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Alessio frowned.
“I’m his guardian.”
Something softened Alessio’s eyes a moment. “How old are you?”
The change of subject surprised her.
“You are young, to have the care of a child,” he observed thoughtfully.
“I’m old enough,” she tilted her chin in unknowing defiance. The same charge had been levelled at a twenty-one-year-old Charlotte, when Michael and Maggie’s will had been read out, their custody arrangements expressed to Maggie’s devastated parents.How can you possibly care for a child? Youarea child!From that moment on, every decision she made had come down to this: being the best guardian she could possibly be for the little boy she loved more than anyone on earth and proving the doubters wrong. She knew Maggie’s parents were there, waiting in the wings, desperate to claim custody of Dash if they felt Charlotte put a foot even halfway to wrong.
“Of course.” He drank his wine, eyes resting on her face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She couldn’t help asking after a beat. “It’s…”
He lifted a brow.
“Unnerving.”
“Is it?”
“A little,” she conceded, thinking of the dozens of other words she could have used. Like tempting and sexy and seductive…
“I didn’t mean to unnerve you. I simply find you quite…fascinating to observe.”
Heat flushed her cheeks. “Fascinating? I don’t know how I’m meant to feel about that.”
“It’s a compliment.”
“Then, thank you, I guess?”
He grinned, the expression changing his face completely, so she stared right back at him, mesmerised, devouring his face with her eyes. Her response terrified her. She stood abruptly, the room lacking enough air for Charlotte to be able to breathe properly.
“Anyway,” her voice cracked. “I should get your room ready.”
He continued to watch her, all the way to the wide door that led from the restaurant.
She turned almost against her will, casting a quick glance over her shoulder as she left, finding his eyes resting on her, and her pulse shot up accordingly.
Heaven help her, he was truly, devastatingly handsome.
Chapter2
THERE WAS NOTHING ALESSIO liked about coming here. Nothing he liked, nothing he appreciated, nothing he savoured. In fact, he hated it.
This village, this pub, the prospect of seeing his mother and half-brother. It filled Alessio with a sense of ice, a feeling of disdain and disgust in equal measure, and something more complex, something harder to comprehend, so he ignored those emotions and focussed on the ones he could easily untangle.
His mother had walked out on him decades ago. She’d chosen her new husband, her new son, her new life. She’d discarded Alessio, never once attempting to bring him here, never once lifting a finger to fight for him.
She left him.
And on the few occasions he’d visited, he’d only been reminded of those feelings, never mind how much time had passed. Suddenly, he was not a grown man—one of the wealthiest in Europe, and CEO of an enormous corporation known the world over—but a child again, desperately missing his mother, wondering when she would be home and finally coming to understand that she really wasn’t coming back.
Ever.
And she hadn’t.
This pub of hers…he looked around with eyes that were as hard as stone. Everywhere he looked, he was reminded of his mother and her new life. He felt her presence even when she was miles away, in her country manor, the house she’d invited Alessio to come and stay at over Christmas.
