Page 6 of Hired By The Forbidden Italian
She had grown up with boys looking at her, but this wasn’t a boy. This was a man, and he would certainly not be interested in a twenty-five-year-old woman with scant experience who was unsophisticated when it came to playing urbane, come-hither games with men.
She reddened just thinking about how misplaced her apprehensions had been, but then immediately reminded herself that it was better to be safe than sorry. She’d learnt that the hard way and it was a lesson she wasn’t going to forget any time soon.
‘I... They’re very hard to come by in London.’ Sophie felt as though she was releasing state secrets, even though she knew, realistically, that he was just asking the sort of normal questions any prospective employer would be asking. He wanted to find out about her, and that made sense given the role she would be accepting. Her nerves were all over the place, though. She could feel his dark eyes on her in a way that was disturbing and physical.
Was she making a mistake taking this job on?
She thought about the money problems that had plagued her since her parents had so suddenly and unexpectedly died and breathed in deeply. She had barely been able to mourn because her life had been thrown into such turmoil. She reminded herself how grateful she had been for Evalina’s offer because the money would help clear some of the crushing debts.
Faced with that, what were a few harmless questions?
‘I...I was actually studying land management at university...when...I had to cut short my course to deal with a few issues. I had a base in London, knew it well and decided to put my name down for an allotment, but before I could actually do that I found out a friend of a friend’s grandfather was giving his up and I managed to secure it. I...I love gardening, had hoped to be a landscape gardener one day. Maybe that swung things in my favour. So many people don’t look after their allotments the way they should.’ She looked away and swallowed. She could feel her eyes welling up and wanted the ground to open and swallow her whole.
The thrust of a handkerchief against her clenched fist on the table was a shock.
‘I think I must be one of the last people left in the world who still sees the value of a handkerchief.’ He smiled. ‘Take it. It’s pristine, I promise.’
Their eyes tangled and Sophie nodded shakily.
‘My apologies,’ she said gruffly and was relieved when he moved swiftly along, acknowledging her apology with a shrug of his broad shoulders.
‘You say you hadhopedto be a landscape gardener one day?’
‘Life had other plans,’ Sophie said warily.
‘And you would rather I didn’t delve any further?’
‘That’s correct.’ She held his gaze and refused to be sucked into over-confiding. What had Evalina told him about her? Not much, Sophie guessed, considering she had managed to leave out the most important fact, which was that she wasn’t one of her contemporaries. In fairness, there wasn’t much Sophie had told Evalina. Her grief still felt too raw, her heartbreak too recent and her life in too much of a mess to detail, so she had kept the conversation light and bland and talked about plants and her love of them.
Sophie wondered whether Evalina would have started having mischievous notions if she had known how complicated her life really was, how very far from the straightforward plant-loving girl she really was.
She had spent ages with Annalise when she had visited the allotments, showing her the vegetable plants she had started to put in, the flowering plants that would bloom in time. It had been soothing. It had made her feel peaceful, had reminded her of the way her mother had patiently shared her own love of gardening.
The money was important and the fact that she would have a roof over her head for a while was also important, but Sophie felt that she had formed a bond with the little girl, which had played a great part in her accepting Evalina’s offer.
Niccolo looked at her guarded expression and for the first time felt the kick of curiosity.
A man? A broken heart? A broken heart that had made her issue her crazy warning to him? What had happened to have caused her to quit a course that could have advanced her career?
He was surprised at how powerful the impulse was to question her further about a personal life that was none of his business, because he had a marked lack of curiosity when it came to asking questions, possibly because he was so accustomed to women providing answers without much encouragement. The less you asked, the lighter things were, and he liked things light and breezy and uncomplicated.
‘You have previously worked for a family as a nanny, I understand. My aunt mentioned something of the sort when she recommended you. I’m guessing this was before you embarked on your now abandoned university career?’
‘I can provide references if you like.’ She reached down to her backpack and pulled out a number of brochures. She casually rearranged the plates on the table, absently popping some kind of mini meat pastry into her mouth, making room for the paperwork.
Tendrils of hair were escaping the confines of all the clips she had used to tie it back.
Watching her, Niccolo distractedly thought that there was something fresh and genuine about her. Was that an illusion? He didn’t go for thebutter wouldn’t melttypes. He liked things straightforward and wasn’t interested in the usual courting games that presumed a conclusion involving a bridal shop and a walk up an aisle.
He also didn’t do cut-glass accents and boarding-school backgrounds. Having entered that world with his ex, he now stayed true to his own background. Definitely smoky singer in a club as opposed to soprano diva at an opera.
On all fronts, Sophie Baxter didn’t make the grade, so why was he so compelled to look? What was it about her that stirred his imagination?
Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to do, and it annoyed him that for once he was finding it difficult to rein in his responses.
She raised her eyes, true blue that almost veered into violet, and he shifted uncomfortably in the chair once again.
When she thrust a piece of paper towards him, he reluctantly took it and read a glowing recommendation from the family for whom she had nannied three years previously.
