The Uncompromising Italian

‘And what’s it to you?’

Lesley blushed.

‘Oh, right.’ She gave a knowing little laugh and sniffed. ‘Well, I’m not about to give anyone a chance, and I don’t care if he sorts that thing out or not. So. He dumped me and I had to traipse around with my mum and all her boyfriends.’

‘You knew your mum...err...? Well, none of my business.’ She stood up. ‘You should give your dad a chance and at least listen to what he has to say. He tried very hard to keep in touch with you but, well, you should let him explain how that went—and you should go get some sleep.’

She exited the room, closing the door quietly behind her. Had she got through to Rachel? Who knew? It would take more than one conversation to break down some of those teenage walls, but several things had emerged.

Aside from the fact that everything was now on the table—and, whether she admitted it or not, that would have come as a huge relief to Rachel—it was clear that the girl had had no idea just how hard her father had tried to keep in touch with her, how hard he had fought to maintain contact.

And Alessio had no idea that his daughter was aware of Bianca’s wild, promiscuous temperament.

Join those two things together, throw into the mix the fact that Rachel had kept a scrapbook of photos and cuttings, and Lesley suspected that an honest conversation between father and daughter would go some distance to opening the door to a proper relationship.

And if Rachel was no longer at a boarding school, but at a day school in London, they would both have the opportunity to start building a future and leaving the past behind.

She went outside to find Alessio still there and she quietly told him what she had learned during the conversation with his daughter.

‘She thinks you abandoned her,’ she reinforced bluntly. ‘And she would have been devastated at the thought of that. It might explain why she’s been such a rebel, but she’s young. You’re going to have to take the lead and lower your defences if you want to get through to her.’

Alessio listened, head tilted to one side, and when she had finished talking he nodded slowly and then told her in return what he intended to do to sort the small matter of a certain Jack Perkins. He had already contacted someone he trusted to supply him with information about the boy and he had enough at his disposal to pay a visit to his parents and make sure the matter was resolved quickly and efficiently, never again to rear its ugly head.

‘When I’m through,’ Alessio promised in a voice of steel, ‘That boy will think twice before he goes near an Internet café again, never mind threatening anyone.’

Lesley believed him and she didn’t doubt that Jack Perkins’ life of crime was about to come crashing down around his head. It had transpired that his family was well-connected. Not only would they be horrified at what their son had done, and the drug problems he was experiencing, but his father would know that Alessio’s power stretched far; if he were to be crossed again by a delinquent boy, then who knew what the repercussions would be?

The problem, Alessio assured her, would wait until he returned to the UK. It wasn’t going anywhere and, whilst he could hand over the business of wrapping it up to a trusted advisor and friend, he would much rather do it himself.

‘When I’m attacked,’ he said softly, ‘Then I prefer to retaliate using my own fists rather than relying on my bodyguards.’

Everything, Lesley thought, had been neatly wrapped up and she was certain that father and daughter would eventually find their way and become the family unit they deserved to be.

Which left her...the spectator whose purpose had been served and whose time had come to depart.

They drove in silence back to Alessio’s villa. He planned on returning to his mother-in-law’s the following morning and he would talk to his daughter once again.

He didn’t say what that conversation would be, but Lesley knew that he had taken on board what she had said, and he would try and grope his way to some sort of mutual ground on which they could both converse.

Alessio knew that, generally speaking, the outcome to what could have been a disaster had been good.

Jack Perkins had revealed problems with his daughter that would now be addressed, and Lesley’s mediation had been pretty damn fantastic. How could his daughter not have known that he had tried his hardest? He would set her straight on that. He could see that Rachel had been lost and therefore far too vulnerable in a school that had clearly allowed too much freedom. He might or might not take them to task on that.

‘Thanks,’ he suddenly said gruffly as they pulled up into the carport at the side of the villa. He killed the engine and looked at Lesley. ‘You didn’t just sort out who was behind this but you went the extra mile, and we both know, gentle bribe or no gentle bribe, you didn’t have to do that.’ Right now, all he wanted to do was get inside the villa, carry her upstairs to the bedroom and make love to her. Take all night making love to her. He had never felt as close to any woman.

No, Lesley thought with a tinge of bitterness, she really had had no need to go the extra mile, but she had, and it had had nothing to do with bribes, gentle or otherwise.

‘We should talk,’ she said after a while.

Alessio stilled. ‘I thought we just had.’

Lesley hopped out of the car, slammed the door behind her and waited for him. Just then, in the car, it had felt way too intimate. Give it just a few more seconds sitting there, breathing him in, hearing that lazy, sexy drawl, and all her good intentions would have gone down the drain.

‘Want to tell me what this is all about?’ was the first thing he asked the second they were inside his villa. He threw the car keys on the hand-carved sideboard by the front door and led the way into the kitchen where he helped himself to a long glass of water from a bottle in the fridge. Then he sat down and watched as she took the seat furthest away from him.

‘How long,’ she finally asked, ‘Do you plan on staying here?’

‘Where is that question leading?’ For the first time, he could feel quicksand underneath his feet and he didn’t like it. He wished he had had something stronger to drink; a whisky would have gone down far better than a glass of water. He didn’t like the way she had sat a million miles across the room from him; he didn’t like the mood she had been in for the past few hours; he didn’t like the way she couldn’t quite seem to meet his eyes. ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ he muttered when she didn’t say anything. ‘At least until the end of the week. Rachel and I have a few things to sort out, not to mention a frank discussion of where she will go to school. There are a lot of fences to be mended and they won’t be mended overnight; it’ll take a few days before we can even work out where the holes are. But what has that got to do with anything?’

‘I won’t be staying on here with you.’ She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. ‘I do realise that I promised I would stay the week, but I think my job here is done, and it’s time for me to return to London.’

‘Your job here is done?’ Alessio could not believe what he was hearing.

‘Yes, and I just want to say that there’s every chance that you and your daughter will find a happy solution to the difficulties you’ve been experiencing in your relationship.’

‘Your job here...is done? So you’re heading back?’

‘I don’t see the point of staying on.’

‘And I don’t believe I’m hearing this. What do you mean you don’t see the point of staying on?’ He point-blank refused to ask what about us? That was not a question that would ever pass his lips. He remembered what she had said about wanting to head back out there, get into the thick of the dating scene—now that she had used him to reintroduce her to the world of sex; now that she had overcome her insecurities, thanks to him.

Pride slammed in and he looked at her coldly.

‘What we have, Alessio, isn’t going anywhere. We both agreed on that, didn’t we?’ She could have kicked herself for the plaintive request she heard in her voice, the request begging him to contradict her. ‘And I’m not interested in having a fling until we both run out of steam. Actually, probably until we get back to London. I’m not in the market for a holiday romance.’

‘And what are you in the market for?’ Alessio asked softly.

Lesley tilted her chin and returned his cool stare. Was she about to reveal that she was in the market for a long-term, for ever, happy-ever-after, committed relationship? Would she say that so that he could naturally assume that she was talking about him? Wanting that relationship with him? It would be the first conclusion he would reach. Women, he had told her, always seemed to want more than he was prepared to give. He would assume that she had simply joined the queue.

There was no way that she would allow her dignity to be trampled into the ground.

‘Right now...’ her voice was steady and controlled, giving nothing away ‘...all I want is to further my career. The company is still growing. There are loads of opportunities to grow with it, even perhaps to be transferred to another part of the country. I want to be there to take advantage of those opportunities.’ She thought she sounded like someone trying to sell themselves at an interview, but she held her ground and her eyes remained clear and focused.