Di Sione's Innocent Conquest (The Billionaire's Legacy) Read Free Page A

and took a seat again.
    I really don’t like you , Matteo thought as Ellison poured them both a drink.
    ‘How come you’re interested in the necklace?’ Ellison asked.
    ‘I appreciate beauty,’ he answered and Ellison gave a smug smile.
    ‘And me.’
    Ellison knew who Matteo was, of course. Everyone knew the Di Siones and he knew Matteo’s reputation with women.
    Yes, Matteo appreciated beauty.
    ‘Didn’t you date Princess...?’
    ‘I don’t date,’ Matteo interrupted and Ellison laughed.
    ‘Good call. So, how far are you prepared to go?’
    ‘How much do you want?’ Matteo asked.
    ‘Not how much, how far?’ Ellison corrected. ‘I believe you like a challenge.’
    ‘I do.’
    ‘And from what I’ve read about you, impossible odds don’t daunt you.’
    ‘They don’t.’
    They thrilled Matteo, in fact.
    ‘See this.’ Ellison beckoned for him to stand and Matteo walked over and they stood staring at a portrait of Ellison and his late wife, Anette, and their two daughters. ‘This was taken at our charity gala some twelve years ago.’
    ‘Your wife was a very beautiful woman.’ And very rich, Matteo thought. A lot of Ellison’s wealth had come from her family and Matteo privately wondered just how far Ellison’s political career would have gone without Anette’s billions.
    ‘Anette knew how to play the game,’ Ellison said. ‘We had a terrible fight the day before that photo was taken. She’d found out that I was sleeping with my assistant, but you wouldn’t know it from that photo.’
    ‘No.’ Matteo looked at Anette’s smiling face as she stood by her man. ‘You wouldn’t.’
    Ellison’s revelation didn’t shock Matteo; instead it wearied him.
    He peered at Ellison’s daughters. They were both immaculate—one was dressed in oyster grey, the other in beige, and both were wearing the requisite pearls. One had her hair neatly up and the other... A small smile played on Matteo’s lips as he examined the younger daughter more closely. Her dark wavy hair, despite a velvet band, was untamed and her eyes were angry. Her smile was forced and it looked as if the hand her father had on her shoulder was not a proud display of affection, more that it was there to hold her down.
    ‘That’s Abby.’
    Ellison’s sigh as he said her name told Matteo that Abby was the bane of his existence.
    ‘Look at this one,’ Ellison said and they moved on to the next photo. ‘It must have been...’ Ellison thought back. ‘I think Abby’s about five here, so some twenty-two years ago.’
    Abby’s eyes were red, Matteo noted.
    Well, they were actually a vivid green but she’d clearly been crying.
    ‘The only way we could get her to sit in a dress for the photo was to give her a toy car. She was obsessed with cars even then.’
    Matteo had no idea where this was leading but he had learned long ago that all knowledge was power and so he let Ellison drone on. He could also see that in the photo Anette was wearing the necklace that Giovanni so badly wanted.
    ‘Abby was upset because we’d just fired the nanny. Both the girls were terribly fond of her,’ Ellison said. ‘My wife insisted on it though.’
    Now they were getting somewhere! Matteo guessed that it wasn’t just the daughters who’d been fond of the nanny.
    ‘And this,’ Ellison said, moving along, ‘is the last photo I have of my daughter in a dress.’
    There Abby stood on a red carpet, with a good-looking blond man by her side.
    A man Matteo thought that he recognised.
    ‘Hunter Coleman ,’ Ellison said and Matteo nodded as he now placed him. Hunter was a top racing driver and had a reputation with women that rivalled even Matteo’s. ‘Abby dated him for a while,’ Ellison explained. ‘Anyway, as I said, she always had a thing for cars. If I couldn’t find her, then she’d be in the garage, pulling apart a Bentley, or taking the engine out of a Jag. I tried to get her out of it—it’s not exactly fitting for a young woman of