Surprised by Love (2 page)

Constance
nodded.  “I agree.  If you accept my abilities, we’ll have to see
whether our personalities dovetail.”  She smiled.  “My résumé states
that I took care of Leandros’s business and personal matters.  By that, I
meant that I paid his bills, entered family dates of importance in his agenda,
reminded him to buy gifts, or bought them for him, engaged and fired household
staff.  I do not mean that I found him amusement for his libido.”

Alessandro
laughed.  “I didn’t for a moment think that’s what you meant,” he said.
“By all accounts, Lee Melissinos had a problem similar to mine—women hit on him
relentlessly, in droves, and he had to do a lot of ducking.  It’s been the
same for me.”

Constance
glanced at the dazzling man.  A smile tugged at one corner of her
mouth.  “I can well imagine you having the same problem.”  She took a
deep breath.  “On occasion, I have effectively removed extremely
persistent women from Leandros’s life.  I would be prepared to do the same
for you.”

“Let
us hope it will never come to that.”  He gazed at her, his eyes taking her
in more sharply than she realized. 

Constance
went on, “I was married for a few years to Robert Griffiths.  I hadn’t
realized he would want me to give up working for Leandros—become the decorative
head of the various charities he was interested in.  I missed
real
work,
but Bob didn’t understand that.  He thought all women were born to shop,
and…”  Constance shrugged. 

Alessandro
smiled his sympathy.  “I should be happy to have you work with me as my
PA. Will you accept the position?”

 “Yes,
I will,” Constance said, her voice warmer than usual in business
conversations.  Somewhat to her surprise, she found that she liked
Alessandro. 
Oh, wait, let’s decide what I’m supposed to call him.

 “What
do you…”  She stopped speaking when she realized he was talking to her—
“Have you any…”

Alessandro
smiled and said, “Let’s start over again.  I dislike formality between
myself and people I work closely with.  I would not want to call you Ms.
Sherwood all the time.  Will you agree to Constance?  And I’m
Alessandro, or Sandro if you prefer.”

 “Alessandro
is fine, and I’ll answer to Constance or Connie, whichever you prefer.” 
After a moment’s thought, she added, “Of course, when others are present, I
will call you Mr. Montedalcino—I suppose you drop the ‘di’ in business?”

Alessandro
nodded.  “Yes.  And I’ll call you Ms. Sherwood.  When can you
start?  I’ve really been left in the lurch by my PA, who needs to see her
pregnancy through its first, hazardous trimester, and she has to rest all the
time.”

 “Tomorrow,
if that helps you out.”

 “It
would indeed.”  He went to his desk and picked up a sheet of paper, which
he handed to her.  “Here is a list of benefits which apply automatically
to any member of my staff.  Below the double line are some hand-written
benefits that apply only to you.  And your
salary.”         

Connie
did her best not to gasp.  “That is most generous.”  She
smiled.  “I give you my word that I’ll work very hard to be worth every
penny of it.”

“I’m
sure you will, Constance.”  He added, “Your salary will be paid by me—not
by the Accounting department.  I consider it is no one’s business to know
your salary.” 

Getting
to his feet, he said, “Let me take you on a brief tour of the office, introduce
you to the chief accountant, and the heads of a few departments with whom
you’ll have to deal frequently.  By the way, I’ll introduce you as Ms.
Sherwood.  What we discussed earlier applies only to ourselves.  Of
course I am on a first-name basis with the others, but I do not want them to
presume that they can call you Connie, that’s for sure.”

 “Thank
you, Alessandro,” Constance said quietly.

****

Alessandro
called the Gallery. 

~St.George
Art Gallery, Jeff Harcourt.~

 “Jeff,
it’s Alessandro.  I am phoning to thank you and Tom profusely for finding
an ideal PA for me.  She’s going to start work tomorrow.” 
Alessandro’s voice slid from its usual husky tone into teasing mockery. 
“Why didn’t either of you bother to mention that she’s a stunning looking
woman?  I half-expected someone perfectly dressed and groomed, of course,
but more like mid-40s…”

Jeff
laughed.  ~Just what Tom and I thought.  A small, pleasant surprise
for you in your daily toiling, nose-to-grindstone existence.~

 “Will
you and Tom come to dinner with me?  Your choice, the
Café de Paris,
or
the
Aztec Café?” 

~Wish
we could, but we have Connie coming to dinner at our house.~

 “Oh,
I see—”  Jeff was amused to note that, for once, Alessandro seemed to be
at a loss for words.  Generous by nature, Jeff decided to solve his
problem. 

~Why
don’t you come to dinner too?  You can observe each other in your natural
non-business habitat.  That would surely be useful to both of you?~

Alessandro’s
voice was back to its usual husky timbre.  “Kind, generous Jeff. 
Yes, I’d like to come to dinner.  Sure this is okay with Tom?”

~Are
you kidding?  He’s been wondering how he could casually happen to invite
you to dinner as well.  By the way, in this heat, a shirt and chinos will
be fine, no formal dark suit and suffocating tie—although Tom will have the
central air-conditioning at an all-time low, as usual.~

 “Thank
you for that, too.  I know it’s your idea, because Tom can only be removed
with a crowbar from his determination to have evening-clothes at  dinner.”

~You
got that right.  See you around 7:30 then.  Dinner is at 9 in this
sudden heat-wave.  By then, there’ll be a bit of a breeze, and we can have
coffee on the verandah.~

They
disconnected, and Alessandro tried to think what he was supposed to be doing
this afternoon.  He’d better check his agenda. 

****

Alessandro
smiled at himself, flicking through his clothes in the walk-in closet, finally
settling on tight-fitting, white silk Armani trousers, with an almost
translucent blue silk shirt that did things for his eyes. 
Just
checking Connie’s determination not to stray from her no-men decision. 
He
frowned derisively at himself. 
Yes, and you’d like nothing better than
to find that Connie is susceptible to you.  A woman who will not chase
after you—the impossible dream.

 
****

Connie,
oblivious of the invitation that had been given to Alessandro, decided on a
soft, floaty sundress, in a patterned silk of subtle greens and blues. 
Its flirty, ruched hem just covered her knees.  She never wore
halfway-the-thigh skirts, and was well aware of Tom’s total aversion to
anything above the knee
per se. 
She decided to leave her hair
loose, no stockings, simple, high-heeled sandals.  Taking a quick look in
her cheval mirror, she nodded to herself and went to her car.

 
****

When
she arrived at Tom and Jeff’s huge house in Bougainvillea Close, Jeff ran down
the marble steps.  “I’ll park her for you, honey,” he said, helping her
from the car.  He parked her BMW convertible neatly and tightly in one
corner, explaining, “One more car to come, and you know Tom won’t tolerate
anyone parking in front of his half of the garage.”  Jeff grinned. 
“As if he was likely to have to tear out of it on his way to an emergency.”
 He put an arm around Connie’s waist, taking her with him up the steps to
the impressively carved oak front door.

Realizing
that Connie would wonder who the other guest was, he said casually, “When
Alessandro invited us to dine with him tonight, I told him we were having you
to dinner, and invited him as well.  I thought it might be good for both
of you to meet in non-business, non-threatening circumstances, get to know each
other a bit better.  Your working together can only be successful if you
are at ease with each other, right?”

Connie
smiled.  “That’s kind of you, Jeff.  And of Tom, of course.”

Jeff
merely nodded. 
Tom is going to watch like a hawk to see whether there
are any tiny ripples below the surface that might develop into something
interesting.  Connie better not know about that.

When
they entered the small reception room, Tom beamed a welcome at

Connie. 
”Alessandro phoned to tell us how delighted he was that you’re going to

be
his new PA.  Are you happy about it, Connie?”

    
She nodded.  “Yes, I think we’ll work well together.  I’ll soon find
out—I start tomorrow.”

    
A light knock at the door, and Tom raised a brow to Jeff, who shook his
head.  “Let Charlene have the pleasure of opening the door to
Alessandro.  You know how she dotes on handsome men.”

Tom
nodded.  “There is that.  Alessandro is certainly one of the most
beautiful men I’ve ever seen.”  His eyes slid unobtrusively to Connie, who
did not react to his statement. 
Hmm. I’ll probe again a bit later.

They
heard Charlene go to the door, opening it to Alessandro.  Moments later
she appeared at the entrance to the small reception room, saying, “Mr.
Alessandro di…Um…”  With a last, lingering glance at him, Charlene turned
to go back to her kitchen.   

Tom
called after her, “Bring some nibbles, will you, Charlene?”

 “Sure,
Mr. Tom.” 

Tom
and Jeff welcomed Alessandro, taking him to where Connie was seated on one of
Tom’s big sofas.  “I’ve a little surprise for you, Connie!” Tom
crowed.  Jeff frowned repressively, but Tom was irrepressible, as
usual.  As Alessandro politely brought Connie’s hand to his lips, Tom
said, “Dear heavens, you’re the best looking tycoon and PA on the planet!”

Alessandro
gazed at Tom for some time.  “I assure you that I did not offer Constance
the position of PA on her looks.  Her impressive C.V. was what decided me
instantly to ask her to come work with me.”

 “Pay
no attention to Tom, you know how often he gets the wrong end of the stick,”
Jeff said calmly.

 “Wrong
end of the stick? 
Moi? 
Give me one example that that ever
happened, and…”

Jeff
grinned.  “I won’t embarrass you with a list of recent
wrong-ends-of-the-stick occasions.  Just give it a rest, will you?”   

To
cheer Tom up, Connie said quickly, “I’d rather remember your kindness and
generosity when you gave all those children three days at Disney World.  I
wasn’t here then, but I heard about it.  Those two girls whose mother had
been abusing them thought you were God!”

Alessandro
paled.  “I get deeply upset when I hear about children being abused. 
I hope the mother got a good long prison sentence.”

Tom
said serenely, “Better.  She was mugged and the muggers ran over her in
their hurry to get out of the parking lot of the liquor store.  Dead as a
doornail.  Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.”

Jeff
said, “I agree with you, Tom.  Dead is the only way for such a woman to
be.”

Charlene
came in, carrying a huge platter with Tom’s best
canapés
and
hors
d’œuvres. 
“Here are your appetizers, Mr. Tom,” she said.

Tom
flew up. 
“Appetizers?  My
delicacies deserve their French
name—
canapés
and
hors d’œuvres
. 
Appetizers! 
Never
let me hear that word again, Charlene.”

 “Okay,
Mr. Tom, but I sure can’t get my tongue around them French names.”

 “I
hereby give you permission to say, “Mr. Tom’s masterpieces.”

 “Right,”
Charlene smiled, and tried to lift the huge platter off the big coffee table to
let Alessandro make his choice.

 “That
platter is too heavy for you, Charlene.  We’ll help ourselves.”

Charlene
nodded—a bit regretfully, it seemed to Connie—and left.

Alessandro
had seated himself beside Connie.  Now he said, “Will you trust me to make
a selection of Tom’s masterpieces for you?”

Connie
smiled. “In view of my new role in your conglomerate, surely I should make a
selection for you?”

Alessandro
shook his head.  “When we meet as dinner guests, our office roles fade
into oblivion, and I’m just a man who counts himself lucky to have so beautiful
a lady as his dinner partner.  So—may I select some of Tom’s…” he dropped
his voice “…goodies for you?”

Connie’s
smile widened, changing from polite to amused.  “Thank you, Alessandro.”

Tom
was watching from the opposite sofa, but for once he did not say a word.

Chapter
2.