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‘Women fall for him. Has his mother’s striking looks, that boy. Isabella was a beauty. Wouldn’t want you to get swept away, my girl.’
‘That would never happen.’
‘He’s going to be here for a couple of weeks, he says...’
‘I’m immune to men like your son, Leonard.’
She had vigorously begun fluffing cushions on the sofa where he’d been relaxing in the small sitting room that adjoined his bedroom.
‘Good, because you’re my gentle little thing, Sophie. Wouldn’t want to see you hurt by that son of mine.’
Sophie had brushed that off with a quip about him making her sound about as assertive as a bowl of jelly, but she had been embarrassed, and she was embarrassed now as she pushed open the dining room door and paused for a few seconds to take in the scene.
The dining room table was a highly polished affair that could comfortably seat twelve. At one end sat Alessio, at the other was Leonard, and roughly in the middle a setting had been laid for her.
Alessio’s computer was on the table next to him, and next to Leonard. was a stack of paperwork, and both men were paying a lot more attention to the files and the computer than they were paying to one another.
‘I’m sorry, but I think I’ll have my dinner in the kitchen,’ Sophie said with impatient frustration, at which point both men looked at her with such identical frowns that it would have been funny if it had been a different situation.
‘This is ridiculous,’ she burst out.
‘What is, my dear?’ Leonard looked startled as he half rose to his feet, frown deepening.
‘This...! Sitting around this table as though we’re all complete strangers! We’re going to have to shout to one another to be heard!’
‘Bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?’ This cool rejoinder came from Alessio, who was looking at her with one eyebrow raised.
‘No, I donot!’ She glared at Alessio. If this was his way of not stressing his father out, then heaven help them all if he decided that he wasn’t going to play ball with the doctor’s orders.
She stormed out of the room and returned two seconds later with an amused housekeeper, who tried hard not to grin as she hastily rearranged the seating so that the three of them were huddled up close at one end of the table.
Sophie had no idea where that act of bravado had come from. Perhaps the tension of uninvited feelings had been swirling dangerously inside her and had come to a head at the sight of the man who had put them there by kissing her. The man who had ripped aside her careful self-control and tempted her into doing something that couldn’t have been a bigger mistake.
Or maybe Leonard’s words of warning had struck home, had made her see how ridiculous the situation was, how absolutely crazy it was that she could be attracted to Alessio. And seeing him here, lounging in all his elegant, sophisticated,sexyglory, had rammed home the idiocy of her wayward attraction.
At any rate, with some of the formality removed, computer closed and paperwork shoved to one side, the meal which had been prepared by Sarah, a young student who had taken up the job of housekeeper so that she could study without the pressure of a student loan hanging over her head, was enjoyed.
They talked about food.
It was not a contentious issue. Although Leonard complained about his restrictive diet, and with some attempt at light-hearted banter Alessio wondered aloud how she, Sophie, coped with him.
‘She says you’re a pussycat,’ Alessio drawled, as their plates were removed.
Their eyes met, Sophie’s tangling with Alessio’s, and for a few taut seconds she felt as though the ground had been whooshed away from under her feet. All she could taste in her mouth washim...the wetness of his tongue probing, demanding, questing.
Her voice was croaky when, at last, she broke the silence with a suitably non-committal reply and a jerky laugh.
She could feel Leonard’s sharp eyes on her and she knew she was blushing.
‘We do get along,’ Leonard murmured, with just a hint of smugness. ‘She reads me like a book.’
‘In that case,’ Alessio returned, his voice lazy but laden with silky intent, ‘perhaps your soulmate might care to let me know how things will pan out now that I’ve had a good look around this house. It’s in need of a great deal of work.’
‘Not going to happen is what she would say! House is perfectly fine as it is!’
‘There are cracks in places cracks shouldn’t be, and a suspicion of damp in several of the rooms.’
‘Not going to happen!’ Leonard banged his cutlery on the table and glared.
