The Billionaires' Club. Rebecca Winters

have to talk, Gemma!”

      Her cheeks had turned scarlet with anger. “That’s how I felt for days, weeks, months, even years until the need was burned out of me.”

      “You don’t mean that,” he ground out.

      “Let me explain it this way. Remember our discussion about one of the films of the Count of Monte Cristo? If you don’t, I do. Mercedes had waited years for Edmond Dantes, the man she loved. But when he suddenly appeared years later, he’d changed beyond recognition and she said goodbye to him.

      “I related totally to her feelings then and now. I celebrate your return to life and all the billions of dollars you’ve made in New York, Vincenzo Gagliardi. I wish you well. Please tell the business manager that I’ve changed my mind and won’t be taking the job after all. Arrivederci, signor.”

      * * *

      Wild with pain, Gemma backed away and flew down the road leading to the town below. Her eyes stung. By the time she reached the pensione, she realized she’d lashed out for all the years she’d been crushed by his silence.

      And for his being so damned gorgeous it hurt to look at him. In ten years he’d grown into a stunning man. Standing six foot three with hard muscles and hair black as midnight, he was the personification of male beauty in her eyes.

      She could hardly breathe when he’d walked into Signor Manolis’s office. No wonder she hadn’t been able to go on seeing Paolo. The memory of Vincenzo had always stood in the way. He was the reason she hadn’t been able to find happiness with another man.

      When they’d been together for the last time, he’d imprinted himself on her. She’d read about such things in books of fiction, but the love she’d felt for him had been real and life changing.

      To think she’d suffered ten years before learning that he’d left Italy with the sole desire to earn money! Being the duca apparent wasn’t enough. All the time they’d been growing up, he’d never once shown signs of greed in his nature. But it turned out he was just like his father!

      The moment he’d reached legal age, he’d disappeared like a rabbit down a hole to add more assets to the massive family fortune. Apparently if you were a Gagliardi with a title, you could never have enough! She couldn’t credit it. And no one had known where he’d gone except Dimi.

      Because of Gemma’s involvement with the duca’s son, her mother had paid a huge price the night he’d taken off without telling his father. Shame on her for believing in something that had been a piece of fiction in her mind and heart. How many times had her mother tried to pound it in her head that she and Vincenzo would always be worlds apart?

      She could hear her mother’s voice. She and Vincenzo hadn’t just been two ordinary teenagers indulging in a romantic fantasy. She was from the lower class, while he was an aristocrat who would one day become the Duca di Lombardi.

      Any woman he married would have to be a princess, like his aunt and his mother. Day in and day out, her mother had cautioned her against her attachment to Vincenzo, but Gemma hadn’t listened, so sure she was of his love.

      After she reached the pensione, her troubled cry resounded in the car’s interior. If she hadn’t applied for the position at the castello, they would never have seen each other again in this lifetime.

      You simply can’t let what he’s done destroy your life.

      For a few minutes she struggled for composure so the padrona di casa wouldn’t know anything was wrong. Then Gemma went inside to gather her things before driving back to Florence. Her cousin wouldn’t have to know what had gone on. Gemma could simply tell her she was still looking for a position but that it would take some time.

      While she packed her toiletries in the bathroom, there was a knock on the door. Gemma told the padrona to come in.

      “Scusi, signorina.” She shut the door. “There’s a gentleman outside from the castello wishing to speak to you in private.”

      Her heart knocked against her chest, but she kept packing and tried to feign nonchalance. “Who is it?”

      “Signorina—” She ran over to her with excitement. “I would never have believed it, but it’s the dashing young Duca di Lombardi himself, all grown up.”

      She trembled. “Surely you’re mistaken.” What else could she say?

      “No, years ago the police looked for him and circulated pictures.” Gemma remembered those policemen. “I would know him anywhere. He has the Gagliardi eyes.”

      She moaned. Those silvery eyes were legendary. Had he decided to use his title with the padrona to get what he wanted? Gemma hadn’t thought Vincenzo would go so far as to follow her here, but like his father, he did whatever he wanted. Well, he couldn’t force her to work at the restaurant!

      Now that Gemma had shown up on his radar, it seemed he’d decided it was all right to fulfill the role destined for him from birth. Though she wanted to ask the padrona to tell Vincenzo she wasn’t available, she couldn’t do that. The older woman wasn’t a servant, and Gemma didn’t want her involved.

      “Thank you for telling me. I’m leaving now and going back to Florence. I’ve left your money on the table. You’ve been very kind.”

      Gemma picked up her bag and walked outside to find Vincenzo lounging against the front of her car with his strong arms folded. The padrona smiled at him one last time before disappearing back through the doors.

      Gemma put her bag in the rear seat. “Why did you follow me? I thought I made it clear that I can’t accept the position of pastry chef. You’re crazy if you’re trying to expunge your guilt this way. Perhaps not guilt, exactly... A duca doesn’t suffer that emotion like normal people, right? Yet he’s known to give payment to someone like the cook’s daughter for past services rendered. However, I can assure you that it’s wasted on me.”

      A little nerve throbbed at the side of his compelling mouth, a mouth she’d kissed over and over before he’d told her she had to leave. “Is that what I’m doing?” he fired in a wintry voice.

      “Yes! I’m quite sure you didn’t offer the new executive chef a room at the castello, but Signor Manolis was told to offer me one.”

      The brief silence on his part upset her even more, because he didn’t deny it.

      “I knew it! The truth is, I don’t deserve this job. The offer was too good to be true. I sensed there had to be a catch somewhere. I just didn’t realize you had everything to do with it.”

      “Would it be so terrible of me to want to do something for you after the way I left without telling you? Let me make this up to you.”

      “I don’t want anything from you, Vincenzo.”

      “If you’re worried about the bedroom at the castello, I promise it won’t be the back room behind the kitchen where you and your mother once lived.”

      “It’s a moot point, but I wouldn’t mind if it were.”

      “Nevertheless, all of that area was renovated along with the kitchen. The offer for you to stay at the castello will always stand.”

      “Why aren’t you listening to me? I was shattered that you didn’t say goodbye, that you didn’t even let me know you were alive, but as for the rest, you owe me nothing!”

      “That’s not true.”

      “Think back to that night! Because you were in too much physical pain from that terrible fall from your horse, we didn’t make love, even if we came close. Let’s not forget I was as eager as you. Those moments happen to teenagers all the time! I had the hots for you, as they say in the US.”

      He grimaced. “Where did you learn that expression?”

      “I picked up some American slang from the students at culinary school. So forget trying to fix what can’t be fixed. I don’t want to be compensated