Page 35 of Resisting the Bossy Billionaire

‘This is for me?’

‘Unless you know another Victoria who wears the same size dress as you. Take another look in the box.’

At the bottom lay an envelope with her name on it. Her heart thumping, she opened it and gasped to find two tickets to the Broadway show she’d abandoned Sheena at. Peering closer, she saw they were for the next night and in what had to be the centre front of the mezzanine.

‘I have been assured that they are the best seats possible for this show,’ he said. ‘We will be able to see the whole ensemble perform without any restrictions, and the acoustics are supposed to be incredible.’

She just gaped at him.

‘I can easily change them for orchestra seating if you would prefer?’

And he would. She saw that. The Lord alone knew how he’d managed to get these spectacular seats at this short notice—she imagined a large amount of money had been exchanged in bribes and sweeteners—and the royalwehe’d used...

Marcello would be going with her. Marcello who, when she’d first told him she was going to watch this particular musical, had asked why on earth she wanted to waste hours watching people prance around singing and dancing on stage dressed as witches.

And now he would be taking her.

This was his surprise for her and just as he’d used sweeteners to procure the tickets, the show itself was a sweetener. His last gift before he said goodbye to her as a lover.

‘Do you want me to change them?’ he asked, doubt creasing his forehead.

She swallowed to loosen her throat, and shook her head. ‘These are perfect, thank you. And so is the dress.’

The doubt remained. ‘You are sure?’

Not wanting to spoil what for Marcello was the most thoughtful and unselfish gift he could have given her, she smiled through the pain lacing her veins. ‘When I went with Sheena, we were so far back in the gods that the cast were like ants.’

The crease in his forehead changed. ‘Sheena?’

‘My old roommate.’

Understanding dawned. ‘You went to see the show with a girl friend?’

She nodded.

To her amazement, he burst out laughing. The sound rumbled through the vast bedroom and soothed her despondency enough for her to straddle his lap and rest her hands on his chest.

‘What’s so funny?’

His grin was as wide as she’d ever seen it. ‘I thought you had gone on a real date.’

‘That’s what I wanted you to think.’ Leaning her face into his, she eyeballed him and added, ‘I stupidly thought you’d give me some peace for the night if you thought it was a proper date.’

His hand slipped under her jumper and flattened against her naked back. ‘You should have told me the truth. If I had known you were withSheena, I would have waited until the next day to get you to help me find that pen.’

Her mouth dropped open. ‘You sabotaged my night out on purpose?’

‘Sì,’he agreed without an ounce of shame. ‘I didn’t want you doing what Denise did to me.’

‘That’s a blatant abuse of power. There are laws against things like that, you know.’

He slid his hand around and cupped her breast. Voice thickening, he said, ‘We have already established that I am a monster and that monsters need to perform penance.’

Capturing the hand on her breast and squeezing it, Victoria shifted herself forward so his hardness pressed between her legs. She ground down on him. There it was. That dilation in his eyes. She would never, ever get enough of seeing that and knowing she was the reason for it, not even if they had all the time in the world...

The despondency at what the dress and theatre tickets represented suddenly lifted.

Marcello had feelings for her. She knew it as well as she knew him. He’d deliberately sabotaged what he thought was a real date. Not even he usually stooped that low: he didn’t have to. It was a rare member of his vast staff who left for pastures new. Denise leaving had been an anomaly. From the few conversations Victoria had had with her predecessor, Marcello hadn’t been a fraction as demanding of her personal time as he was of Victoria’s.

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