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He shrugged. ‘Not enough to risk hypothermia or worse. As frustrating as it may be, I’ve accepted the situation. Until I can change it, there’s no point in fighting it.’
Was there a warning in there? She shook her head.
‘And...not necessarily?’ he drawled.
Her breath shortened at the intensity in his eyes. ‘So I wasn’t entirely terrible, then?’
‘You don’t need your ego stroked in that department, surely?’ she snapped.
He took his time to answer, lifting his espresso cup and peering at her over it. His throat moved in a strong swallow, and he set it down before one corner of his mouth lifted in a quirky smile. ‘No, I do not. Although you’ve served me a first that...intrigues.’
Her eyes widened. ‘A first?’
‘You’re the only woman to vacate my bed before I have to encourage her out of it,’ he confessed, that edge back in his tone.
‘You sound more peeved than intrigued.’ She forced a shrug and cut up the bacon on her plate, even though she doubted she would be able to push down a bite. ‘Maybe I prefer my own company in bed after...’
Low, deep laughter rumbled from him but when she glanced up she noticed it didn’t quite reach his eyes. ‘What an intriguing creature you are, Dr Parker. You’re deliciously passionate in bed, yet you can barely mention the word sex without turning red,’ he mused.
Giada ignored the heat intensifying in her cheeks. ‘It doesn’t matter one way or the other. What happened last night isn’t going to happen again.’ The words emerged in a rush so she could hide behind them. Because up until she actually uttered them, Giada had feared she would change her mind. Feared she would succumb to temptation again.
He tensed, every trace of humour vaporising. For an age, dark gold eyes scoured her face, a muscle ticcing in his jaw. ‘Tell me why,’ he barked.
Mild shock shivered down her spine. ‘Because it was a mistake.’
‘You regret it.’
She pursed her lips, the need to say yes warring with the truth she loathed to admit, which was that she was terrified of the depth of her own need. So, hoping she had one last performance in her, she raised her chin. ‘Yes. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.’ When explosive silence met her words, she blurted, ‘I’m not in the habit of sleeping with men I barely know, or...’ She stopped, unable to clearly define what Alessio was.
‘Or men you’re in the middle of deceiving?’ he bit out.
She flinched.
He saw it and his eyes gleamed. ‘At least you seem to have the semblance of a conscience.’
Furious flames ate away the last of her nerves. Setting her cutlery down, she faced him, intent on setting him straight on a few things.
‘I was never without a conscience, Alessio. What I did I did out of love for my sister. It’s the same way you care for your brother.’
The flames in his eyes turned livid. ‘You will not compare the two.’
‘Why not? Because you deem yourself much more superior to me? To Gigi? Tell me you wouldn’t do anything for your brother. Aren’t you right this moment in the middle of a years-long campaign to avenge your father?’
He surged to his feet. ‘Watch yourself, bedda mia.’
Hearing the endearment snarled with fury didn’t stop her memory from reliving it one more time. Before she shoved it away and stood too, her chest heaving with affront. ‘Would your father want you to do what you plan to your uncles? What about your mother?’
Alessio stepped up to her, his eyes twin flames of righteous fury. ‘I watched my mother struggle through life with her heart torn from her chest, the extended family she loved almost as much as she loved her husband and sons mocking her as she struggled to feed her children. Every last one of them turned their backs on her and colluded to ensure she could never rise out of the gutter they threw her in. So yes, when my mother made me swear on her deathbed that I would restore honour to the Montaldi name, I promised her I would. And nothing is going to deter me from that path.Capisci?’
CHAPTER NINE
ITWASALMOSTlaughable the way she’d thought this Christmas might turn out to be different just because she wasn’t locked in acrimony with her mother in some exotic location.
The location was intensely breathtaking, sure.
The snow had let up at last and, with the sunlight glinting off it, it was the purest illusion designed to make one forget one’s problems.
Almost.
