Page 22 of The Baby His Secretary Carries

“So do I. And I’m pressed for time so I’ll get to the point. I need an arrangement like the last for my parents. Double the amount, but in order to access it, they must relinquish all claim to the Casella estate and corporation. Is that something you can arrange or shall I get my own lawyers onto it?”

“I’ll have a draft by end of day that your lawyers can look over.”

“Perfetto. And thank you for excusing my brevity. It’s been a difficult two days.”

“I understand. Will we see you Saturday at our anniversary party?”

“I expected I would be in New York so I sent regrets.” He shot a look at Molly. She had seated herself on the sofa and was concentrating on her tablet. Milan was less than an hour away by helicopter. “But if Nonno is well enough, yes. I’ll bring my fiancée.”

Molly lifted her head, eyes flaring with outrage.

“My grapevine is failing me,” Vittorio said. “By ‘grapevine,’ I mean my wife. I had no idea you were engaged. Congratulations.”

“For once you have a jump on Gwyn. It will be announced later today.”

“Ah. I’m flattered to be one of the first to know and I shall be smug as hell when I pass your happy news along to her. I won’t keep you. We’ll speak later today on the other matter.”

“Grazie.”Gio hung up and asked, “How is the announcement coming along?”

“Of our engagement? I put Nelo on it, didn’t I?”

She sounded very facetious, so he asked, “Did you?”

“No! He would have spat his coffee across the office. Gio, think about this.” She set aside her tablet and folded her hands in her lap. “You are my boss. A surprise notice that you are engaged to a midlevel employee—”

“You weren’t my direct report until yesterday.”

“It still looks terrible.”

“Am I the first man to find his wife at the office? This isn’t an affair. I’m marrying you. It’sromantic,” he said through his teeth.

She made a choked noise and reached for her tablet again, then stated firmly, “We are not marrying.”

“But you’re writing the announcement?” Rather than ask her to forward it to him so he could read it on his own screen, he walked over to settle next to her. She stiffened again, perhaps out of umbrage, but there was also a delicious crackle in the air between them.

I’m asking you not to lead me on.

He wasn’t trying to, but this attraction was positively magnetic.

He heard his grandfather again.Keep this one. He had to stop himself from leaning closer to her, touching her.

He made himself focus on what she was writing. She kept it brief, calling it a “surprise engagement” to forestall anyone making a mountain of that. She stated that his new fiancée was not his direct report and “recently gave notice of her decision to leave Casella.”

That part rankled.

“What about a photo?” she asked.

“We don’t have time for a formal sitting.” He picked up her phone with the floral case, since it was right there, and touched the camera icon. “Look happy, would you? You’re going to break the screen.”

“Gio.” She made him lower the phone and angled to face him. “I know that you got as far as a church once before.”

“This is nothing like that,” he said flatly.

“It’s exactly like that. I’m not going to marry you. And I don’t want to be the person who causes you another embarrassment.”

Then don’t be. The words were right there on his tongue, but it was only his sense of obligation to his grandfather prodding him to say that.

“Look.” He set aside the phone and rose to pace off his restlessness. “I’ve always known I had a duty to marry and produce the next generation. I put my engagement together like any other merger and acquisition. She was beautiful and charming, well-connected and her family needed the money.” He had thought that would buy her steadfastness. That’s all he had really cared about. “When it fell apart, I was annoyed that I had put time into something that didn’t work out, but I was not humiliated. My parents do things that are ten times worse. I’ve learned not to care how other people’s actions reflect on me.”

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