree to meet him and see for yourself?’

‘I do not need to see him.’

‘Which means you don’t want to see him,’ she said with an embittered look.

‘Yes, that is right,’ he said with a cutting edge to his voice. ‘I do not want to be reminded of your duplicity. Even after all this time it sickens me to think of you lying to me like that.’

Scarlett felt like screaming, and stalked over to the balustrade on the landing to get control. She drew in some deep breaths, her chest feeling so constricted she felt as if hundreds of tiny sharp knives were embedded between her shoulder blades, nicking at her every time she tried to breathe.

‘I will leave you to look over the rest of the building,’ he said into the taut silence. ‘You have my contact details if there is anything you need to check with me.’

Scarlett turned to look at him. ‘Why do you want me to work for you when you refuse to believe me about your—’

‘Do not say it again,’ he cut her off abruptly. ‘I am not the father of your child, and no amount of times you insist to the contrary is going to change that fact.’

‘I just want you to meet him to see it for yourself.’

His brows came together over his eyes in a furious frown. ‘I am warning you now, if you bring him to this work site at any time I will sever the contract myself. You will be responsible for whatever debt is incurred as a result.’

‘You can’t do that,’ she said, but there was terror wobbling in her voice at the fear that he could.

He gave her a gelid look. ‘Go read the fine print, Scarlett,’ he said. ‘Then tell me what I can and cannot do.’

Scarlett didn’t need to, she already knew.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘SO HOW did it go?’ Roxanne asked as soon as Scarlett came into the studio at lunchtime.

Scarlett dropped her handbag to the floor with a little thud. ‘I signed the contract,’ she said, her tone heavy with resignation.

‘Yippee!’ Roxanne jumped up and down, sending her riotous bright-red curls bouncing. ‘We’re going to be famous!’

‘Yes, but there are terms.’

‘Terms?’ Roxanne stilled and frowned at her. ‘What terms?’

Scarlett flopped down in her office chair. ‘I can’t get out of the contract until I complete the job.’

Roxanne blinked at her. ‘So?’

‘So I am in over my head,’ Scarlett said. ‘Both of our heads, actually. If for any reason I don’t finish the project, I am liable. We both are.’

‘But you’re going to finish the job, right?’

Scarlett bit her lip. ‘What if he makes it impossible for me to do so?’

Roxanne’s throat began to move up and down. ‘You mean you think he put that clause in there on purpose?’

Scarlett’s brow was still heavily furrowed. ‘I’m not sure. I can’t help thinking he’s very cleverly luring me into his orbit. He told me he’d seen some work of mine and really liked it. I think it must have been Tomasso Venetti’s in Bellevue Hill. That’s the only penthouse I did last year.’

‘You did a fabulous job on that place,’ Roxanne said. ‘No wonder he liked it. You really have a way with old buildings, Scarlett. I’m sure that’s why he’s asked you to oversee the Arlington.’

‘I can’t do it without you,’ Scarlett said. ‘It’s a huge project, and I’m starting to suspect the devil will be in the details.’

‘We can handle it, Scarlett,’ Roxanne reassured her. ‘You just have to keep your head when you’re around him.’

‘That’s the whole trouble,’ Scarlett confessed, and dropped her head into her hands. ‘I can’t think straight when I’m anywhere near him.’

‘Look, why don’t you get your mum or Sophie to babysit Matthew, and we can go out and have a drink to celebrate landing this contract? We need to think positively about this, instead of dwelling on the negatives. We could go to Dylan’s in The Rocks. Everyone is raving about the place since we did the makeover for him. It’s one of the most popular restaurants down there now. Besides, we haven’t seen him since he broke up with Olivia.’

Scarlett dragged her head up out of her hands. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘I do need to take my mind off the negatives, and seeing Dylan would be nice. I’m probably being paranoid about Alessandro anyway.’

‘Did you tell Alessandro about Matthew?’ Roxanne asked.

‘Yes, but I got the same response. He still refuses to accept the possibility he could be his child.’

Roxanne rolled her lips together, her brow creasing into a frown as she looked at Scarlett.

‘You’re giving me that look again,’ Scarlett said with an irritated scowl.

Roxanne sat bolt upright. ‘I’m not doing any such thing.’

‘Yes, you are,’ Scarlett said. ‘I can see it in your eyes. You don’t believe me any more than he does.’

‘That’s not true.’

Scarlett angled her head pointedly.

Roxanne blew out a breath. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I confess—I did harbour the thought that you might have somehow got it wrong. For a while there I thought you and Dylan might have had a bit of a holiday fling back then, as even now he always seems to prefer your company to mine. But Matthew is a dead ringer for Alessandro, don’t you think?’

‘I don’t think—I know.’

‘Have you told your mum yet?’

‘No.’

‘Don’t you think it’s time you did?’

Scarlett released a long-winded sigh and reached for the phone. ‘I just know what she’s going to say.’

‘But, darling, how could you have lied to me for all these years?’ her mother cried. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t trust me enough with the truth.’

‘I wanted to avoid this sort of reaction, that’s why,’ Scarlett said. ‘He’s not interested in being a father to Matthew.’

‘Not interested?’ Her mother’s voice was sharp with disapproval. ‘Why on earth not?’

‘Because he doesn’t believe Matthew is his.’

There was a short but telling pause.

‘Mum?’

‘Darling, you can be straight with me, you know,’ her mother said. ‘I am your mother after all.’

‘Of course I’m being straight with you. There’s no possibility of Matthew being anyone but Alessandro’s son.’

‘None at all?’

Scarlett could hear the doubt in her mother’s voice, but this time chose to ignore it. ‘No, Mum, there’s no doubt at all.’

‘Well, then.’

‘I know what you’re thinking.’

‘I’m not thinking anything.’

‘Yes, you are,’ Scarlett said, mentally rolling her eyes. ‘You’re thinking what you thought when you said goodbye to me at the airport four years ago—that I would fall in love like you did with a totally unsuitable man and ruin my life.’ Which is pretty much what I did do, she thought ruefully.

Lenore let out a sigh. ‘It’s just I can’t help worrying about you,’ she said. ‘You’re not streetwise like Sophie.’

‘You make me sound like a naïve infant.’

‘In many ways you are, Scarlett,’ Lenore said, her tone softening with maternal concern. ‘You are so trusting of people. I think that’s why you ended up with a child out of wedlock. You and I are alike in that sense. We think the best of people when they’re not worthy of it. You have to toughen up, love. I’ve had to—I wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t.’

Scarlett let out a sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘I know.’

‘Have you told Sophie about this…this horrible man?’

‘Alessandro’s not a horrible man,’ Scarlett said in his defence. ‘He’s Matthew’s father.’

‘He doesn’t want the role, Scarlett, so there’s no point in thrusting it upon him. Some men are like that, your father being a case in point. You’d be better to move on without him, for Matthew’s sake.’

Scarlett knew her mother was right, but a part of her—the part where her pride was stored—wanted Alessandro to accept his son as his own. She felt as if she couldn’t move forward until he did. It was like a wrinkle in a carpet—it was going to be a tripping point until it was smoothed out.

‘I know how hard it’s been for you,’ Lenore said. ‘You were in a terrible state when you came home from Italy.’ Her voice broke as she continued. ‘I sometimes think if it wasn’t for Roxanne’s support in getting your business up and running you would have given up all hope and…done something drastic…’

‘Mum…’

Her mother sniffed. ‘It’s true, darling. You were so thin and run down. But we all assumed you were grieving.’

‘I was.’ And I still am, she added silently. ‘It felt like a death at the time.’

‘Break ups are like that,’ Lenore said. ‘The only difference in this case is there’s still a body to deal with.’

And what a body, Scarlett thought, recalling how Alessandro had felt under the touch of her hands.

‘Will you be all right dealing with this man on a day to day basis?’

Scarlett felt her stomach tremble again at the thought. ‘I think so.’

‘I’m worried about you.’

‘I appreciate your concern,’ Scarlett said with heartfelt sincerity. ‘But I can handle Alessandro Marciano. He’s a part of my past—he has nothing to do with my future.’

‘He might have more to do with your future if he suddenly realises he has a son,’ Lenore pointed out. ‘What if he meets Matthew some time in the future?’

Scarlett pressed her lips together. ‘He doesn’t want to meet him, and to tell you the truth I’m starting to think he doesn’t deserve to, for what he’s put me through.’

‘It’s understandable that you’re angry with him,’ Lenore said. ‘But think how dreadful it would be if you still felt something for him.’

There was another short but loaded silence.

‘You don’t still care for him, do you, Scarlett?’ her mother asked with an anxious edge to her tone.

‘No, Mum. I feel nothing but hatred towards Alessandro Marciano,’ she said, trying not to think of how his mouth had felt on hers earlier that day. ‘I will never forgive him—ever.’

‘Why did you agree to take on this project if you loathe him so much?’ Lenore asked.

‘I’ve worked for difficult clients before.’

‘You will be careful, won’t you, love?’

‘Mum, stop worrying about me. I know what I’m doing.’

‘How much is he paying you?’

‘A lot.’

‘How much?’

‘Enough,’ Scarlett answered. ‘I’ll be able to get into the black with my business loan.’

Lenore sighed. ‘I wish I’d been able to help you a bit more, but my welfare payment is hardly enough to live on and—’

‘Mum, stop it. We’ve been through this a hundred times before. I’m twenty-six years old, far too grown up and independent to be taking money off my mother.’

‘I know, sweetheart, but Sophie’s done so well, I just wish—’

‘Mum, this is me you’re talking to, not Sophie. I want different things for my life. I would go crazy living like Sophie does. I hate coffee mornings and bridge parties. I don’t want or need a rich husband and designer clothes to feel good about myself.’

‘I know that, darling, but sometimes I wish you were a bit more established financially,’ Lenore said. ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if you could find a nice man to settle down with, perhaps have another child, a little half-brother or sister for Matthew?’

Scarlett closed her eyes as she fought against the ambivalence of her feelings. She had one child, a perfect little son who was the image of his father. She wasn’t ready to think of having another child by another man. The few dates she had been more or less coerced into by her sister had confirmed she wasn’t quite ready to move on.

‘Scarlett?’

‘I’m OK, Mum, really,’ Scarlett reassured her. ‘It’s just been a heck of a day, that’s all.’

‘Yes, love, of course it has,’ Lenore responded. ‘It must have been so hard seeing him again.’

‘Yes… Yes, it was…’

There was a small silence.

‘Scarlett?’

‘It’s all right, Mum. I’m not in any danger of making the same mistake twice.’

‘I know, but history has a habit of repeating itself, as you know from my experience. I took your father back, and while I’m glad I did, because it meant you were born as a result of our brief reconciliation, I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt all over again.’

‘I’m not going to allow myself to get hurt,’ Scarlett said with a confidence she didn’t really feel. ‘I’ve grown up in the last four years, Mum. I’m not going to get my heart broken again.’

A courier arrived mid-morning with the floor plans of the hotel, but there was no accompanying note inside. Scarlett knew it was inconsistent of her to feel so out of sorts, for she was the one who had insisted it was a business deal and nothing else.

She spent the rest of the day worrying that Alessandro would walk in the door of her studio, and yet as she shut her computer down at five p.m. she felt strangely disappointed and aggrieved that he hadn’t.

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