Page 24 of In Bed with Her Billionaire Bodyguard

But it was this client. This case. He’d known when Nate had approached him that it would hit a little too close to home, to exactly what he’d spent his life trying to avoid—the press, public scrutiny. And he probably could have argued, after the night at the opera, that someone else would be better suited for her protection detail. But he’d given Nate his word, and that meant something to him.

Hope said her thanks as the air steward placed the espresso beside her and moved off. She’d never thought of the jet as small before, but when so much of her focus was taken up by her awareness of Luca it now seemed almost claustrophobic.

She had been purposely avoiding him since he had left her apartment that night after the opera. And if she’d thought she could have escaped London and come to Austria without him noticing, she would have. But it seemed that Luca was, indeed, very good at his job.

‘Who was that?’ he asked from behind her.

She’d have liked to pretend that he’d caught her by surprise, but he hadn’t. She’d felt the distance between them getting smaller and smaller with every leap of her pulse. She could try to ignore him for the rest of the trip, but she doubted that she’d have much luck. There was simply no way to ignore Luca Calvino.

‘Angelique,’ she said on a sigh, wishing that his gravelly voice didn’t make her tummy flip in that way.

‘You trust her?’ he asked, waiting beside the table for her to invite him to sit. Like she’d thought, not that subtle, and not mincing his words today, it seemed.

Locking her gaze on his, direct and unquestionable, ‘With my life,’ she said honestly. ‘I’m sure that you heard the call, and I’m sure that you drew all manner of conclusions about someone who sayschampersanddarlingand who has a chalet in an Austrian ski resort. And you’re entitled to draw those conclusions, Luca. But, as I have quite clearly demonstrated to you, I know what it’s like to be sold out by someone I deemed a friend. This isn’t one of those times and Angelique isn’t one of those people.’

‘What are we doing in Austria, Hope?’ he asked, the bite of exhausted frustration colouring his tone.

She considered whether to tell him the truth. She didn’t like the way that he seemed to take over, without her permission or consultation. So many people did that to her, but with him it seemed all the more important to fight it.

‘You have to let me know your plans if I’m going to do my job properly,’ he insisted.

‘If you need me to tell you my plans, then perhaps you’re not up to the job,’ she replied tartly.

‘It doesn’t have to be this difficult.’

‘No, you’re right. It doesn’t. And had I wanted this, rather than you and my brother going behind my back, then it wouldn’t be this difficult.’

‘That is a very naïve view of the situation,’ he said, dismissing her argument. ‘It’s this simple,’ he went on, his index finger tracing an arc on the table. ‘Either I’ll follow one step behind you, wherever you go, during which time it’s entirely possible that a lack of communication could lead to an accidental slip-up, and that the press, who are clearly also following you and looking for a story, will see,’ he said with a careless shrug as her ire built and built. ‘Or we can work together and make sure that the press see and discover nothing.’

‘Are you threatening me?’ she demanded.

‘I will do whatever I have to do, to get the job done.’

‘To get your global contract with Harcourts, you mean.’

Although her verbal jab was little more than a diversionary tactic, it was clear that it meant a lot to her. And he wished he hadn’t had his hands tied by her brother, but they had been.

Luca hated the idea that he had to threaten Hope to get her to play ball, and if she’d had any idea that he had absolutely no intention of ever being noticed by the press, she’d have been able to call his bluff. But she didn’t. In truth, if he could live in perfect anonymity, Luca would die a happy man. He’d have managed to live his life without ruining his mother’s. No matter how large the distance between them, or how difficult the relationship, knowing that his very existence was a constant threat to his mother was a terrible burden to live with. So no, Luca had absolutely no intention of being discovered by the paparazzi, but neither did he have any intention of doing a bad job.

His question hung in the air between them.What are we doing in Austria?

‘The shareholders don’t like me,’ she said with a shrug as if she didn’t care, even though he doubted that to be true. ‘Whether it’s the fact I’m a woman, the fact that Nate and I want desperately to take Harcourts into the twenty-first century, or whether I’m not willing to schmooze them in the way they believe they are entitled to. It didn’t really matter before now.

‘Nate was supposed to be the one who took over the CEO position when Johnson finally stepped down, but clearly we underestimated the deals he’d made with Simon.’ She shook her head, as if annoyed with herself. ‘Nate had been working on a business deal with Casas Fashion.’

‘The Spanish conglomerate?’

‘Yes. But something happened and the deal fell through. And before Nate could...he...’ She looked out of the window again. ‘Well, you know.’

Luca nodded, wondering when Nate had last spoken to his sister. He thought of the Conwarys and how they’d talked around the medical crisis that had struck him down, and realised that there was more than one way to keep a secret.

‘Everyone wants something,’ she said, repeating words from the mouth of that snake de Savoir, making his hackles rise. ‘So I need to give the board something that they want, in order to vote for me and not Simon.’

‘And what’s that?’ he asked.

‘An obscene amount of money.’

Clever. Very clever, he thought, satisfaction a shimmering gold in the molten chocolate gaze staring back at him.

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