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I sat up straight in my chair as her soft voice entered my ear.
“Hello, Olivia Jones?” I said, clearing my voice quickly when it came out hoarser than normal. What was wrong with me?
“Yeah. Who is this?”
I smirked at her fiery tone. She was a feisty woman. I like my women wild; it makes it that much more fun to tame them.No! She is off limits now.“Giovanni Buccini. We met earlier today at the interview.”
She paused for a moment, “I remember.”
Her curt response surprised me and I took a moment to regain my composure. No woman has ever had the balls to address me like this. It was refreshing although annoying as hell too. But as much as I wanted to put her in her place,over my knee, I couldn’t scare her away. I scoffed at the inappropriate thoughts my mind took me to. “We would like to offer you the job starting tomorrow.”
There was a silence at the end of the phone, and I waited impatiently for her response. My foot started tapping on the floor.
“Why?” Her surprised voice made me want to laugh. Of course, she didn’t think she would be hired. She shouldn’t after the way she spoke to me, but that was my mother’s doing.
“My mother liked you. She thinks you will do well with my brother and sister. You will need to arrive here by half seven-tomorrow morning to go through some security procedures before you start. This would be on a two-week probation to see how you get on.” I could hear her panting through the earpiece, and it sounded like she was out of breath. “Is everything alright?” I asked. The image of her panting on top of me as she rides my di…snap out of it Gio!
“Yeah…um sorry I was just out for a run. Thank you for the offer but I am afraid I am going to have to turn it down.”
I blinked rapidly as I digested her words. What? Turn it down? Is she insane? This time it is my turn to be shocked, “Why?”
“I just don’t think I am the right fit for what you are looking for. I’m not what you need,” her words travelled straight through my body, causing a flurry of alien emotions to emerge.She is everything I am looking for. She is what I need.I shook my head quickly. What the fuck is wrong with me?
“I would have to disagree, Olivia. My mother thinks you are perfect for this job, and she is very adamant that you take it,” I relished the way her name rolled off my tongue.
“Well, I am sorry to disappoint her. But I don’t think this is going to work for me,” her voice had a sharper edge to it now, as if she was getting annoyed. I should be the one getting annoyed! No one says no to me.
I sighed and rested my head on my hand on the desk and ran my fingers through my dark hair. This was not playing out how I expected and this woman was giving me a headache already. And for some strange reason, panic was setting in. I should just accept her refusal and move on. But I couldn’t. It was just another sign of her defiance and I needed to break her.
“What would you say if we doubled the salary?” I spoke quickly. There was another long silence at her end and I waited with bated breath for her response.
“I would say you are insane. Why would you pay a nanny 100,000 euros a year?”
I chuckled through the phone and my dick stirred against my trousers. I was starting to enjoy this girl’s spunkiness.
“Because I can. So?” I pressed, my patience wearing thin.
“Okay,” her voice was small, unsure, and I smiled. Good. Mamma would be pleased.
“Don’t be late and bring your passport as ID.” I hung up the phone before she could change her mind and leaned back in my chair as I raised my hands behind my head. Without even realising, my mood had been lifted and I felt a flutter of excitement. As soon as I realised how widely I was smiling, my face fell. No fucking way. I was going to have to keep my distance from this woman. There were no two ways about it. I had to stay away from her.
A Tempting Offer
Olivia
I stared at the battered, second-hand phone in my hand, breathing rapidly, partly because of the exertion of running, but also because I had just been offered 100k euros for a job! What the hell! These people have far too much money to know what to do with! As much as I never wanted to set foot in that place again, I couldn’t refuse that kind of money. I was down to my last 100 euros of savings, and I was desperate.
I suppose I was just going to have to try to avoid Giovanni Buccini as much as possible. I couldn’t deny that hearing his deep, husky voice through the phone had sent my body into overdrive. I hated how much my body reacted to him. But luckily my mind was stronger. I will be able to ignore these feelings eventually. This attraction I felt towards him. It was only because he was so good-looking. It was like if you walked down the road and ran straight into Tom Hardy’s chest. Your body will react! How could it not? I just had to train myself to ignore it.
Putting my phone back in my leggings pouch, I started to pick up the pace again and head back to the flat. Running has become my own form of therapy. It always helped me clear my mind and shake the unwelcome feelings or flashbacks that threatened me. I have had a lot of therapy since that night. Community therapists tried to help me come to terms with what had happened. Sex therapists tried to help me overcome my fear of going all the way with someone again and not suffering the panic attacks it evoked. I wanted to move on with my life. I wanted to get a boyfriend and enjoy sex like everyone else my age, but the memory of him was always lurking in the shadows.
It has been five years since Henry killed Nate while he was still inside me. The guilt I would have to live with for the rest of my life sometimes becomes so great that it cripples me. There would be days where I was just a mess. Crying for no apparent reason over the smallest things. Retreating into myself and pulling away from the world. It has been tough, but I keep reminding myself that it is nothing compared to the grief Nate’s family were feeling every day. They lost their son in a brutal attack. He had done nothing wrong except get involved with me. I was the reason he was dead. The therapists tried to convince me that it wasn’t my fault. What Henry did that night was nothing to do with me. He had an illness. A disease. That’s what the courts decided. He pleaded guilty by reason of insanity or mental illness and was granted a sentence in a mental health institution instead of jail. It wasn’t justice. Henry knew what he was doing that night. He knew the difference between right and wrong and still picked up the knife. He should be in jail but he was clever. Manipulative. So was his father who helped him get the most ruthless lawyer to sway the case and plead insanity. I don’t deny that he was insane, but he was also evil. Through and through.
After the worst two years of my life, I managed to find the strength to get myself together. To go to university as planned and train to be a teacher. Nate would not have wanted me to fall apart like I had and it was his spirit that gave me strength. I had to live for him. I wasn’t going to give Henry the satisfaction of ruining two lives.
I was slowly getting on with things. I was reserved and kept myself to myself through university, barely going to any parties and just studying hard. People thought of me as a bit of an outcast. I was a few years older than the other freshers because of my two-year breakdown. Millie was my rock. Without her, I wouldn’t have survived. This last year, I was finally starting to feel myself again. Starting to enjoy my life, making new friends and trying new things. And then I got the call that changed everything. He had escaped from the mental institution. Strangled a warden with a telephone cable in the middle of the night. He was out there somewhere, and I knew he was coming for me. The police offered me surveillance protection for a few weeks until they could find him, but I knew I couldn’t live like that. I was already the most talked about girl in my hometown and I didn’t want to be a prisoner in my own dorm either. So, Millie and I made the difficult decision to make me disappear. I changed my last name, dyed my ashen hair dark brown, deleted all my social media and left the country with only a rucksack of belongings and a handful of cash from Millie and my savings. I got a burner phone, hence the shitty Nokia, and the only numbers I had saved were Millie, Giulia and my lawyer. I hadn’t called Millie since I left. I didn’t want to risk putting her in danger. It was better if I was no longer in her life or my mum's. No one knows where I am or what I am doing. Until he was found, that was the way it had to be.
As I reached the idyllic little side street my apartment was on that I shared with Giulia, I slowed my pace. Sweat trickled down my chest and face from the heat of the afternoon sun and I pushed open the little green door that was barely hanging on for life to enter the building. It was old and falling apart but had a rustic charm to it. I loved it here. The first night I arrived in Italy, I slept in a hostel in Venice and that’s where I met a girl who went to school with Giulia. She said she was looking for a roommate and lived in Verona. I jumped at the chance and felt so lucky that this opportunity fell into my lap. Climbing the steep steps to our little two-bed apartment, I bumped straight into Luca on the stairwell. He was one of Giulia’s friends.
