AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You? Of course it is. You’re hiding. And you’re condemning everyone who isn’t hiding like you.’
Just like in the living room, his expression flashed with bewilderment. Then he shook his head, freed himself from the feeling gripping him. Even before he spoke, she knew he was going to distance himself once more.
‘Contrary to what you think, I didn’t come to eavesdrop on your call but to inform you there’s a window for our departure. My helicopter will be here in two hours. Make sure you’re ready to leave.’
CHAPTER TEN
YOU’REHIDING.
Alessio seethed at the words spinning in his head in sync with the helicopter’s rotor blades above him. He didn’t even bother wondering how she dared lay such accusations on him when no one else would be brave enough to speak to him that way. Dr Giada Parker had a streak of fearlessness and an unwavering spirit that had drawn him right from the start.
But she was talking nonsense, of course. Especially when her own record was so woeful.
The more in-depth report he’d finally been able to access about Gigi Parker—and the fact that she had a twin sister along with their Italian mother—when the internet was restored painted a vivid picture of the Parker family. They weren’t as brutal as his own family, but the lifestyles of two out of the three made for unsavoury reading.
And yet... Giada had never once turned her back on her sister and mother, and even made excuses for their dysfunction.
As unworthy as they were, she’d do anything for them.
A puzzling, guilt-tinged sensation made him shift in his seat. When the compulsion grew too much, he slanted a glance at her.
Her hands were tucked neatly in her lap, her steady gaze on the endlessly white landscape. While it grated how easily she could ignore and dismiss him, he took advantage of it to break down just what it was about her that riled him so, starting with the differences with her twin.Diu mio, if everything he’d read was right, she was as different from her sister and mother as night was from day.
Her sister was living proof of the apple not falling far from the tree.
As for Renata DiMarco...
Alessio’s growing fury at the distress caused by her mother was another surprising discovery, and it’d recurred enough for him to weather the bewilderment a little better. To accept that maybe this was par for the course when dealing with Giada.
Once they parted ways...
The thought screeched to a halt in his brain, his belly clenching in rejection of it.
Yes, he reeled a little at how differently Giada had turned out in comparison to the rest of her family. But it didn’t grant her the right to issue judgements about him. He didn’t care, he assured himself. Not when all his meticulous machinations were bearing fruit, even while he’d been snowbound with his duplicitous guest.
His uncles werefinallyfeeling the pinch of the traps Alessio had set for them, some of them years in the making—they’d proved a slippery, elusive lot with more cunning than he’d anticipated—with more than half of their shady endeavours hitting the rocks. With the remaining soon to follow, the first tentative attempts at contact had already begun. It was even more imperative now that theCresta Montaldi be returned.
The fire of anticipation burned bright, yet hollow at the thought that the years of plotting and planning were nearing an end. He could,finally, look forward to a new year with a clean slate. A new year with his family name restored and those culpable paying the appropriate price for their sins.
Hell, he might even consider an extended liaison with her...
No.
He removed his gaze from her smooth cheek and sleek neck when it registered he’d been staring at her long enough to draw a querying eyebrow at him. Long enough for that telltale blush that should’ve been a dead giveaway when they met to climb into her face. He balled his fist on his thigh when the urge to touch her unleashed another bout of hunger.
No. This was over.
Does it need to be?
He sucked in a breath when his gaze drifted to her again, to her pink lips, slightly parted as she took shallow breaths.
‘Is there a reason you keep staring at me?’ she enquired, but he caught traces of breathlessness, the touch of bewilderment he himself felt. As if what was happening between them was as peculiar to her as it was to him.
He was an expert fixer, arguably the best in the world, and yet he couldn’t solve the conundrum of Dr Giada Parker and the riotous feelings she roused inside him.
Shelving the subject for now, he glanced out of the window, relieved to see the airport come into view. The sooner he got back to Palermo, the sooner everything would slot back into its rightful place.
‘You look cold,’ he said, evading her question. He couldn’t very well admit that she captivated him on a level no other woman had been able to achieve. That even now, he couldn’t go a minute without wanting to look at her...to touch her.
