Susan Stephens - Italian Mavericks - Bound By The Italian's Bargain - The Italian's Ruthless Seduction / Bound to the Tuscan Billionaire / Bought by Her Italian Boss

He shrugged. ‘I’m a bachelor living in the twenty-first century. Of course I can cook. If you call steak and salad cooking,’ he added with a wickedly attractive grin.

Oh, God...

Bella didn’t trust herself to behave if they had an intimate dinner alone in the villa. Far better they dined out in public. Dining out would also guarantee that Sergio would have some decent clothes on. Who knew what he would wear here at home? The weather was hot. Maybe he’d just put on some shorts, leaving his chest bare. His gorgeous, sexy chest.

‘I don’t mind steak and salad,’ she said, dragging her lusty eyes away from that corrupting chest to top up her wine, ‘but I think I would like to go out. Provided I get some sleep first.’

‘Fine. I’m easy. You’re not eating,’ he pointed out.

‘Oh. No. I’m not very hungry. Just tired and thirsty.’ She swiftly lifted the wine glass to her lips and drained it dry, sighing as she put it back down on the table, hoping that the alcohol would dampen her desire and make her sleep. Scraping her chair back, she stood up, startled to find that her legs were decidedly wobbly. ‘I think I will go up to my room now.’

‘Take the plate with you,’ he suggested. ‘You need to eat, Bella.’

‘Are you saying I’m too thin?’ she snapped, having grown sensitive to comments about her eating habits in recent years. When she was stressed, she couldn’t eat. On the rare occasions she felt happy, she ate with relish, her weight going up and down like a yo-yo. She often lost more than she should, however. At the moment, she was slightly underweight. But not dangerously so.

‘You could afford to put on a few pounds,’ he said.

Although the comment was honest, it still upset Bella.

‘And you could afford to be a little more polite,’ she shot back. ‘I expect to be criticised by the media but not my friends.’

To give him credit, his expression was immediately remorseful. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. I’m usually more tactful than that. I’m worried about you, that’s all. As I said earlier, you are a very beautiful woman, Bella. You would be beautiful no matter what weight you were. But it’s clear you’ve been working yourself too hard. You need to relax, and to eat, not just drink.’

‘Might I remind you, Sergio,’ she retorted, her dander right up now, ‘that you are not my big brother any more. My welfare is not your concern. Neither is my weight. So spare me the lectures on eating and drinking. If I wanted to be lectured I would have stayed in Sydney with my mother. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going upstairs to have some much-needed rest.’

* * *

Sergio winced as he watched her flounce off.

Well done, Sergio. That’s the way to seduce a woman. Tell her she’s too skinny!

Sergio laughed a dry laugh. At least she recognised that he wasn’t her big brother any more. She’d called him a friend. That was a start. But it suddenly felt a long way from friend to lover.

Maria came out onto the terrace and glared down at the uneaten food.

‘Leave it,’ Sergio said when she went to pick up the plate. ‘I’m hungry enough for two.’ He always ate like a horse when he was stressed.

Maria made a tsk-tsk noise with her mouth. ‘That girl...she is too thin.’

‘I know,’ Sergio said. ‘I told her so.’ And he took a big bite of bruschetta.

Maria stared at him as if he was mad. Which he was. Stark raving mad.

‘You are stupido,’ she said, waving her hands in the air. ‘How you think you get Bella into bed if you say things like that?’

Sergio almost choked on his food. Still, he should have known that he wouldn’t be able to deceive Maria. She was one smart woman. At least now he wouldn’t have to hide his intentions from her. Or the evidence, if he was ever successful. Which at that moment seemed unlikely.

‘How long have you known?’ he asked her.

‘That you are in love with Bella?’ She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I have always known. Ever since you were children. You become a different boy when she came into your life. She lit up your soul.’

Sergio laughed again. She certainly lit up something. But it wasn’t his soul. ‘I am not in love with Bella, Maria. I did love her when I was a boy. How could anyone not love her back then? But she is no longer the enchanting little girl she once was. She’s grown up into a tough cookie with an all-consuming career and a string of lovers a mile long. She’s also grown into the most desirable woman God ever put breath into. So yes, I would like to get her into bed. I won’t deny it. But that’s all I want.’

‘You men,’ Maria scoffed. ‘You never know what you want, or what you feel. My Carlo. He thought the same, but once I am having his child, he saw the truth. That it is love all along.’

‘Are you talking about me, caro?’ the man himself said as he walked out onto the terrace.

Carlo was a handsome man with curly black hair and a carefree disposition. He’d had a roving eye in his younger years but was now a devoted family man, proving that people could change.

‘Sì, Carlo,’ Maria said, smiling at him. ‘I was saying what a wonderful husband and papà you are.’

Carlo beamed. ‘I do my best. I must away, Sergio. School will be out and those bambinos of mine, they are little devils.’

‘Is the boat all ready to go?’ Sergio asked.

He had set Carlo the task of cleaning his father’s speedboat whilst he’d vacuumed the pool.

‘Sì. I check the engine and clean everything till it shine.’

‘Then go, by all means,’ Sergio said, thinking how much Carlo’s English had improved over the years. They never spoke Italian at the villa, Maria explaining that with the explosion of tourism at the lake they both needed to be able to speak perfect English. ‘And many thanks. You are a very good worker, Carlo.’

‘And you are a very good boss. Ciao.’

‘But still a stupid one,’ Maria said with rolling eyes once her husband was gone.

Sergio sighed. ‘I get the point, Maria. You don’t have to rub it in.’

She muttered something in Italian under her breath, then whirled and stalked off, leaving Sergio feeling disgusted with himself. Both Alex and Jeremy would have been disgusted too, if they’d witnessed the most classic faux pas of all faux pas when it came to seduction. Neither of them would have been so crass as to make a comment about a woman’s weight.

It was all Bella’s fault, of course. Whenever she entered his head, his brain got scrambled.

Think, Sergio. Think!

There were two courses of action he could take, he decided as he finished off the bruschetta and wine. He could adopt the patient approach. Just talk to her at first, like a friend. Ask her questions about her career. Show an interest in her life. Find out what she planned to do in the future. He’d often found that women liked men who were good listeners.

Alternatively, he could revert to the bad-boy approach, which would mean that the next time they were alone together, if the mood was right, he would make a pass. Not crass, of course. Something suave and sophisticated. Something original and clever. It would be a risk, but one worth taking. For Sergio suspected that he would quickly run out of patience with Bella sleeping in the bedroom next to his. He certainly wouldn’t get much sleeping done.

Laughing ruefully at this last thought, he stood up, dumped the empty glasses in the wine bucket with the bottle, gathered up the plates and carried everything into the huge kitchen.

Maria glanced up from where she was busy writing some sort of list.

‘What is so funny?’ she asked.

‘Life, Maria. Life,’ he said as he put the bottle in the recycling bin and the rest in the dishwasher. ‘Now go home. You’ve done enough for today. I don’t want to see you till lunchtime tomorrow. And before you start arguing, Bella and I are quite capable of getting ourselves breakfast.’