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Slowly, her body pivoted his way, presenting him with her profile.
Alessio frowned as heat swelled in his middle, then flowed up his chest to his throat. His hands clenched within his coat pockets, his shoulders tensing for reasons he couldn’t fathom.
Had the Gigi he met months ago gained curves since their last meeting? Were her lips a little fuller, too?
And the look she was casting the males in her group seemed almost...coquettish, whereas she’d been brazen with Alessio.
Had he also missed the fact that Gigi Parker possessed impressive chameleon-like tendencies? His nostrils flared with irritation. Because again, what did it matter? Their final interaction wouldn’t extend beyond tonight. Once he retrieved his property and delivered his lesson.
Which he couldn’t do from across the room.
So why couldn’t he move?
Why was his gaze rapt on the woman putting on a tasteless show for half a dozen men and women who seemed equally enthralled? And why did their slavish attention send a pulse of fury through him?
‘Sir, can I get you—?’
Alessio dismissed the waitress with a curt head shake, his total focus on the woman now crooking her finger towards one man in the group. The guy fell out of his chair onto his knees, then eagerly crawled to deliver himself at her feet.
The slim arm holding the champagne slowly lowered and tipped towards the young man, who happily opened his mouth to receive the fizzing liquid. More laughter broke out as Gigi anointed him with her drink, drenching him in the process to his utter delight.
When she paused, he surged forward eagerly, bracing his hands on her hips.
Alessio’s feet moved, fury inexplicably mounting.
He told himself it was because he’d had enough of this spectacle. But as he approached them, the urge to remove those hands from her hips grew into unreasonable proportions, until he could feel a growl bubbling in his throat.
‘Who. Is. Next?’ The object of his focus cocked her hips sharply as she shouted the question, effectively dislodging the hands on her hips and lowering Alessio’s temperature.
‘No one. Because your little party is over.’
Shouts of outrage erupted and died just as quickly when heads swivelled his way and expressions morphed from surprise to shock to wariness as whispers travelled through the crowd.
In the centre, Gigi froze, her smoky-grey, almond-shaped eyes widening before her mouth fell open.
He had to give her credit for her acting skills.
The rapid rise and fall of her chest and the light quiver that seemed to go through her, making the magnum of champagne slip from her wet grasp to thump, forgotten, on the cheap carpet, was a good touch.
The fast blink as her gaze left his face and did a quick scrutiny of his body before she sucked in a shaky breath? An ace performance that would’ve fooled a slow-witted man.
But he’d been subjected to far too many forms of deceit for it to work with him. And despite the curious heat unfurling through him, he tightened his jaw, one eyebrow elevated as he waited for her next move.
Her eyelids descended for a moment before she raised them to meet his gaze again.
‘Mr Montaldi... Alessio, what a lovely surprise!’
CHAPTER TWO
GIADAWILLEDHERheart to stop attempting to escape her ribcage.
Her nerves were already eating her alive. The last thing she wanted was to worsen her predicament by collapsing in a heap. For starters, it would put a swift end to her ruse and blow her cover wide open.
Plus, she suspected the black carpet beneath her feet held substances she wouldn’t like her skin to come into contact with.
But try as she might, she couldn’t stop her racing pulse. Because it was registering far too late that clicking through hundreds of internet images of this man from the safety of her London bedsit was one thing. Being confronted with the flesh-and-blood version, the mile-wide-shouldered and towering-several-inches-over-six-foot version, was a whole different ball of yarn.
Not to mention those eyes.
