AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Here’s a suggestion. With one phone call, I could have you arrested. Would you prefer that?’
Wild panic seized her before she breathed through it. With a move worthy of an academy award, she dragged her fingers through her hair in the slow, languid way she’d seen Gigi perform a thousand times. Breath held, she watched him track that motion too, a peculiar flame leaping in his eyes. Could she get away with licking her lips now? Or would it be too over the top?
Giada didn’t want to decode why heat unfurled in her pelvis at the thought. Instead, she settled for tilting her head to one side and delivering a slow, heated smile, hoping it didn’t betray the nervous yet weirdly powerful sensation flowing through her. ‘Of course, I wouldn’t prefer that. But you don’t need to prove you’re the big and powerful Alessio Montaldi. I know I’m completely at your mercy.’ She dropped her gaze to examine her scarlet-tipped nails. ‘Or am I?’ she taunted softly, the way she’d seen Gigi tease men far too often.
Pivoting away from him without waiting for his response—mostly to hide her nerves—she sashayed over to the low sofa that backed against the wall of the lounge, supremely conscious of every inch of her body.
Lowering herself into it, she made a show of crossing her legs while she watched him from beneath her lashes.
His eyes narrowed to slits and his jaw turned to stone as he prowled forward. Fully expecting him to take the seat next to her, she was stunned when he perched on the coffee table directly in front of her.
With his hands out of his pockets, elbows braced on his knees and his body angled forward, he’d effectively blocked her gaze of the lounge, making himself the total focus of her attention. ‘I caution you against toying with me, Miss Parker.’
She flipped her hair again. ‘It’s Gigi. I’m sure I’ve told you to call me that before?’
‘You have. And do you remember my response when you did?’ he batted back, his incisive gaze giving her nowhere to hide.
Oh, no.
Giada lowered her lashes. She couldn’t keep staring into those piercing eyes and not give herself away.
What had Gigi advised?
‘Keep the conversation general. He has a mind like a steel trap. He’ll eat you alive on the specifics.’
She waved a carefree hand then dropped it onto her thigh. When his gaze followed, she fought the urge to fidget. ‘Probably something formal and stuffy. But as you can tell, I’m not one for following rules.’
‘Believe me, that hasn’t escaped me. Where is my property?’ he snapped.
She jumped, then forced another laugh. ‘Straight to business, I see. Not even going to buy me a drink first?’
‘No. And you and I have no business together. You stole something that belongs to me. You’re a fool if you think you have any leverage at all in this situation.’
A flash of fury lit her veins. ‘I don’t like being called names, Alessio.’ Especially that one. Her mother had called her foolish far too many times for every action Giada had taken that wasn’t rubber-stamped by Renata DiMarco. Like Giada wanting to further her education. Or refusing to endorse her mother’s extravagant spending sprees to Paris with money they couldn’t afford. ‘In fact, being insulted makes me very disagreeable.’
‘You don’t?’ he taunted. ‘That’s surprising since you’re actively collecting them with your every action. Another one that springs to mind is thief,’ he tossed in cruelly.
Giada knew she—or rather her sister—deserved that one. But still her ire rose. ‘If I took your property, and I’m not admitting to anything, did you stop to think it was to prove a point? That I might even be helping you?’ she challenged.
Gigi’s actions had been misguided and unfortunate, and her insistence that Alessio wouldeventuallyappreciate the reason had sounded sceptical to Giada. Only pure desperation made her toss it at him now.
From the furious incredulity on his face, he thought so too. ‘No, because whatever point you were hoping to make lost relevancy when you resorted to stealing.’
It chafed that he had a point there too. In innumerable ways, what Gigi had done was wrong. But after meeting Alessio Montaldi, Giada could guess what had driven her sister to such rash action.
The man was fascinating. And unnerving. Infuriating and wholly possessing of a dynamism so hypnotising, she could see how everyone cowered and fell silent when he spoke. How, even now, the waitresses gave him a wide berth and the crowd watched him furtively, on the edge of their seats as if awaiting some marvellous exhibition they could later recount with bated breath.
She couldn’t blame them.
Shewas on the mental edge of her seat. Toss in that sense-scrambling scent of ocean-cum-smoked wood aftershave pulsing from his skin, and the effect of those dark burnished eyes, and she feared she would soon be on theliteraledge of her seat.
Unless she pulled herself together. Now.
‘Even if the alleged act was exposing the flaws in your security? Perhaps you left yourself wide open and someone getting their hands on your property...hypothetically...may or may not have been a piece of cake.’
His jaw turned to granite. ‘You have exactly one minute to tell me where my property is or—’
‘I think we’ve established by now that I don’t rise to threats, Alessio,’ she interrupted, twirling a strand of hair around her finger even as her heart beat wildly like a trapped bird. ‘So whatever you’re planning on terrifying me with next, I’ll probably just...you know...scoffat.’
