The devil to pay, p.2
The Devil to Pay, page 2
Rianna slid the errant piece of paper onto the desk. “I have a current passport, if that’s what you mean,” she replied firmly. “And a suitcase.”
Daniel felt the corners of his mouth begin to turn up with amusement at her barbed response, but managed to suppress a smile. This was a refreshing change. He wasn’t accustomed to this level of feistiness from a female of the species. A sizzle of excitement flashed through his body at this unexpected lack of fear, swiftly followed by a dull wave of revulsion. The creature had quite a mouth on her as well it seemed and he pictured her yelling obscenities out of a bedroom window as her latest conquest shuffled off into the night. “Bene,” he replied smoothly. “Gianpiero, my driver, will collect you at four this afternoon. Please be ready to leave on time as we have a very tight schedule. Now,”—his gaze flickered over her like a searchlight, sweeping her appearance from head to toe and then returned to the paperwork—“I suggest you scoot off home and pack.”
****
It was now patently clear that there was a lot more to Dan than she could have possibly imagined. Dressed in an immaculate navy blue suit, crisp white shirt and a silver striped tie, he exuded total power and authority. The jet-black waves of hair Rianna had dreamt of running her fingers through had been freshly tamed into sleek corporate respectability, and the dark shadow of stubble on his jaw from yesterday was completely gone. His stern expression was intimidating.
Rianna could feel her cheeks smarting at his last dismissive remark, but she managed to crush her exasperation and be professional. Mike had obviously said something about her home situation. It was clear from Bracchi’s intonation when he had used the word “domestic”, but she couldn’t let her circumstances jeopardise the future of the quarry. Her boss had been right. She could do this. She had to do this, not only for herself but for her dependants and for the other hundred households relying on the business.
She knew it wouldn’t be easy for her gran to take total charge of the two children, but she was sure her relative would understand its importance. In truth, neither of them had any choice in the matter, if Rianna lost this job, the extra wages she picked up from KostKrunch at the weekend wouldn’t even keep them in pull-up diapers.
“Your driver will need my address—”
“He has it already. That’s what a Personnel Department is for.” His eyes glittered and his mouth twisted as he handed her a business card. “Just in case you need to contact me in the interim.”
Rianna turned the black and gold card over in her fingers, feeling its heavily embossed quality and absorbing the shock of what was happening. The words leapt out with stunning clarity.
Daniel Bracchi, Chief Executive Officer, Bracchi International...
Rianna focused silently on the card in her hand. Oh yes, Signor Bracchi Jr. had slipped into the role of CEO quite effortlessly and it suited him, but this dark prince was most definitely out of her league. She would just have to forget she would be spending a few days away with the very man she had been fantasising over for hours like a lovesick teenager, the man who considered her to be little more than a scruffy oaf.
Rianna looked up to see him watching her intently. He had crossed his arms over his broad chest and was glowering. His eyes flashed suddenly, and she was jolted back to cheek-burning reality as he flicked a dismissive hand in her direction.
“Via! Shoo!”
Chapter Two
Rianna dropped her suitcase in front of the living room window so she could see the road outside. It was a narrow street of terraced miners’ cottages built a long time before most people had cars. Parking was a nightmare, and there were frequently raised voices on the issue, not to mention stolen traffic cones and mysterious “disabled parking” zones painted hurriedly under cover of darkness.
It was ironic, but parking was one problem she didn’t have. Having no taxed vehicle at her disposal equaled zero hassle, but she was concerned about Bracchi’s driver getting any stick. It would be so embarrassing!
“Don’t look so nervous, bach!” Her grandmother sat on the edge of the mauve velvet sofa and wrung her hands in direct contradiction to her own advice as the sound of shrieking and flying Lego came from the kitchen. “The kiddies will be fine. Maisie’s taking them to pre-school for the next five mornings and Dai said he’d take them to the park in the afternoon. Uncle Fred’s got a DVD thing from the car boot sale, so it looks like you’re redundant here anyway!”
“Oh, Gran, it’s brilliant how everyone’s rallied round so quickly. I know the kids will be okay, they adore you, but I’m worried about the strain on you. It’s only been a couple of years since your little stroke and you know what the doctor said—”
The older woman smiled broadly and put her hand into the pocket of her pink floral housecoat. “Rubbish and nonsense! Those kids aren’t yours, remember, however protective you are. Now, take this, just to borrow mind—they’re precious to me—but I think they might bring you some luck.” She produced a plain black box and opened it to display a single strand of Venetian crystal beads. “They’ll go with anything,” she said as she handed it over. “And I’ll be very offended if you say no.”
Rianna smiled. Her first reaction was to refuse the loan as her gran knew she would. But those beads... She had always loved them. They weren’t valuable, but they still caught the light in their myriad facets and magnified it many times over with flashes of aqua and crystal petroleum, qualities equaling any of the minerals she had seen at the quarry. They were beautifully clear and sparkled just as they would have done on her grandparents’ wedding day.
She touched their cool hardness for a moment. “Would Grancha have minded?”
“Not one bit.” Mrs. Peters sighed. “If your grandfather was still here, he’d be giving you a much better send-off than this. He’d be proud, really he would, proud his best girl has grown up to be so clever and achieved so much with so little.” Rianna swallowed as her grandmother’s eyes shone brightly with the threat of tears. “And don’t you think he’d have been such a good great grancha to those little ones?”
“Yes, Nan,” Rianna replied softly and bent to give her a hug. Their silent embrace was brief as within a few seconds, Rianna spotted a black shadow outside the house and quickly snapped the jewellery box shut. “Heck, the car’s here, I’ve got to go.”
“Yes, don’t keep them waiting!”
Rianna pushed the box into her handbag, grabbed her coat and called out toward the kitchen. “Fiona… Gavin…Come wave me off with Nan, will you?”
A blur of snatched kisses and sticky hugs on the wet slate doorstep was Rianna’s farewell, as the dark-suited hulk she assumed was Gianpiero stood waiting by the passenger door of a black Mercedes. The windows were blacked-out and the neighbours’ net curtains went into overdrive. Rianna could almost hear the gossip already: obviously not the welfare officer, so it must be drugs. There would be some almighty inquisitions over the garden fence in the next few hours.
Poking her head around Gianpiero’s vast body for a final wave, she blindly threw her handbag onto the back seat before lowering herself down into its leather confines. The door closed with a luxurious click.
“You almost cost me an hour’s work with that bag of yours, Miss Peters.” Daniel Bracchi’s deep voice sliced into the silence as she turned with horror to see him gesturing at his laptop screen. “It landed like a ton of bricks on the keyboard. What the hell have you got in there?”
The car shifted as the trunk closed down on her suitcase, and Rianna realised she was staring at him open-mouthed like a demented goldfish. “I didn’t realise—” She could feel her entire face pulse with embarrassment. “God, I don’t know what to say, I am so sorry!”
He frowned and gestured toward her passenger window. It had been lowered and the cold damp air felt like balm on her hot cheeks. “Say goodbye properly then,” he instructed as Gran smiled weakly and Gavin and Fiona bobbed up and down on the pavement.
Rianna’s heart twisted as they squealed with excitement. It was to be expected, the poor things had never seen such a big, shiny car before. Then she suddenly felt the warmth of Bracchi’s body as he leaned across and stuck his own face out of the window. A prickle of awareness pulsed through her as his large frame pressed her breasts against the cool door trim and the rumble of his voice thundered through her chest wall. She swallowed hard.
“She’ll be back soon,” he called out to the children. “With presents, I expect.”
He withdrew silently to his side of the car as they pulled off. Rianna took a sharp breath, irritated about the handbag incident and annoyed with herself for not realising that, of course, Daniel Bracchi would be in the car, too. What did she expect? Two cars?
Honest to God.
She craned her neck out of the window and waved until the trio were reduced to specks on the horizon and then disappeared completely as the car turned out of Oliver Street into town.
****
“You’ll miss them, I guess?” Daniel said, as he tapped methodically at his keyboard. He’d noticed she’d looked a little sad as she’d closed the window. “They’re cute.”
She placed the palms of her hands firmly down on her thighs and pressed her lips together. “Of course I will, but they’ll be fine with my gran.”
Daniel ticked off imaginary boxes in his mind: two children already, the shop assistant was spot on. He was rapidly building up a picture of this woman. “Beautiful dark eyes,” he replied without looking at her.
“They’re half-Malaysian,” Rianna replied curtly and shot him a defiant glare. “They stick out a bit in Taff’s Weir, I grant you, but we’ve all grown used to it.”
Daniel’s squeezed his eyebrows together as he focused on the computer screen. His analytical mind formed a collage of possible events and scenarios, slotting in the information he already had, downloading every tense movement of her body, each sharp breath she took. The rational side of his brain urged him to bypass the human detail. This was work, she was work. She was also a mother, a partner and… pregnant. She had history. She was trouble. He should just forget it. But for some reason, he couldn’t let it go.
“So their dad will be back tonight to take over?” He eased the lid of the laptop down and folded it into a panel in front of him.
“No. No, he won’t…not for some time. If ever.” Her eyes blazed straight ahead, like silver arrows blasting into the back of Gianpiero’s head. “But life goes on. So how did it go with the dishwasher in the end?”
Daniel was impressed by her slick refusal to elaborate on her personal life and the way she had turned the focus directly back on to him. Smart. He also congratulated himself on successfully confirming Mr. Malaysia was well and truly off the scene. This meant, this meant nothing much at all as far as he was concerned, but it proved she was as feckless as she had been described in KostKrunch, and was a licentious single mother of two already. “So it definitely is you?” he said, feeling suddenly and inexplicably weary.
“I’m afraid it is, Mr. Bracchi.” She looked awkward as he passed her the mug of coffee he had just poured from a chrome flask. She coughed lightly. “Were the cigarettes for your grandmother as well? Or for someone else maybe?”
“Might they not have been for me?” He sipped carefully at the hot liquid as tendrils of steam rose from his cup.
“You smell far too nice to be a smoker,” she replied and then her cheeks flushed before hurriedly adding, “I mean, I haven’t seen a trace of a cigarette around you thus far, whereas Tomos…”
“You know my father?”
“Of course I do! Tomos has been coming to the quarry ever since I can remember. He was there on my very first day. Tea, strong with three sugars and only milk chocolate biscuits, never the plain ones. And always a great big cigar.”
He nodded, that was his old man, all right, but she wasn’t getting off the hook so lightly. “Do you really think I smell nice?”
Her cheeks flared with more colour. “I was just being polite.”
Daniel noted the look of discomfort, forcing her to stare at her knees, and decided not to hound her any further. He’d thought she’d be more of a natural flirt...but whatever. He’d resume that particular game later, delve into the disgusting mysteries of her private life until he was completely satisfied.
“I’m afraid the cigarettes were for Nonna, my grandmother. I do nag her to give up, but she’s been doing it quite happily for over sixty years, so I guess there’s not much point now. It makes her happy. As do her awful cats.”
“Not an animal lover then?” Rianna glanced quickly at a heavy lash of rain on the window.
“No, well, yes actually, I like animals, but,” he couldn’t stop his lip curling with disgust, “just not those two little porcos.”
When she turned her face back to his, he felt sure she was suppressing a smile at his expense. “They can’t be so bad,” she murmured.
“They’re disgusting, semi-feral. They spit, they spray, Dio! Nonna even has a litter tray in the kitchen.” He frowned when he saw she was breaking into a grin. It irritated him. He barked a quick instruction in Italian to Gianpiero through the intercom.
He’d had enough of this conversation for now, but he would have the last word. “Please don’t laugh at me, Miss Peters. I don’t find it particularly funny.”
****
Even his angry nostrils were beautiful, Rianna thought as she stole a glance at him working. Her gaze hovered over the angles of his stern profile, and the sensuous curve of his mouth. He was almost too gorgeous to be real.
To her surprise, his head suddenly snapped round and his cobalt eyes locked with hers in a tense moment of mutual examination. “Shall we discuss work?” he said briskly, making it feel like an admonishment for her staring at him.
“If you like,” Rianna replied and did her best thin-lipped “career woman” smile. He might be gorgeous, but it looked like he would be bloody hard work in every other respect.
“We will work until six,” he added gruffly.
“Whatever you say.” Rianna silently bit the inside of her cheek with the pressure and before she could stop herself, added, “I’m not afraid of hard work.”
“I know.”
Rianna felt herself bristle as he held her fast with his interrogative stare. “You do?”
“I do.”
She was beginning to feel annoyed. “Do you know everything about me?”
“Enough for now and you fascinate me obviously, but what I really need to know is what you propose as far as the quarry is concerned. We’ve been made an extremely good offer to sell and since profits last year were non-existent, I’m inclined to lean in that direction.”
You fascinate me obviously.
Sarcastic bastard.
She could handle it, but felt a smart of hurt all the same. Sticks and stones. She’d have to toughen up for the duration of this trip, too much rested on her getting everything right. “As you are no doubt aware, most of the limestone within ten miles of the quarry has been used up over the last eighty years, and it’s virtually impossible to get planning for greenfield quarries these days. So we need to develop our existing reserves—”
Daniel shifted in his seat with a short grunt, which sounded like disinterest. “And presumably we’ve not done so because it’s cost-prohibitive?”
Rianna controlled her irritation at his rude interruption. “I’ll get to the figures in a moment,” she replied curtly and stared straight ahead to avoid any look of recrimination coming her way. “We know we can extend the life of the quarry by thirty years if we can get access to the new seam discovered recently. The problem we have is the beech woodland surrounding us on three sides. It’s been designated a special area of conservation. There’s also a community action group up in arms about the lorries. They’ve had enough of the trucks and would fight hard against an increase in traffic.”
Daniel’s stony face took on a decidedly smug look. “So we sell up to the oligarch down the road and let him re-employ you all in his filter factory?”
“Absolutely not! We build a tunnel.”
His brow wrinkled into incredulous disbelief. “Right.”
To Rianna’s intense annoyance, he slowly shook his head. She could feel her blood pressure rising, but before she could react, a sharp beeping sound made Daniel reach into his jacket pocket for his mobile phone. Its palm-sized sleek beauty matched the car perfectly. Boys and toys, Rianna thought sourly.
Daniel silently stared up at the creamy, leather-lined roof of the car, as if he was thoroughly bored, and then his expression darkened. He snapped in Italian to his driver once again, sharp phrases, some questioning, the rest expressing deep displeasure. Rianna stared out of the window to give the impression she wasn’t listening, to give him privacy for his call, which was absurd as she couldn’t understand a word he was saying. But she could almost taste the tension giving his face the look of cold granite and infusing every one of his movements with simmering anger. It would be a long and uncomfortable journey she realised as the car surged ahead into thick, violet, swirling mist.
“Our plans have changed,” he bit out. “Fog, wind, a backlog of slots, and a few security concerns mean we can’t fly this evening. We’re grounded.” He raked his hands through his hair. “However my PA has arranged accommodation with suitable transfer facilities for us, so we should be able to leave at first light and catch up on our schedule.”
He wrenched out his laptop and battered the keyboard in brooding silence for the next hour of their journey.
****
Rianna craned her neck to admire the elaborate décor of Titherly Hall, their destination for the night. Its heavily plastered ceilings were art forms in themselves and she was captivated by the enormous glittering chandeliers blazing like starbursts above them. She ran her fingers over the intricately carved, dark wooden fixtures that glowed from years of polishing with beeswax, and her heels clicked deliciously on the black and white tiled floor of the entrance hall.
