AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well? What is it?”
“I—I—”
His gaze, as cold as frost on a January morning, raked over her.
“You what?”
It was, Anna thought, an excellent question. How did you admit you’d made a mistake? Not in judging this man. He was as cold, as self-centered, as insolent as ever—but that wasn’t any reason to have rejected his offer.
Never mind that she couldn’t think of a reason he’d made it, or that sitting next to him all the way to Rome would be the equivalent of choking down more humble pie than any one human being should have to consume.
Only an idiot would refuse gaining access to a spot where she could plug in her computer … and, okay, incidentally combine that with a seat that lacked the psycho bookends.
“I am waiting,” he growled, that accent of his growing more pronounced by the minute.
Anna swallowed. Hard. The first bite of crow did not go down easily.
“I—I accept your apology.”
He laughed. Laughed, damn him! So did someone else. Anna looked around, felt her face blaze when she realized their little drama was proving more interesting than books or magazines to what looked like this entire section of the plane.
“I did not apologize. I will not apologize.”
She drew closer. He was inches away. Once again she had to tilt her head to look up at him, the same as she’d had to in the lounge an eternity ago. It was just as disconcerting now as it had been then, and suddenly she thought, He’s going to kiss me again, and if he does—if he does …
“What I did was offer you the empty seat beside mine.” His mouth twisted. “The one you groveled for a little while ago.”
“I did not grovel. I would never grovel. I—I—”
Anna fell silent. She didn’t know where to look. There was nowhere that was safe, given the choice between his dark, hard eyes and the attentive faces of their audience.
“Jeez, lady, are you nuts? You tell him you’ll take the seat or I will,” a male voice said, and somebody snickered. “Yes or no, lady? Last chance.”
Anna glared. It was a toss-up who she despised more—her father for putting her in this untenable position or this … this arrogant idiot for putting her in this situation.
“You are,” she said, her voice shaking, “a horrible, hideous man.”
His eyelids flickered. “I take it that’s a yes,” he said, and he swung away from her and headed briskly up the aisle.
Anna did the only thing that made sense.
She fell in behind him and followed him to the front of the plane.
An hour later Anna turned off her computer, closed it and put it away.
So much for going through the document file.
She’d read and read, switched screens and made notes, and she still didn’t have a true grasp of what was happening.
No.
She had a grasp, all right.
She was about to step into a pile of doggy-doo, two centuries old and a mile high.
There was a piece of land somewhere in Sicily that either belonged to her mother or belonged to a prince. None of the papers Anna had seen proved ownership; none even hinted at it.
Unless the papers written in Italian said something different, the documents Cesare had given her proved nothing beside the fact that her father had sent several letters to the prince.
