Page 8 of Unveiled As The Italian's Bride
Naturally, she thought, she was not interested in the crux of anything. His proposition was insane. Perhaps this was how Italian nobility behaved, with complete disregard for the sort of basic codes of behaviour that most normal people adhered to.
‘I’m really not interested.’ Yet she still dithered on the spot, held captive by the cool, calm assurance in his eyes.
‘Marriage will come with...some eye-watering advantages.’
‘Really? I’m doubting that very much.’
‘Two years and you leave with a fortune big enough to keep you in whatever lifestyle you desire for the rest of your life.’
‘I’m not interested in...feathering my nest,’ Kate stumbled.
‘Sure about that? Because you were the only candidate interviewed for this job who was honest enough to tell my panel the real reason you were interested in taking it.’
Kate felt slow, burning colour scorch her cheeks. She could remember that interview as clearly as if it had been yesterday. Three interviewers sitting opposite her, very charming and very encouraging, each equipped with questions about her proficiency, her qualifications, her expectations and her willingness to live abroad.
They had quizzed her on possible scenarios and asked her how she would handle certain situations. She had been told that there would be a bodyguard present in certain instances. Was she comfortable with that?
Kate had been unfazed. She’d had too much on her mind just then to be nervous and had already predicted that she wouldn’t get the job anyway. Had she cared? Her father had been in hospital, facing the prospect of his life being turned on its head. Neither he nor her mother had put down sufficient roots. Money was going to be an issue. Problems coming from all directions had piled up in droves, and her head was far too cloudy with anxiety and unhappiness for her worries over a job interview to find a foothold.
Their final question, delivered with the same inscrutable politeness, had been why she wanted the job and Kate had taken a deep breath and answered truthfully.
‘The money.’
All three had glanced at one another with barely concealed expressions of shock, at which point she had weakly tacked on something more conciliatory about the challenges of dealing with a charge on a one-to-one basis, where input would be all the more essential, and the desire to improve her stumbling Italian.
She had got the job.
‘You wanted the money,’ Dante reminded her and then he allowed her to stew in her own mortified silence for a couple of minutes.
‘I suppose that was faithfully reported back to you by the people who interviewed me?’
‘I had transcripts and recordings of every word said.’
‘I see. Why did you choose to give me the job, in that case? Can I ask?’
‘Because I appreciated your honesty. You were the only one to mention the amount the job was going to be paying, even though I’d wager that every single one of your competitors was thinking the same thing. I like to know where people stand. No room for misunderstandings.’
‘But...’
‘I also liked the way you dealt with certain test cases presented to you. Plus, you were young—young enough for Angelina not to see you as a teacher, waiting for her to return from school to pick up where she had left off with the learning.’
‘Why didn’t you conduct the interviews yourself?’
‘Because...’ Dante leant forward and smiled slowly. It was a smile that sent a spiral of something hot and unexpected curling through her. ‘It’s my experience that, for better or for worse, I can sometimes have an effect on people, and that would have been detrimental to the interviewing process in my opinion.’
Kate knew exactly where he was going with that remark. Of course he would know just the sort of effect he risked having on any prospective candidates. He was a guy who scrambled brains. She had seen the way people jumped at his command, the way cool, self-assured people stumbled into speech when he addressed them, the way nerves seemed to paralyse their ability to think on the spot. Had he wanted the people being interviewed to lose the power of speech every time he asked a question?
Which brought her right back to his proposition, and to the twist in the conversation, because he had done his due diligence and had found her Achilles’ heel.
‘I have no idea why you need the money,’ he admitted with an exotic gesture that spoke volumes. ‘I could have dug a bit deeper, but how you choose to spend what you earn is your business. I had sufficient information at my disposal to offer you the position, including naturally a comprehensive criminal background check.’
Kate didn’t care about background checks; they were standard procedure. She was, however, aghast that he might have investigated her private life which, as far as she was concerned, was beyond the pale.
‘That’s just awful,’ she told him bluntly and Dante frowned.
‘What?’
‘Everything. This! All of it. A marriage proposal like this—putting money on the table as though it buys everything and everyone. The way you casually mention that you could have pried into my private life without my knowledge!’
