The Secret The Italian Claims

Then he’d seen her, waving fresh sheets in the air with her arms spread wide. An incredibly beautiful, sensual brunette with an hourglass figure, leaning over to make his bed. Even that black housekeeping uniform had looked indescribably erotic on her.

A shocked sound had come from the back of his throat. She’d turned and looked at him. A tumble of emotions had cascaded across her beautiful face. Surprise, fear, delight. For a moment their eyes had locked, and he’d forgotten his own name.

Then he’d forced himself to give a casual smile. “You’re not my usual housekeeper.”

“Camille had to go home early today to be with her grandson, but she warned me not to let you catch me,” she stammered. “I’m supposed to be invisible.”

Coming forward, his eyes devouring every inch of her, he’d murmured, “You’re anything but invisible. What were you singing?”

“Just an Appalachian folk song.”

“It’s beautiful.” Coming close enough to touch her, he’d whispered, “So are you.”

Her cheeks had gone rosy, her lips parting in unconscious invitation as she stood beside his enormous bed.

He’d reached for her.

Cristiano knew who was at fault. He’d wanted her. So he’d taken her. Without thinking of the consequences. If he had, he would have stopped himself. It was one of his rules: never sleep with employees.

But that wasn’t the worst rule he’d broken. Hallie wasn’t just an employee. She’d also been a virgin. Virgins were off-limits. He didn’t toy with women who might mistake sex for love and become a problem later.

He’d known she was a virgin from the first time he’d kissed her, when he’d felt the tremble of her sweet lips. He’d felt her hesitation, her shyness, her inexperience. And he’d known. Somehow, this incredible woman was untouched.

It hadn’t made him stop. He was a man who put few limits on his own behavior. But he had a code of honor. In Hallie Hatfield’s case, he’d recklessly blown through his own rules like dynamite through a brick wall.

So it was no wonder he’d broken a third rule, afterward, and fired her for sleeping with him.

That wasn’t the reason he’d given her supervisor, the head housekeeper, of course. But it had been obvious to Hallie. And clearly her lawyer, too.

But now, as Hallie stood across from him in his private office, biting her full, delectable lower lip, it was hard for him to think about lawyers when all he wanted to do was pull her back into his arms.

For a year, he’d done his best to forget her. He’d told himself he had. Now he knew that was a lie.

“Why are you here?” Cristiano demanded in a low voice.

“I came to...came to tell you...”

Her husky voice trembled, stopped. She looked at him.

Turning away, Cristiano set down the crystal lowball glass heavily on the dark wood bar. He clenched his hands at his sides to keep himself from the temptation of pulling her into his arms and kissing her to see if her lips were still as delicious as he remembered. He was drawn by the sweet sin of her mouth. Of her body. Of her deep brown eyes, luring him into their depths.

Possessing her once had not been enough. After he’d had her that night, he’d just wanted more. It didn’t help that, naked and soft in his arms, she’d looked up at him in bed as if she were half in love with him already. She’d lured him like a siren to give him more than just his body. More than just his money.

But sex and money were all he could give any woman.

So he’d sent her away, tossing her from the warmth of his bed when his body was still aching for more. After she’d gone, he’d still longed for her, like a sweet, forbidden poison. First thing the next morning, he’d contacted her supervisor and arranged to have her fired. For her own good. And his.

But he had never stopped wanting her. And now, as he stepped toward her, his breathing was hard. And not just his breathing.

“Tell me what you want.”

“I need to tell you something. Important.”

“So you said.” Cristiano’s voice was low as he looked down at her. He came closer, almost close enough to touch her. His mind was scrambling for rationalizations as to why he should.

Perhaps if he slept with her just one more time...

Got her out of his system...

Stop, he told himself furiously.

Hesitating, Hallie licked her full, pink lips. He nearly groaned. Was she purposely taunting him?

“This...isn’t easy to say,” she whispered.

Gritting his teeth, he glared at her. “Let me say it for you, then. I already know why you’re here.”

Her caramel-brown eyes went wide.

“You know?”

He set his jaw. “You never cashed the check.”

Hallie blinked, furrowing her forehead. “The check?”

“The morning after.”

Her cheeks colored and she looked away.

“No,” she said in a low voice. “I ripped it into a million pieces and threw it in the trash.”

“Because you knew, even then, you could demand far more.”

Hallie looked at him sharply.

“I can?” she whispered. “You’d give me money, just for asking? Why?”

“You want me to admit it aloud?” He pulled her roughly against him. She gasped as his hands suddenly moved over her waist, her hips.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking for a microphone.” But even through the thin cotton of her sundress, touching her waist and hips without crushing her lips with his own felt like torture.

“Let me go,” she breathed, not moving.

He released her. Stepping back, he leaned against the marble fireplace, folding his arms and keeping his voice very cold. “Who is your lawyer?”

“My lawyer?”

“Don’t try to pretend you don’t have one. You knew I’d want to keep this quiet. I’m not proud of it.”

Her eyes widened. “Of—of what?”

“It would hardly improve the public image of my company if the CEO is sued for sexual harassment.”

“Oh.” Biting her lip, she looked away, staring for a long moment at the wall of leather-bound books he never read, and the leather reading chair he never sat in, both brought in by an interior designer to make his office look like a nineteenth-century gentleman’s study. And all Cristiano could think right now was that he wanted to bend her back against the enormous dark wood desk, kiss her senseless, pull off her clothes and...

He had to get rid of her before he did something else he’d regret.

“Just tell me the amount,” he said tightly.

“The amount?”

“How much?”

Licking her lips, Hallie said, “I want...the same amount as before.”

“A hundred thousand dollars?” he said incredulously.

“I’ll never bother you again. I give you my word.”

Cristiano could hardly believe she’d ask for so little. Far less than he’d pay if they went to trial. Less than he paid his lawyers for a month. Was it some kind of trick? Or had she been given bad advice by the worst lawyer in the world?

Searching her face, he warned, “You’d have to sign a nondisclosure form.”

“I’ll sign anything you want,” she said meekly, folding her hands in front of her like a nun at prayer.

Now Cristiano was really suspicious. “And a statement admitting that you were fired for cause.”

“What does that mean?”

“You’d say it was your own fault you were fired.” He gave a careless shrug, even as he watched her closely. “The reason can be anything you want. Tardiness. Stealing.”

“Stealing!” Hallie repeated indignantly. Then her expression deliberately smoothed over and became meek again. “I will admit to being late. Yes. I was very, very late.”

Something in Hallie’s tone when she said I was very, very late rang true. And yet he knew it was not.

The morning Cristiano had decided to fire her, he’d asked the HR department to review her file, hoping to hear a legitimate reason she deserved to be let go. “Oh, no, sir,” the HR head had chirped. “Miss Hatfield is one of our hardest-working employees. She works late and volunteers to work holidays instead of employees with kids. And she’s never late!”

So he’d given the task of firing her to her supervisor, instead. Handing the head housekeeper a sealed envelope with a big check, he’d explained to the woman that he’d found Hallie intrusive and her singing annoying. The head housekeeper, whom Cristiano had never spoken to directly before, hadn’t asked the same questions HR would have. She’d just followed his order.

So why would Hallie accept a hundred thousand dollars now, in lieu of a settlement that could have brought her millions? And want it so badly she was actually willing to defame her own character for it?

What kind of incompetent, useless lawyer would ever advise her to do such a thing?

Cristiano could barely restrain himself from telling her what a bad deal she was making. But his goal was to be rid of her before she caused him any more damage—personally or professionally.

“Fine.” He turned to his enormous desk. Pulling out a standard nondisclosure agreement usually given to high-level executives, he pushed it across the desk toward her and scribbled something on a separate piece of paper.

“Might as well keep the lawyers out of it, and save us both time and trouble,” he said carelessly. “Sign these and I’ll write you a check.”

Hallie looked at him sharply. “Give me the check first.”

“What?” He gave a low laugh. “You don’t trust me?”

“No.” She looked at him with quiet determination. “Because I know what kind of man you really are.”

His back snapped straight. “What kind is that?”

“You seduced me—” her dark eyes glittered in the shadows “—then had me fired. You took my job away, just to avoid the inconvenience of seeing me.”

She was right. And he hated her for it.

“And now we both know what kind of woman you are,” he said coldly. “The kind of woman who is willing to lie about herself for a hundred thousand dollars.”

Her deep brown eyes held his, then dropped.

“Yes,” she said in a low voice. “I suppose I am.” She squared her shoulders. “But I’ll still need the check before I sign.”

“Fine.” Turning away, he got his checkbook out of the safe. Scribbling the amount and signing it, he handed it to her.

Her hand trembled as she took the check. For a moment, she just looked down at it. Then she pressed it against her chest, looking almost near tears.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “You don’t know what this will mean to us.”

“Us?”

“Me,” she said quickly.

Obviously, she’d already found another lover. The thought bothered him. He pushed it aside. He had no claim on her, and she would have none on him once the deal was finished.

Setting his jaw, he held out the pen. “Now your side of the bargain.”

“Of course.” Taking the pen, she leaned over his desk to read the two documents—the nondisclosure agreement and an admission of fault. As she read, Cristiano’s gaze traced unwillingly down her long throat to the dark hair tumbling down her back to the sweet fullness of her backside. Her breasts seemed fuller than he remembered.

He forced himself to look away.

Signing both papers with a flourish, she put the lid back on his pen, then handed it to him along with the signed papers. “Here.”

She seemed strangely joyful, as if the weight of the world had just been lifted off her shoulders.

Cristiano barely restrained a scowl. His hand brushed hers as he took the papers and pen. Her cheeks went bright red, and she dropped her hand. “Thanks. Goodbye.”

He watched incredulously as, without another word, she headed for the door.

“That’s it?”

Hallie glanced back with a smile. “You wanted to be rid of me.”

He couldn’t believe it could be so easy for her to leave him when it was so hard for him to let her go. When it took all his self-control not to ask her to—

“Stay for a drink,” he heard himself say. “Just one drink. To toast the future.”

The corners of her lips curved into a humorless smile. “Isn’t Natalia waiting for you?”

“Who?”

“Who?” She snorted. “The gorgeous supermodel you were taking out tonight.”

“She’s just a friend,” he said impatiently. He knew the Russian girl wanted more. But what did he care about her? Seeing Hallie today had brought back everything he’d tried to forget over the past year, everything he knew was forbidden but that he still wanted. “Share a drink with me.”

For a second, Hallie hesitated. Then she straightened, glaring at him. “After the way you treated me, do you really think I would ever choose to spend more time with you?” She lifted her chin. “I never, ever want to see you again. Goodbye, Cristiano.”

She turned away, clutching the check against her heart. She left him without looking back.

Cristiano stood in his private office, stunned.

Hallie would cause no legal trouble. The cost of his night with her had been minimal, one he’d been more than willing to pay. And now she was gone. For good.

His jaw tightened. It was what he’d wanted, wasn’t it? He’d wanted to permanently rid himself of the temptation she offered. He’d never felt so attracted to anyone.

He’d slept with beautiful women before. The danger—the difference—was in Hallie’s voice, so rich with heartbreak and longing. And in her deep brown eyes, which had looked at him with such frank joy. In her low, husky laugh that had melted him with her warmth and delight.

She’d made him feel things against his will.

Not with his body.

His soul.

So after he’d fired her he’d ordered his secretary to block Hallie’s calls if she ever tried to contact him again.

Yet, tonight, he’d been the one who had asked her to stay. And Hallie, without any apparent difficulty or regret, had gotten what she’d wanted and easily walked away.

His pride was in shock.

As a matter of course, Cristiano always put his own selfish desires first. You had to look out for number one.

He’d just never imagined a kindhearted country girl like Hallie could do the same.

Rubbing the back of his head, he put his checkbook back in the safe. He told himself he’d go meet Natalia and spend the evening at yet another bland charity gala, but the thought seemed ridiculous.

Hallie had looked delicious, her body even more curvaceous than he remembered. She had a new maturity about her. Her dark eyes had become guarded, he realized. Not as honest and clear as he remembered. She’d held something back. Some mystery. Some secret.

Cristiano closed the safe, then stopped.

Something didn’t make sense.

When Hallie had first met him in the lobby, she’d been nervous and tense. I have something important to tell you, she’d said. But what was it? Simply that she’d hired a lawyer?

Except she’d never actually said that. Cristiano had. She’d been slow to talk and so he’d filled in all the blanks. When he’d offered her money, she’d been surprised, even shocked. Surely that was why she’d asked to speak to him privately. Because her lawyer had told her to.

Unless she didn’t actually have a lawyer.

Unless she’d come to him for some other reason. A reason she’d decided to forget once he’d offered her a check.

Cristiano’s eyes widened.

He strode out of his private office and down the sweeping stairs that overlooked the huge, gleaming lobby with enormous chandeliers hanging from thirty-foot ceilings. His eyes scanned over the crowd of wealthy tycoons and beautiful starlets that filled the lobby and main bar of the Campania on a typical Thursday night.

He saw Hallie on the other side of the lobby, near the door, talking to two young women, a plump redhead and a pregnant blonde. Hallie smiled, her joy obvious even from this distance, as she reached out to take something from the blonde.

A baby stroller. Looking down at it, she smiled and cooed.

Cristiano’s blood went cold.

A baby stroller.

A baby.

Later, he wouldn’t even remember how he had reached her. His brain was blank, his body like ice as he walked through the faceless crowd toward Hallie Hatfield and the baby stroller she gripped by the handle. When he drew close, he heard her soft laughter as she turned to her friends. The other women’s eyes went wide as Cristiano put his hand on her shoulder.

Hallie’s face was still smiling as she turned. Then the blood drained from her face.

Cristiano looked from her guilt-stricken face down to the small, dark-haired, fat-cheeked baby drowsing in the stroller. He slowly lifted his eyes back to hers.

“Is this your baby, Hallie?”

The fear in her eyes told him everything he needed to know.

The other two women stared between them, wide-eyed.

“You didn’t tell him?” the blonde said.

“Oh, Hallie,” the redhead whispered.

“Please, just go,” Hallie choked out to them. “I’ll call you later.”

The blonde looked like she intended to argue, until the redhead tugged on her arm and drew her away.

Standing alone with Cristiano in the crowded lobby of his flagship hotel, Hallie took a deep breath. “I can explain.”

Cristiano looked back down at the baby. A baby with dark eyes exactly like his own. Suddenly he knew exactly why Hallie had come here today. And exactly why she’d changed her mind.

He controlled his voice with effort. “You have a baby.”

She bit her lip. “Yes.”

He lifted his cold gaze to hers. “Who is the father?”

Hallie said pleadingly, “Please, Cristiano, don’t...”

“Who, damn you.”

She flinched. When she spoke, her voice could barely be heard over the noise of the lobby. “You.”

That single word exploded through him like a grenade.

He had a child?

Heart pounding, Cristiano looked at the tiny, yawning baby. Emotions rose, choking him. Savagely repressing his feelings, he looked at her.

“You are sure?” he said flatly.

“Yes,” Hallie replied in the same tone. “You know I was a virgin when—”

“I know,” he bit out. “But perhaps after...”

“You think I rushed into bed with someone else after that?” Her expression tightened. “You are the only man I’ve ever been with. Jack is your son.”

He had a child? A son?

His name was Jack?

Cristiano’s throat tightened. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

“I tried.” Hallie’s beautiful caramel-brown eyes narrowed. “I left two messages with your secretary.”

Cristiano hadn’t gotten those messages because he’d told his secretary never to tell him if Hallie called.

But he didn’t want to hear reasons he might be at fault. He wanted to blame only her. “We used protection,” he said accusingly. “How did this happen?”

She raised her eyebrows. “You are the one with all the experience. You tell me.”

He ground his teeth. “You should have tried harder to contact me.”

“After the way you treated me,” she said, “I shouldn’t have tried at all. Why give you the chance to reject our baby like you rejected me?”

His shoulders tightened as her shot hit home.

“So you were just going to walk out of here tonight.” His voice had a hard edge. His throat felt raw. “Once you had my check, you had no reason to tell me about my child. You were going to keep him a secret from me for the rest of my life, weren’t you?”

Not meeting his eyes, Hallie gave an unsteady nod.

His hands clenched at his sides. “Why?”

“I’ve never known what it was to hate someone, Cristiano,” she whispered. She lifted her gaze to his. “Not until you.”

He was shocked by the fury and hurt he saw in her eyes. “I could not have hurt you that badly,” he ground out. “We barely knew each other.”

“You were so seductive. So tender. You made me think you cared, just a little.” She ran an unsteady hand over her forehead. “But as soon as you got what you wanted, you showed me it was all a lie. You left me jobless, homeless. Pregnant and alone. I gave birth alone. I took care of him alone. Do you know how hard it is to look for a job when you have a newborn? I struggled to put a roof over Jack’s head while you pretended we didn’t exist.” She looked around the luxurious lobby. “While you drank champagne and went to parties.”

Her words made him feel oddly guilty. He didn’t like it. “You never told me—”

“I came here to beg you for money, Cristiano.” Her beautiful brown eyes were suddenly luminous. “To beg, so I wouldn’t have to stay at a homeless shelter tonight. Can you imagine how that feels, asking someone you hate for help?”

No. Cristiano couldn’t imagine lowering his pride to such an extent. Even when he’d been orphaned in Italy, desperately poor, he would have starved before he’d have done it.

But women were different, he told himself firmly. They didn’t have the same fierce pride as a man.

“Then I offered you the check,” he said, “and you decided to take the money and run.”

“I’m doing you a favor,” she said vehemently. “It’s not like you’d want to be a father. So just forget I came here. Forget he was ever born.”

Turning, Hallie started pushing the stroller away.

As he watched them go, the hotel’s marble floor became suddenly unsteady beneath Cristiano’s feet.

A flash went through him, memories of when he was six, when he was ten, of being dragged from one sagging apartment to the next, based on the preference of whichever useless new man his drunken mother had taken as her latest lover. He’d felt helpless as a child, lonely, never staying in one school long enough to make friends.

Most of the household’s scant money had gone to alcohol. There had been very little for food and none for Cristiano’s clothes, which the local priest quietly donated.

He’d never had a father, unless you counted Luigi Bennato, whom Cristiano assuredly did not. He’d never had a father to look out for him or protect him, even as a baby.

Without thinking, Cristiano stepped forward and grabbed Hallie’s shoulder.

“I won’t let you do this,” he said hoarsely. “I won’t let you take our baby away.”

“Why?” she said scornfully. “Because you want to be a father?” Her eyes glittered. “Don’t make me laugh. You’re a selfish playboy, Cristiano. An indecent excuse for a man. You couldn’t love someone if you tried, not even your own child. And now that I have enough money to support my baby, I don’t want any part of you.”

CHAPTER TWO

STANDING IN THE hotel’s glamorous lobby with her arms folded, Hallie glared up at Cristiano as if she weren’t in the least afraid. But the truth was her whole body was trembling with the effort it took to defy him.

She wished she’d followed her initial impulse when Cristiano had first come into the lobby, and turned and run.

But he’d have caught up with her before she’d even made it out the hotel’s revolving door. A single glance at his supremely masculine, muscular body and the cold ruthlessness in his hard gaze was enough to tell her that.

Everything about Cristiano was dark, Hallie thought with a shiver. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Dark tuxedo. A five-o’clock shadow that stroked his hard cheekbones to the slash of his jawline and, most of all, his dark fury as he came closer to her, his hand still on her shoulder, his hulking body almost threatening.

“So this is what you think of me.” His black eyes narrowed to slits. “That I’d coldly write you a check and abandon my child to your care.”

She was quivering but refused to be cowed. “Money is all you could ever offer as a father. Why don’t you just admit it?”

His grip on her shoulder tightened. “You lie to me, you take my money. Then you insult me to my face?”

He had a point, which made her want to throw the check back in that face. Her hand was already rising to do it when she remembered Lola’s harsh words. “Is pride going to feed your baby?”

With an intake of breath, Hallie clutched the check more tightly. This money would be her baby’s security and hope for the future. It would also give Hallie a chance to finally give up her stupid dream of becoming a singer and let her train for a real job, like an accountant or a nurse.