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‘Are you sure? You can barely breathe from your excitement, yet you expect me to believe that this...reunion wasn’t planned?’ His disbelief mocked her.
She should’ve been mortified by how accurately he’d read her. Yet all she felt was a shockingly visceral need; a need that whipped at her with unbelievable force. Swallowing hard, she tried for a careless shrug.
‘Don’t confuse anger with arousal, Rocco. I’ve always had my doubts about some of the people you employ. Someone has obviously made a mistake. Again.’
The last word hung between them. He acknowledged it with a cynical smile. ‘You too were once my employee. Until you managed to successfully elevate your status.’
‘Believe what you want. This—’ she waved her hand between them ‘—wasn’t my doing.’
He strolled to her, reached out and ran a long, graceful finger down her heated cheek. ‘You were always very good at denial, weren’t you, tesoro?’ His thumb caressed her lower lip, his voice low, hypnotic.
Mia snatched in a fevered breath as delicious flames licked through her. His heated scent wrapped around her like a magician’s spell and she fought to remain sane. She couldn’t, wouldn’t, let him drag her back to that dangerous, euphoric place where she’d lost more than just her power of speech. She had more important things to think about.
Like Gianni awakening with Rocco still in the house.
‘This conversation is going nowhere. You’ve obviously taken the wrong turn somewhere. Tell me where you wish to go and I’ll happily point you in the right direction.’
He ignored her suggestion and continued his caress along her jaw, sparking a belly-clenching hunger that terrified her.
‘You surprise me by maintaining the same tired line of defence. There was an appointment in your electronic diary both on your computer and your phone; a meeting took place during which you discussed confidential plans you were working on at Vitelli Construction. This was corroborated by more than one person.’
He was determined to drag her through their last, humiliating encounter, where he’d hurled soul-searing accusations at her. But short of throwing him out of her house—an impossibility given his sheer size—she had to get through this as quickly as possible.
‘I never denied attending that meeting, but I thought I was acting in my capacity as your structural engineer.’
He cupped her chin and tilted her face to his. ‘Yet you conveniently neglected to mention you’d passed on sensitive information regarding the Abu Dhabi project. And the fact that you’d accepted a job offer with a company in direct competition with mine.’
Mia gritted her teeth and breathed through her rising stress. ‘I didn’t divulge sensitive information. And the job was offered. Out of politeness I said I’d think about it. Besides, against Vitelli Construction, they would never have been serious competition.’
A superior smile curved his lips. ‘I agree. That aspect of your betrayal was sorely misjudged and didn’t cause me even a moment’s discomfort.’
She sucked in an astonished breath. If Rocco hadn’t condemned her for that... ‘Then why—’
His smile disappeared. The atmosphere turned from darkly sensual to arctic in the space of a heartbeat. ‘You dare to ask me why?’
Confused, she rubbed her temple. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, bu
t you broke off our engagement, fired me and threw me out of the Milan headquarters because you thought I’d stolen your blueprints and given them to your competitor to secure myself a job.’
‘I didn’t think. I knew it for a fact.’
‘So, if you cared so little about that, what exactly ended our relationship?’
He carried on regarding her, his expression cold, forbidding.
Rocco wasn’t a man to be crossed. She knew this from painful experience. So why was she questioning him? Why not keep her mouth shut, let him leave? What did it matter that he’d ended their relationship two months before their wedding? What did it matter that it appeared the subject of the stolen blueprints wasn’t the only thing that had blackened her in his eyes?
What he’d done afterwards was unforgivable. He’d ruined her life and dismissed his unborn child with heartless cruelty. Which was why she needed to tread carefully. For Gianni’s sake, she couldn’t end up in jail—
‘Are you serious?’ he bit out eventually.
Mia waved him away with fabricated flippancy. ‘It doesn’t matter—’
‘Doesn’t matter? Have you any idea what your betrayal did to my grandmother? Do you know the heartache you caused by telling her you had no intention of ever bearing my child?’
She gasped. ‘But—’
‘She was inconsolable for weeks!’
