Affairs Of The Heart: The Italian Boss's Secret Child

It suited her. She sure looked innocent enough. Though the way her skirt hugged her as she stretched over his legs—there was shape hidden away under that skirt after all. She straightened and his nostrils caught a second subtle whiff. Apricot? Yeah, she smelled like apricots. That was different.

Where did this guy get off? Didn’t he realise she was doing him a favour? Next time he could wait for Sam to get back from sick leave. She didn’t need this kind of aggravation in her life right now.

She swivelled the laptop around and drew it closer to where she stood so that she didn’t have to keep bending over the boss’s legs. She could almost feel his eyes boring into her back, searing her skin through her wool mix suit until it prickled, just knowing he was there, a bare metre behind her, scrutinising her every step of the way.

Knowing he was her boss in no way suppressed the sensations she was experiencing right now. Raw sexuality. It emanated from him in waves. Even the way he casually sprawled in his chair couldn’t hide the latent power contained in those long limbs. She was used to dealing with bosses on equal terms—not one had ever made her so aware of his inherent sexuality.

Not one had made her so aware that he was a man.

That she was a woman.

She shifted, comfortable with neither where her thoughts were going nor how her body was suddenly tingling. He sure wasn’t making this easy. But then, no one had ever described Damien DeLuca as easy.

Impossible; arrogant; genius—she’d heard all those words used in conjunction with his name. But easy? Ha! Not a one. The sooner she got through with this meeting and got out of here the better. If only she could focus on her presentation!

Naturally his sudden appearance at the door had thrown her. Just for a moment there had seemed something more to Damien than she’d heard, another angle, another dimension.

She’d been kidding herself. Now that his face was out of the shadows he was just another good-looking, over-achieving workaholic who had no people skills whatsoever.

She turned her head a fraction and caught a glimpse of his smug-looking face out of the corner of her eye as she manoeuvred her way through explorer to the share drive.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t quite fair. Make that drop-dead gorgeous, over-achieving workaholic who lacked people skills but exuded testosterone by the bucketload. That might be closer to the mark.

The photos in the marketing files certainly didn’t do him justice. No doubt the current photographer had been in place since the year dot. First thing she’d do when she got back to her office would be to organise a new photographer who knew how to use great material rather than take it for granted. Because whatever his personality faults, the guy sure had great genes. No doubt that with his looks and IQ his kids were bound to be intelligent and great looking, just like their dad.

Maybe what she needed was a guy like him?

Her fingers stopped dead over the mouse, her mouth suddenly, inexplicably dry.

Why would that occur to her? Clearly her other problem was starting to affect her brain. Now she was having fantasies about the men at work. Or, at least, fantasies about this one.

And having fantasies about Damien DeLuca was pointless. He was so far out of her league it wasn’t funny. Even if he wasn’t, from what she’d heard, the guy was a confirmed bachelor—a one man band all the way and probably just as well the way he treated people. You’d have to be mad to get tangled up with someone like him.

Not that getting tangled up with Damien was on the cards.

‘Is something wrong?’

She jumped as if she’d been stung. ‘Oh, no.’ She shook her head, shielding from him what she had no doubt would be a give-away red face. ‘Not at all. Um, here’s the file…’

She took a couple of steadying breaths before finally turning. With the opening slide on the screen that she hoped would pull attention from her sudden colour, she gave a weak smile. ‘Okay, all set?’ she asked before launching into her presentation.

‘What do you know about her? That Filly woman. Though I have to say she looks more like a mouse than any horse I’ve seen.’

Without looking up from her computer screen or mis-hitting a key on her one hundred words per minute typing speed, Enid responded drily, ‘And I should know?’

‘You know everything about everyone in this office, Enid, and you know it.’

She still didn’t look up, but he did notice the tiniest tweak at the corner of her line-rimmed lips.

‘Then it’s Philly, with a P-H, short for Philadelphia. Her parents had a travel urge at one time apparently, though never got farther than the maternity unit at Melbourne General.’

‘Family?’

‘Lives with her mother. A widow. There was a brother, though he died in tragic circumstances, I believe.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Anything else?’

‘Twenty-seven years old, single—was about to be married a month or two ago but something happened. Could be a left at the altar story.’

Left at the altar? Yeah, that would do it. He’d got the distinct impression that despite her professional presentation she had a real thing against men.

‘By the way,’ she said, ‘now that you’ve finished early you might like to tackle your messages.’ She swivelled around on her chair to pick up a stack of papers she handed over to him. ‘Don’t worry about the top one; Sam left a brief message on my voicemail while I was out that he was unable to do the presentation. No doubt you got that message anyway.’

He looked briefly at the stack before pocketing them. So Philly had been right. Someone had tried to let him know. So now he couldn’t even hold that against her. He wasn’t entirely sure he liked that.

‘Snippy little thing,’ he said as he rested a hip on her desk, putting down his now tepid coffee and replacing it with a card from her in-tray, spinning it between his fingers. ‘Did a good job, though—really knows her stuff. Sam would have taken three times as long. But I don’t think she likes me.’

‘No one at Delucatek likes you. You’re the original boss from hell and you love it.’

‘But you like me, Enid.’

Enid’s fingers stopped dead on the keyboard, her index finger hovering pointedly over the “I”. She looked up at him over her reading glasses, her eyes narrowed to slits, and she let her head tip to the side in a bare nod. ‘I have a great deal of respect for you—yes, that’s true. In addition to which I have to admit you do wonderful things for my cash flow. But like you?’ The movement of her head now looked less of a nod and more of a shake.

He held up his hand before she could say any more. ‘Okay.’ He laughed, rich and loud. Of course she was kidding. She was crazy about him. ‘Why is it you’re the only person in this building who doesn’t take me seriously?’

‘Somebody has to do it,’ she replied, adding a wink for good measure before she turned back to her keyboard.

He stopped flipping the card in his hands long enough to read it.

‘Damn. Whoever decided on a masked fancy dress theme for this year’s Christmas party?’

‘You did,’ came the terse response. ‘You said it would help break down barriers between the staff—get them warmed up and mixing without copious quantities of alcohol. And I think it’s a great idea.’

‘What are you going as, Enid? Little Bo Peep?’

The look she gave him was pure ice and the lines around her pursed lips condensed to form canyons.

‘And there I was thinking Xena, Warrior Princess was more my style. Besides,’ she continued, ‘I’m not telling. You’ll have to work it out on the night. Masks only come off at midnight.’

He shrugged. It was a good idea to break the ice. Break down the barriers he could already see developing between his managers and their staff. Barriers were the last thing he wanted and it was clear, if Sam and the Marketing Department were any example, that those barriers were already being put up. He’d had no idea there was someone in that area with the skills Philly possessed—Sam had certainly never mentioned her.

And it would be interesting to see what his staff came up with for their disguises. Some people wouldn’t need much help of course. Already he could see Miss Brown Mouse—with the addition of a couple of little pink ears and a tail she’d be utterly convincing.

CHAPTER THREE (#u4f93203d-362b-520d-9d07-6c75ca30ba3e)

‘YOU look like a princess!’

Philly smiled and did a twirl as she entered her mother’s room, the ends of her black wig flicking out as she spun. ‘You don’t think it’s too much? The woman in the costume shop said it was fine.’