One Month with the Magnate Read Online Free PDF Page B

another, that fate had drawn them together. Although technically he had known her for years before he’d ever really noticed her. His mother drove them to school in the mornings, he and his brothers to public school and Izzie to the private girls’ school down the road, and other than an occasional “hi,” she barely spoke to him. To him, she had never been more than the daughter of his mother’s employer, a girl too conceited to give him the time of day. Only later had she admitted that she’d had such a crush on him that she’d been too tongue-tied to speak.
    During his junior year of high school he’d gotten his own car and rarely saw her after that. Then, when he was in college, she had shown up out of the blue at the house he’d rented on campus for the summer session. She had justgraduated from high school and planned to attend classes there in the fall. She asked if he would show her around campus.
    Though it seemed an odd request considering they had barely ever spoken, he felt obligated, since her parents paid his mother’s salary. They spent the afternoon together, walking and chatting, and in those few hours he began to see a side of her that he hadn’t known existed. She was intelligent and witty, but with a childlike innocence he found compelling. He realized that what he had once mistaken for conceit and entitlement was really shyness and self-doubt. He found that he could open up to her, that despite their vast social differences, she understood him. He liked her, and there was no doubt she had romantic feelings toward him, but she was young and naive and he knew her parents would never approve of their daughter dating the son of the hired help. He decided that they could be friends, but nothing more.
    Then she kissed him.
    He had walked her back to her car and they were saying goodbye. Without warning she threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. He was stunned—and aroused—and though he knew he should stop her, the scent of her skin and the taste of her lips were irresistible. They stood there in the dark kissing for a long time, until she said she had to get home. But by then it was too late. He was hooked.
    He spent every minute he wasn’t at work or in class that summer with her, and when they were apart it was torture. They were only dating two weeks when he told her he loved her, and after a month he knew he wanted to marry her, but he waited until their six month anniversary to ask her formally.
    They figured that if they both saved money until theend of the school year they would have enough to get a small place together, then they would elope. He warned her it would be tight for a while, maybe even years, until he established his career. She swore it didn’t matter as long as they were together.
    But in the end it had mattered.
    Emilio let out an exasperated sigh and looked at the clock. Two-thirty. If he lay here rehashing his mistakes he was never going to get to sleep. These were issues he’d resolved a long time ago. Or so he’d thought.
    Maybe bringing Isabelle into his home had been a bad idea. Was revenge really worth a month of sleepless nights? He just had to remind himself how well he would sleep when his family was vindicated.
    Emilio eventually drifted off to sleep, then roused again at four-fifteen wide-awake. After an unsuccessful half hour of trying to fall back to sleep, he got out of bed and went down to his office. He worked for a while, then spent an hour in the fitness room before going upstairs to get ready for work. He came back down at seven, expecting his coffee and breakfast to be waiting for him, but the kitchen was dark.
    He shook his head, disappointed, but not surprised. His new housekeeper was not off to a good start. Her first day on the job could very well be her last.
    He walked back to her quarters and raised his hand to knock, then noticed the door wasn’t latched. With his foot