Androletti's Mistress

“Who is the woman sitting opposite me now?” Massimo asked. “Is she the social-climbing gold digger, or the girl with the golden heart?”

“What if I am both?” she asked, a fleeting shadow of sadness in her gray-blue eyes as they returned to his. “What if they are one and the same?”

The waiter appeared at that moment to take their order, giving Massimo time to reflect on her answer. Massimo had waited so long for revenge. He had thought of nothing else for five long years. Each punishing day working at building his investment empire had been for this chance to turn the tables on her. He had been ruthless in his pursuit of wealth and power. His anger toward his stepfather had become almost insignificant as he had planned his revenge on her.

He was not going to be lured in by her innocent act all over again.

This time he would have her where he wanted her, where he had dreamed of having her for the past five years.

In his bed.

MELANIE MILBURNE read her first Harlequin® novel when she was seventeen and has never looked back. She decided she would settle for nothing less than a tall, dark and handsome hero as her future husband. Well, she’s not only still reading romance, but writing it as well! And the tall, dark and handsome hero? She fell in love with him on the second date and was secretly engaged to him within six weeks.

Two sons later, they arrived in Hobart, Tasmania—the jewel in the Australian crown. Once their boys were safely in school, Melanie went back to university and upgraded, receiving her bachelor’s and then her master’s degree.

As part of her final assessment, she conducted a tutorial on the romance genre. While she was reading a paragraph from the novel of a prominent Harlequin® author, the door suddenly burst open. The husband she thought was working was actually standing there dressed in a tuxedo, his dark brown eyes centered on her startled blue ones. He strode purposefully across the room, hauled Melanie into his arms and kissed her deeply and passionately before setting her back down and leaving without a single word. The lecturer gave Melanie a high distinction and her fellow students gave her jealous glares! And so her pilgrimage into romance writing was set!

Melanie also enjoys long-distance running and is a nationally ranked masters swimmer in Australia. She learned to swim as an adult, so for anyone out there who thinks they can’t do something—you can! Her motto is “Don’t say I can’t; say I CAN TRY.”

Androletti’s Mistress

Melanie Milburne

~ UNEXPECTED BABIES ~

To my mother-in-law, Joyce, and my late

father-in-law, Alf Wilkinson. I dedicate this book

to you for the very special gift you gave me in

producing the most adorable man in the world—

your son. Thank you from the bottom

of my heart. Love you.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

EPILOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

IT WAS the sort of funeral where no one shed a tear.

Nikki accepted everyone’s condolences with a composed expression on her face, even though in spite of everything she still felt a sense of deep sadness as the coffin was lowered into the cold, dark soil.

‘So sorry about Joseph,’ one of the sales managers said as he shook her hand a few minutes later. ‘But he wouldn’t want to have lingered on any longer.’

‘Thank you, Henry,’ she said, even managing to crack a small, grateful smile. ‘No, indeed he wouldn’t.’

‘Mrs Ferliani?’ A journalist pushed through the small knot of mourners. ‘Have you any comment on the successful takeover bid of Ferliani Fashions conducted by your late husband’s stepson Massimo Androletti?’

Nikki felt a shockwave go through her body at the mention of that name. She’d already scanned the small congregation repeatedly, in case he’d had the audacity to appear, but so far she hadn’t caught sight of him. ‘No, I haven’t,’ she said coolly. ‘Now, please leave; this is a private ceremony.’

‘Is it true there is nothing left of your late husband’s estate?’ the journalist persisted. ‘That Massimo Androletti now owns the business and even the house you live in?’

Nikki set her mouth. ‘I have no comment.’

Another reporter joined the first. ‘Our sources say Joseph Ferliani lost a fortune on the stock exchange, and in an effort to recoup the losses gambled away everything he and you owned.’

‘Mrs Ferliani has already told you she has no comment to make,’ a deep male voice said from just behind Nikki.

She swung around to look a long way upwards into the black, diamond gaze of Massimo Androletti. She fought hard not to reveal how seeing him after all this time affected her, but Nikki was almost certain he had noticed the tiny up-and-down movement of her throat. His expression was mask-like, but there was a glint of steely purpose in his eyes that secretly terrified her. Her stomach hollowed out, her legs began to tremble and her chest felt as if something hard and thick had lodged itself halfway down, making it almost impossible to draw in the air necessary to breathe.

‘Come this way,’ he said, putting a hand beneath her elbow, the touch of his fingers sending a current of tingling awareness right through the thick sleeve of her winter coat.

Nikki considered resisting his attempt to lead her away, but thought better of it when she felt the subtle tightening of his hold, as if he’d already sensed her intention. As she felt his latent strength, her heart began to thump behind the wall of her chest as she thought of being alone with him.

He led her to his waiting limousine parked outside the cemetery. ‘Get in,’ he commanded curtly. ‘We have things to discuss.’

Nikki sat on the plush leather seat, her legs pressed tightly together as he joined her, the huge car now seeming far too small with his long legs and six-foot-three frame taking up most of the available space. Even the air inside the car seemed to have been reduced; it physically hurt to take in each breath as she tried to steady her growing panic with deep, calm breaths.

‘To the house, thank you, Ricardo,’ Massimo said as he leaned forward to speak through the panel.

Nikki shifted even further away as he sat back in the seat, her nostrils flaring slightly as the spicy fragrance of his aftershave drifted towards her. Her stomach gave a little flutter as her eyes went to the long, hard length of his thighs within touching distance of hers. She had once felt those strong legs entwined with hers, had felt his hard male body drive into her silky moistness, his hot, commanding mouth wreak havoc on all of her senses.

‘So,’ he said as he swung his cold, hard gaze towards her. ‘Your plans to land yourself a fortune failed in the end, did they not?’

Nikki tightened her mouth without responding to his embittered jibe. He had a right to be bitter, she had to admit. She would have felt the same, if not worse, if he had done the same to her. But explaining her actions five years down the track would be pointless. Given the choice, she would have done the same thing again in spite of all it had cost her.

‘It is true what the journalist said. I now own everything,’ he said into the silence, which was taut as a violin bow. ‘But then I expect the lawyer has already explained that to you.’

‘No,’ she said, stripping the one word of any trace of emotion. ‘I haven’t yet met with him, but I plan to do so tomorrow.’

His dark brows rose slightly. ‘I would have thought that would have been your very first priority,’ he said with a cynical glint in his eyes. ‘A sluttish little gold-digger like you would surely check to see what has been left to her on her husband’s death?’

Nikki refused to show the despair she was feeling at his comment. Instead she elevated her chin and sent him an arctic look. ‘Joseph was far more important to me than his money,’ she said. ‘I don’t care if he’s left me nothing.’

His mouth tilted into a calculating smile. ‘Such wifely devotion,’ he drawled. ‘But then you are very good at acting when it suits you, are you not?’

She turned her head away to stare sightlessly out of the window.

‘He has left you nothing,’ Massimo said into the strained silence. ‘Nothing except debt, that is. Even the house is now mine.’

This time it was harder not to reveal how his statement affected her. She fought to control her expression, but she could feel the tensing of her jaw regardless as she turned back to glare at him. ‘I don’t believe you. Joseph promised he would provide for me.’

‘The way I see it, you are in a rather precarious position,’ he went on evenly, although his coal-black eyes still shone with hatred. ‘You have no income unless I choose to give it to you, no car, no house, and as of a week ago, no sugar daddy.’

Nikki really loathed that term. It demeaned everything she had come to admire and respect in Massimo’s stepfather.

Joseph Ferliani had had his faults; he had been a hard-nosed businessman for most of his life. But for all that, she had come to know him in a way she suspected few people ever had. The long, agonising months of his terminal illness had shown a side to him that he had kept well hidden, and most particularly from his stepson and arch-enemy Massimo Androletti.

‘Your stepfather was not my sugar daddy,’ she said in a clipped tone as she faced his obsidian gaze head-on.

His top lip lifted in disdain. ‘What was he, then?’

‘He was my husband and my friend,’ she answered with quiet dignity.

Something flickered in his eyes at the word ‘husband’, for which again Nikki couldn’t really blame him. It would gall most men to think they had been replaced by someone much older and richer than they were, and Massimo was clearly no different. She could feel his blistering rage in the air that separated them; her skin felt tight and prickly, and the hairs on the back of her neck lifted one by one as his eyes clashed with hers.

‘You forgot to mention he was your lover,’ he pointed out with another curl of his lip. ‘Or did he not come up to scratch in the bedroom?’

Nikki turned away again so he wouldn’t see the way her face flamed with colour. ‘I don’t wish to discuss my private details with you,’ she said. ‘It’s disrespectful, considering Joseph is not even cold in his grave, and to be quite frank it’s none of your business.’

‘It was my business five years ago, wasn’t it, Nikki?’ he reminded her. ‘But little did I know then that one drink would lead to a one-night stand with my stepfather’s future child bride.’

She ground her teeth together and bit out, ‘I was nineteen years old, surely old enough to know my own mind?’

‘You went from my bed straight to his,’ he said, his dark eyes flashing with livid sparks of fury.

Nikki felt her insides twisting with anguish. ‘I didn’t know who you were,’ she said. ‘Joseph never mentioned your name to me prior to our…marriage.’

‘So what are you saying?’ he asked with a cynical twist to his features. ‘That if you had known who I was you would not have fallen into my arms at all?’

How could she defend herself? Nikki wondered. Was there any way she could package what she had done to make it more palatable? At nineteen, she had been so very young and so heavily traumatised. She had wanted something different for herself, something so far removed from the dark, spreading stain of her childhood that she had accepted Joseph Ferliani’s offer of a lucrative marriage contract without really looking into the details as closely as she should have. As the enormity of what she’d been committing herself to had begun to dawn, she had insisted on a few days to call her own before she signed away her future into his hands.

One last week of freedom.

And on the very first day of it Massimo Androletti had been the right man at the wrong time….

CHAPTER TWO

‘CAN I buy you a drink?’ Massimo said as she walked up to the bar the first night of her stay at the city hotel Joseph had paid for as part of their agreement.

Nikki turned her head and looked at the tall, dark, handsome man sitting with a glass of spirits half finished in front of him. He was dressed in a suit, but not just any old off-the-rack suit, one that fitted him superbly. She could tell he was taller than average by the way she had to raise her head to meet his brown, almost-black eyes as he got to his feet. She was five-foot-nine without heels, so it was a bit of a novelty to have to crane her neck for a change.

He had a thick head of curly dark hair but it was cut close to his scalp, as if he was a person who liked control. His jaw and chin were determined, if not a little forceful, and yet his smile was easy and involved his dark eyes in a totally compelling way.

‘Why not?’ she suddenly found herself replying. What had she got to lose? After the harrowing afternoon she’d just been through visiting her younger brother, a drink with a perfect stranger who knew nothing of her past was just what she needed. Besides, what was that quote: ‘Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’?

‘What would you like to drink?’ he asked, leading her to one of the plush chairs in a quiet corner.

Nikki vaguely registered the hint of an Italian accent in his slightly formal use of English. How incredibly ironic, she thought. ‘Champagne,’ she said, and because she was feeling uncharacteristically reckless added, ‘But not the cheap stuff, it gives me a headache. I want the best there is.’

‘Then the best you will have,’ he said, and signalled for the bar tender.

A couple of glasses later, Nikki ended up agreeing to have dinner with him, enjoying his company in a way she hadn’t expected. She had been on very few dates; she hadn’t been all that comfortable in the company of men other than her brother. But Massimo was charming and polite, amusing and attentive, and she couldn’t help lapping it up while it lasted. But whenever the subject drifted into the territory of her background she papered over the cracks of her conscience with the parcel of lies she had constructed ever since the day her mother had died and her brother’s life had been changed for ever.

‘I’m a personal assistant,’ she said, which at least was true. ‘I’m having a week off. I thought I’d do some shopping, have some beauty treatments—you know, pamper myself a bit, that sort of thing.’

‘You do not need beauty treatments,’ he said, running his dark gaze over her. ‘You are the most naturally beautiful woman I have ever met.’

A flicker of uncertainty momentarily flashed across her features. ‘Do you really think so?’ she asked in a soft, breathless whisper.

He leaned forward to take one of her hands in his, the curl of his fingers around hers sending shooting sparks of heat to her most secret place. ‘Of course I think so,’ he said. ‘I have never met a more beautiful or desirable woman in my life.’

Nikki pulled her hand out of his to reach for her champagne glass, her stomach still flip-flopping all over the place. ‘I’m sure you’ve met plenty of women much more attractive than me,’ she said, her mouth going down at the corners.

‘On the contrary, I have met very few that compare with your translucent beauty,’ he said. ‘Your blonde hair is like a skein of silk. Your eyes are the most amazing grey-blue and you are tall, slender and graceful. You are any man’s dream.’

She looked at him searchingly. ‘You don’t think I’m too tall?’

He gave her a reproving look. ‘You are surely not going to apologise for being tall, are you? You are doing my neck a huge favour. I do not have to bend down to hear what you are saying.’

Nikki giggled, which in itself was a novelty. She couldn’t remember the last time she had found anything or anyone amusing. ‘You’re the first man in ages that I’ve looked up to,’ she said, still smiling. ‘It’s quite a change, I can tell you.’

‘Is there a current man in your life?’ he asked.

Nikki hesitated for a fraction of a second. How could she tell him she was engaged to be married to a man twenty-five years older than her? A man who was offering her a passport out of the shame that had haunted and hunted her for so long.

‘No,’ she said, rationalising that for a week at least there was no one. She was a free agent until the following Saturday, and after that she was off the market for who knew how long.

‘I find that hard to believe,’ he said. ‘What is wrong with all the young men in Melbourne?’

She smiled at him again, and took another sip of her champagne. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘Are you currently unattached?’

‘Yes,’ he said on a little jagged sigh. ‘I was involved with a woman in Sicily a few months back, but it did not work out.’

‘Have you recently arrived from Italy?’ she asked.

‘I have dual citizenship,’ he said. ‘I travel back and forth a lot on business.’

‘What sort of business?’

‘I am building up an international investment portfolio. My plan is to seek ailing companies to buy and then resell them for a profit,’ he said. ‘With proper management teams in place, a flagging business can be turned around within a year or two, or even a few months.’

‘It sounds very interesting, but rather expensive and extremely risky,’ she commented.

‘It is,’ he agreed. ‘I have a meeting later this week to hopefully organise financial backing for a company takeover I have planned for years.’

‘You sound very determined,’ she said, reaching for her glass and taking a little sip.

‘I am.’ A frown brought his dark brows together as he reached for his glass. ‘The company I want to take over was launched using money defrauded from my father. He was swindled by someone he trusted as a friend. I am on a mission to get every cent of it back.’

Nikki felt a faint shiver run up her spine at the determination in his tone. His expression had darkened, his eyes losing their playfulness, and instead they had begun to glitter with hatred. ‘So you’re after revenge?’ she asked.

He nodded grimly. ‘It is all I think about. I want to take my father’s enemy down, and I will do so, even if it takes me a lifetime to achieve it.’

‘How will you take him down?’ she asked, her heart beginning to thud with alarm. ‘You’re not going to do anything…er…underhand, are you?’

He smiled at her worried expression. ‘Of course I am not going to do anything illegal. I am simply going to outwit him in business. It should not be too hard. The best tactic in any sort of successful campaign is to know your enemy. I know all his weak spots, and so it will be relatively simple to disarm him when the time is right.’

‘He sounds like a truly horrible person,’ Nikki said, suppressing a tiny shudder. ‘Is that why you’re here?’

‘Yes and no,’ he said, his expression clouding slightly. ‘I have some meetings to attend…’He appeared to give himself a mental shake and exchanged his serious expression for a smile. ‘But enough about my troubles,’ he went on in a lighter tone. ‘Tell me about your family.’

Nikki felt her stomach drop with all-too-familiar panic. ‘M-my family?’

‘Yes; have you any brothers or sisters?’ he asked.

She concentrated on the bubbles in her glass rather than meet his gaze. ‘I have a brother two years younger than me.’

‘What about your parents? Are they still married?’

‘Yes,’ she said, reflecting wryly that it was more or less true. Her mother had still been married to her father on the day he had taken her life and ruined Jayden’s for ever.

‘You are lucky to have come from such a loving and stable background,’ Massimo said as he refilled the glasses. ‘My parents divorced when I was sixteen.’

Lucky? Nikki almost laughed out loud. The last word she would ever use to describe her background was ‘lucky’. Each day had been a fight for survival, each night an agonising wait for disaster to unfold as soon as her father had walked through the door.

‘Losing the business was bad enough, but losing my mother tipped him over.’ He paused, as if searching for the words to continue, the flash of pain in his dark eyes all the more evident.

‘What happened?’ Nikki prompted gently.

His gaze meshed with hers. ‘He took his life a few months later,’ he said. ‘I came out to the garage and found him unconscious. He had killed himself—the fumes had poisoned him, and he was unable to be revived.’

Nikki felt tears burn in her eyes for what he must have suffered. ‘I am so sorry,’ she said, reaching for his hand, her fingers curling around his. ‘No wonder you are after revenge. This ghastly man took everything away from you.’

Massimo gave her another grim look. ‘But I am going to get it all back, every single cent of it. I do not have the money to do it yet, but I will do it eventually. I know I will.’

‘Do you know something, Massimo?’ she said with an encouraging smile. ‘I believe you will, too.’

He squeezed her hand. ‘I have never met anyone like you before,’ he said, his dark eyes melting as they held hers. ‘I feel this amazing connection with you. Our backgrounds are very different, but I feel as if I have known you for a very long time—and yet we have only just met.’

Nikki felt her belly start to quiver as his long fingers stroked the underside of her wrist, the slow, sensual movement stirring her body into a whirlpool of feeling. Her breasts tightened, her nipples pressing against the lace of her bra as she held his dark-as-night gaze. ‘I feel it too,’ she said, her voice coming out low and husky.

A shadow of regret passed over his features. ‘I am only here for a week,’ he said. ‘I have to go back to Italy first thing on Sunday. But, when I return, can I see you again?’

Nikki hoped he couldn’t see the panic in her eyes as they came back to his. ‘I’m sure you will have forgotten all about me by the time you return,’ she said with a weak smile.

‘No, Nikki,’ he said, his fingers strong and determined around hers. ‘I will not forget you.’

She moistened her lips with her tongue. ‘I—I should have told you earlier,’ she said, dropping her gaze as she hastily composed her lie. ‘I don’t come from Melbourne. I’m just here on a little holiday. I won’t be here when you get back.’

‘Where will you be?’

‘Umm…Cairns.’ She said the first place that came to mind.

‘Then I will come and see you in Cairns,’ he said. ‘We can go to the Great Barrier Reef together, eh?’

‘Massimo…’ She forced her eyes to meet his. ‘I’m not sure I’m the person you—’

‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’ he asked before she could finish her sentence.

A few hours ago Nikki would have answered a resounding ‘no’, but after spending the evening in Massimo’s company she was now not so sure. She was attracted to him in a way she had never been attracted to anyone before, but it wasn’t just a physical thing—although that in itself was as overwhelming as it could ever be. It was more a sense of being in the company of a man who stood up for what he believed in. His loyalty to his father’s memory was truly admirable. It was so far removed from what she had experienced in her childhood she couldn’t help but be impressed, and indeed incredibly moved.

She thought then what a wonderful husband and father he would make. His sense of family was so strong that no one would be hurt, while under his protection. He was quite simply the most amazing man she had ever met.