Hired: The Italian's Bride Read Online Free PDF

inside…it needs to be an embrace. When guests are here they need to be soaked in beauty.”
    “Please.” That one word was ripe with disdain. She could not be wooed by pretty words, and he’d been doling out more than his share. Pretty words did not keep a four-star hotel profitable. Pretty words did not…would not keep her in line.
    “You’re worried about the money. And details.”
    “Bingo.”
    Luca picked up his spoon again, ate some soup. “I’ll tell you what, Mari. I’ll start making some notes. I’ll even put some preliminary figures together…just for you.”
    “You’re too kind.” She didn’t attempt to disguise the sarcasm. It was becoming increasingly clear that Luca was full of grand schemes and she was going to have her hands full keeping him out of the clouds and on the ground.
    “Mari?”
    She raised her eyebrows.
    “Why are you so determined to dislike me?”
    She looked away from the steady gaze. There was nothing condemning in it, just a curiosity that burned through her.
    It wasn’t that she didn’t want to like him or dislike him. It was more a matter of self-preservation. She didn’t like change, didn’t work well with change. And it was everything Luca represented. She’d worked so hard to get where she was, to feel comfortable and established and…safe. And he waltzed in, in his expensive clothes and sexy smile and wanted to changeeverything. And with a method that made no sense to her. All of a sudden safe wasn’t a sure thing.
    “It’s not about liking or disliking, Luca. It’s about the changes. You’re changing more than the name. You’re changing things that some of us have worked very hard to maintain. I’ve put a lot of time and energy into this hotel and perhaps I feel like that’s being swept away without a moment’s consideration. Meanwhile all of us here will remain long after you’re gone. When you’re done, you can wash your hands of it. We’re left to deal with what comes after.” He’d blow through like a whirlwind, and what destruction would be left in his wake?
    Luca leaned forward, linking his hands on the white cloth on the table. “I understand that, really I do. But this is where you have to trust me. This is what I do, Mari. This is what my family has done for decades. I know my job and I’m good at it. If I weren’t, Fiori wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is. I’m not going to throw you…or the staff…out along with the old carpet. I promise.”
    And oh, she wanted to believe him. Desperately. But trust was a very rare commodity.
    “You also need to consider how this will affect us financially. The reality of it. It cannot be ignored.” I can’t be ignored, she thought, but swallowed it away. This wasn’t about her, not really.
    “Reality is overrated. What we’re selling is an experience, an escape, a fantasy.”
    He leaned over so that the enticing scent of his cologne tickled her nose once more. His toffee-eyes captured hers. “When was the last time you indulged in a fantasy, Mari?”

CHAPTER THREE

    M ARI stopped, smoothed her skirt first and then her hair, before knocking on the door that used to be to her office before she became general manager.
    “Come in.”
    It was odd, finding her new boss sitting in her old chair, but she pushed the feeling aside. He needed a working area and she was now in the general manager’s office. It didn’t make sense to feel he was taking over her space. She was the one with the big office now.
    She’d had to push a lot of feelings aside this morning, like the lingering fear that flickered in her belly when she remembered her dream of last night. There was no sense worrying about the fact that the dream was back. She would just chalk it up to the chocolate she’d indulged in last night at dessert. That, paired to the chaos that was rapidly becoming her life, explained it away. Even if she couldn’t quite shake the darkness of it from her system. Considering the letter she’d