Annie's Secret

Chapter Three

‘YOU’RE just in time,’ the woman at the end of the row of seats at the back of the conference room commented as she scooted along so that Annie could sit down beside her.

Annie had been completely flustered by that encounter with Luc on the beach earlier—by her uncertainty as to whether or not she should tell him about Oliver during dinner this evening—that she’d had very little time to shower and dress in preparation for this afternoon’s meeting.

Consequently she’d only just managed to get into the conference room before the doors were closed. She sat down hurriedly now as the head of the conference stood to make several announcements before it came time to introduce the guest speaker for the afternoon, her thoughts still on the dilemma of whether or not to tell Luc about their son.

Oliver was only three years old now, but when he was older he might come to resent the fact that he had grown up without knowing his father. He might actually come to hate Annie for not telling Luc about him—

‘I don’t know about you, but he’s the only reason I fought so hard to come on this course,’ the blonde woman beside Annie said in an excited whisper.

Annie had no idea which ‘he’ the woman was referring to, although she somehow doubted it could be the sixty-year-old chairman of the conference, Daniel Russell. Not that she was particularly interested in the other woman’s conversation. How could she be, when she was so churned up inside at the thought of what was best for Oliver?

‘He almost never appears in public any more, you know,’ the woman continued confidingly.

‘Really?’ Annie answered distractedly, her thoughts still firmly on Luc.

Obviously Luc was Italian, but he’d told her long ago at the ski resort that his home was in Rome, so what was he doing at a hotel in Lake Garda, of all places?

More to the point, how long did he intend staying here?

Long enough to have insisted Annie have dinner with him this evening, at least, so that the two of them could ‘talk’!

‘—a warm welcome to Luca de Salvatore!’ Daniel Russell announced proudly.

Annie glanced without interest at the podium, her eyes then widening in disbelief as she stared at the dark-suited man who strode arrogantly onto the slightly raised platform to take his place so confidently behind that podium.

It was him!

Luc.

No, not Luc, Annie realised as she began to tremble, but Luca de Salvatore.

Oliver’s father was Luca de Salvatore!

Anyone who was anyone in the world of business—even the usually stay-at-home Annie—had heard of Luca de Salvatore. It was impossible not to have heard of the man who had taken over the reins of his father’s crumbling business empire several years ago, before ruthlessly cutting the number of employees of that business empire to the bone, and then proceeding to eliminate or simply take over any and all of the competitors who stood in the way of the de Salvatore business empire, retaking its place as one of the most powerful in the world.

Making Luca de Salvatore, as the head of that extensive and successful business empire, one of the most powerful men in the world…

Annie had never even guessed, never imagined, that the Luca de Salvatore, spoken of with so much awe and respect by people equally as powerful as he, such as her father, was actually Luc! Her Luc!

No, not her Luc, Annie corrected shakily. He had never been her Luc. One night together four and a half years ago hadn’t made him hers. And Luca de Salvatore, with a well-earned reputation for being coldly ruthless in his personal life as well as in business, had never belonged to any woman.

She had to get out of here. Needed to think—

Annie froze on the spot, literally couldn’t move a muscle, was held completely captive, as the piercing coal-black eyes that had swept so purposefully about the room now came to rest on her as she half rose in her seat, those dark eyes narrowing in challenge as he seemed to guess she was about to leave.

As if, somehow, Luc had known she was here…

The slightly amused curl of his top lip confirmed that impression. As the slow, mocking rise of one dark brow over those taunting black eyes now dared her to stand fully and complete her escape.

Damn!

Luc had been standing unseen to one side of the raised platform when he chanced to see Annie hurrying belatedly into the room to hastily take a seat on the end of the back row, once again dressed in a dark business suit, with a cream blouse, the vibrant chestnut colour of her hair muted as it was swept back and secured at her nape.

He had noted that Annie looked totally bored at the mere thought of spending the afternoon listening to yet another talk on business management.

It was too much to hope that maybe her lack of attention to the meeting was due to thoughts of the dinner they would share later this evening.

She had certainly looked less than pleased when Luc had stepped out onto the platform. In fact, her eyes had widened in alarm and her face had visibly paled, he noted grimly.

Eyes that sparkled with sudden anger, and cheeks that flushed with temper, as Luc’s mocking gaze deliberately caught and held hers.

She abruptly resumed her seat to stare at him with a glassy attention that was fixated rather than genuinely interested in what he had to say.

In an effort to unnerve him as he had so obviously unnerved her when he stepped out onto the platform?

Possibly.

Except Luc was not a man as to be unnerved by the angry challenge in a pair of sparkling blue eyes.

‘Our afternoon speaker has expressed a wish to be introduced to you, Anna,’ Daniel Russell, the chairman of the conference and owner of the prestigious Russell Hotel Group, announced heartily from behind Annie as she attempted to move hurriedly through the crush of people in her haste to escape.

She had listened to Luc talk for more than an hour and then had to listen to him answer questions for a further hour. An agonisingly slow two hours when all Annie had wanted to do was get out of here and shut herself away in the privacy of her hotel suite so that she could get her jumbled thoughts into some sort of order. Away from Luc. Away from the mockery in those piercing black eyes that had returned to her again and again during the long afternoon.

Learning who he was had turned Annie’s world upside down, and now he had the gall, the arrogance, to ask to be introduced to her!

Annie’s eyes blazed with renewed temper as she turned to face both Luca de Salvatore and Daniel Russell, the latter a grey-haired man of her father’s age who Annie knew slightly from his past business dealings with Oscar.

‘It’s good to see you again, Daniel.’ She ignored Luc completely as she briskly shook the older man’s hand.

‘You too,’ the older man returned warmly before stepping slightly aside. ‘Anna, may I introduce Luca de Salvatore.’ He beamed proudly. ‘Luca, this is one of the team at Balfour Enterprises, Anna Balfour.’

Luc’s face darkened ominously. ‘Balfour?’ he echoed incredulously.

‘One of Oscar’s many daughters,’ Daniel Russell explained pleasantly.

Daughters Annie knew that Luc had certainly heard of—or more likely read about in the more lurid of the tabloids!—if the way those piercing black eyes narrowed on her so grimly was anything to go by.

A polite mask swiftly replaced the grim one, Luc’s expression now becoming totally unreadable as he offered her his hand. ‘Miss Balfour.’

Luc couldn’t believe Annie was Anna Balfour!

Or, more descriptively, one of the many daughters of Oscar Balfour who regularly made the headlines in newspapers and magazines for embarking on one scandalous escapade or another.

‘Mr de Salvatore,’ she returned with unmistakeable mockery as she allowed her hand to briefly touch his.

A nerve pulsed in Luc’s tightly clenched jaw. ‘There is no reason for us to keep you any longer, Daniel,’ he gritted out through a clenched jaw as he continued to stare down at Annie—no, at Anna Balfour.

‘Oh. No. Of course not.’ The older man was slightly flustered by the abruptness of the dismissal. ‘It really is good to see you again, Anna,’ he recovered enough to add. ‘I was so sorry to hear about Lillian,’ he added regretfully.

Annie nodded. ‘It was a tremendous shock to everyone.’

Daniel paused from turning away. ‘I almost forgot to ask.’ He glanced back at her. ‘How’s Oliver?’

If Luc hadn’t been staring at Annie so intently he might have missed the slightly shocked look in her eyes, and the way her chin rose defensively. As it was he saw both those reactions, and wondered why she should react like that at the mention of the man she had been talking to on the telephone earlier today.

Perhaps because she would rather Luc didn’t know about the current man in her life?

It was a little late for that when Luc had already overheard at least part of her telephone conversation with the other man where she had told Oliver that she loved him.

For the moment, one presumed; the Balfour sisters were not known for their fidelity or constancy. What they were known for was causing scandals and gossip on a daily basis!

Annie’s maternally defensive response to Daniel’s mention of Oliver had been wholly instinctive. Instinctive but stupid, she realised as Luca de Salvatore’s hard black eyes studied her even more intently.

She forced a relaxed smile to her lips as she answered Daniel warmly. ‘He’s very well, thank you.’

The older man smiled back. ‘What is he now—three, four?’

‘Three,’ Annie said tightly as she watched Daniel walk away rather than meet Luc’s glittering gaze.

‘Who is Oliver?’

Annie drew in a sharp breath before turning back to face Luc, forcing herself to meet that accusing gaze unflinchingly. She really would prefer not to tell Luc about Oliver in surroundings such as these!

Her chin slanted proudly. ‘Oliver is my son.’

‘Your—?’ Luc’s eyes narrowed icily. ‘You did not tell me you are married!’

Annie moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘That’s because I’m not.’

‘Have you ever been?’

‘No. And so you are Luca de Salvatore?’ she murmured, suddenly wanting to change the subject. This really wasn’t the place to tell Luc that Oliver was his son too! And how dare he stand there and make judgements on her when he was the reason she was an unmarried mother!

‘And you are Anna Balfour?’ he came back coldly.

She nodded. ‘Family and close friends call me Annie.’

Those chiselled lips curved into a hard, humourless smile.

‘No doubt you refer to the sort of ‘close friends’ we once were?’

Annie felt the warm colour enter her cheeks. ‘No doubt,’ she bit out curtly.

Luc’s mouth thinned. ‘I find the Balfour part of your name of more…interest,’ he grated.

Annie knew by the contemptuous curl of his top lip exactly what sort of interest he was referring to! ‘As I recall, neither of us seemed particularly interested in introducing ourselves properly four and a half years ago, Mr de Salvatore,’ she pointed out drily.

‘What was that all about, I wonder?’ Luc countered scathingly. ‘A dare amongst the Balfour sisters, perhaps, as to which of you could lose your virginity first—I think not, Anna!’ He easily caught her wrist in a tight grip as her hand swung up with the obvious intention of slapping his face. ‘I think we should leave before you cause a scene.’

‘Before I cause a scene?’ she choked, tears—of anger or distress?—balanced precariously on long dark lashes as she glared up at him.

‘Before either of us causes a scene,’ Luc amended, his fingers tightening about her wrist as he began to pull her along beside him towards the exit, knowing that his usual tight control over his emotions was in serious danger of snapping completely.

Anna Balfour.

This woman, the woman Luc had made love to over and over again that night four and a half years ago, was one of the infamous Balfour sisters. She also had a young son. A young son whom she admitted had been born out of wedlock.

Annie knew by the inflexibility of Luc’s grip on her wrist, and the grimness of his expression as he easily pushed his way through the crowd of chattering people still gathered in the room, that she had little chance of escaping whatever came next.

Instead she trailed along in Luc’s wake, managing to bestow a wan smile on the woman she had sat next to earlier as she raised envious brows at her departure. No doubt the silly woman thought Annie had succeeded in capturing the attention of the world-renowned Luca de Salvatore!

‘Where are you taking me?’ Annie demanded as Luc made no effort to come to a halt once they were outside the conference room, but instead continued to stride purposefully along the hallway to the lifts, punching in a code and then stepping into the lift when the doors immediately opened.

‘We are going to my hotel suite. Do not attempt to fight me, Anna,’ he warned as she immediately tried to extricate her wrist from his grasp as he pulled her into the lift with him. ‘You will only succeed in bruising yourself,’ he advised.

‘Really?’ she challenged. ‘Are you sure about that?’

Luc’s gaze remained steadily fixed on the flushed beauty of her face as he considered her challenge. Annie was about five feet six inches tall, but still six or seven inches shorter than he even in her two-inch-heel shoes, and her build, whilst lean and toned, was no match for his superior strength. ‘Very sure,’ he finally answered drily.

‘Mistake!’ Annie announced even as Luc felt the turning of her hand in his as she took a firm grip of his wrist and proceeded to turn him and twist his arm up behind him. Her knee was placed in the curve of his back as she attempted to push him down onto the lift floor.

At least, that was what she had obviously intended to do. Unfortunately for Annie, Luc had spent part of his rebellious youth wandering the back streets of Rome looking for mischief. An occupation which his father had warned would be the death of him if he didn’t learn some self-defence. Luc had learned his lessons diligently and well.

Annie had absolutely no idea how it was she came to be the one lying on her back on the carpeted floor of the lift, both her hands firmly grasped in one of Luc’s. She stared up at him dazedly as he pinned her there by straddling her hips with strong muscled thighs, and black eyes gleamed down at her with satisfaction.

Luc tutted mockingly. ‘I do not remember you expressing a preference for rough foreplay four years ago, but perhaps your tastes have become more—’

‘Earlier you didn’t even remember me from four years ago!’ Annie gasped accusingly, her efforts to shake him off only succeeding in pressing the hardness of his thighs into her more intimately.

More intimately? The man was already so aroused she could see the fullness of that arousal bulging against the expensive material of his trousers!

And she could feel the heat of her own arousal in the flush of her cheeks and the shallowness of her breathing. The telltale tingling of her breasts. The warmth between her thighs.

‘And now I do,’ he murmured throatily, that black gaze fixed on the fullness of Annie’s slightly parted lips, raising her captured hands above her head as he leant forward slightly, as if he were going to kiss her. As if he were going to thoroughly enjoy kissing her!

Annie eyes flashed deeply blue. ‘Too late, I’m afraid,’ she taunted, refusing to give in without a fight. ‘We Balfour girls aren’t known for giving a man a second chance.’

Luc’s mouth tightened even as he quirked one dark mocking brow. ‘No?’

‘No,’ she said defiantly.

‘Perhaps we should put that to the test?’ Luc mused huskily, his lips only centimetres away from hers now as those dark eyes held Annie’s captive.

The warmth of his breath moved softly, seductively, over Annie’s parted lips, an insidious, erotic invasion that robbed her completely of her own breath as she lay beneath the press of Luc’s warm, highly aroused body. Then he moved slightly and his lips instead began to explore the sensitive column of her throat. A throat that arched instinctively into those searching, pleasuregiving lips—

No, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t allow this! ‘We’re in a lift, for goodness’ sake!’ Even as Annie made the protest she was aware that her tone lacked conviction. That her breasts were aching inside her bra, the nipples already erect. That the warmth Luc must feel as he rubbed the hardness of his arousal against her must betray her heated response…

Luc lifted his head to look at her, eyes gleaming with laughter. ‘Fear of discovery only heightens the pleasure, surely?’ He deliberately removed the slide from her hair before releasing it loosely onto her shoulders.

‘Not for me it doesn’t!’ Annie snapped.

Luc allowed the darkness of his gaze to move slowly from Annie’s fevered eyes to her flushed cheeks and swollen lips. Before moving lower to where her breasts were full and firm against her blouse, the nipples clearly outlined. ‘Yes, I can see that,’ he taunted softly.

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