AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He reached for her hand. “I know all your secrets,” he said softly. “That place on your neck that drives you crazy when I kiss it. The taste of your nipples on my tongue …”
“Stop that,” she said, but her eyes glittered and her lips curved in a smile. “I’m talking about a different kind of secret. About my hair.”
He looked at her hair, hanging down her back like curls of spun gold.
“I love your hair,” he said.
“Yeah?” She flashed a smile so smug it made him raise his eyebrows. “I bet you wouldn’t have loved it when I dyed it black.”
He blinked. “You what?”
“I dyed it. Not just black. Jet-black. So then, of course, I went the whole route. Black nail polish, black lipstick, black T-shirts, black jeans …”
He tried to imagine it. And shuddered. “Why?”
“Teenage rebellion, maybe. I was, I don’t know, sixteen, seventeen. Or maybe it was a way to tell my father what he could do with his version of ‘young ladies are expected to be quiet, demure and obedient’ nonsense.”
“Was that what he expected of you?”
“Of course.” Anna eyed the tray of tiny pastries that the waiter had brought with their coffee, reached for one, pulled her hand back, reached for another, did the same thing, finally sighed and gave the tray a delicate push away from her. “He had as much chance of me falling into line as a snowball has of making it through hell.”
Draco smiled. Dio, his Anna was tough!
“And your father said …?”
“He said if this were the fifteenth century instead of the twenty-first, he’d have locked me away in a nunnery.”
“I’m starting to understand that T-shirt of yours,” Draco said, and grinned. “The fish and the bicycle thing. I’m just trying not to take it personally.” Anna smiled. He reached for her hand and enfolded it in his. “So what did he do?”
“Well, what could he do?”
“Ah. No nunneries. I forgot.”
“He cut off my allowance. Big deal. My brothers made up for it.”
“Your brothers liked your black hair?”
“They liked that I’d stood up to our father, the way they had. Plus, I’m pretty sure they thought my Goth phase was cool. See, they’re pretty cool themselves.” She reached for the tray again. This time she grabbed a pastry and ate it in two quick bites. “They never took a penny from our father,” she said after she’d swallowed. “And now they run this humongous investment firm in Manhattan.”
Draco slapped his forehead. “Of course! Orsini Brothers.”
“Uh-huh.”
He chuckled. “It’s perfect. A crime boss rendered powerless in his own home. Nice work, bellissima.”
Anna’s smile broadened. “Thank you, Your Highness.”
Draco brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Did your sister rebel, too?”
“In the most innocent-seeming way. Izzy took to digging in the soil. Getting her hands dirty. Father found that to be beneath one of his daughters. The more he objected, the more she dug.” Anna’s eyes danced. “Checkmate.”
“Indeed.”
“Okay. It’s your turn.”
“At what?”
“You know all about me, but I don’t know a thing about you. What were you like as a kid?”
