He responded in Italian this time and the girl bustled away after delivering a melting smile. ‘I ordered you sandwiches.’
‘Why did you ask if you were going to ignore me?’
A moment later, the waitress returned with their drinks and a plate of sandwiches, which she put in front of Lara, who picked one up. It would be churlish to waste good food just to prove a point.
She took a couple of bites; the slices of smoked salmon were interlaced with cucumber. ‘So what is this about?’
‘I have a proposition to put to you.’ He saw her face and sketched a smile. ‘Not that sort of proposition.’
Knowing her face was burning, she stirred her coffee and slung him a look of lofty disdain. ‘I can’t imagine I’d be interested in any sort of proposition you made.’
Unless it involved taking me to bed. She guiltily pushed the thought away and dug her even white teeth into the softness of her full upper lip, focusing on the pain, not on the ache low inside her.
‘My grandfather is dying.’
Lara’s eyes flew to his face. Her wary antagonism was crushed under a wave of inconvenient empathy. He looked as composed as he sounded, but she could intuitively sense the writhing emotions behind his mask.
She didn’t know what she’d expected to hear but it hadn’t been this. ‘I’m sorry.’
His glance stilled on her face and she looked back at him through green eyes soft with sympathy. She hid behind a tough-cookie attitude and he could see why; it was inevitable that individuals who emoted that much frequently got taken advantage of.
Wasn’t that what he was doing?
He shook off the moment of uncharacteristic doubt. He was not using emotional manipulation. This was a business deal, not a conventional one, admittedly, but he wasn’t appealing to her soft heart, just her pragmatism.
‘So am I.’ He leaned back in his seat, his chest lifting as he exhaled and admitted, ‘I’ve not really got used to the idea yet.’
‘Has he been ill long?’ she asked quietly. She’d been a child when she’d lost her father but that had been sudden. Was it worse, she wondered, to know it was coming?
At least then you got the chance to say goodbye— something she’d always wished she’d been able to do.
‘He’s never been ill—at least, if he was I don’t remember it.’ His voice drifted away as he sat there seemingly lost in his own thoughts.
‘Are you very close?’
He seemed to consider the question. ‘He was more of a father to us than our father ever was.’
‘So you have brothers and sisters...?’ Maybe it was the lone-wolf thing he had going on that had made her assume he was an only child or even that he had emerged fully grown with designer stubble and a macho ego!
‘I had a brother, Jamie.’
‘Sorry,’ she said again. His body language made it obvious that he wasn’t comfortable with discussing personal matters, which begged the question, why was he? Raoul did not strike her as the sort of person who did anything without a reason.
‘I’m not telling you this because I’m canvassing the sympathy vote. The fact that I’m the last Di Vittorio standing is relevant.’ Perhaps he ought to tell her that people around him had a tendency to drop like flies, but on balance he decided this might not be a vote winner.
He paused and appeared lost in thought again as Lara, curious despite her determination not to be, sat there willing him to continue.
‘Family matters to my grandfather. He feels strongly about continuity, about living on in his children, passing on his genetic blueprint through the generations, a form of immortality, I suppose. When I was married he assumed that I would provide the next generation.’
‘You’re divorced?’
‘My wife died. There were no children.’
His voice was a little dead as he gave her the information, just the bald facts that probably hid a world of pain.
‘What is this about?’
‘My grandfather’s dying wish.’
‘Which is...?’ she prompted.
‘To have his name live on in my child.’
It took her a few moments to digest his words. He couldn’t be...no...she couldn’t even think it, surely he couldn’t, wouldn’t? Outrage mingled with disbelief as she shook her head. Her chair scraped the floor noisily as she made an attempt to rise but her knees would not support her.
‘Which is where you come in.’
A gurgling sound left her throat. He could not be suggesting... ‘Me!’ She started to shake her head and, hands on the table edge, she pushed her chair back farther as if to physically distance herself from this insanity. ‘You are insane,’ she told him with utter conviction. ‘And this conversation is over. I’m not going to be a baby incubator for you!’
‘I wouldn’t bring a child into the world just to please my grandfather.’ When he had been considering his options that had never even figured.
She remained wary as she subsided in her seat. ‘What was I meant to think? You said—’
‘I want you to marry me, Lara, not have my children.’
‘Oh, well, that’s all right, then.’ She lost the mocking smile, unable to decide if he was serious or this was some sick joke as she directed a searching look of pained incredulity at his face... Hell, he made it sound as though he’d just requested nothing more outrageous than directions! ‘When my flight leaves I’ll be on it. This conversation really is over now.’ She jerked her hands to underline the finality of her statement.
His broad shoulders lifted, the shrug negligent, but the dark gaze that held hers was intense. ‘Hear me out.’
She shook her head slowly from side to side. ‘Nothing you can say will change my mind.’
‘Then you have nothing to lose from listening to what I have to say. Give me the consideration you’d give any other job offer.’
She lifted threads of hair from her eyes, tucking them neatly behind her ears. Were you meant to humour insane people? ‘Do you drink in the daytime too?’
He leaned in, the unexpected action bringing his face within an inch of hers. ‘Smell?’ he invited, parting his firm, sensual lips.
As his mint-scented, warm breath brushed her cheek, Lara jolted back in her seat so fast she almost fell off her chair. ‘I’ll pass, and, in case you forgot, I have a job.’
‘Not sleeping with the boss is generally a good thing but in this instance...?’ He shook his head and studied her face, letting the blush of discomfort develop before adding, ‘I see you have worked that one
