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She wondered what they would say if she told them the truth.
No, I try to keep out of his way as much as possible because I find him arrogant and unbearable and he does dangerous things to my heart-rate.
Or, even worse...
Actually, he’s paying me to be here.
But her hesitation was due to more than her conflicting feelings. She simply didn’t know how a woman in a loving relationship was supposed to respond to a question like that, because she’d never been in one before. The smile she directed at Alessio was uncertain. ‘We’ve—’
‘Known each other for quite a while, haven’t we, Nicky?’ Alessio glittered her a look which suggested she needed to up her game. ‘What you might call aslow burn...’
Slow burn was about right—that was if the sudden rise of heat in her usually cool cheeks was anything to go by. ‘That’s right. We...erm...we met in London.’ Nicola licked her lips. ‘My boss has an art gallery and Alessio is one of his best friends, as well as one of our best customers.’
‘But no purchase has ever seemed quite so valuable as you are to me,tesoro mio,’ said Alessio smoothly, and he leant across the table and briefly squeezed her hand.
Nicola stiffened and not just because his unexpected touch had made her breasts and her tummy tighten. It was more to do with the sudden gleam which had entered Lord Bonner’s eyes—as if he recognised that the gesture was meaningless. And suddenly she realised that he didn’t like his stepson one bit.
‘Ah, young love,’ the baron said reflectively, giving a theatrical sigh. ‘Always such a delight to witness. Thank heavens I’ve managed to talk your mother out of some of her more old-fashioned ideas, Alessio. I keep telling her she needs to move with the times. So we’ve put you both in the lake room. I think you’ll be very comfortable in there.’
‘Perfetto,’Alessio murmured, rising gracefully to his feet and holding out his hand to Nicola, and she was so discombobulated by what she’d heard that she took it, resenting the warm caress of his fingers, while somehow revelling in it at the same time. ‘I think we might go and freshen up.’ He turned to his mother. ‘Mamma, perhaps we should have a few moments on our own before dinner? Is that something which is going to be possible?’
Nicola was aware of how nervous Rosetta seemed in response to her son’s suggestion. Her beautiful dark eyes were clouded with apprehension and her expression was fretful as she looked at her husband, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t dare.
‘I’m sure that can be arranged,’ said Lord Bonner smoothly.
After thanking their hosts, Alessio led her away, still holding her hand—with the older couple watching them in tense silence. They exited the grand sitting room to ascend a sweeping staircase to the first floor, but she didn’t trust herself to say a single word until the door swung closed behind them and she found herself alone with the Italian billionaire.
Alone in an enormous bedroom, with an equally enormous bed.
And although her mind was buzzing with questions about why his mother seemed so jumpy and his stepfather so scary, there was really only one thing on her mind.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘THISIS...INTOLERABLE!’ Nicola declared, snatching her hand away from his.
Rather missing the rapid slam of her pulse beneath his fingers, Alessio watched as she plucked her sunglasses from the top of her head and hurled them onto the four-poster bed, where they sank into the luxurious brocade. He’d never seen Miss Cool lose her temper before. Never even imagined she was capable of it. It was like seeing a stone statue suddenly become flesh and he found he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her tempestuous beauty.
‘What’s wrong?’ he murmured, noting that a strand of blonde hair had broken free from its confinement.At last.It was the first crack he had seen in her armour and yet the subsequent kick of lust which powered through his veins bemused him. He had witnessed her in a nightclub with little more than a flurry of feathers adorning her delicious bottom and her long legs encased in a pair of fishnet stockings—so why the hell did a fallen strand of hair suddenly seem so intensely erotic?
‘You know exactly what’s wrong, Signor di Bari—so please don’t give me that wide-eyed look of bewilderment! I could just about forgive the episode of hand-holding downstairs, which Isupposewas necessary to make our relationship seem more convincing, but not this. Definitely not this.’ She glared at him. ‘You promised me separate rooms. You promised! That was the only reason I agreed to come.’
‘The only reason?’ he echoed coolly. ‘Are you sure about that? You don’t think your big fat pay cheque might have something to do with it?’
‘You said we wouldn’t have to share! You told me your mother was old-fashioned about that kind of thing.’ She looked at the enormous bed and then quickly turned away from it. ‘I definitely didn’t sign up for this!’
‘And neither did I,’ he said, thinking that her shudder might have been amusing, if it hadn’t also been the strangest kind ofturn-on. ‘This wasn’t supposed to happen.’
‘Then why,’ she said, ‘has it?’
There was silence as Alessio felt his body tense, resenting the ability of the past to impact on the present. No wonder he had stayed away so long. No wonder his heart sank whenever he strayed into the poisonous atmosphere which surrounded his family. He thought how best to convey the facts, because, as Nicola herself had said, this was purely on a need-to-know basis. And he wanted her to know as little as possible. About him. About his life. Because knowledge was all about power and, ultimately, control and he was reluctant to relinquish either of those things.
‘I suspect my stepfather is playing games and doing something designed to cause mischief. It’s a particular talent of his,’ he added acidly. ‘My mother doesn’t approve of her unmarried children sharing rooms with members of the opposite sex, and everyone has always gone along with her wishes.’
‘Seems a little old-fashioned,’ she offered cautiously.
‘You could say that.’ His mouth hardened. ‘It’s never really bothered me, because I’ve never brought a woman here.’
‘Until now,’ she said slowly.
