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CHAPTER ONE

‘I THOUGHT you were going to be late,’ his PA said as Roan walked into the empty conference room

‘I don’t know if I’ve ever ht attitude to ti off his jacket and laying it across the back of a chair ‘And in case it’s slipped your mind, I’m the boss so I’m allowed to be late’

Alice, who had worked for hi late during that ti polished table

‘Well, boss, I ht’

‘Excellent’ Swivelling his chair around, Ros out corimace, ‘Which is more than I can say for this coffee! And I use the word in the loosest possible sense’ He stared down suspiciously at the pale brown liquid in his cup

‘It’s decaff, and in case it’s slipped yourcoffee is not part of my job description I do it simply because I have a nice nature’

‘I’m a lucky man,’ Roman returned, deadpan

‘Yes, you are’ She paused by the door ‘By the way, your brother rang’

‘Did he leave a e?’

‘Not for you’

Roman’s darkly defined brows lifted at the cryptic response He was as sure as he could be without written proof that his brother, Luca, had a lot to do with the fact his assistant had gone down a dress size during the past couple of months

It was getting hard to maintain a tactful silence on the subject of his brother not being thekind—Alice was

‘He said he’d call back’

The conference call started off really well, but went rapidly downhill once the second speaker came on the line

How is it possible for anyone to talk for so long and say absolutely nothing?

Roman interrupted the inter It also cleared up the question of whether this well-paid individual had grasped the problem or done the necessary research—he hadn’t!

Roed to bail out his boss without ; he also predicted and responded to the two further questions Roman had planned to ask