His tone hardened and she gazed at him in shock.
‘Even you can’t be that hard-hearted.’
His eyes held hers. ‘What would you say if I went back to my office this afternoon and fired someone on the spot?’
‘I’d say you were a megalomaniac,’ Lindsay said faintly and a smile flickered at the corners of his mouth.
‘You’d say I was unfair. Employers and employees have a certain responsibility towards each other. I’m a fair employer but I expect the same degree of fairness in my employees. I expect a certain code of behaviour. Your sister broke that code. I intend to make an example of her.’
Lindsay closed her eyes. If she’d thought things were bad before this conversation, they were fast becoming worse.
‘No.’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘Please don’t do this—Ruby really likes working for you.’ Although she’d never understood why. ‘Losing her job would be devastating.’
‘It will send a clear message to other employees to think twice before they wilfully abandon their contracts.’ Showing not a glimmer of remorse or uncertainty, he reached for his jacket. ‘Your sister has until four o’clock. If she isn’t on my plane, ready to do the job for which she is employed, then her time with my company is over.’
‘Alessio, I’m begging you not to do this—’
His gaze lingered on her face. ‘Normally I have no problems with a woman begging, but on this occasion you’re wasting your time. If she isn’t here within the hour, she’s fired.’
CHAPTER TWO
LINDSAY stood in stunned silence, wondering how a bad situation had suddenly become so much worse.
Ruby was about to lose everything. ‘Please don’t take her job away from her. When her relationship with your brother crashes, Ruby is going to be devastated.’
‘Only if she has unrealistic expectations about relationships, which, being your sister, she undoubtedly will have.’
Reminding herself that an argument on that topic would get her nowhere, Lindsay bit her lip. ‘If she loses her job as well, it will finish her.’
‘Or perhaps it will teach her an important lesson about loyalties, priorities and the fact that actions have consequences.’ His tone was unsympathetic. ‘Ruby is employed by me to do a job. If she can’t or won’t do it, then I don’t want her on my team.’
‘She’s a junior member of your secretarial staff. I’m sure you have literally hundreds of people who could easily take her place on this trip of yours.’
‘That isn’t the point. This is Ruby’s responsibility. If she lets me down, she’s out.’
‘If she lets you down then you should fire your brother!’ Lindsay glared at him. ‘He’s as much to blame for this situation as Ruby. More because he’s eight years older than her!’
‘My brother runs his own area of the business—his actions are of no interest to me.’ Displaying not a whit of sympathy, he slipped his Rolex onto his wrist and fastened it. ‘Stop trying to run her life. You can’t protect her from everything. This might be just the wake-up call that Ruby needs. I’m sure it will prove to be a useful life experience for her. There’s nothing quite like a few knocks to toughen a person up.’
What did someone like him know about knocks? He went through life giving them, not receiving them. Someone with his wealth and confidence knew nothing about struggling to survive. Nothing about uncertainty and insecurity.
‘Ruby needs this job. And she’s usually very responsible. This isn’t like her. I don’t understand it.’
‘My brother and Ruby couldn’t keep their hands off each other. It’s called passion,’ he said dryly. ‘It happens to the best of us.’
‘But they didn’t have to act on it. They’re not children,’ Lindsay said tartly. ‘They should have known better.’
His gaze dropped to her mouth and lingered there with disturbing intensity. ‘You’ve never been so overwhelmed by passion that you throw caution to the wind?’
Her face burned scarlet. ‘I’m an adult, Alessio, not a teenager. And one of the characteristics of adulthood is the ability to exercise self-control when the need arises.’
For some reason he seemed to find that amusing. ‘That comment makes me wonder whether that legendary self-control of yours has ever been truly tested.’ His gaze lifted to hers, his dark eyes burning with sexual challenge. ‘When did you last struggle not to rip a man’s clothes off, Lindsay?’
When she’d first met him—
Before she knew who he was and what he did for a living.
Her heart was bumping against her chest. ‘We were talking about Ruby.’
He smiled. ‘So we were. Well, your sister is either lacking your iron self-control, or she is a master tactician who has her eye on a higher prize. There’s always the possibility that she’s hoping that my brother will marry her.’
‘Ruby isn’t interested in marriage.’
‘All women are interested in marriage if the prize is high enough.’ His tone was deeply cynical and Lindsay shook her head.
‘Ruby knows that your brother isn’t the marrying kind any more than you are.’ But he’d scattered doubt in her mind. Did her sister know that? Or was she deluding herself, as so many women did once they were in the throes of passion? ‘We both know that their affair isn’t going to last five minutes.’
Alessio raised his eyebrows. ‘They did your CRAP test?’
Lindsay flushed. ‘We both know that they’re not in love. Theirs is a relationship based on casual sex. To be successful, a relationship has to be founded on real intimacy. But that’s something I don’t for a moment expect you to understand.’
He gave a slow smile. ‘I don’t have any problems with intimacy, Lindsay. In fact, intimacy is my favourite method of relaxation.’
Her entire body warmed under his lazy scrutiny and she straightened her shoulders, instinctively rejecting her response. ‘I’m talking about emotional intimacy.’
He leaned his wide shoulders against the wall, a wicked sparkle in his eyes. ‘By emotional intimacy I assume you mean a cuddle after sex.’ Tilting his glossy dark head to one side, he pretended to consider the point for a moment. ‘I’m not totally averse to that, providing the woman in question has pleased me. I can be generous when it suits me.’
She knew he was winding her up and she also knew that she was getting herself deeper and deeper into trouble. The atmosphere was suddenly impossibly tense and she told herself that it was just because they were talking about sex. ‘Let’s just not even discuss this,’ she muttered faintly. ‘You and I will never agree on what makes a good relationship.’
Under the penetrating force of his dark gaze she felt heat rush through her body.
‘A good relationship is one that ends when it is time for it to end,’ he said dryly, ‘and doesn’t struggle along for years in mortal agony.’
‘Oh, please.’ Determined to ignore everything that was happening to her, Lindsay made an impatient sound. ‘Next you’ll be telling me that divorce lawyers do the human race a favour.’
‘Not the whole human race. Just a select few who I believe to be worthy of my particular skill set.’
‘You make money out of people’s misery.’
‘So do you,’ he returned instantly, the glint in his eyes suddenly hard. ‘The difference between us is that I’ve built a successful business based on reality, whereas