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CHAPTER ONE
‘YOU CAN’T MAKE me marry him You can’t make me marry anyone’
Katie Collins perched nervously on the plush chair in the vast reception roo herself to breathe often enough to remain conscious If she’d had more pride—or any other option—she’d have walked out over an hour ago, but the threats relentlessly circling in her head had forced her to remain He was the one person who had the power to help
‘If you won’t ht now, and you know that would kill her—’
Katie blinked the horror away and focused on her surroundings Alessandro Zetticci’s offices showcased a sleek, minimalist style—steel and chrome screamed masculine sophistication and the wealth he’d acculy short time It didn’t surprise her He’d always had the knack of knohat people wanted
It had been a decade since she’d seen him and, while certain aspects of that particular visit were branded in her brain, she was acutely aware that he htn’t even re for his benevolence
‘You’ll be ho for you, you ungrateful little b—’
Katie again blocked the echo of the viciousness her foster father had spat at her Seeking distraction, she glanced at the receptionist Dressed in a sleek navy skirt and smooth white blouse, the tall blonde looked like a chic French race Katie was also wearing a navy skirt with a white blouse, but where the receptionist’s was silk, Katie’s was synthetic, and right noas sticking to her Outclassed, out of placeshe was never quite good enough—
Katie stiffened, snapping out of the self-pity She didn’t need fancy clothes, given she worked in the orchards and the kitchen most of the time
‘You can’t refuse after all I’ve done for you—’
A trickle of sweat slithered down her back, even though the building was beautifully cli her nerves She uncurled her grip on her bag for the twentieth tiain as if it were her lifeline
She’d not made an appointment, and it was sheer luck that Alessandro was in the office at all today Too late she realised she had no idea what she’d have done if he hadn’t been She still had no idea what she was going to do if he said no
‘Don’t you want to be a real member of the family?’
That attempt at manipulation had stabbed deep So after all this time Katie was still an outsider? She’d always felt Brian hadn’t wanted her, but for him to state it so explicitly, for hi insane She was still an outsider Still just someone ed
‘Do you want to watch her devastation?’
And that was the problem She did owe Susan, he
r foster mother She more than owed her—she loved her, and she had to protect her
‘Ms Collins?’ The elegant receptionist finally interrupted her anxious reverie ‘Alessandro is ready to see you now’
Katie’s heart skidded She was seized with the urge to bolt in the other direction Instead she followed the older wo in a deep breath as she went
It was a good thing she did, because the second she walked into his office her lungs, like the rest of her, were rendered immobile She’d looked at recent pictures on the train ride here, so she’d thought she’d be i Alessandro Zetticci in the flesh was overwhel
Katie couldn’t smile as the receptionist left—couldn’t even see what the rooaze froue memory burned Alessandro in the orchard His sh His broad shoulders
She blinked, desperately focusing on him here and now and clothed
His jet-black hair was straight and long enough to flop in his eyes His sculpted cheekbones were ee of a perfectly syhtly stubbled rather than clean-shaven, he looked as if it wasn’t long since he’d left his bed Long black lashes and dark eyebrows frahtly backlit by fierce burning intensity
If she hadn’t known better she’d have thought he wore coloured contact lenses, but Katie had seen him sullen and silent over the breakfast table and at Christone by, and even then, when he’d been loith that brilliance
His mouth had a natural sinful curve, a perhtly inappropriate It was a mouth made to kiss Katie remembered that
The top button of his white shirt was undone, exposing a deeply tanned neck That tan was an all-over one Katie remembered that too
The eous rarely seen in the streets, that made ordinary people turn for a second, third, fourth look
But it wasn’t only his s looks that drew people’s attention It was the energy that crackled from him He had vitality—a kind of fire that drew everyone around him in It hat had made his empire so massive, so quickly Because of that smile and that aura of amusement, everyone wanted to lean closer, seduced by the self-assurance that glowed in his eyes
More than self-assurance he had arrogance—a pure don’t-give-a-damn attitude that made him impossibly popular and his invest far more enjoyable and intimate than business He looked like a ood tih on that appearance He was irresistible—catnip to pretty much every woman in the world And he was happy to be played with But never caught
Katie definitely remembered that
Yet Alessandro Zetticci had faced hardship too Katie was counting on that fact to make him human Make him understand Make him want to help
Now she blinked again, breaking the endered and stepped deeper into his dolance seemed to take her in and dismiss her all in one second
‘I’ in the face of his uncharacteristic frigidity ‘I live at White Oaks Hall with Brian Fielding—’
He still didn’t smile ‘I don’t need you to remind me who you are, Katie’
‘I wasn’t sure you’d remember—’
‘How could I possibly forget?’ Displeasure and disapproval flashed in his eyes
Faltering at his unfriendly de to hi to him
Alessandro Zetticci had stalked into Katie’s life when he was a sullen fifteen and she a very shy ten His father, famed Italian chef Aldo Zetticci, had just married Brian’s sister Naomi Brian and Naomi were close, so Aldo and Alessandro had joined the extended Fielding family for holidays at White Oaks—much to Alessandro’s obvious resentment
Only a couple of years later Aldo had died Alessandro and Naomi had then clashed on the future of his father’s food empire Brian had backed Nao up at Brian’s interference
‘If you go now, you’ll never be welcome back here’