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‘I’m notmostwomen!’ Leah hissed and turned on her heel again to march out into the courtyard.
‘You’re telling me,’ Gio muttered in gritty agreement under his breath.
Pausing at the side of the shabby old hatchback parked nearby, Leah stared back at him. ‘I don’t want to see you or hear from you ever again!’ she declared as she stowed her bag and carefully installed the dog in the carrier box in the back seat.
As she drove off, grinding through the gears and executing a noisy handbrake turn, Gio swallowed back an astonished laugh. She was a hellish rough driver and she had an even more hellish temper. How many years was it since a woman had censured him? Refused him? Turned her nose up at an apology? Acted difficult? He couldn’t remember. In fact, he couldn’t remember thateverhappening to him, even during his divorce. Gabriella had been sweet as sugar throughout the negotiations while she’d robbed him blind after only a few short months of matrimony. He had been hung out to dry by the gold-digger he had married without ever putting a foot wrong...
CHAPTER FOUR
THENERVEOFhim! Leah thought furiously as she drove away from Shore House. Gio/Gianni/Giovanni Zanetti had run rings around her. She had not suspected a thing. And there he had been, cool as ice and full of lies and deception just like Oliver! Never again would she even contemplate a guy who told her anything but the truth because she had learned the hard way that lies cut her deep. Left her with scars she couldn’t shake, rubbished her pride and filled her with insecurity and self-doubt.
Sally’s eyes were bright with curiosity as Leah walked in the back door.
‘Least said, soonest mended,’ Leah quipped ruefully.
‘A mistake?’ her foster mother prompted.
‘Partially,’ Leah agreed after a reflective pause. ‘But not important in the scheme of things.’
Sally winced and then smiled. ‘Well, I’m not about to pry.’
Relief swept Leah. She had called in with Pam on her way home and had reported back on the state of Shore House without mentioning Gio’s early arrival there. Then she had collected Pam’s prescription and promised to return the next day to cut the lawn. Changing into her oldest clothes, she went out to the rackety collection of old buildings that housed the rescue animals and helped one of Sally’s keen volunteers to clean out inmates that ranged from goats and rabbits to cats and dogs.
When she came back indoors for lunch, Sally sent her a veiled appraisal and murmured, ‘Pam phoned. Mr Zanetti will be calling here this afternoon.’
Leah flushed to the roots of her hair. ‘Yes. It was him and he’s...persistent—’
‘Oh, dear,’ Sally said without turning a hair. ‘Do you want me to deal with him?’
‘No, thanks. I can handle him,’ Leah breathed, more embarrassed than ever.
‘You should get changed,’ her former foster mother remarked, eying Leah’s ancient jeans and tatty T-shirt with a frown.
‘No. I’ll do fine as I am,’ Leah declared, lifting her chin.
Gio Zanetti drew up in a Bugatti Centodieci, a long, ridiculously sleek white sports car that looked as though it would be far more at home on a racetrack than a narrow country lane. It was Sally, who had an interest in cars, who excitedly told her what it was and what it was likely worth.
‘What a show-off he is!’ Leah commented, determined not to be impressed.
She walked stiff-backed to the front door and opened it, watching as Gio swung gracefully out of his phenomenally expensive vehicle. Sunlight gleamed over his black hair and bronzed skin, accentuating his classic bone structure and the piercing brilliance of light eyes set below level ebony brows. His physical impact was intense, she acknowledged, her tummy clenching with nerves and her heart hammering. She breathed in slow and deep. ‘Mr Zanetti...’ she said.
‘Really?’Gio hitched a satirical brow. ‘Is that how we’re playing it?’
‘I don’t know what you’re doing here,’ Leah admitted tightly.
Gio strolled towards her. ‘Evidently, my interest in you is less fleeting than yours in me...or so you would have me believe—’
‘So, vanity brought you here,’ Leah contended waspishly.
‘No, the way you look at me even now brought me here and keeps me here,’ Gio countered with a slashing confident smile. ‘Diomio...what is the problem?’
In receipt of that smile her mouth ran dry and something in her pelvis heated, tightened and clenched in the most intimate way. ‘I didn’t say there was one, only that one night was as much as I could contemplate—’
‘Pleasechange your mind,’ Gio urged, staring down at her with those extraordinary eyes that made her head swim. He lifted a hand to trace the outline of her mouth with a caressing finger and instant heat flooded her as she stood there, her physical response a screaming denial of everything she had told him.
‘I can’t,’ she whispered unevenly.
And he bent his head and the pulse at the heart of her kicked up, flaring in anticipation. His mouth came down on her slowly, touching, brushing, tasting, and her hand came up to rest on his chest, feeling the fast beat of his heart. Hunger flooded her in an intoxicating wave as his tongue dallied with hers and she felt him, hard and ready against her, his long, lean, strong body as taut as her own. She wanted,needed...
