It had also been a learning curve for a teenager who had watched from the sidelines and taken it all in. Control had become Rocco’s byword. His parents’ marriage might have started life as a business arrangement, but it had worked perfectly. There had been no room for misunderstandings. His mother, from a similar background, had known from the start what duty and responsibility looked like. She had been the perfect wife. She had known how to entertain the clients and how to be supportive without expecting any reward.
Rocco found that he was curious about Ella’s life. He’d always mixed in a circle that was small and reflected his own life. Had he been lazy in that respect? Maybe. But Jose Rivero, as he now was, was seeing a side to life he didn’t have much experience of, and it had whetted his appetite to see a little more.
And a little bit more of the woman sitting opposite him, looking at him with narrowed eyes and a professional coolness that couldn’t quite conceal an awareness of him that was pleasingly titillating.
‘So…’ Rocco drawled.
‘So?’ Her eyebrows arched upwards. ‘I think it might be a good idea to set you on some of the little jobs that might seem boring but are crucial to the successful running of a company.’
‘Tell me more. I’m eager to learn.’
‘Filing.’
‘You wantmeto do the filing?’ Rocco couldn’t hide his honest reaction to that suggestion.
‘Yes. There’s a lot of it waiting to be done.’
‘Surely you don’t still use those antiquated things calledfiling cabinets?’
‘We’re gradually transferring everything online.’
‘When did you start doing that?’
‘There’s no need to sound so incredulous. Hailey’s is an old-fashioned store. Perhaps it could have moved more quickly in that respect but as soon as I got here, and saw how archaic the IT systems were, I looked into an upgrade…’
Rocco considered her for a few seconds in stretching silence until she reddened and began to fidget under his unwavering stare.
She really was incredibly pretty, he thought. Sexy in a way that wasn’t obvious. Sexy without wanting to be sexy.
Why was she still single? Or was she? Curiosity was in charge. He wasn’t sure he liked that, because he was so accustomed to his head ruling everything, but this was a moment in time that would never come back, so why not enjoy it? He settled lower into the chair, crossed his legs and loosely linked his fingers together on his stomach.
Ella thought he looked totally relaxed. He looked like the guy calling the shots, which was ridiculous, becauseshewas the one in charge here. She might not feel quite as in charge as she would have wished but she was still the boss.
But the way he was looking at her… Her mouth went dry, and for the life of her she couldn’t drag disobedient eyes away from his face.
‘So,’ she said weakly. ‘Back to the filing…’
‘What did you study at university?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I was just interested. Interested in knowing how you ended up working here, at this store. Did you study business? Accounting?’
‘Geography,’ Ella heard herself say abruptly.
‘I guess that’s a generic enough subject.’
Ella wanted to pull back from the conversation but something was urging her on. She hadn’t much experience of this—of opening up, of straying out of her comfort zone… Her life had been on hold ever since she’d returned here. Maybe part of her life had always been on hold because she’d always played it safe.
She licked her lips and felt a slow fire inside her as those deep, dark eyes continued to look at her in silent appraisal.
‘I didn’t get the chance to finish my degree,’ Ella confessed in a rushed undertone. ‘I…my mother died. She’d been ill for a while—cancer. I was twelve at the time and I remember what that was like…but the cancer had gone into remission.’
‘I’m sorry, Ella.’
The genuine sympathy in his voice opened up something inside her. Did she want that something to be opened up? Maybe not, but for the first time she wanted to confide.
‘It returned in little baby steps,’ she said, glancing down at her hands, which she then balled into fists. ‘But then it seemed to snowball until she couldn’t fight it any longer. When she died I came back here but…’
