An Innocent, a Seduction, a Secret Read online

She wasn’t his type. She might have sparked something, but surely it was just the resurgence of his dormant libido. Slightly above average height, she was even more delicate up close. Yet once again he had an impression of steeliness underneath her slender frame.

  Their dialogue bore that out. He wasn’t used to meeting anyone who didn’t say How high? when he asked them to jump. In fact, she had an air of palpable reluctance to deal with him. It intrigued him as much as it irritated him—not a reception he was used to.

  Sebastio forced himself to focus. He needed this woman to take care of things he didn’t want to think about. The more reluctant she was, the more determined he became.

  He spoke with a patient tone that belied his frustration that this conversation wasn’t going as easily as he’d planned. ‘Are you telling me you couldn’t do with a considerable bonus in the run-up to Christmas?’

  He glanced up and down at her very functional but boring workwear. He could appreciate that she had the kind of elegant figure that would look good in anything. And suddenly he had a desire to see her in something altogether more feminine and soft.

  She glared at him now, and Sebastio’s desire sky-rocketed. It mocked his assertion that she wasn’t his type. Apparently, right now, she was.

  ‘It’s not about whether or not I need a bonus. I’m afraid it’s just not an option to walk away from my job here and work for you, no matter how much you’re offering.’

  Edie had a vision at that precise moment of her parents up in Scotland. They both looked a lot older than their years and her conscience pricked. That was because of her. They’d worried about her so much... And then, just when her father had retired and should have been looking forward to some time off, he’d had a heart attack. The Caribbean cruise they’d spent their savings on had had to be cancelled, and with no insurance and an indifferent travel company they’d lost out on the trip of a lifetime.

  With the kind of money Mr Rivas was offering so casually Edie could afford to send them on three cruises! And she could afford to pay for private health insurance—something that would make them a lot less anxious in the future.

  But there was no way she would jeopardise her job to work for a man who was arrogant enough to demand that she do so. She ignored another prick of her conscience telling her it was for far more varied and personal reasons that she felt disinclined to work for him.

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Rivas. As intriguing as your offer is, I’m afraid I can’t just leave my job here at the store.’

  ‘Well, yes, you can, actually—for a brief time.’

  Edie blinked and turned around. She hadn’t even heard her boss come back into the room, she’d been so engrossed by the man in front of her.

  Her stomach fell. ‘But, Helen—’

  The women lifted her hand. ‘Mr Rivas is newly located to London from Argentina, and we welcome him as an esteemed client. We would be more than happy to release you to work privately for him in the run-up to Christmas, with the understanding that once the work is complete you will return to your job here.’

  Edie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Do a private commission for Sebastio Rivas and keep her job? He had to be verging on royalty to precipitate this kind of fawning... She’d never seen any sports star get this level of treatment before.

  Edie tried again. ‘Helen, I really don’t think that—’

  But the woman was now ignoring Edie and opening the door to let Sebastio Rivas out of the office, saying officiously, ‘Leave it with us, Mr Rivas. We’ll do everything necessary to get Edie released from her schedule here as soon as possible.’

  The door closed on an image of Sebastio Rivas looking directly at Edie with unmistakable challenge. She shivered at what that challenge might be—to do a job, or to let her know he’d noticed her reacting to his presence and could see all the way through her skin to where there was a pulse of something intimate.

  It reminded her of that night in the club, when she’d felt as if he was looking right into her soul. It was galling that he had the same effect on her now.

  Her boss turned around to face Edie. ‘Do you have any idea who that is?’

  Edie swallowed, feeling curiously flat now that he had left the room. ‘He’s a rugby player with the Argentinian rugby team.’

  Helen waved a dismissive hand. ‘He retired as a rugby player a few years ago. Sebastio Rivas is now CEO of Rivas Bank—he’s descended from one of the most powerful banking families in the world.’

  Edie absorbed this. That would explain his air of arrogance and entitlement. He came from a rarefied world.

  Her boss went on to explain breathlessly what an important addition to London society he was. How generous he was to charity. Then she said, ‘So, the fact that he wants you to decorate his house for Christmas is obviously something we will facilitate.’

  Edie recognised Helen’s steely tone. She also recognised that this was an amazing opportunity. She’d been offered a ridiculous amount of money and her supervisor had just assured her that her job would still be there when she came back.

  So why was she so reluctant?

  Because, said a small voice, that man rejected you at a time when you ached to be normal and know what it was to feel like to be a woman. And because he’s a reminder that you still don’t know what it is to be a real woman.

  It was humiliating to think that within the last four years she’d obviously changed and matured on many levels, but on a very private and intimate level she was the same girl she had been that night. Gauche and inexperienced. Desperate to fit in. Desperate for experience. Desperate to live.

  ‘Edie? If you’re reluctant to do this I can always find someone else...’

  Edie’s attention snapped back to the present and her boss, who was looking at her, clearly impatient to have this dealt with. Edie knew she’d have no hesitation in asking the next person.

  A determination settled in her gut not to allow this opportunity to slip away just because seeing Sebastio Rivas again had been disconcerting. To say the least.

  ‘No, of course I’ll do it. I’d be crazy not to.’

  Helen smiled approvingly. ‘Good. If you like, you can go home early—you’ll be very busy up till Christmas. Mr Rivas said he’d send further instructions via his assistant.’

  Edie didn’t fancy the long bus journey home to her bedsit in north London, with too much time to think about things, so she said, ‘No, I’ll finish the window with Jimmy. It’s almost done anyway.’

  Helen shrugged. ‘Whatever you want, Edie. Most people would jump at the chance to go home early.’

  Edie smiled weakly. She wasn’t most people and she didn’t need the reminder.

  For the rest of the day she and Jimmy worked in companionable harmony. Thankfully he didn’t seem to notice her tension. When they were leaving work he asked if she’d like to join him and his friends at a nearby bar, but she smiled and declined. Her brain was addled after everything that had happened that day. Seeing Rivas again. Feeling the same things.

  As she sat on the crowded bus, heading north from the centre of town, she told herself to stop being so trepiditious. Maybe getting to know Sebastio Rivas a little would help her to topple him from the almost mythic place he’d taken up in her consciousness, where no other man could touch him.

  After all, he hadn’t ever known her circumstances, had he? That night in the club she’d been just another woman approaching him for a sliver of attention... He couldn’t possibly have known just how fragile she’d been then.

  But she wasn’t fragile any more.

  Edie forced her mind away from the past and pulled her phone out of her pocket when she felt it vibrate. There was a text message from Helen, with an address in Richmond. Sebastio Rivas’s address.

  Her heart thumped when she read it.

  You’re to meet Sebastio Rivas at his house tomorrow at ten
a.m. He’ll talk you through what needs to be done and his legal team will draw up a temporary work contract. Good luck and Happy Christmas, Edie! Helen

  Once again Edie was stunned that her boss had sanctioned this move. Albeit temporarily. But, in fairness, it wasn’t as if Marrotts was short of display artists. She was one of many. And of course it would enhance their reputation to loan out one of their staff to a new and illustrious client.

  Edie quickly did an internet search on the address in Richmond, and five minutes later wished she hadn’t. It was an old hunting lodge that looked more like a mansion than a lodge, set in acres and acres of its own grounds. There were even wild deer. Her experience was in dressing spaces that ranged between ten and twenty-five square feet. Not grand country mansions!

  She felt a flare of panic and doused it, telling herself that she’d overcome far bigger challenges in the past. She wasn’t going to allow Sebastio Rivas to see that she was daunted by this project. He’d told her to run along once before. She wouldn’t give him the opportunity to do it again.

  * * *

  The following morning, Edie turned a corner in the long winding drive that led up to the house in Richmond, cursing herself for assuring the security guard at the gate that she wouldn’t mind the walk. He’d tried to get her to wait for a groundsman to give her a lift but she’d insisted, needing to get her wits about her. She hadn’t realised it would take quite so long, though.

  And now she stopped in her tracks. Dazzled by the sight before her. No picture could have done justice to the low winter sun glinting off hundreds of windows and the sheer stately magnificence of the house.

  It had two levels, and an elegantly grand front entrance. She could make out what looked like manicured gardens at the back, and as far as the eye could see to the front were rolling grounds, with a wood in the distance.

  As she approached the front entrance, feeling more and more intimidated, the huge front door opened and a dapper older gentleman dressed in a smart suit appeared.

  He came down the steps, smiling and holding out his hand. ‘You must be Edie.’

  She came forward, ‘Yes.’ She shook his hand. He had an accent that she guessed was from Italy.

  ‘I’m Matteo, Mr Rivas’s housekeeper. He’s on his way from his office in London, but some of his assistants are here to go through the contract with you in the meantime.’

  Edie barely had time to catch her breath before her coat and bag were taken and she was being ushered into a bright office off the entrance hall, where two men and a woman stood up to greet her. They were sleek and officious. Polite but brisk. No doubt they had better things to be doing back in the city.

  She’d just signed on the dotted line, and was still reeling with the knowledge that she was going to be paid a fortune for what was effectively a little over three weeks’ work, when a distinctive thwack-thwack sound came from outside.

  She looked out of the window to see a sleek black helicopter landing at the back of the property. She shivered slightly.

  Sebastio Rivas’s assistants packed up their things and said goodbye to Edie, and then they swept out, leaving her standing in the room, waiting for the man himself.

  As she waited, the tension inside her grew.

  What was she doing here? Thinking she could step into Sebastio Rivas’s world like this? This was on another level. The kind of level people like Edie never got close to. The man had taken a helicopter to get here, for crying out loud! She’d spent the best part of two hours on a packed Tube and had then taken a taxi from the station.

  At that moment she heard a noise and looked to the door, to see Sebastio Rivas easily filling its frame with his tall, broad body. His black hair was unruly, which she guessed was from the helicopter. He wore a three-piece suit and in spite of the messy hair he looked every inch a successful titan of international finance.

  And yet she could sense something far more elemental underneath—the barely leashed power of the fierce athlete he’d once been. It was very provocative.

  He came into the room. ‘You’ve signed the contract?’

  She nodded, wishing she was wearing something more daring than plain black trousers and a white shirt under a sleeveless grey top. She’d never felt less feminine.

  Yes, you have, reminded a voice. When the same man had looked at her as if she was an irritation that night in the club.

  Sebastio glanced at his watch. ‘I need to be back in the city for a meeting before lunch, so let me show you around now.’

  Edie followed him out through the door, hating that he made her feel so self-conscious. She tried her best to look around and not be distracted by his athletic build.

  He was pointing out the entrance hall. ‘This will be the first point of entry for guests, so I’d like something suitably festive in here. A big tree. Lights.’

  Edie took out a notebook from her back pocket, and a pen, and started making notes.

  Sebastio turned around and saw Edie’s downbent head as she wrote in a small notebook. Her hair shone bright auburn in the sunlight streaming through the window. She couldn’t have been less enticing in her very plain clothes, but from the moment he’d walked in and seen her, awareness had sizzled in his blood.

  She was having the same effect she’d had on him the previous day. So it wasn’t an anomaly. Or an aberration. It was irritating as hell—especially when Sebastio had always been in control of his libido.

  He also felt something tugging on his memory...that vague sense of déjà-vu he’d had yesterday. Had he met her somewhere before? It was relatively likely—especially in his rugby-playing days, when his social scene had been far more hectic and debauched.

  He was almost about to ask her, but then he told himself that it was four years of celibacy playing tricks on his mind, telling him he was attracted to this sprite. Telling him he might know her.

  Four years of celibacy. Was that enough of a penance? Sebastio felt bleak.

  Edie looked up at that moment, and her blue eyes widened as if she could see his thoughts. Sebastio cursed his reaction. He did not want to desire her.

  The women he was famous for favouring poured their curvaceous bodies into designer dresses and had long luxurious hair. Not a slender frame that looked as if it might snap in a strong breeze and a bright auburn cap of feathery hair that should have made Edie look androgynous but only enhanced her delicate femininity.

  All he wanted from her was to save him a lot of hassle by creating the illusion that he didn’t despise Christmas.

  Liar, whispered a voice. He ignored it.

  He reminded himself that she was his employee now, and out of bounds. ‘Let’s keep going,’ he said curtly.

  Edie followed Sebastio, stinging a little at the tone of his voice. It was as if she’d done something to irritate him. She was almost inclined to remind him that he’d brought her here, but he’d stopped in the middle of the main reception room now and turned to face her again.

  She quickly schooled her features into something she hoped was bland. She hated Sebastio Rivas at that moment, for making her feel so many things at once. Prickly, aware, defensive.

  She looked away from him and said briskly, ‘You said you have a meeting to get to—Why don’t you show me what you want done?’

  For a long moment there was silence, and then Sebastio responded, ‘You really don’t want to be here, do you?’

  Edie looked at him in shock. Had she been so transparent?

  He folded his arms. ‘But what I can’t figure out is why it feels like you’ve taken a personal dislike to me, when we don’t even know each other.’

  Edie balked. She could feel the heat rising over her chest and up her neck into her cheeks. She wanted to squirm. Her inability to hide her reaction was irritating in the extreme.

  Stiffly she said, ‘I don’t know you enough to like or dislike you.’
r />   Which, technically, was true. After all, they’d only really met before for a few moments. Not that she’d ever admit it, in case he remembered the skinny girl in the badly fitting wig and too-short dress who’d tried to chat him up so ineffectually.

  ‘Would you really prefer if I hadn’t asked you to take on this assignment?’

  She forced herself to look at him, even though it was hard when those grey eyes were narrowed on her and looking at her so intently. She took an inward breath. She needed to let go of whatever impression she’d had of him from before. It wasn’t his fault she was still carrying it around like a weight.

  ‘I won’t deny that the space is daunting. But, no, I’m glad you asked me. It’s good to get out of my comfort zone.’

  He arched a brow. ‘Personally I’ve always seen comfort zones as the death of progress or achievement.’

  Edie could well imagine that. She doubted a man like Sebastio Rivas had ever been in a comfort zone in his life. She shivered a little at the prospect of going so far outside her own.

  He unfolded his arms. ‘I will just have to do my best to garner your favour, Edie.’

  The thought of him trying to charm her made panic spike. ‘Not every woman on the planet has to like you.’

  The words had spilled out before Edie could censor them, and she looked at Sebastio aghast, expecting him to storm out and fire her on the spot. Instead his head fell back and he let out a full-throated laugh.

  When he looked back at her his eyes were gleaming with genuine amusement and her chest grew tight. He looked years younger and less intense when he smiled.

  ‘Indeed, they don’t.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘As you pointed out, I’m under pressure for time—so why don’t we get on with it?’

  Edie’s conscience smarted. He hadn’t really deserved her waspish reply, but he put her on edge and made her feel jittery. She hadn’t been expecting that response. It disarmed her. And then she felt guilty. Had she subconsciously wanted to provoke him into firing her because that would be easier than dealing with him again and facing up to how he made her feel?