LITMIR.BIZ

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brave, taunting words to him, shaken Bella to her very core.

      She loathed his beauty, his arrogance and his passion. She loathed everything about him if it was not aimed at her.

      Sure, she had read about his many women over the years.

      It had been hell, though, seeing it with her own eyes.

      Yes, she had engineered this morning.

      Even though she’d known he had booked for two, Bella knew how short-lived his relationships were and had hoped against hope that she might find him alone. In the little fantasy that her mind had created, the agony of finding him with another woman, and intimately too, had not been properly factored in.

      No, tipping the water over Matteo and his lover had been no accident.

      * * *

      ‘Bella.’

      She stood when Alfeo entered but he gestured for her to sit down.

      ‘I am sorry about this morning,’ Bella started. ‘In five years of service there have been no incidents...’

      Alfeo wasn’t so sure about that! ‘What about the dress that went missing that time and was found in your locker?’

      Bella’s teeth ground together. ‘The guest had put the dress in the bin.’

      ‘And the same guest called Housekeeping a few hours later to say that she had changed her mind and could we go through the garbage...’

      Bella pulled a face...typical of the clientele here that they would have the staff rummage through garbage on a whim.

      ‘I gave you the benefit of the doubt that time,’ Alfeo said, and Bella did her best not to roll her eyes. She had been given the benefit only because she’d known that items tossed aside by wealthy guests all too often found their way into Alfeo’s locker.

      ‘What about the perfume that went missing earlier this week?’

      ‘I spilt that.’

      ‘Straight into a little decanter,’ Alfeo said, and Bella met his eyes and lied.

      ‘No.’

      She had stolen just the little she’d needed, enough to fill the vial in her mother’s heavy crystal bottle, the one her father had given to Maria.

      Bella was a survivor and she wasn’t too proud to take from bins if it meant she could keep her dressmaking dreams alive, and thank God that she had because she had been able to fashion an elegant wardrobe for Sophie. And, yes, she had taken a smudge of perfume from a huge bottle but that was so Sophie could go to Luka smelling as she deserved to.

      ‘You remind me of a magpie, Bella. If it glitters, if it catches your beady eyes, then you want it,’ Alfeo said, but as Bella opened her mouth to argue he got to the point. ‘But all that aside, what happened this morning defies logic. The ice bucket stand was still standing, yet you say that you tripped and knocked it over.’

      ‘I wasn’t aware that you were re-creating a crime scene.’ Bella struggled to hold her tongue.

      ‘It might just as well be a crime scene! How the hell do I explain this in a report? Matteo Santini is looking to buy this place. We are trying to show the hotel in its very best light and you choose to give our most important guests a morning bed bath. What the hell were you thinking?’

      She gave in then. Given what had happened, there was no way she could keep her job.

      ‘Can I at least have a reference?’ Bella asked.

      ‘Saying what? That Bella Gatti is a liar when she chooses to be, as well as an occasional thief...’

      ‘You could always say that Bella Gatti is a hard worker,’ Bella argued. ‘That she works ten-hour days and often stays well past that, all without complaint.’

      ‘Or I could tell you that Bella Gatti is on her final warning,’ Alfeo said, and he put her out of her misery. ‘I’ve just come from speaking with Mr Santini. He was most insistent that he does not want you fired but has asked that you take leave for the remainder of this week. I doubt he wants his fiancée to know that he has spared you,’ Alfeo said. ‘He checks out on Sunday, so you can resume work the next day.’

      She sat there, completely stunned, as Alfeo spoke on.

      ‘Bella, know that I’m watching you. I still don’t believe this morning was an accident.’

      She gave no smart answer. Instead, she thanked Alfeo for the reprieve.

      ‘Bella...’ Alfeo halted her as she stood to leave. ‘I don’t know why a guest of his standing would take such a personal interest in one of the maids...’

      ‘Perhaps he is just kind,’ Bella said, but there was a blush creeping from her throat to her cheeks.

      ‘From everything I have heard and read about him, Matteo Santini is not a kind man. He doesn’t give out favours,’ Alfeo said, and then he was blunt. ‘Do you?’

      ‘I don’t...I don’t know what you mean,’ Bella stammered.

      ‘Oh, but I think you do,’ he said, and then he warned her clearly. ‘If I ever find out that you are having intimate dealings with our guests...’

      ‘I’m insulted that you would suggest such a thing,’ Bella said, but her cheeks were still pink because had Matteo been alone...

      ‘Then I apologise.’

      She headed out through the back entrance into the alley and then she saw Matteo leaning against a wall. Long limbed, elegantly dressed, his expression utterly unreadable, she wanted to run to him. Had he stretched out his arms or even beckoned a finger she might well have done that, but then she remembered he had someone, that Matteo was, in fact, engaged.

      He was, Bella thought, far too beautiful for an alley.

      So was she, Matteo decided as she walked towards him.

      ‘What happened with the duty manager?’ Matteo asked.

      ‘I think you already know—I get to keep my job, though of course not while you are here with your fiancée.’ She closed her eyes and tried to breathe through the surly note to her voice and to remember her place for he might soon be her boss. ‘Thank you.’

      Matteo looked at her pinched nostrils and knew the effort behind those two words and he could not help but smile.

      ‘What is there to smile about?’ she challenged.

      ‘Plenty,’ Matteo said, which had Bella frowning.

      There was not a lot to smile about, Matteo thought, but there was enough—they were here.

      ‘Do you want to go for breakfast?’ Matteo offered, and it completely took Bella by surprise.

      ‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Won’t your fiancée...?’

      Matteo had already decided that it might be safer not to reveal to Bella that he and Shandy had broken up, or that they had never been engaged—he hadn’t needed to see Bella again for memories to try and make themselves known.

      He had offered her his world and she had rejected it.

      Want was still there, though.

      No, it was far safer for him to keep a fiancée in the wings when she was around.

      ‘Surely two friends are allowed to catch up.’ Matteo took a breath. ‘I want to know how you are.’

      She wanted to know how he was too and so she nodded but then looked down at what she was wearing—she had taken off her apron but the pale green dress and flat lace-up shoes were far from flattering. ‘I’m not dressed for—’

      ‘It’s only breakfast.’ Matteo shrugged. ‘But, sure, let’s go to your home so you can change.’

      Bella gave a tight shrug and then

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