Page 5 of Resisting the Bossy Billionaire

Victoria walked out of it putting her coat on.

‘The pen was a gift from my father and it was a request, not a demand,’ Marcello defended himself as he kept step with her through the empty lobby.

‘A request phrased as a demand.’

‘You could have said no.’ Ignoring the unimpressed face she threw at him, he added, ‘You never did tell me who that date was with.’

‘Someone who wasn’t happy with me cutting and running on them for the sake of a pen.’

‘But you are good at finding things.’

They’d reached the door that exited onto the street.

‘And you’re good at losing them.’ Her hand reached for the door. ‘Ciao, Marcello.’

‘Come on, Victoria, be reasona—’

A loud bang from outside made them both jump, and cut away Marcello’s argument from his tongue.

‘What the hell was that?’ he muttered, darting to the nearest window.

The gentle fluttering of snow he’d risen to at his usual four a.m. had turned into a blizzard. He had to peer hard to make out the two cars that had collided right outside the entrance door.

CHAPTER TWO

THESNOWWASfalling so hard that Victoria didn’t realise Marcello had yanked open the driver’s door of the first crunched-up car until she walked into him. Her apology dissolved into the howling wind.

The driver and sole occupant, a middle-aged man who looked dazed rather than injured, let them help him out.

‘You take him inside,’ she shouted at Marcello. The cold was biting through her thick winter clothing. Marcello didn’t even have a suit jacket on to protect him. ‘I’ll see to the other car.’

‘What?’ he shouted back.

‘Take him inside!’

She then shuffled through what had to be at least four inches of snow to the driver’s side of the other car, and opened the door. The wind almost pulled it off its hinges.

Mercifully, there was only one occupant in this car too, a middle-aged woman who also looked more dazed than injured. Her airbag had been deployed and, after she’d fought her way out, she clung to Victoria, shouting an explanation as to why she was on the roads in such treacherous conditions that Victoria barely heard a word of. The wind was just too loud. Supporting the woman’s weight, she guided her to the building. Incredibly, the woman was wearing a pair of stilettos, making the going slow and dangerous. Any moment and the woman would lose her footing and they’d both go tumbling. When Marcello emerged before them, she didn’t know if she was horrified or grateful that he’d come back out.

‘Anyone else?’ he yelled close to her ear.

‘No, this is it! Go back in! I’ve got her!’

Ignoring her, he lifted the woman into his arms and disappeared into the whiteness.

Virtually snow-blind, Victoria shuffled one foot in front of the other until she reached the steps. Clinging tightly to the railing, she made it to the top. Shoving the door open, she practically threw herself inside only to collide straight into rock-solid man.

An arm hooked around her back to steady her.

Blinking snow out of her eyes, she looked up and into Marcello’s piecing blue stare.

The easy smile that was more familiar than any other spread over his face. ‘I know you are cross about a bagel but do you have to keep slamming doors into me?’

His dryness collided with the surging relief that they were both inside and safe. It raced up her throat and expelled from her body as a short burst of laughter. The piercing blue eyes crinkled and then he burst into bemused, disbelieving laughter of his own.

After one quick squeeze of her waist and one dropped kiss on the top of her snow-laden hat, he stepped away from her, shaking his head whilst running his hand through the melting snowflakes in his thick black hair.

Even though she knew intuitively that the squeeze and kiss were Marcello’s own relief manifesting, it still made her blink. Marcello was very Italian in his mannerisms, very tactile...but never with her. Everyone who crossed the threshold into his office was greeted with a handshake and a kiss to each cheek. Victoria had sat in on countless interviews kicked off with the same greeting.

---