Page 18 of A Billionaire for Christmas

HELL HATH NO FURY

Molly woke in a blaze of fury. She had not managed to sleep one wink, plagued by dreams of Levi. She was furious with him, but she was more furious with herself. She’d thrown herself at him yet again.

After showering and dressing, she thumped through to the kitchen to check the notes Toby had left and to see what time the family were expected to arrive.

Outside every window there was a blanket of white sweeping over the land, enveloping the glittering boughs of the pine trees that completed the picture-perfect wintry scene.

Snow had fallen heavily during the night and was still coming down very thickly.

There was no sign of Levi, but the fire in the living room was roaring, giving off a delicious heat throughout the open-plan lounge.

Levi must have lit it before he left. At the thought of him, her chest twanged with disappointment.

She felt like a prize fool. A na?ve, stupid, infatuated idiot.

She reached out to take the notes stuck to the front of the fridge and studied them.

Levi’s name was first on the list, the rest of the family’s names below.

Oh God. He would be staying here the whole time.

There would be no escaping him. He would be a constant reminder of how she had embarrassed herself.

Her phone pinged with a message. It was Toby announcing that they would be staying at the resort again tonight due to the inclement weather. He made no mention of Levi.

Molly decided it was time for a bit of googling. She typed Levi’s name into the search engine, checking Toby’s list to make sure she got the correct spelling of their French surname.

‘Don’t bother,’ said Levi, coming up behind her. ‘The Wi-Fi’s been off all morning. Don’t bother with mobile either. The 5G keeps dropping out.’

She spun round, whipping her phone away. Like a hawk, he put two and two together, eyeing her phone with suspicion.

‘Googling me?’

Molly felt her cheeks blaze.

‘No, of course not. No! Never. Absolutely preposterous. How very dare you!’ Stop now, for the love of everything good, stop now.

‘Fine. Whatever.’

Molly studied him. He didn’t have the air of a man who had been wracked with guilt over facing the woman he’d so rudely rejected the previous evening. He had the face of a man irritated by the loss of Wi-Fi.

‘Since I can’t get any work done, I might as well have breakfast,’ he continued. ‘I’ll have the eggs Florentine.’

‘Pardon me?’ she asked.

‘With steamed spinach and toasted flax seeds. It’s on the menu.’

Molly stared at him, her mouth agape.

‘You know. The menu? I assume you wrote it. This shouldn’t be breaking news.’

Rude. Arrogant. Annoyingly correct.

‘You treat me like… like… well, erm… and then you expect me to cook for you?’

Levi arched an eyebrow.

‘Well, if you think for a second that you can just… just… and then…’ Molly was becoming increasingly flustered.

‘Fine,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘This is exactly what I was talking about. If you’re not going to do the job I’m paying you to do, I’ll just make them myself.’

Molly followed him across the kitchen to the pantry. Her meticulously ordered pantry. He swung open the door and marched in, with her following too closely behind.

‘I think you’ll find the Val D’Amore resort owners pay my wages, thank you very much.

And for your information, they don’t pay me enough to put up with rude, arrogant, hot-blooded holidaymakers who feel they can lead a poor innocent woman on and then dispense with her at their convenience, without so much as a reasonable apology! ’

Molly’s lungs were billowing in her chest, indignation seething out of her. Levi towered over her. His close proximity, in the now not so spacious cupboard, was immediately unnerving.

‘I’m the boss,’ he said coolly, as though she must already know.

Molly let this piece of information land.

‘You can’t possibly be.’

‘On what basis?’

This was a very reasonable question. It deserved a reasonable answer.

‘On the basis of…’ Molly racked her brains before giving in to defeat.

Lack of sleep was playing havoc with her judgement.

Petra could have warned her that the woman on the board was also the mother of the man in charge.

‘On the basis of you should have mentioned it when we first met…’ She trailed off.

‘Okay, well, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I own the whole Val D’Amore resort, this lodge, everything in it, all the land around it, the mountains you see outside, the roads you drove in on. The ski lifts, the runs, the clubs and restaurants, all mine.’

‘Everything?’ she gasped. How was that even possible?

Levi sighed impatiently. ‘Everything. Although, if we’re going to split hairs then I own everything except one last tiny little food hut in the corner of the square that will soon be added to the portfolio.

Happy now? No need to google me. I’m telling you, I pay you.

And now apparently, I am also paying you to watch me cook for myself. ’

Molly’s jaw dropped open. He might be rich, but he was still very rude. She returned his cold stare.

‘How was I supposed to know you owned everything? Correction. Nearly everything.’

How dare he refer to her restaurant as a tiny little food hut?

Levi frowned quizzically. ‘Didn’t you find out before your interview? Did you do any due diligence before you decided to leave your homeland and trek all the way across Europe to work as a chalet chef?’

He was once again making a valid point. Her face fell. ‘That still doesn’t excuse the way you’ve behaved towards me. Being super rich doesn’t give you the right to?—’

‘It doesn’t. You’re right,’ he huffed. ‘But I find it very difficult to believe that you haven’t planned all of this.

It wouldn’t be the first time a woman has gone out of her way to “befriend” me.

In the cold light of day, you being here at my lodge is too coincidental. I won’t be made a fool of, Molly.’

Molly choked. What was he accusing her of? Being a gold digger?

‘Okay, I see. Well, apart from none of that being remotely true, let’s pretend the last few days simply did not exist, shall we?

I’ll be your chalet chef, you be you, rude and arrogant, enjoying your luxury winter break, and no harm done.

’ She heard her voice catching. ‘After all, it clearly meant nothing to you anyway.’

Molly, with tears pooling in her eyes, swivelled around so that he couldn’t see her. She had some pride left; not much, but some.

‘That’s not true, I just meant?—’

‘It’s fine. I don’t want to talk about it.

It’s humiliating enough. Let’s just try to avoid each other as much as possible, with the exception of you paying me to prepare your breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack, pre-dinner aperitifs and five-course, haute-cuisine fecking dinner, until this whole nightmare is over. ’

She heard him tut behind her as she slammed the door shut . She leaned against it to calm herself. He really was infuriating. She heard him do a loud ‘Ahem.’

Shit! She gingerly opened it again. He was standing in the darkness with a thunderous expression on his face.

‘Do you still need me to make the eggs Florentine?’ she asked through tight lips.

Levi put his hands on his hips. ‘Don’t bother. I’ll sort myself out.’ He eyed the neatly stacked shelves. ‘How hard can it be?’

Molly bristled. He could be incredibly dismissive.

‘I appreciate this is all uncomfortable for you. You can begin duties once my family gets here.’ At least his voice had softened when he spoke to her.

Maybe he did have one remorseful bone in his body after all.

‘And I’d appreciate your discretion. I need you to keep these emotional outbursts, this infatuation or crush or whatever it is, in check.

I don’t like people to know my private business, not even my family. ’

He was ashamed of her! Molly’s eyes ballooned. Could this get any worse? She felt an inch high.

‘Fine!’ she yelled, slamming the door shut again.

She felt like screaming at him. It was far from fine.

As far from fine as it was possible to get.

He was so annoying and arrogant. She would not sleep with him now if her life depended on it.

And as for her eggs bloody Florentine. She would show him.

How dare he dismiss her so easily. He was paying her to cook so she would bloody well show him what an amazing cook she was.

She hadn’t designed the menu to go all out to impress for nothing.

A few minutes later, Levi emerged from the pantry with an armful of supplies and clearly no idea what to do with them.

This cheered Molly as she ignored his many attempts to find a saucepan, searching high and low in the cupboards, and began clarifying her butter and whisking in the ingredients for a smooth and rich Hollandaise sauce.

‘Where are all the pans? I’ve tried every cupboard,’ he asked in an exasperated voice. Molly shrugged her shoulders. She knew exactly where every single pan was. She had reorganised the entire kitchen the moment she arrived. If she was anything at all, it was unnervingly meticulous in the kitchen.

‘Fine, if you want to be childish about it,’ Levi said, dumping all his ingredients on the bench.