The Italian's Christmas Secret Read online

  The car slid to a halt and Keira’s knuckles whitened as she suddenly realised there were no distant tail lights in front of them. Or lights behind them. She glanced in the mirror as she turned off the ignition and forced herself to meet the furious black stare which was being directed at her from the back seat.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he questioned, his tone sending a shiver rippling down Keira’s spine.

  ‘We’ve stopped,’ she said, turning the key again and praying for them to start moving but the car stayed exactly where it was.

  ‘I can see that for myself,’ he snapped. ‘The question is, why have we stopped?’

  Keira gulped. He must have realised why. Did he want her to spell it out for him so he could shovel yet more blame on her? ‘It’s a heavy car and the snow is much thicker than I thought. We’re on a slight hill, and...’

  ‘And?’

  Face facts, she told herself fiercely. You know how to do that. It’s a difficult situation, but it’s not the end of the world. She flicked the ignition and tried moving forward again but despite her silent prayers, the car stubbornly refused to budge. Her hands sliding reluctantly from the wheel, she turned round. ‘We’re stuck,’ she admitted.

  Matteo nodded, biting back the angry exclamation which was on the tip of his tongue, because he prided himself on being good in an emergency. God knew, there had been enough of those over the years to make him an expert in crisis management. Now was not the time to wonder why he hadn’t followed his instincts and demanded a male driver who would have known what he was doing, instead of some slip of a girl who didn’t look strong enough to control a pushbike, let alone a car this size. Recriminations could come later, he thought grimly—and they would. First and foremost they needed to get out of here—and to do that, they needed to keep their wits about them.

  ‘Where exactly are we?’ he said, speaking slowly as if to a very small child.

  She swivelled her head to look at the sat-nav for several silent seconds before turning to meet his gaze again.

  ‘The signal has cut out again. We’re on the edge of Dartmoor.’

  ‘How close to civilisation?’

  ‘That’s the trouble. We’re not. We’re miles from anywhere.’ He saw her teeth dig into her lower lip as if she were trying to draw blood from it. ‘And there’s no Wi-Fi connection,’ she finished.

  Matteo wanted to slam the flat of his hand against the snow-covered window but he sucked in an unsteady breath instead. He needed to take control.

  ‘Move over,’ he said roughly as he unclipped his seat belt.

  She blinked those great big eyes at him. ‘Move over where?’

  ‘Onto the passenger seat,’ he gritted out as he pushed open the car door to brace himself against a flurry of snowflakes. ‘I’m taking over.’

  He was pretty much covered in ice by the time he got into the car and slammed the door shut, and the bizarre thought which stuck in his mind was how deliciously warm the seat felt from where her bottom had been sitting.

  Furious for allowing himself to be distracted by something so basic and inappropriate at a time like this, Matteo reached for the ignition key.

  ‘You do know not to press down too hard on the accelerator, don’t you?’ she said nervously. ‘Or you’ll make the wheels spin.’

  ‘I don’t think I need any driving lessons from someone as incompetent as you,’ he retorted. He started the engine and tried moving forward. Nothing. He tried until he was forced to surrender to the inevitable, which deep down he’d known all along. They were well and truly stuck and the car wasn’t going anywhere. He turned to the woman sitting beside him who was staring at him nervously from beneath her peaked cap.

  ‘So. Bravo,’ he said, his words steeped in an anger he could no longer contain. ‘You’ve managed to get us stranded in one of the most inhospitable parts of the country on one of the most inhospitable nights of the year—just before Christmas. That’s some feat!’

  ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Saying sorry isn’t going to help.’

  ‘I’ll probably get the sack,’ she whispered.

  ‘You will if I have anything to do with it—that’s if you don’t freeze to death first!’ he snapped. ‘If it were down to me, I would never have employed you in the first place. But the consequences to your career are the last thing on my mind right now. We need to start working out what we’re going to do next.’

  She reached into the glove compartment for her mobile phone but he wasn’t surprised to see her grimace as she glanced down at the small screen. ‘No signal,’ she said, looking up.

  ‘You don’t say?’ he said sarcastically, peering out of the window where the howling flakes showed no signs of abating. ‘I’m guessing there’s no nearby village?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. Well, we did pass a little B&B just a while back. You know, one of those places which offer bed and breakfast for the night.’

  ‘I’m in the hotel trade,’ he said silkily. ‘And I’m perfectly aware of what a B&B is. How far was it?’

  She shrugged. ‘Less than a mile, I’d guess—though it wouldn’t be easy to reach in this kind of conditions.’

  ‘No kidding?’ Matteo eyed the virtual white-out which was taking place outside the window and his heart thundered as he acknowledged the real danger of their situation. Because suddenly this was about more than just missing his flight or disappointing a woman who had been eager to make him her lover; this was about survival. Venturing outside in this kind of conditions would be challenging—and dangerous—and the alternative was to hunker down in the car for the night and wait for help to arrive tomorrow. Presumably she would have blankets in the boot and they could continue to run the heater. His lips curved into a grim smile. And wasn’t the traditional method of generating heat to huddle two bodies together? But he gave the idea no more than a few seconds’ thought before dismissing it—and not just because she didn’t look as if she had enough flesh on her bones to provide any degree of comfort. No. To take the risk of staying put while the snow came down this fast would be nothing short of madness, for there was no guarantee anyone would find them in the morning.

  He ran his gaze over her uniform of navy blue trousers and the sturdy jacket which matched her cap. The material curved over the faint swell of her breasts and brushed against her thighs and was hardly what you would call practical—certainly not appropriate to face the elements at their worst. He sighed. Which meant he would have to give her his overcoat and freeze to death himself. ‘I don’t suppose you have any warmer clothes with you?’

  For a few seconds, she seemed to brighten. ‘I’ve got an anorak in the boot.’

  ‘An anorak?’

  ‘It’s a waterproof jacket. With a hood.’ She removed her peaked chauffeur’s cap and raked her fingers through her short dark hair and Matteo felt inexplicably irritated by the brief smile which had lightened her pale face.

  Was she expecting praise for having had the foresight to pack a coat? he wondered acidly.

  ‘Just get it and put it on,’ he bit out. ‘And then let’s get the hell out of here.’

  CHAPTER TWO

  KEIRA HAD TO work hard to keep up with Matteo as he battled his way through the deep snow because his powerful body moved much faster than hers, despite the fact that he’d insisted on bringing his suitcase with him. Thick, icy flakes were flying into her eyes and mouth and at times she wondered if she was imagining the small lighted building in the distance—like some bizarre, winter version of an oasis.

  Despite putting on the big pair of leather gloves he’d insisted she borrow, her fingers felt like sticks of ice and she gave a little cry of relief when at last they reached the little house. Thank heavens she hadn’t imagined it because she didn’t like to think about Matteo Valenti’s reaction if she’d brought him here on a wild goose chase. He might have insisted on her borrowing his gloves, but even that had been done with a terse impatience. She saw his unsmiling look as he kicked a pile of snow
away from the wooden gate and pushed it open, and she stumbled after him up the path to stand beneath the flashing red and gold lights of the illuminated sign overhead. She was shivering with cold by the time he’d jammed his finger on the doorbell and they heard some tinkly little tune playing in the distance.

  ‘Wh-what if...wh-what if nobody’s in?’ she questioned from between teeth which wouldn’t seem to stop chattering.

  ‘The light’s on,’ he said impatiently. ‘Of course somebody’s in.’

  ‘They m-might have gone away for Christmas and left the lights on a timer to deter burglars.’

  ‘You really think burglars are going to be enticed by a place like this?’ he demanded.

  But their bad-tempered interchange was brought to a swift halt by the sound of a lumbering movement from within the house and the door was pulled open by a plump, middle-aged woman wearing a flowery apron which was smeared with flour.

  ‘Well, bless my soul!’ she said, opening the door wider as she peered out into the gloom. ‘You’re not carol singers, are you?’

  ‘We are not,’ answered Matteo grimly. ‘I’m afraid our car has got snowed in a little way down the road.’

  ‘Oh, you poor things! What a night to be outside! Come in, come in!’

  Keira felt like bursting into tears of gratitude as Matteo’s palm positioned itself in the small of her back and propelled her inside the bright little hallway. During the seemingly endless journey here, she’d been convinced they weren’t going to make it, and that their two frozen figures would be discovered the next day, or the day after that. And hadn’t she been unable to stop herself from wondering whether anyone would have actually cared if she died?

  But now they were standing dripping in a small hallway which had boughs of holly and strands of glittery tinsel draped absolutely everywhere. A green plastic tree was decked with flashing rainbow lights and from a central light hung a huge bunch of mistletoe. Keira’s eyes were drawn in fascination to the row of small, fluffy snowmen waddling in a perfectly symmetrical line along a shelf—her attention only distracted by the realisation that puddles of water were growing on the stone tiles beneath their feet. Years of being told to respect property—especially when it wasn’t your own—made Keira concentrate on the mess they were making, rather than the glaringly obvious fact that she and her bad-tempered Italian client were gate-crashing someone else’s Christmas.

  ‘Oh, my goodness—look at the floor!’ she said, aware of the faint look of incredulity which Matteo Valenti was slanting in her direction. ‘We’re ruining your floor.’

  ‘Don’t you worry about that, my dear,’ said the woman in her warm West Country accent. ‘We get walkers coming in here all the time—that’ll soon clean up.’

  ‘We’d like to use your phone if that’s okay,’ said Matteo, and Keira watched as the woman looked at him, her mouth opening and closing comically as if she’d only just realised that she had six feet three inches of brooding masculine gorgeousness in her house, with melting snow sliding down over his black cashmere coat.

  ‘And why would you want to do that, dear?’ questioned the woman mildly.

  Matteo did his best not to flinch at the overfamiliar response, even though he despised endearments from complete strangers. Actually, he despised endearments generally. Didn’t they say that you always mistrusted what you weren’t used to? Suppressing a frustrated flicker of anger at having found himself in this intolerable situation, he decided he needed to own it. Better to calmly spell out their needs, since his driver seemed incapable of doing anything with any degree of competence. ‘Our car has become imbedded in the snow just down the road a little,’ he said, directing an accusing glare at the woman who was currently pulling off her bulky waterproof jacket and shaking her short dark hair. ‘We should never have taken this route, given the weather. However, what’s done is done and we can’t do anything about that now. We just need to get out of here, as quickly as possible, and I’d like to arrange that immediately.’

  The woman nodded, her bright smile remaining unfaltering. ‘I don’t think that’s going to be possible, dear. You won’t get a rescue truck to dig you out—not tonight. Why, nothing’s going to get through—not in these conditions!’

  It was the confirmation of his worst fears and although Matteo was tempted to vent his rage, he was aware it would serve no useful purpose—as well as insulting the woman who’d been kind enough to open her house to them. And she was right. Who could possibly get to them tonight—in weather like this? He needed to face facts and accept that he was stuck here, in the middle of nowhere—with his incompetent driver in tow. A driver who was staring at him with eyes which suddenly looked very dark in her pale face. He frowned.

  Of all the females in the world to be stranded with—it had to be someone like her! Once again his thoughts drifted to the luxurious party he would be missing, but he dismissed them as he drew in a deep breath and forced himself to say the unimaginable. ‘Then it looks as if we’re going to have to stay here. I assume you have rooms for hire?’

  The woman’s wide smile slipped. ‘In December? Not likely! All my rooms are fully booked,’ she added proudly. ‘I get repeat trade all through the year, but especially at this time of year. People love a romantic Christmas on Dartmoor!’

  ‘But we need somewhere to stay,’ butted in Keira suddenly. ‘Just until morning. Hopefully the snow will have stopped by then and we can get on our way in the morning.’

  The woman nodded, her gaze running over Keira’s pale cheeks as she took the anorak from her and hung it on a hook. ‘Well, I’m hardly going to turn you out on a night like this, am I? Especially not at this time of the year—I’m sure we can find you room at the inn! I can put you in my daughter’s old bedroom at the back of the house. That’s the only space I have available. But the dining room is completely booked out and so I’m afraid I can’t offer you dinner.’

  ‘The meal doesn’t matter,’ put in Matteo quickly. ‘Maybe if you could send something to the room when you have a moment?’

  Keira felt numb as they were shown up some rickety stairs at the back of the house, and she remained numb as the landlady—who informed them that her name was Mary—opened the door with a flourish.

  ‘You should be comfortable enough in here,’ she said. ‘The bathroom is just along the corridor though there’s not much water left, and if you want a bath, you’ll have to share. I’ll just go downstairs and put the kettle on. Make yourselves at home.’

  Mary shut the door behind her and Keira’s heart started racing as she realised that she was alone in a claustrophobic space with Matteo Valenti. Make themselves at home? How on earth were they going to do that in a room this size with only one bed?

  She shivered. ‘Why didn’t you tell her that we didn’t want to share?’

  He shot her an impatient look. ‘We are two people and she has one room. You do the math. What alternative did I have?’

  Keira could see his point. Mary couldn’t magic up another bedroom from out of nowhere, could she? She looked around. It was one of those rooms which wasn’t really big enough for the furniture it contained. It was too small for a double bed, but a double bed had been crammed into it nonetheless, and it dominated the room with its homemade patchwork quilt and faded pillow cases on which you could just about make out some Disney characters, one of which just happened to be Cinderella.

  There were no signs of Christmas in here but on every available surface seemed to be a photo. Photos of someone who was recognisably Mary, looking much younger and holding a series of babies, then toddlers, right through gangly teenagers until the inevitable stiff wedding photos—and then yet more babies. Keira licked her lips. It was a life played out in stills. A simple life, probably—and a happy life, judging by the smile which was never far from Mary’s face. Keira was used to cramped and cluttered spaces but she wasn’t used to somewhere feeling homely—and she could do absolutely nothing about the fierce pang of something which felt like envy,
which clutched at her heart like a vice.

  She lifted her eyes to meet Matteo’s flat gaze. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

  ‘Spare me the platitudes,’ he snapped, pulling out the mobile phone from the pocket of his trousers and staring at it with a barely concealed lack of hope. ‘No signal. Of course there isn’t. And no Wi-Fi either.’

  ‘She said you could use the landline any time.’

  ‘I know she did. I’ll call my assistant once I’ve removed some of these wet clothes.’ He loosened his tie before tugging it off and throwing it over the back of a nearby chair, where it dangled like some precious spiral of gunmetal. His mouth hardened with an expression of disbelief as he looked around. ‘Per amor del cielo! Who even uses places like this? We don’t even have our own bathroom.’

  ‘Mary told us we could use the one along the corridor.’

  ‘She also told us that we’d need to share a bath because there wasn’t enough hot water!’ he flared. ‘Sharing a bath? Not enough hot water? Which century are we supposed to be living in?’

  Keira shrugged her shoulders awkwardly, suspecting that Matteo Valenti wasn’t used to the vagaries of small-town English landladies, or the kind of places where ordinary people stayed. Of course he wasn’t. According to her boss, he owned luxury hotels all over his own country—he even had some scattered over America, as well as some in Barbados and Hawaii. What would he know about having to traipse along a chilly corridor to a bathroom which, like the rest of the house, obviously hadn’t been modernised in decades?

  ‘It’s an English eccentricity. Part of the place’s charm,’ she added lamely.

  ‘Charm I can do without,’ he responded acidly. ‘Good plumbing trumps charm every time.’