VITTORIO'S WOMAN (The Vittorio Series) (4 page)

“I’ll need you to move forward so I can get behind you,” she intruded on his thoughts.
  “I think it would be easier that way.”  Lilly waited for him to move but when Simon remained immobile, she presumed he was just being stubborn again.  “Come on,” she tried to cajole him, “it will only take a minute, and I promise you’ll feel much better when we’re done.” 

Reaching out, she placed her hand lightly on his shoulder to help guide him and was taken aback when he jerked away from her.

“Exactly what kind of therapist are you?” he ground out accusingly.

“A very good one,” she shot back.
  “Good Lord, Simon, I’m just trying to wash your hair not seduce you.”

“You think it is not an act of seduction to climb into the tub with me?
 
Madre di Dio
, do you do this for all your male patients?”

“Well…no, but honestly Simon, this isn’t exactly a conventional tub and it would be almost impossible for me to do it any other way.
  And to tell the truth, I usually only bathe the younger ones…”

Simon’s chest puffed in indignation.
  “You think I am too old for you?” 

“That’s not what I…”

“I am only thirty-six, Lilly, and though the accident has taken its toll on me, you can hardly say my body is not fit.”

“Of course not,” she protested.
  “I wasn’t trying to…”

“Does it give you a thrill to touch these younger men?”

Lilly’s anger rose hard and sharp.  “You have a dirty mind Simon Vittorio!  How dare you accuse me of inappropriate behavior towards my patients!”

His lips curled into a cruel smile.
  “You can ask that of me after the way you just kissed me?”

Lilly’s face turned a brilliant scarlet.
  “I didn’t kiss you,
you
kissed me!”

“Oh no,
cara
, I may have made the first move but I assure you I know when a woman is enjoying the feel of mouth on hers, as you most certainly did.”

“So what if I did?
  What has that got to do with your nasty insinuations that I take liberties with the children in my care?  There’s quite a difference between a man who exudes sexuality from every pore of his body and a young child, Simon, and I resent…”

“Children,” he repeated, his anger totally diffused, “what did you say about children?”

“Not that I owe you an explanation,” she snapped, “but most of my patients are children.  I only took this job because Milana sounded so worried about you and now I sorely regret being so weak.”

“So I am an exception?”

“Oh, you’re definitely that,” she bit out caustically, “and believe me, I will refuse any future offers to care for adult males.”

“Are you saying you have not done this before?”

“Given a man a bath?  On occasion, but I’ve never gotten in the tub with them.  Most of the people I care for don’t live in the type of luxury you do, so I’ve never had to improvise before by putting on a swimsuit to get the job done.”

“A swimsuit?
  You are wearing a swimsuit?”

“Well, of course I am.
  What did you think, that I would jump in fully clothed?”  Lilly’s eyes narrowed when Simon merely shrugged.  “Oh, my God, you thought I was naked, didn’t you?”

“What was I supposed to think?”

“Well I…oh, this is a ridiculous conversation!  Just move so I have enough room to wash your hair.”

Chuckling, Simon used the strength of his arms to inch himself forward.
  “I have never met anyone like you before, Lilly.  I cannot decide what I want to do more, shake you or kiss you senseless.”

“I’ve already taken leave of my senses, so any more kissing is out of the question.”

He didn’t bother presenting any arguments to the contrary, she’d find out soon enough just how wrong she was.  In the meantime, he would enjoy her gentle ministrations and devise a new plan; one that included making her so sexually aware of him she’d have no choice but to leave.  It was obvious she felt guilty for having crossed the line by kissing him, and it was just as obvious she had been powerless to stop herself from responding.  All he had to do was keep at her and eventually she would feel obligated to leave, or risk losing her self-respect.  Poor Lilly wouldn’t stand a chance once his scheme to seduce her was in full swing. 

He tipped his head back obediently so she could wet his hair and nearly groaned out loud when Lilly began to massage the shampoo into his scalp.
  He almost regretted the necessity of driving her away, but Simon refused to bind her to him emotionally when he was incapable of binding her to him physically.  She deserved better. 

 
                                                              ***

“
Grazie, Signorina
Lilly,” Luisa said with tears in her eyes.  “
Lei è angelo, un regalo da Dio
.”  Still muttering praises in her native tongue, Luisa hurried off to the kitchen with the food trays, leaving Lilly alone with Milana.

Lilly turned to Milana.
 “What did she say?” 

“She thanked you and called you an angel, a gift from God.”

“Just because I got Simon to eat and take a bath?  Once I have him walking again, I expect she’ll want to nominate me for Sainthood too.”

Milana moved to the sofa.
  “You have no idea how much this means to us.  Simon has always had such an enormous appetite, sometimes I wondered where he put it all.  For him to refuse to eat…” she dabbed at her eyes, smiling apologetically.  “It’s just not like Simon to give up so easily.  When he wouldn’t eat or sleep and kept chasing off the people who were here to help him, it really scared us.”

“What about your parents?
  Couldn’t they do anything to snap him out of it?”

“He refused to let them come here.
  He couldn’t bear to let them see him like this.  Simon is the oldest you see, and he’s always been the strong one, the one we all turn to when things go wrong or need fixing.  I think his pride is even more crippled than his legs are right now.”

“I assume your siblings have been banned from his island too?”

“Yes, and they wouldn’t dare defy Simon.”

“But you did,” Lilly said with sincere admiration.

“Unlike the rest of my family, I’m not afraid of Simon’s bark, which irritates him to no end I can tell you.  I know you have no reason to believe me based on the way he’s behaving right now, but Simon is a good man.  Beneath that gruff exterior is an honorable man with a heart of gold who would do just about anything for those he loves.  I was beginning to think we’d lose him, but you’ve given us hope, Lilly, real hope.” 

“You understand Simon’s rehabilitation relies a great deal on his own desire to recuperate.”

“Yes, but it’s you who will spark that desire.”

A slow blush began to work its way up her neck.
  She knew there was no way Milana had seen Simon kiss her, or the shameless way she’d kissed him back, but there was something in the mischievous glint in Milana’s eyes that made Lilly think she at least suspected. 

“I’ll do my best,” Lilly promised, then quickly changed the subject.
  “Tell me about your family.  How is it that Simon’s accent is still so pronounced and yours is barely noticeable?”

“Simon grew up in Italy and still goes back home quite frequently.
  There’s a ten year difference between us, and by the time he was twenty-five he was already running the family business and making millions.  Oh, we’d done well enough while my father was at the helm, but Simon just seemed to have the golden touch and we became filthy rich.”

Lilly had to laugh at that.
  “I know how you feel, except in my family it’s my sister Caitlyn who turns everything to gold.”

“I hate to sound snobbish, but I love the freedom money gives me and my family.
  Of course we all have a role in the business, but it’s Simon who’s made it what it is today.  Anyway, I was fifteen when he decided to move the home base to America and naturally we all came with him.”

“So you were educated here.”

“It’s what Simon wanted.  And what my brother wants, he usually gets.  What about you, Lilly?  You mentioned earlier that you were born into wealth, so your sister can’t be the only one who knows how to amass money.”

“It’s my shares in the family business that was the catalyst for my financial independence.
  I never had any interest in helping run it and that was okay with my family.  They’ve been very supportive of my career choice.”

“What type of business is it?”

“A string of resorts that went international when my mother and father merged, both in marriage and business.  My mother is Jade Sinclair and my father is David Barclay.  Have you heard of the Sinclair-Barclay Resorts?”

Milana’s eyes widened in surprise.
  “Who hasn’t heard of them, they’re magnificent.  The one in Paris is my favorite; the ambiance of the place is simply incredible and I know Simon likes them too.  Of course, he travels more extensively than I do so I imagine he’s visited more of the resorts than I have.  We’ll have to ask him…”

“No!”
  Lilly said with vehemence.  “Promise me you won’t ever tell Simon about my connection with the resorts.”

Milana looked at Lilly as if she’d lost her mind, not that Lilly could blame her after she’d practically shouted at the woman.  It was difficult to explain, the changes that came over people once they learned whose daughter she was.  Lilly wasn’t ashamed of it by any means, and in reality, the money she’d made from having shares in the resort wasn’t where the major portion of her wealth stemmed from.  Where Caitlyn’s talent lay in taking the resorts to even grander scales and knowing just how to cater to the rich and famous, Lilly discovered she had a gift for choosing investments which seemed far too risky for others to take a chance on, but had been enormously profitable for her. 

She probably had more money than any one person should have in a lifetime, but at least she could honestly say she didn’t squander it on material things she didn’t need.
  Oh, she wasn’t quite ready for that Sainthood Luisa seemed so eager to bestow on her.  Lilly never short changed herself when it came to comfort, but she was giving by nature and never passed up the opportunity to help others get ahead when she got the chance.

She never simply gave away money though.
  Too many times she’d witnessed the greed and corruption that followed in its wake, especially for those who’d never had much of it before and were easily lured into spending money just for the sake of spending.  And once it was gone, they were no longer satisfied with the life they’d had before, their misery twofold for having lost the chance for something better than where they had started.

So Lilly gave in other ways.
  She gave her time and skill as a therapist and was quite proud of her success rate.  A good deal of the battle rested on the patients’ desire to get better, and Lilly seemed to possess that one magical ingredient that made them believe they would.  She gave in other ways too; donations of food, clothing, medical supplies and equipment, but any cash she gave went directly to pay off medical providers.  That was her way of providing financial relief, and in return, her patient and their family were also relieved from the emotional stress.  The money she received from Milana would be used in this manner, but only after Lilly worked her magic on Simon.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized, “that sounded incredibly rude.”

“Not rude, just unexpected.  I realize you feel the need to protect yourself, Lilly.  You and I are in the same boat and we’re both smart enough to know it’s not always our pretty faces or charming personalities that draw men to us.  I also know that Simon can reduce even the most sensible woman into a blithering idiot with little more than a smile, but I promise you it’s never money he’s after.”

Now Lilly was truly embarrassed.
  “I didn’t mean to insinuate he would be interested in me for my money, or that he’d be interested in me at all for that matter.”  Milana gave her that secretive smile again, which only served to fluster Lilly even more.  “What I’m trying to say is that people tend to treat me differently when they know about my family ties.  Suddenly I’m the spoiled little rich girl who only does this as a hobby or to relieve the boredom of shopping.  To tell the truth, I get more respect when my patients believe I live from paycheck to paycheck and that they’re actually helping by allowing me to take care of them.”

Milana nodded thoughtfully.
  “I have to agree that in Simon’s case it would be much more effective.  Even though he’s a millionaire several times over, he’s also a workaholic and has little faith that money does anything but make people lazy and uncaring if they don’t guard against it.”

“So we agree you won’t tell him?”

“If it’s what you want, though I doubt it would make any difference to Simon.  In spite of the lifestyle he lives, he’s really not materialistic.”

Lilly arched a brow.
  “You say that now, but take away his sunken tub and I’d bet you’d hear some pretty colorful Italian phrases.”

Milana laughed.
  “I’m sure I would.  So tell me how you got Simon to eat
and
take a bath.”

“Oh... no,” Lilly shook her head, “those are secrets of the trade, and as much as I’d love to stay and talk some more, I really do need to get back upstairs.”

“Anxious for round two, are you?”

“Anxious to get it over with is more like it.
  I neglected to tell Simon we would be starting his physical therapy this afternoon.”

“Do you want my help?
  I don’t know anything about physical therapy, but I could…well, I’m not sure what I could do,” Milana gave a helpless shrug, “but I’m available if you need me.”

“No, I’d rather Simon have only himself and me to rely on.
  It’s difficult to deny someone you love, and he’s smart enough to figure out he can play us off of each other.  He’ll portray me as the big bully and cast you in the role of his rescuer.”

“Simon’s not like that,” Milana denied, rising to her feet.

“You underestimate your brother’s desire to get rid of me if you believe that.”

“But he likes you, he must or he wouldn’t have given in to you.”

“Oh, I’ll admit he’s putting on a good show, but Simon doesn’t fool me for a minute.  He’s letting me win the small battles, but I assure you, he fully intends to win the war.”

 
                                                             ***

Simon was feeling a little water logged by the time Lilly returned to help him out of the tub but he didn’t dare give away how agitated he was feeling.
  Besides, she would be much more susceptible to his advances if he wasn’t quite so quarrelsome.  He imagined she had been downstairs boasting to Milana about how quickly he’d folded to her, but that was okay.  It was what he wanted her to believe. 

He’d done some serious thinking while she was gone, and one of the things he’d determined was that he needed to get her out of his life as fast as possible.
  He already had more feelings for her than was safe; the heavy ache in his chest was proof of that, and it would only get worse the longer she stayed.

“Have you finished or do you need more time?”
  Lilly asked as she slipped off the sundress she’d donned for Milana’s sake.

“Any more time in here and I will look like a prune,” he grumbled.

Lilly’s eyes skimmed over his massive chest.  No chance of that, she thought with a wistful sigh.  “I’ll help you out of the tub then let you dry off while I gather some clean clothes.”

He didn’t need her help getting out, but Simon wasn’t about to tell her that.
  “Assist me to the seat at the foot of the tub,
cara
.”

Lilly climbed back into the water and waited for Simon to turn himself around, more than a little suspicious of his passive behavior.
 

“Scoot back just a few more inches and your back will be against the seat.
  That’s it, now all you need to do is use your arms to hoist yourself up onto the seat.”

Simon did as she instructed then made a few lame attempts to lift himself from the seat to the edge of the tub.
  With an irritated grunt he snapped at Lilly. 

“Are you just going to watch me flounder or do you intend to help?”

“Of course.  I’m sorry, Simon, I honestly thought you could…oh!”  Lilly let out a startled gasp when two strong arms shot out and pulled her down onto his lap.

“I have considered your proposals,
mio bello
, and I have decided against them.”

“Wh-what proposals?”
 

“The one where we forget what happened earlier,” Simon said huskily, “and the one that does not allow for us to kiss.”

“We can’t,” she struggled in vain to free herself.  “You’re my patient, Simon, it isn’t right.”

“Isn’t it,
cara mia
?”  He pulled her up hard against his chest.  “Your heart is racing, Lilly, I can feel it.”  Simon dipped his head and found the softness of her lips.  “Kiss me,” he commanded, then let out a low groan when she stopped fighting him and slipped her arms around his neck.

The illusion that he was in control of the situation was shattered into a million pieces the moment Lilly pulled his mouth down onto hers.
 
Dio
, had anything ever tasted so sweet?  Slow and seductive, the kiss tormented him with the promise of things he could only dream of having with this woman.  Simon drank heavily from her mouth for several more minutes before trailing a moist path down the side of her neck.  He inhaled deeply, breathing in the soft, feminine scent of her skin and delighting in the silky feel of it against his lips.  He was falling hard and fast with no way to stop himself, at least not as far as his heart was concerned.  His crippled legs would make sure this was as far as it went physically. 

“
Strega
,” he murmured in her ear.  “You are a witch, Lilly; casting your spell, making me want things I can never have.”

Lilly squeezed her eyes shut, wishing will all her heart that she hadn’t played along.
  It was a game to Simon and nothing more, she’d known it from the moment he grabbed her up in his arms.  Was her desperation to be kissed by him so obvious he couldn’t wait to use it against her?  But of course it must be or she wouldn’t be pressed so intimately to him right now.  Disgusted with herself for allowing Simon to get past her defenses, Lilly drew her head back, flattening her palms against his chest to keep him from kissing her again.

“Bravo, Mr. Vittorio,” she said coolly, “that was quite a performance.”

“Lilly, I…”

“Don’t try to deny it.
  I’m on to you, Simon.  Kiss me senseless, isn’t that how you phrased it?  Kiss pathetic little Lilly senseless and she’ll turn tail and run from the humiliation of letting her patient seduce her.  Was that the plan?”

Cut to the quick by the icy tone of her voice, the biting words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.
  “Yes it was, and now that you know it was all just an act perhaps you could spare yourself further embarrassment by getting the hell out of my life!”

Lilly drew in a sharp breath, pain spearing through her entire body.
  “You’re a horrible man, Simon Vittorio, and you’re right, I
am
embarrassed.  But not for the reasons you think.” 

She shoved against his chest and managed one tiny squeak before tumbling from his lap and landing with a splash at his feet.

“Lilly!”  Simon waved his arms frantically in front of him.  “Lilly, are you okay?  I didn’t mean to hurt you…
cara
, answer me!”

Lilly brushed back the dripping curls from her face with an indignant huff.
  “Calm down,” she said curtly, “I’m not likely to drown in two feet of water.  Unless that was your back up plan,” she added as she hauled herself out of the tub.

Simon followed suit, bracing his hands on the edge of the tub, then using his upper body strength to drag his useless legs out of the water and onto the tiled floor.
  He didn’t thank Lilly when she draped a towel around his shoulders or when she rolled his chair up behind him and held it steady so he could lift himself into it.  And if it hadn’t been for the slight pressure against his hips, he wouldn’t even have known she’d slipped his legs into his boxers.  Filled with guilt and remorse for having hurt her, Simon remained tight lipped as he tugged first his boxers and then a clean pair of jeans up over his hips.

“Your shirt,” she said in a subdued tone.

Simon allowed her to pull the t-shirt over his head then stuffed his arms into the sleeves.  “Lilly…”

“Keep your eyes closed while I remove your patches.”
  She worked quietly and efficiently for a few minutes, replacing the patches and winding a new bandage around his head to keep them in place.  “Would you like to rest for awhile or would you rather get the physical therapy over with first?”

Simon couldn’t have been more shocked if she’d stuck a cattle prod to his side.
  “You mean you are staying?”

“I told you I don’t give up and I meant it.”

Warmth flooded his heavy heart. 
Ringraziare Dio
.  Thank God.  Out loud he said indifferently, “Suit yourself.”

 
                                                              ***

Lilly stared up at the ceiling, unable to sleep.  Her stomach was twisted into knots, as it had been since she’d announced to Simon that she had no intention of giving up on him.
  Was it really only five days ago that she’d walked in to find him hiding in the shadows of his room?  It seemed longer.  She glanced over at the clock and groaned.  Two o’clock in the morning and she was still wide awake, still wondering what in the hell had made her think she could continue to be around Simon and not fall more and more in love with him.

He was as arrogant as he was stubborn.
  He irritated her to no end, did his level best to be as disagreeable as possible, and yet she loved him more than ever.  Because she had finally figured out what he was doing.  Simon knew she was the one who had been drooling over him at Amanda’s birthday party, knew she’d seen him when his body was strong and healthy, and it was a blow to his pride for her to see him like this.  Somehow, Lilly had to prove to him that he was no less a man to her now than he’d been when she’d first laid eyes on him.  She refused to believe he would never walk again, but if the worst happened and Simon was crippled for life, it wouldn’t change the way she felt for him.