CAROL MARINELLI - Hired - The Italian's Convenient Mistress

In this crazy day he had helped her too—was helping her now.

This heady, blinding kiss was frenzied almost—like an anaesthetic, dousing pain, dimming thought. His hands knotted in her hair as he drank from her mouth, his mouth so hot on hers there was a delicious hurt. Deep lusty kisses both claimed and bestowed, and each breath she took was his, each breath she gave he gulped in. It was a dangerous kiss that could only lead moreto more. Yet somehow he made her feel safe, his strong arms holding her, his hands clutching her to him, his lips grazing her neck, the scratch of his chin on her sensitive skin making her weak. She’d never been kissed like this before—never been wanted or wanted so badly herself. The heady rush fizzed in her veins, racing around her body—stroking her pelvic floor like an inner caress. And it had to stop, because if it didn’t then they wouldn’t.

Pulling back her head, though his arms still circled her body, she called a reluctant halt. Both were staring, both breathing as if they had run a mile. The delicious shock doused her, her own body’s response astonished her— every encounter in her life laid end to end didn’t come close to matching this.

‘Don’t…’ He husked his response to her unvoiced statement—disparity evident as her body thrummed in his arms.

‘I have to.’ She could hardly speak, her whole body so drenched with arousal, so utterly opposed to her mind, that it took every ounce of effort she possessed to walk from his room, to lie on her bed…to walk away from his.

It was just a kiss . She told herself. A kiss because…

Only she couldn’t answer that one. Ainslie’s fingers moved to her mouth, feeling it swollen where his lips had been. She could still feel the tender flesh of her neck where his chin had made her raw.

And it wasn’t just a kiss—kisses had never left her weak like that; kisses had never left her lost. Which she had been, completely lost in the moment with him.

She tried to put it out of her mind, to focus on her problems instead of letting her imagination wander, to tell herself to let it go.

But her body said otherwise. And the slightly open bedroom doors channelled their want as they both lay alone in the oppressive silence. Ainslie, her body twitching with desire and thick, greedy need, lay there rigid, almost in desperation for the escape they had briefly found, willing herself to relax, to sleep. Trying to ignore the man who lay just metres away, who was, after one kiss, the only man who had utterly moved her.

CHAPTER FOUR

‘WHEN did all that come?’ Exhausted, dishevelled, and still coming to terms with yesterday, Ainslie had tripped over a pile of luxury luggage in the hall.

‘While you were sleeping,’ Elijah said, not looking up. Dressed only in a pair of grey hipsters, unshaven and tousled, he still managed to look absurdly sexy as he shared a bowl of cereal with Guido—one spoon for his nephew, then a larger one for Elijah. ‘I arranged some belongings to be couriered over yesterday.’ He glanced up at her raised eyebrows—raised because, with all that had taken place, how could he even think about clothes? ‘I couldn’t face putting on my suit again today.’

‘Oh!’ Ainslie said, feeling horribly small all of a sudden, as she tried to work out the kitchen. She knew how adrift she felt without all of her belongings—but at least she had clean knickers.

Elijah turned to face her. ‘I’ve also arranged a driver—Tony. He’s going to be staying in a room on the third floor, so he’s available whenever you need him—that is if you stay.’

‘A live-in driver!’

‘It’s impossible to park in London.’ Elijah shrugged, lying easily. She didn’t need to know he’d actually arranged a bodyguard for Guido—there was no way he was risking the Castellas coming to take him. ‘And I don’t like walking. Actually,’ he conceded slightly, ‘he’s just broken up with his wife and he needs a live-in job. It was either him or rely on taxis.’

‘You’ve been busy.’

‘I always am.’ Elijah waited till she came over before continuing. ‘Look, I really don’t want to push, but I need to know if you are willing to work for me.’

His eyes met hers when finally she joined him at the breakfast table. There had been no mention of what had taken place last night. He’d shown not a trace of awkwardness when he’d greeted her. In fact he was so cool, so completely together, Ainslie even wondered if she’d imagined the whole thing—like some strange erotic dream that made her blush to think about it. She was actually starting to wonder if anything had happened, because Elijah didn’t look at all fazed or embarrassed.

Or maybe he was just used to it, Ainslie mused as she sugared her coffee. Perhaps he was so used to snogging the hired help whenever it took his fancy it didn’t merit a second thought.

It had merited more than a second thought for Ainslie. Problems like finding work and somewhere to live in a strange country just a few days before Christmas, like coming up with some quick money to pay off her debt, had all become mere irrelevancies as she’d lain in bed and relived his kiss over and over.

And now he was asking for an answer as to whether she would work for him—an answer that, on several levels, she was hesitant to give.

‘Can I have some time to think about it?’

‘Unfortunately, no—I have already received a rather irate call from Guido’s case worker. It would seem that I should not have taken him without the Social Services department’s approval.’

‘Well, that would have gone down well!’ Ainslie couldn’t keep the note of sarcasm out of her voice.

‘It didn’t.’

‘So how did you respond?’

‘I said that perhaps they should question their procedures rather than me!’ He gave a tight smile. ‘That didn’t go down too well either! And Marco and his wife, Dina, have arrived, and have made it clear that they will be applying for custody. Guido’s case worker is coming to meet with me here this morning—it would be helpful to say that I already have arranged childcare, and if you can’t work for me I can at least call an agency and be able to say that I have lined up some interviews.’

‘I understand that…’ Ainslie stirred honey into some porridge and attempted to feed a less than impressed Guido, who was far happier sharing his uncle’s bowl. ‘I just don’t think it’s going to be possible for me to work for you.’

‘Because you have another job to go to?’ She could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

‘No.’

‘Because you would rather spend Christmas in a youth hostel?’

His arrogance didn’t faze her.

‘Maybe because I’d prefer to have a few days off over

Christmas and New Year rather than being treated like dirt while I mind some rich family’s child!’ She gave him a sweet smile over Guido’s porridge, but it didn’t meet her eyes. They both knew that wasn’t the reason.

‘I would not treat you badly. And there would be no repeat…’ He didn’t elaborate. He didn’t have to. The colour roared up her cheeks as for a dangerous second they both revisited last night, as her erotic dream was confirmed as reality. ‘The top floor is self contained—you could have that. We could draw up a contract…’

‘That’s not the only issue…’ Ainslie swallowed hard, her face burning as she wondered if a lie was a lie if it was by omission. It would be so, so easy to accept his offer. The thought of spending Christmas at a youth hostel, of searching for work at the most impossible time of the year, was daunting to say the least. She knew Elijah was desperate, that he probably wouldn’t get around to checking her references for a while, but still integrity won, and Ainslie knew she had somehow to tell him her truth without revealing Gemma’s indiscretion. ‘You might not want me looking after Guido.’ Two vertical lines deepened on the bridge of his nose, but that was the only reaction she took in before she quickly looked away. ‘It wasn’t a mutual parting of ways—I was actually sacked yesterday.’