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Cold incredulity flashed in his eyes.‘Sei serio adesso?’Are you serious right now?
‘Sì, io sono.’Giada wasn’t sure why she answered in her mother’s language. Why uttering the husky words sent a pulse of...somethingthrough her veins. Or even why Alessio inhaled sharply, as if the samesomethingspiralling through her afflicted him too.
All she knew was that she had to take proper control or,dear God, she risked losing her mind and scuppering this mission before she was of any use to her sister.
Fingers gripping the rich woollen coat doing a sterling job of warming her body, she ploughed ahead. ‘I’m only asking for what you failed to deliver during our last meeting. For starters, you cut the interview short. You said some pretty unpleasant things and you prejudged me without giving me a chance to defend myself. I think that was wrong and unfair. If nothing else, you owe me for helping you with the situation in Monaco.’
Giada secretly exhaled in relief for delivering it with confidence. Somehow, she’d suspected it might come in handy.
She’d made Gigi repeat this part over and over so she didn’t get it wrong, all while being secretly appalled her sister wanted to work for this man in spite of the awful way he’d treated her.
That confidence threatened to dissolve when Alessio narrowed his eyes. ‘You’re serious,’ he mused harshly, in English this time. ‘You want me to interview you right now? After your actions, I’d be a fool to let you anywhere near my business.’
Giada forced a shrug, even as apprehension at delving deeper into this subterfuge ate like acid through her bones. ‘Or you’ll get the chance to see my full potential. After all, if I can swipe your precious family crest right from under your nose...’
His jaw gritted at the reminder. ‘What you’re forgetting is that I employ fixers, not con-women or cat burglars. And most definitely not petty thieves.’
‘And I’m none of those things. I told you, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing to prove a point. Oh, and I don’t just want an interview,’ she tagged on bravely.
‘Santi copra,’he cursed under his breath.
She rushed on before the volcanic rumble became a full explosion. ‘Your reputation as a hard taskmaster is well known. But so is the fact that you can be even-handed when it suits you.’
His gaze threatened to flay her. ‘You think pandering to my vanity will swing things your way?’
In truth, she’d hoped it would.
Men in his position tended to love shameless sycophants. But clearly this man was cut from a different cloth. ‘No. I suspect you believe you have the biggest balls when you walk into any room whether anyone cares or not. But Iamhoping you have the integrity to go with that ego. So this is my ask—set me a task. Let me fix something for you. If I fail, you get your crest back and we go our separate ways, no harm no foul.’
‘And if you pass?’ His tone held decisive scorn, his belief that she would fail throbbing through every syllable.
Giada’s fingers tightened around his coat to hide their shaking, praying she wasn’t digging a deeper hole for her sister by heading down this perilous path. Giada didn’t have the first clue how to be a fixer for a molten-eyed Sicilian who looked set to emulate the emblematic volcano that soared its majesty in his homeland. ‘You give me a role on your team or write a good enough reference for me to land a similar job elsewhere.’
Silence, thick and charged, reigned in the car for a full minute.
Giada urged herself not to fidget.
When it got too much, she flicked her gaze up from where she’d pinned it on the dashboard. As suspected, his gleaming eyes were fixed on her, his expression inscrutable. Calculating. She didn’t dare be relieved he was no longer furious, not when he was examining her like a specimen under a powerful microscope.
‘You want a job with me this badly?’ he drawled, his accent a little more pronounced, drawing further tingles over her body.
Saying yes felt like admitting to much,muchmore. But she’d boxed herself into this corner. She had no choice but to respond. ‘Yes, I do.’
‘Where was this fire back in Monaco? Back then, you were more interested in the perks of the job, not the job itself, if memory serves.’
Giada silently berated her sister for her flakiness. Then shrugged again. ‘That was then, this is now. Do we have a deal?’
She hadn’t seen it happen, but Alessio’s fingers were no longer clenched around the wheel. Somehow one wrist rested on top of it now, and he’d angled his body and draped his other arm over the back of her seat. In the semi-dark interior of the car, his large body reclined like a lazy predator sizing up its prey.
The knots in her belly tightened as awaited his answer. She had zero recourse if he decided he’d had enough and handed her over to the authorities. Her only hope was that he wanted the quickest path to retrieving his property and wouldn’t want to bother with the bureaucratic red tape of dealing with the police.
Or, as a fixer, he might want to do things his own way...
Caution whispered through her, diverting her focus from his far too fascinating face to the door.
From the corner of her eye, she caught his hard smirk. ‘Rethinking your own ultimatums, Miss Parker?’ Silky, dangerous words that feathered alarmed tingles over her body.
Giada tried to hide her shivery reaction by boldly meeting his gaze, chin raised. ‘Not at all. I’m only wondering how long you intend to keep me in dramatic suspense.’
