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All she could do was pray that he would not recognize her. It was possible, wasn’t it? She’d be wearing a dress, her hair would be scraped back into its usual bun, she would speak softly, behave demurely and keep her eyes on the floor. She would make herself as invisible as possible.
And even if he recognized her, she could only pray that he would not want her, even though it would be an honor for him to wed the daughter of Don Freddo Cordiano.
A man like that would surely refuse such a so-called honor. Why take her when he could have his pick of women? Though she found all that overt masculinity disgusting, she knew there were those who’d be dazzled by the rugged face, the piercing blue eyes, the hard, powerful body.
Dio, so powerful!
Heat suffused her cheeks.
That moment, when he’d pulled her onto his lap, when she’d felt him beneath her. The memory made her tremble. She had never imagined…
She knew a man’s sexual organ had that ability. She was not ignorant. But that part of him had felt enormous. Surely a woman’s body could not accommodate something of such size…
A knock sounded at the door. Chiara shot up straight in the water.
“Si?”
“Signorina, per favore, il vostro padre chiede che lo unite nella biblioteca.”
Chiara held herself very still. Her father wanted her in the library. Was he alone, or had the American arrived? “Maria? Θ solo, il mio padre?”
“No, signorina. Ci θ un uomo con lui. Uno Americano. Ed anche il suo capo, naturelmente.”
Oh God. Chiara closed her eyes. Not just the American. Giglio was there, too.
Could the day get any worse?
Could the day get any worse?
Rafe felt a muscle jump in his cheek. Why bother wondering? It already had.
First the nonsense with Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Then the girl sinking her teeth into his lip.
Now this. Twenty minutes of being trapped in an uncomfortable chair in a library even more depressing than his father’s, with a similar clutch of saints and stiffly posed ancestors looking down from the walls. He had an unwanted glass of grappa in his hand, a fat cigar he’d declined on the table beside him and the finishing touch, a butt-ugly mass of muscle and fat named Giglio, overflowing in a chair across from his.
Cordiano had introduced the man as a business associate. His capo, was more like it. It was the accessory du jour for hoodlums.
The capo had not taken his eyes off Rafe, and nasty eyes they were. Small. Set too close together. Unblinking and altogether mean. At first Rafe had ignored it, but it was getting to him.
For some reason the pig man didn’t like him. Fine. The feeling was mutual.
Added to all that, Cordiano seemed intent on spinning endless, self-aggrandizing tales set in the glory days of his youth, when men were men and there was nothing anybody could do about it.
Rafe didn’t care. All he wanted was to get out of here, back to Palermo, back to the States and a world that made sense, but until they got down to basics, he was stuck.
His attempts to move things along had gotten nowhere.
After the handshakes, the how-was-your-trip question and his it-was-fine response—because no way was he going to tell this sly old fox and his capo that he’d been had by a doddering old highwayman and a woman—after all that plus the ceremonial handing over of the unwanted cigar and the obligatory glass of grappa, Rafe had handed Cordiano his father’s sealed letter.
“Grazie,” the don said and tossed it, unopened, on his desk. Each time he paused for breath, Rafe tried to launch into the verbal form of his father’s apology. No luck. Cordiano didn’t give him a chance.
At least the marriage proposal had not been mentioned. Maybe Cesare had already explained that Rafe would not be availing himself of the generous offer to take his old enemy’s obviously undesirable daughter off his hands.
Something must have shown in his face because the pig man’s eyes narrowed. Rafe narrowed his in return. He felt foolish, like a kid doing his best to stare down the class bully, but what else did he have to keep him occupied?
“—for you, Signor Orsini.”
Rafe blinked and turned toward Cordiano. “Sorry?”
“I said, this has surely been a long day for you and here I am, boring you with my stories.”
“You’re not boring me at all,” Rafe said, and forced a smile.
“Is the grappa not to your liking?”
“I’m afraid I’m not a grappa man, Don Cordiano.”
“And not a cigar man, either,” Cordiano said, with a quick flash of teeth.
“Actually…” Rafe put his glass on the small table beside the chair and rose to his feet. The pig man stood up, too. Enough, Rafe thought. “I am also not a man who enjoys being watched as if I might steal the silver, so tell your watchdog to relax.”
