Page 210 of Modern Romance November 2024 5-8

Resisting the Bossy Billionaire

Michelle Smart

She stepped through the door. “I am your employee. I have a contract that affords me rights.”

The door almost closed in his face. Almost as put out at her failure to hold it open for him as he was by this bolshy attitude, which, even by Victoria’s standards, went beyond minor insubordination, Marcello decided it was time to remind her who the actual boss was and of her obligations to him.

“You cannot say you were not warned of what the job entailed when you agreed to take it,” he said when he caught up with her in the living room. She was already at the door that would take her through to the reception room. “It is why you are given such a handsome salary and generous perks.”

Instead of going through the door, she came to a stop and turned back around, folding her arms across her breasts. “Quite honestly, Marcello, the way I’m feeling right now, I’d give the whole lot up for one lie-in. One lousy lie-in. That’s all I wanted, but you couldn’t even afford me that, could you? I tell you what, stuff yourhandsome salary and generous perks—I quit.”

To my wonderful mum. You’re one in a million xxx

CHAPTER ONE

‘THEIMPERIALMARCH’pierced Victoria Cusack’s consciousness.

Muttering a curse, she rolled over and flapped her hand on her bedside table, fingers groping for her phone.

Accepting the call, she stuck the phone to her ear and peered through bleary eyes at her bedside alarm clock. It was five a.m.

‘What’s wrong?’ she mumbled as she pulled her lovely warm duvet back up to her chin. It had better be an emergency. Nothing less than broken limbs would count.

‘Patrick and Christina are ill.’

She blinked the sleep away. ‘What’s wrong with them?’

‘A virus. They have to isolate and I can’t work the coffee machine.’

She groaned. Her boss lived in a loft apartment in one of Manhattan’s most exclusive buildings overlooking Central Park. She had no idea why he bothered paying the twenty-four-hour concierge service fees seeing as he never used it. ‘I’ll get coffee delivered to you.’

‘No, I need you to come and make it for me.’

She gritted her teeth tightly before relaxing her mouth into an irritated sigh. ‘It’s Sunday.’

‘You can still take the rest of the day off if you like.’

‘How kind.’

Sarcasm was wasted on Marcello Guardiola. ‘I’ll add a bonus to your salary.’

Victoria didn’t want a bonus. She wanted the lie-in she’d been looking forward to.

Friends and family back home in Ireland thought her job was glamorous? Ha!

‘I’ll throw some clothes on and come over.’

‘I’ve woken you up?’

She rolled her eyes and pulled a face. ‘Yes, Marcello, you’ve woken me up.’

She didn’t expect an apology and none was forthcoming. ‘More hours of the day to enjoy. See you in ten.’

The line went dead before she could correct him and say she’d be there in twenty minutes, not ten.

Muttering under her breath, she threw her thick duvet off then immediately pulled it back over herself. Good heavens, it wasfreezing.

Only by imagining personally maiming Marcello could she coax her protesting body out of bed and her feet onto the frigid floor. Storm Brigit was due to hit the East Coast that day, and a quick peek out of her curtains proved her suspicions that the expected snow had already started to fall.

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