Airlea Rossi was running late. Her little car sputtered and coughed up the long, muddy driveway. Her GPS told her the house was two miles ahead, but the roadway was so rugged, she didn’t think her little Saab would make the trek.
Finally admitting defeat, she pulled over into the grass. Getting out of her car, she looked around and all she could see were trees and deep green, rolling fields.
Picking up her phone from her seat, she check the GPS one more time. The little red arrow pointed in front of her, and less than two miles down the road was the blue dot that marked her destination. Tossing the phone back into her car, she stomped her foot.
“Skata!” she screamed into the field.
Just then she heard a noise and looking over her shoulder. An old, beat-up pickup truck was bumping up the lane behind her.
Waving her arms, she felt relief when the older gentleman stopped beside her car. He wore dirty overalls and had a big hat on his head.
“Hello? Are you lost?” He asked in Italian.
“Yes, I’m looking for the Cardone residence,” she answered easily.
She watched as the man took off his big hat and ran his forearm across his sweaty forehead. He had a full head of very dark curly hair and was younger than she had first thought.
“What do you want at the Cardones?” He asked.
“I am the nurse hired to help with their son.” She smiled.
“Well, why didn’t you say this to begin with?” He put back on his hat and got out of the truck. “Your car won’t make it up the drive. I’ll drive you the rest of the way.” He walked around the truck. “Do you have bags?”
“Yes.” She felt uneasy about leaving her car in a field alongside a dirt road. Even though the car was a few years old, it didn’t deserve to be deserted like this.“What shall I do?” she asked as she motioned to her car.
“Well, I can have someone come and tow it up to the main house if you want. Then we can make sure, when you leave, that we get you back down the hill safely. Usually the road isn’t this bad, but we’ve had rain the last four days. The mud makes the road become too much for anything but the truck here to get through.” He patted the truck.
Then he helped her get her two bags out of the back of her car, and tossed them in the back of the truck. She rolled up her windows and locked her car, making sure to grab her purse and cell phone.
“I’m Airlea,” she said holding out her hand.
“I’m Damiano Cardone.” He took her smaller hand in his and shook it politely.
“Oh!” She gasped, realizing that this was her new employer. She felt her face flush with embarrassment. She’d assumed he’d been a hired hand, or just a passing farmer, not the owner of a million dollar, world-renowned corporation.
They got into the truck and started heading up the muddy lane. She sat there and thought about how her mother had fibbed to get her this job. She couldn’t blame her mother; after all, it had sounded like the deal of the century.
“Airlea, you need to get out of town for a while and regroup. This job in Italy is perfect for you. The wealth in the Cardone family goes back for many years, and they are very well known. Their son was in a very bad accident a few weeks ago and they are looking for a nurse with your qualifications to help the boy mend, to get him back on his feet, something you were made to do. Plus, it pays more for a few months’ worth of work than you made all last year working at the hospital.”
She’d sat across from her mother, in her small apartment and chewed her bottom lip, thinking that she did need to get out of town for a while. Things had not turned out well with Angelo and since she’d lost her job, she didn’t know what was left for her in Greece.
“Mama, what do I need to know about this job? How old is the boy? What are his injuries?” She'd tried to pry information out of her mother.
“Oh, I don’t know these details,” her mother had waived her off, “you can find out when you get there. The only thing you need to know besides being a great nurse, is how to speak English. You took two years of it in school, you will be fine.”
“I almost failed two years, you mean! Did you tell them I spoke good English?” She felt like screaming.
“Yes, Airlea, you will be fine.” Her mother continued to look at the newspaper in front of her.
So, less then two days later, she had packed up all of her belongings and left them in storage to come to Italy.
“I guess I’ll be helping your son recover from his accident.” She looked across the seat at Damiano.
“Yes, Dante is having a hard time recovering. I don’t know how much my wife told you over the phone, but he isn’t adjusting well. I think he doesn’t like his medicine.” He smiled over at her.
“Well, it can be tricky getting the right dosage and the right prescription. Is he in a lot of pain?” She wished he would give more detail of the accident, but didn't want to pry.
“I suppose so. I keep myself busy most days, since it’s almost harvest time for my olive grove, but my wife, Kathleen, tells me he is being unbearable.” He chuckled.
The rest of the drive was a quiet one. She didn’t know what to say to the man. She desperately wished for more information. She held onto the door handle as the truck bumped up the muddy lane.
Finally, they turned a corner and she saw the house for the first time.
It was a huge half-stone, half-stucco house that sat at the top of a large hill. The grass and trees around it were well maintained, and she could just make out a large swimming pool with a pool house to the side as they pulled up.
The stone archway held a balcony that ran across the front of the house and down both sides, with ornate black iron railings. There were huge stone pillars that held up the balcony and stopped waist high on the second level. Each pillar was topped with a clay pot filled with bright red flowers. Deep, wide steps led up to the tall retreat. There were a half dozen french doors along the front and the same number along the sides, both upstairs and down.
The truck stopped in front of a large garage with six bays. Several doors were open and she could see other well-maintained expensive cars parked inside.
“I’ll just go and see about getting your car up here. You can go on in and make yourself at home. Kathleen will be somewhere around. I’ll bring your bags inside.” He pointed to a door, just under another balcony.
She watched him walk into the garage, she turned and looking around the yard. The last hundred feet of the drive had been done in deep red bricks and the walkway to the house had large stone steps that sat down in the well-groomed grass. Taking the pathway, she had just reached the doorway when she heard a large crash come from the open doors above her. When she heard a low rumble of cuss words, her heart skipped, knowing that someone had just fallen. Her nurse’s instincts kicked in and she dropped her purse and rushed up the large, wide stairs.
She ran through the opened doors before she had time to think of what she was doing.
There, in the middle of the floor, lay the most handsome man she’d ever seen. He looked very large, sprawled out lying on his front side, and then she noticed that he was completely naked.
Other books by Jill Sanders
The Pride Series
Finding Pride
Discovering Pride
Returning Pride
Lasting Pride
Serving Pride
Red Hot Christmas
My Sweet Valentine
Return To Me
Rescue Me
The Secret Series
Secret Seduction
Secret Pleasure
Secret Guardian
Secret Passions
Secret Identity
Secret Sauce
The West Series
Loving Lauren
Taming Alex
Holding Haley
Missy’s Moment
Breaking Travis
Roping Ryan
Wild Bride
Corey’s Catch
The Grayton Series
Last Resort
Someday Beach
Rip Current
In Too Deep
Swept Away
Lucky Series
Unlucky In Love
Sweet Resolve
For a complete list of books: https://jillsanders.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
SECRET SEDUCTION
DIGITAL ISBN: 978-1-942896-32-6
PRINT ISBN: 978-1-942896-33-3
Copyright © 2013 Jill Sanders
Copyeditor: Erica Ellis – inkdeepediting.com
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
About the Author
Jill Sanders is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Pride Series, the Secret Series, and the West Series romance novels. Having sold over 150,000 books within six months of her first release, she continues to lure new readers with her sweet and sexy stories. Her books are available in every English-speaking country, available in audio books, and are now being translated into six different languages.
Born as an identical twin in a large family, she was raised in the Pacific Northwest. She later relocated to Colorado for college and a successful IT career before discovering her talent as a writer. She now makes her home in charming rural Florida where she enjoys the beach, swimming, hiking, wine tasting, and, of course, writing.
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