The Devil to Pay (5 page)

The mâitre’d ushered them to a lone table shimmering against the enormous curved window in the Orangery. It was as wide as it was tall. A stunning feature of the ornate greenhouse and potted palms and citrus trees softened the white paintwork of the windowpanes.

“I suggest we order and eat reasonably soon,” Daniel decreed. “We need to leave before dawn. In fact,”—he glanced at the heavy watch on his wrist—“we’ll have to be out of here in precisely nine hours’ time.”

He paused for a moment before realising he wasn’t looking at the menu he had been handed. He was staring at her hair, wondering what it would look like tumbling over her pale naked shoulders and his crisp, white pillows. Like warm spun sugar on vanilla ice...

A scorch of lust shot across his chest as her tongue flicked out to moisten her lips into a grape-satin sheen. “You don’t need the beauty sleep, but I’m afraid I do,” he said huskily. “We’ll have to breakfast enroute in the morning.”

Rianna shrugged her agreement and put her leather-bound menu to one side unopened. “I do believe we have the best table in the house. That was a bit of luck!”

“
Luck,
” he replied sardonically. “You believe in it, do you?”

She lowered her gaze and needlessly adjusted the silver cutlery in front of her. “Well, I don’t see why not. There’s no harm in that, is there?”

“There’s no such thing, believe me—especially
good
luck—you have to make your own way in life.” He slapped open a starched napkin and seeing her stiffen at his words, softened his voice to put her more at ease. “Rianna, this restaurant is booked out ahead for months. We have this table because of influence, power, money and most especially, because of
me.
”

****

Well, that had told her…

Daniel Bracchi had held nothing back in putting her firmly in her place. He’d made it crystal clear how bloody important and influential he was and there wasn’t a thing she could do to retaliate against his arrogance. Rianna bit her tongue and gracefully accepted the flute of champagne she was offered by a nervous waitress. She’d just love to tell Bracchi the Younger a few home truths, but he was her boss and as such held her entire future in the palm of his privileged hand. Intensely annoying. “I’ll have whatever you’re having for dinner, Signor Bracchi. I’m sure your taste is impeccable.”

There was no way she would risk showing herself up in this place. It would be much better to play safe, especially as the day’s menu was crafted in flowing black ink, beautifully handwritten, and entirely in French.

“Very well, would you like a starter? I stick to just the two courses generally, pudding on special occasions only.” To Rianna’s astonishment, he smiled, and patted the absurdly flat area of his stomach. “Very easy to overdo things in this job. “But, of course, you have as much as you want.”

“Starter,” Rianna muttered as her gaze snapped away from the region below his hand and drifted upwards over the silk-veiled muscles of his torso to the perfect whiteness of his teeth. She felt strangely light-headed on discovering that a smiling Daniel Bracchi was even more gorgeous than a grumpy one, but there was still no way she would ask for pudding. The question was probably a devious test, and she’d bet anything having a sweet tooth would count as a sign of great character weakness.

The starter of langoustines with a thick yellow aioli arrived with astonishing speed. Clearly the kitchen was well-versed in the way Daniel liked things to happen and generally speaking that was fast. And faultless.

“So, getting back to the quarry,” Daniel began as he snapped apart a steaming crustacean. “I know I said we wouldn’t work after six, but do you mind?”

“Not at all,” Rianna replied with a sense of relief. Making small talk with captains of industry over dinner wasn’t one of her strongest areas of experience.

“I’d like to hear more about this tunnel idea of yours,” he replied, watching her lick buttery juices from her fingertips.

Rianna coughed lightly and wiped her hands on a napkin. This was her big chance to convince him the quarry was still viable and she couldn’t afford to blow it, however distracted she was by the way he was staring at her lips.

“A tunnel will cost about three million pounds and if we avoid an underground cave system, there’s every possibility we can get UK Nature behind the idea. Exactly the sort of environmental plug we need. It’ll take a year to build, but means there’ll be no more lorries going through the village, not to mention the financial savings of a shortened delivery route.”
She paused for breath and maybe it was the champagne taking effect, but the devil was suddenly in her. “And I’ll bet fat margins really turn you on...”

His eyebrows lifted, and he pushed his empty plate away, signalling to the waiter that his service was required. “You can back all this up?”

“
Yes,” she replied quickly since he had pointedly ignored her remark. Stupid of her to say it in the first place.
“
And there’s a bonus. If we dismantle the current processing plant and relocate it on the floor of the quarry, we can access the reserves under there, boosting annual production by ten million tonnes.”

“Really?” His expression softened as he stared thoughtfully out into the gloom beyond the window. “So I won’t have to see the damn thing ruining the view all the way from Cardiff International?”

“No. We please everyone.”

Daniel waited patiently as a jittery waitress fussed around with the positioning of his Magret de Canard. “It seems far too simple. I need to be seriously convinced this can work, but more importantly, do you honestly think you can sway the board, Rianna?”

“Absolutely.” Her heart was pounding from the realisation of how important this conversation was to her future, but even more so from the way his tongue had curled so deliciously around the syllables of her name.

“You seem very confident.” Long dextrous fingers loosened his tie and he fixed her with his unwavering blue gaze. “You’ve double-checked all the figures and the planning position?”

She twisted the stem of her glass between her fingers. “Yes, it’s what you pay me for.”

“Interesting... Am I exposed in
any
way on this one, do you think?”

She quickly slid her hands into her lap under the table. They were beginning to shake. Not only was this a defining moment for her career, but Daniel’s blistering aura was starting to turn every part of her to hot melting jelly. “Not financially or ethically, no.”

He stretched out his arms to display the breadth of his chest and yawned luxuriously. “If you pull this off, then your finance director’s right, you
are
pure gold.”

She glimpsed the dark circles of his nipples through the silk of his shirt and a stab of desire shot her low in the pelvis. “He said that?”

“I forced it out of him,” he replied in a matter-of-fact way. “I couldn’t understand why you needed a second job.”

“He doesn’t know!”

“So I gathered, and don’t worry, I’ve said nothing, especially as Mavis in the cigarette kiosk led me to believe you’d been sacked by the supermarket anyway. Although, now we’ve established your true identity, I’m going to have to insist you resign from that store. I’ll set up an emergency salary review in the morning, more than enough to cover the wage you were picking up in KostKrunch.” His expression became as deadly serious as hers was suddenly furious. “I do hope you understand this is not just me trying to be
nice
. It’s an instruction to work exclusively for Bracchi International from now on. Employees taking a second job is not the sort of company image I want. People will think the quarry’s pay and conditions are so bad its staff have to moonlight in the gutter. I’m not a cheapskate or a slave driver, but most importantly, I don’t want our potential buyer thinking he can get the place on the cheap.”

“You seem to think you own
me
as well as the quarry.” Her voice was sharp and her hands fisted into tight balls under the table.
“I can’t pretend I appreciate you dictating how I live my life outside working hours. This is
the twenty first century, after all.”

Daniel put both elbows on the table and leant forward so she could almost feel his breath on her lips. “Let me be clear, I’m not a soft touch like my father. I expect total loyalty from every one of my people. I don’t care if it’s the site manager or the janitor—it makes no difference—and if you can’t cope with that, you know where the door is.” He sat back and she detected a thaw in his tone. “To be honest, I can’t see there being a viable future for Lewis Quarry, and on a personal note, I’d rather not be coming over once a month like my father did. I don’t enjoy being in Wales. You’ve probably noticed.”

“So your heart’s not in it?” Rianna murmured.

“This is a business, not a charity.” He stared at the ceiling for a moment before continuing. “However, I’m aware how many families rely on the quarry for work and the impact a potential sale would have. Even if new jobs were part of the deal, there would have to be some rationalisation eventually. So I hope your plan makes the economic sense you say it does and the board buys into it. As far as my personal involvement goes, I’ll have to come over twice a year anyway, just so long as Nonna insists on staying in this godforsaken place.”

God, the man was arrogant!

“Industrial South Wales may not be to everyone’s tastes, but most of your employees there were born and bred in that
godforsaken
valley. It’s their home and like it or not, most of us have no choice but to stay. It’s where our families and jobs are.” Rianna was swept onwards by a tide of angry emotion. “Plenty come back to their roots too, back to the greenness of it all. They’re drawn to the sound of rain falling into the Taff, the mist hanging over the slag heaps and terraces, the smell of open fires. It’s an honest life and for many of us it’s actually quite
good
.”

He let out a mocking laugh. “You’ve never been tempted to just pack up and leave then? You must have scampered around the Far East or somewhere on your
gap year.
A taste of the exotic must have given you some wanderlust, surely? Or don’t you like sunshine?”

Rianna could feel her cheeks scorching with humiliation and she was desperate to get away from the situation, but she wasn’t going to let him get away with such an outrageous remark. “We come from different worlds, Signor Bracchi. My family had no money. So I had no gap year or university. I started full-time work the day after I left school and finished my college education in the evening and by correspondence course.”

She placed her cutlery with a sharp clatter on to her plate. “Thank you for the lovely meal, but now I think it’s time we thought about going to bed.” She hurriedly reached for her bag as one of his black eyebrows rose in a silent question. “As we have such an early start,” she added quickly and pursed her lips with irritation at having uttered such an appalling innuendo.

Couldn’t he see she was angry with him? Was he too arrogant and stupid to realise she wasn’t trying to be playful? Or to flirt with him? God in heaven...

“Good idea,” he replied and stood up from the table. “But,
please
, since we will be working together very closely on this, call me Daniel. Signor Bracchi makes me sound like someone’s crazy old dad. Mine in particular.”

Rianna curtly nodded her agreement and felt a wave of fatigue as they headed out of the restaurant. It had been a long, rollercoaster of a day and the tense meal they had just shared left her feeling exhausted. A few steps on and she began to anticipate the soft luxury of the four-poster bed—it wasn’t far away now—and the joy of getting her stilettos off would be immense.

Then a high voltage shock exploded within her. Rianna felt the firm warmth of Daniel’s hand applied to the small of her back as they crossed reception and headed for the stairs. The clatter of china in the restaurant gradually faded into the distance as his hand slid to the right and rested possessively on the curve of her waist. The intimacy was sudden and inappropriate, but it was all she could do not to shiver with the luscious unexpected danger of it.

They reached the second floor where both of their suites were situated and Rianna, breathless and flushed, said the first thing that came into her head to break the silence. She turned to face him and looked up into his unreadable glacial eyes. “Earlier, did you say you went back to the supermarket?”

“I did,” he murmured, his voice deeper and richer than she had ever noticed before.

Rianna felt her bones soften like candles in the sun, weakening with the close male heat of his body. “And you asked after
Linda...
because you thought that was who I was?”

“Correct.”

Rianna let out a little breath of incredulity. “Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious,
cara
?” Daniel moved a step closer and wound his arm fully around her waist, pulling her against him. “I went back,”—he eased her key card from her fingers—“because I
wanted
you.”

His mouth came down on hers, sculpted precision that opened her lips effortlessly, and she was unable to put up any resistance as he eased his tongue inside. The shocking power of his kiss paralysed Rianna as she felt him ease the back of her head against her bedroom door and then her shoulders, followed by her hips. Her head spun with disbelief at what was happening, but even the rational side of her brain was unwilling to put an immediate stop to it. She couldn’t fight such a flood of sensation and began to dissolve into the physical hedonism of what was happening to her, surrendering to the reckless selfish madness of it. And the feel of him exploring inside her...