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‘I’m serious—’
Sergio lifted the phone and punched in a number. A moment later he was talking in rapid Italian.
‘Would you be interested in becoming a receptionist?’ he enquired in casual aside.
Kathy nodded in immediate eager acknowledgement. After a brief further dialogue he replaced the phone and gave her an address to go to the following morning. ‘For an interview?’ she asked.
‘No, the job’s yours for three months. Longer, if you make a good impression.’
‘Thanks,’ she muttered awkwardly as the limo came to a halt.
‘I owed you.’ Sergio stepped out.
Uncertainly Kathy climbed out, as well, but he didn’t notice; he was already walking away with two of his bodyguards following close behind him. His departure was the epitome of casualness. Before she sank back into the limo, she noticed a stocky older man on the pavement treating her to a flinty appraisal. His gloomy face was vaguely familiar and she knew she had seen him before, even if she could not recall where. When he got into the car behind, which previously had disgorged the bodyguards, she realised that he must work for Sergio.
The chauffeur captured her attention by asking her where she wanted to go. As the luxury vehicle moved off again to drop her at the library, she was in a happy daze at the prospect of starting a new job.
Almost two weeks later, Sergio arrived back in London. He was in an excellent mood.
Grave-faced, Renzo Catallone met his employer off his private jet and passed him a slim file.
‘I realise I’m putting my job on the line here. But I can’t be in charge of your personal security and keep quiet,’ the security chief declared tautly. ‘It’s vital that you take a look at this dossier. I’m convinced that your watch has been stolen.’
CHAPTER FOUR
EYES AS BRIGHT AS STARS, Kathy studied her reflection in the mirror.
‘Put on a pair of sunglasses and a bored expression and you’ll be taken for a celebrity!’ Bridget Kirk teased, her cheerful face wreathed in smiles.
Kathy was dressed in a vintage sixties dress the zingy yellow of a citrus fruit. It was a sleeveless sheath that hugged her slight curves as though it had been custom-made, and Kathy thought it gave her an amazingly classy look. She felt that that was an important consideration for a date with a guy who had been born into a family with a history that stretched back several centuries. While she was by no means intimidated by Sergio Torrente’s background, which she had checked out on the internet, she had cringed at the reality that he might well wince if she turned out to see him in another pair of jeans. In actuality her wardrobe contained nothing fancier than black trousers.
And trying to remedy that problem on her income in the first weeks of a new job was out of the question. The struggle to survive until she received her first pay as a receptionist was proving a major challenge, even though she had worked almost every night at the café. She was very lucky that Bridget had come to her rescue with the suggestion that she might borrow an outfit from the café manager’s vintage fashion collection accumulated from various charity shops.
‘I don’t know how to thank you.’ Kathy enveloped the older woman in an impulsive hug. ‘I know how proud you are of your clothes and I promise I’ll look after the dress.’
Delighted to see Kathy so animated and talkative, Bridget returned the hug with enthusiasm. ‘I’m pleased that you’re finally going out on a date!’
‘But it won’t last five minutes with Sergio.’ Kathy delivered that forecast with a shrug of a narrow shoulder to show how low her expectations were and reached for her jeans, intending to get changed. ‘I think he’s just curious about how the other half lives.’
‘Will you tell him?’
Kathy paled and tensed. She knew immediately that Bridget was referring to the prison sentence that the younger woman had served. ‘I don’t think Sergio will be around long enough for a heartfelt confession to become necessary. But if he asks too many awkward questions, I won’t lie—’
‘Give things a chance to develop first,’ Bridget advised hurriedly.
‘He’s too sophisticated and well travelled to fool. If I tried to pretend I spent all that time abroad I’d soon trip myself up,’ Kathy countered gently.
‘He’s not going to ask for map references, Kathy,’ the little brunette scolded. ‘Don’t go spilling it all out when there’s no need. You’re entitled to a few secrets until you know him better.’
Bridget was very much a romantic and Kathy wouldn’t have had her any other way, but Kathy had not been able to bring herself to the point of confessing to her friend that she had already been intimate with Sergio. In fact, the more Kathy thought about that, the more disturbed and ashamed she became over her behaviour. She was annoyed that she had not had more sense. The fear that there might be consequences from their contraceptive accident was one she kept pushed to the back of her mind; she was planning to do a pregnancy test in a couple of days.
Surprisingly, Sergio had actually phoned her four times since he had left London. He had called her from Norway and talked with astonishing enthusiasm about white-outs and skiable peaks. Whether he was telling her about living rough in a wilderness of snow fields, frozen lakes and forest or revealing an abiding passion for what she had discovered was the world’s most expensive coffee, Sergio could be very entertaining.
Ka
thy had, however, satisfied her curiosity about him on the internet and had been both intrigued and troubled by what she learned. Born to an almost royal existence of extreme privilege in a vast Italian palazzo, Sergio had evidently led a charmed life until he became mysteriously estranged from his father while he was still at university. Although virtually disinherited in favour of his younger half-brother, Sergio had still contrived to make his first million by the age of twenty-two and he had hogged the fast lane of energetic high-powered achievement ever since. Super-rich and super-successful, he maintained the same hectic pace in his private life. He had a rather chilling reputation with women. When he wasn’t doing his utmost to kill himself in dangerous sporting activities, he was staving off boredom with a relentless parade of beautiful women, all of whom belonged to the celebrity and socialite sets.
As Kathy caught the bus home from work the following evening, she was striving not to dwell too much on those unpalatable truths because, by finding her employment, Sergio had single-handedly contrived to transform her life. Her new job was in a busy advertising agency, which buzzed with activity at all hours of the day and she absolutely loved it. A quick learner, she had already been complimented on her work. It was the opportunity she had so badly needed to prove her ability and gain experience. But without Sergio’s intervention she knew that she would not have been given that chance. That did not mean she planned to sleep with him when she saw him that night, but it did mean that she would probably continue to hold back and not beat him if they ever played chess again.
