Surprised by Love (14 page)

Roberto
grinned.  “Look in a mirror some time, dear nephew.  Paola has always
had a weakness for handsome men.  You’ll recall how she chased after
Armando di San Raffaele—your uncle Armando’s godson—to no avail.”  He
nodded at Alessandro.  “Anyway, I’m glad to have you confirm that it was
just as I thought.  Moreover, I know she isn’t your type, dear nephew—vain
as a peacock, no conversation except about herself—a liar and a thief. 
Yes, some years ago she did a lot of expensive shopping in Milan, asking that
the bill be sent to Prince Armando.”  Roberto’s frown changed to a
derisive smile.  “Valentino Chiari, the
couture
house she planned
to victimize, phoned Armando to check.  Of course he repudiated her
pretensions.  She was lucky she was only thrown out of there and not
handed to the police.”

Alessandro
nodded thoughtfully.  “I’ll beef up security, make sure they are aware
that she may try to bulldoze her way into my office.  And I won’t be slow
in handing her to the police.”

“Good
idea, cut her down to size once and for all.”

Chapter
13.

The
following day, Alessandro decided to spend some time with Nonna.  Connie
assured him she and Alice could hold the fort.  The greedy, overreaching
manager of the new Orlando Mall had been fired for gross dereliction of duty,
and the new manager seemed to be falling over himself to carry out Alessandro’s
directives to the letter.

An hour
after Alessandro had left, Connie went over to the lower office floor with some
papers.  When she left the departmental office, her attention was drawn to
an unusual ruckus emanating from the reception area.

A
high, furious voice insisted, “I am
Conte
Alessandro di Montedalcino’s
fiancée and I need to see him right now.”

Connie
smiled at the polite, soothing tones of the receptionist.  “Even so,
madam, we have to check…”

“I
am Paola,
Contessa
Bracciano, and I insist you take me to the
Conte’s
private office right now.”

    
Connie decided to get back to the upper floor, slip into Alessandro’s office
and activate his direct line to the chief of security.  Before she could
do this, the aggressive Paola saw her.

“I
know her!” she shrieked.  “That’s the
Conte’s
secretary…”  She
waved an arm.  “Hey you!  Take me to your boss.”  Connie shook
her head and glanced at the two security guards standing at attention by the
entrance to the offices from the reception area.  Nodding in Paola’s direction,
she waited until she saw them go over to the woman, bracketing her between
them. 

    
“You will have to wait until proper procedures are followed, madam.”

Faintly,
Connie heard, “This is an outrage!  When I tell the
Conte
how rude
you are, he’ll have you all fired—including
her!” 
Connie quickly
ducked into the elevator to Alessandro’s office and got the direct line to the
chief of security.

 “Joe? 
Remember the alleged
contessa
you were warned about?  She is
creating a commotion in the reception area.  I think that, in passing, she
picked up one of our laptops.  Check that, will you?”

~I’ll
charge her with theft and industrial espionage.~

 “You
can prove the theft, of course, but the other thing will take a lengthy court
case.”  Connie’s eyes glittered.  “I’ve got it, Joe.  Demand to
check her passport.  If it says
Contessa Bracciano
it’s a
fake.  She is the Count’s illegitimate daughter by his last
mistress.  If she is traveling on a false passport…”

~She’s
toast,~ said Joe laconically.  ~I can and will have her deported.
 Listen, I think I’d better bring her up to the security floor.  If
she starts to yell about her fiancé, I’d prefer to have her do that without an
audience.~

“Excellent
thought, Joe.  Thank you.”

Connie
turned to the bank of screens, activating them and looking at Reception. 
She laughed to herself, when she heard Joe, all suave good manners, suggesting
that the
contessa
should follow him to the private floor.  Connie
saw Paola’s eyes flashing in triumph—she probably thought she was going to be
taken to Alessandro’s office.  The alleged
contessa
sashayed beside
 Joe and off the screen, appearing on one that showed the elevator. 
Clicking the bank of screens off, Connie went back to her own office.  She
had plenty of work to do, and Joe was more than a match for the belligerent
little
contessa.

Twenty
minutes later, she heard police sirens, and realized that Paola would soon be
on her way to jail, and from there back to Italy.

****

And
then it was Friday.  Suddenly and irrevocably—Friday.  Connie awoke
and thought she’d better get up.  She began to slide toward her edge of
the bed, when she felt strong arms holding her back.

Ah,
Alessandro—wanting to begin this memorable day by making some sensual memories
of his own.  She turned to him, lifting her face to his.  He brushed
his mouth over hers, quickly deepening the kiss, making sure she felt she was
his, as he was hers. 

He
needed to be with her right now, to assuage the rush of impassioned desire
surging through him, settling low in his pelvis.  He lifted his long,
heavy lashes to gaze at Connie, and sensed they both felt exactly the
same. 

He
felt her body move against his, heard her breathe, “Alessandro…” as she sank
into him.   Instantly, his hands began to caress her, shaping her
body with increasing passion, needing to drive himself into her, thrusting deep
and hard. 

“In
a hurry?” she whispered.

He
shook his head.  “Not particularly,
amore. 
 I just
needed to begin this day by making love to you.”   

“Mmm,
great idea.  Yes, please make love to me…”

He
nodded, moving slightly—smiling when he heard her gasp the moment she felt his
spectacular length, so hard and thick, throbbing and pulsating against her
body.  Sliding a hand slowly down his to-die-for torso, she whispered, “I
want you…”

 He
smiled, tightening his hold on her.  “There’s a coincidence.  Touch
me all you want.”   He felt her hand slipping down farther, until her
fingers found his penis, and began hot, erotic caresses.  She bent her
head far down, licking and laving the silky tip before taking his hard, heavy
length into her mouth. Her hand slid even farther, and he felt her cup his sac,
fondling the testes—one long finger stretching to that most sensitive place
just beyond.  He felt a shock of deep rapturous pleasure arrow through him
like a bolt of lightning. 

 “
Amore
…”
he moaned, as deep, emotional need flooded his body, his penis jerking in
response to her fondling.  He moved in hot, blazing passion against her
hand, wanting all of her, now.

Feeling
her mouth on his penis again, he surrendered to the surpassing rapture she made
him feel, whispering, “
Carissima,
I need to be inside you right now…
Please?”

His
heart soared when he heard her whisper, “Told you many times before—you don’t
ever have to say ‘please’ to me.” 

He
could not wait another moment, needing to feel her silken heat surround him,
hold him tight.  Moving quickly between her satiny thighs, he drove his
aching-hard length deep into her—beginning to make rapturous love to her,
wanting it all, wanting it now. He felt her pelvis stir in little circles
against his—which invariably brought him to the edge of his endurance, making
him feel things he had only ever felt with her.  Sensing the shattering
orgasm very near, he quickened his rhythm and brought them both to an
overwhelming climax.  More deeply moved than he had thought possible, he
felt his seed pulse hotly out of him, deep into her—flooding her body and his
senses, as he came and came—finally sinking down on her, holding her in his arms—spent
and sated— knowing that he had given her everything he had. 

Everything. 

Connie
slid her arms around his back, rocking him gently, whispering, “I love you,
Alessandro.”  The moment she had uttered the words, she felt his penis
stir deep inside her. 
Dear God, did I say that out loud?  Oh,
no…  Better not say another word—let him think I said this in the thrall
of deep emotion.

Alessandro
apparently did not want to let this slide by.  “Did you mean that,
tesoro?” 

Connie
gazed at him, frowning slightly, wondering what she could say…

Finally
she lifted her head, sighing, “Saying ‘I feel a passionate friendship for you’
is kind of long-winded.  Did it offend you that I said I love you? 
That wasn’t my intention.  I know you don’t believe in love.”

He
smiled into her eyes, which were still dark from having just made love, but to
his surprise he also read anxiety there.  Was she upset that he had
noticed her saying that she loved him?  Quickly he went into damage
control.

“You
can say anything to me that makes you feel good—that expresses your
feelings—but I asked you whether you meant that.  When I told you, long
ago now, that I believed in passion and deep friendship, I did not mean that
there was an embargo on the words I love you, or
Ti amo
, in Italian.”

Connie
did her best to give him a happy smile.  “Then I shall look forward to
your saying
‘Ti amo’
to me, some day.”

“Why
wait?” he asked.  “Connie,
ti amo.” 

Connie
sensed that she should react to his remark in a happy, casual way. For there
was no way that Alessandro could have meant what he said—that he loved
her.  Softly, she said, “
Grazie, caro.”

“I
shall have to teach you some more daring Italian endearments, my dear Ms.
Sherwood.”

“I
apologize if I bored you.”

Alessandro
tightened his gentle embrace.  “You couldn’t be boring if you tried,
inamorata.”

Connie
blinked at ‘inamorata’. 
Surely that means beloved or something like
that?  He can’t possibly mean that, it’s just an expression. 
“Can
I say
inamorato
to you?”

“If
that expresses what you feel, yes.”

“It
expresses what I feel—yes!”

“In
that case, could I interest you in an
encore?”

“I
thought you’d never ask.”

Chapter 14.

At
3:15, Tom and Jeff drove up in the Bentley.  Alessandro was surprised to
see them this early.  “There’s another hour before we have to leave for
the wedding,” he muttered to Jeff. 

Tom
chose to enlighten the groom.  “You may have another hour to hang about,
but the bride needs my expert advice on how to look her very best for
you.  I’ve been so busy I didn’t take the time to confer with Connie about
her dress.  I will do so now.”  He walked over to her.  “Show me
your clothes.”

Connie
took Tom to their bedroom, indicating a green silk dress and jacket laid out on
her side of the bed.  “Um…  I was going to wear this…”

Tom
frowned.  “A green silk suit, to be
married
in?  Clearly you
need the advice of the First Team—which is me, by the way.  Lead me to
your clothes.”

Tom
flicked through Connie’s modest supply of designer clothes from Tino
Chiari.  She said hesitantly, “We had intended going to Milan and letting
Tino design an entire wardrobe for me, but when Alessandro heard about the
difficulties at the new mall in Orlando…”

“He
wanted to sort that out first, of course.”  Tom nodded.  “I’m glad he
fired that upstart little creep.  Too greedy for his own good, as
Alessandro noted very quickly.”  He frowned.  “Meanwhile, I’ll have
to do what I can with the clothing available.  “Hmm…”  Tom unearthed
an ivory-white crêpe-de-Chine dress with a simple elegance of line that was
pure Tino.  “Try this on, dear girl.  Have you shoes for it?”

Connie
nodded.  “Silk sandals.  But Tom, this is white…”

“Of
course it is, you’re a bride.  And don’t worry about accessories, in the
Bentley’s trunk we have a bridal bouquet and
boutonnières
for the men,
and a small posy of rosebuds for Marcella, who will be your witness.  Dear
girl, this is your
wedding day!
  And you were going to wear a green
suit…”  The way Tom pronounced ‘green suit’ made it sound like the name of
a particularly nasty reptile.  He  went on, “…as if you were taking
notes at a conference…”  Tom shook his leonine mane.

Wondering
what Alessandro would think of her new finery, Connie quickly changed into the
ivory dress.  When she re-entered the bedroom from the dressing room, Tom
did a double-take.  “Stunning, dear girl.  Absolutely and totally
stunning.  Just smoothe your hair a bit.  Yes, that’s it. 
You’ll be a worthy bride for Alessandro.  What is he wearing?  Black
Armani, I hope?”