Terror ripped through her. “I need this job!”
“No. You do not.” He looked down at her, so handsome, with the calm arrogance that only came from wealth. “You cannot pretend you took this job out of anything but desperation.”
Lucy felt sick at his accurate appraisal of her situation.
With no savings and few marketable skills, Lucy had worked at low-paying jobs since Chloe’s father had deserted them a week before her birth. She’d had to work constantly just to survive, since she’d foolishly given up her hard-won college scholarship to be with him. And he’d left Lucy with nothing but his baby in her belly and the memory of his whispered promises.
For the past year, she’d held their heads above water by such a thin margin. One mistake like this could suck them under. She couldn’t let them drown!
“Please,” she whispered, though she knew it was hopeless. “You don’t know what will happen if I lose this job.”
He looked down at her. Reaching out a broad, strong-fingered hand, he gently lifted her chin.
“You have nothing to fear ever again. You are mine now, Lucia. And I pro
tect what is mine.”
She was his? What was he talking about?
Then she realized what he’d called her: Lucia.
“How—how did you know my name?” Lucy stammered.
“I know more about you than you can imagine.” He watched her beneath heavy-lidded eyes. “And I’m here to make your dreams come true.”
Her dreams.
A snug, warm little house surrounded by sunshine and flowers. Her daughter growing up happy and secure. Having someone to love, instead of always being alone, fighting just to survive—
Pulling away from his touch, she angrily shook the images from her mind.
“My only dream is for you to call Darryl and beg for forgiveness.”
His dark eyebrows rose. “That is indeed a fantasy.”
“What did you think I would say? That my dream was to spend a night in your bed, having you make love to me for hours on end?”
She’d meant to be sarcastic, but he gave her a hot glance that made her shiver, and wonder if her words were truer than she’d thought.
“I offer you revenge,” he said. “Against the man who hurt you.”
“I told you. Darryl didn’t do anything. You came before—”
“Alexander Wentworth,” he bit out.
At the name, she felt the blood drain from her face. “What?”
“I will make him regret the day he abandoned you and your child to starve.” His blue eyes burned through her. “You are going to come with me to Italy, and live in luxury for the rest of your life.”
CHAPTER TWO
HE WANTEDto take her to Italy?
Italy. The warm, beautiful land Lucy had dreamed of since she was twelve years old, watching A Room with a View on TV during her mother’s last night in the hospital. Even her mom’s final words to her had been, “Go to Italy, Lucy…Go…”
But Lucy had never left Illinois. She’d lived in foster homes until she was eighteen, then worked and scrimped her way into college. Her sophomore year, working at a department store, she’d met a handsome, smooth-talking man who spoke Italian—the vice president of a fashion house based out of New York. He delighted her with stories of Rome, promising to someday take her to visit.
Lucy had never met a man like Alex Wentworth. A man so magical…so glamorous…so exotic. She’d dropped out of college, giving up all her hard work, simply because he’d complained that school took too much of her time. She’d fallen like a brick.