Baby By Accident: International Billionaires III: The Italians Read Online Free PDF Page B

through her, along with a heated blush and a hot rush of response between her legs.
    The sex had been amazing and a revelation. Last night had blown everything, every particle of what she believed about herself and sex, to bits.
    Flipping off the stream of water, she stepped out of the shower. She slowly dried off using a fluffy green towel, watching as the bare left hand moved the cloth across her rosy skin.
    Astonishing.
    No hurt, no pain. Only relief.
    She wouldn’t miss Robert and his picky snobbishness.
    She didn’t want to marry Robert. Now she knew the sex they’d had had been less than perfect. Far less. More like a duty than a pleasure. More like an A slotting into B then a passionate encounter.
    Robert had been right.
    Lise stared into the mirror.
    A short bark of laughter erupted from deep inside her.
    She’d been a bit of an idiot, hadn’t she? No, really, she’d been a huge idiot.
    Her favorite lacy nightgown hung on the door. She slipped the silky garment over her head and turned to look into the mirror. She supposed she should feel chagrined at the stupid decision to get drunk. Perhaps she should feel disgust at what she’d experienced last night with him.
    Amazingly, she didn’t feel anything except a bright new hope.
    Jerk he might be and a total playboy, but Vico Mattare had done her a huge favor and yanked her off her pedestal. She might still be a lady, but underneath, she was all sexy siren.
    She grinned at her image in the mirror.
    Without a doubt, he’d make her life miserable at work and he’d try to use this to his advantage in the war raging between them. Who cared? She’d ignore him until he flitted off to another one of his millions of women.
    Then she could focus on all the changes she wanted to make in her life.
    Padding down the hall, she walked into the bedroom and flipped the blinds closed. The room turned into a warm, dark cocoon. Exactly what she needed right now. She groaned in relief as she slid under the cool covers. She would sleep this away, take the weekend to wallow in blissful nothingness, and then focus on banishing Vico Mattare from her memories and from her business.
    By Monday, she’d be ready.
    Ready to defeat him in the boardroom.
    Already having forgotten him in the bedroom.

Chapter 3
    F ury .
    Not an unfamiliar feeling. In fact, at one time in his life, it had been about the only feeling he ever experienced.
    Fury at his teachers who labeled him stupid.
    Fury at his family’s poverty.
    Fury at his father for dying.
    Vico tapped his fingers on the boardroom table in front of him. The room was empty. He’d come here to settle in, settle down. In a few moments, the major stockholders would file in for their weekly Monday-morning meeting. Major stockholders including one Ms. Lise Helton.
    Who had treated him like a puttana maschio . A male whore.
    Her behavior three nights ago could not have been any more insulting than if she’d left a pile of pound notes on his bedside table. She’d begged him—begged him!—to take her with a winsome smile that had almost stolen his heart. But then, she’d leapt out of his bed as soon as he slept without a word about what had passed between them.
    Purposefully, he steepled his fingers in front of his mouth and breathed.
    Slowly. In and out.
    The red-hot fury simmered back into his control.
    No woman had ever, ever walked out on him after sex. No woman had ever, ever treated him like an animal fit for only one thing. And no woman would ever, ever be allowed to get away with such behavior. The battle with Lise Helton was no longer professional. Now a very, very personal battle lay between them.
    A vendetta.
    He laughed softly under his breath. Just like old times.
    Awakening to an empty bed, after the best sex he’d ever had, had been disorienting at first. He’d still smelled her quiet scent on the pillow, still inhaled the salty aroma of their lingering sex on the sheets. Aroused and aggravated, he’d leapt out of bed,