Read Renaissance Man for Free Online Page B

discovered that Francesco had had
    the nerve to show up at Battista’s door a year after leaving her. All I could think about during the champagne and
    candlelight dinner Mr. Right was treating me to was getting back home so that I could find out what had happened. I
    spent the rest of the night pacing up and down my living room in a rage because, when I finally got rid of Mr. Right
    and got back to my books, I learned there was no record of what had become of Battista and Francesco!“
    „You were more wrapped up in their story than in your own, is mat it?“ He dislodged himself from the door frame
    and came toward her, a considering look on his strong face. „Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Battista’
    s story has become your own story.“
    Alina sensed the faint, masculine menace in him and moved lightly out of his path, ostensibly to put the glasses
    into the dishwasher. „I’m only trying to make it clear to you, Jared, that I am quite happy with my life. I love my books,
    my parties, my work I have no need of anything else, especially marriage.“
    „Who,“ he asked very casually, „said anything about marriage?“
    3
    The glass Alina had been putting into the top rack of the dishwasher slipped from her hand as Jared spoke. She barely
    caught it before it fell. Slowly she straightened and faced him, a cool fury staining her cheeks and flashing gold sparks
    in her hazel eyes.
    He stood eyeing her with sardonic amusement. The expression replaced the urgent longing which had been
    radiating from him only a few moments earlier. „You said Battista was the ultimate tease,“ he drawled, „but she made
    one mistake in her career, didn’t she? Francesco was the one man who demanded and got everything from her. He got
    more man just the fine food and sparkling company which others paid for and received. He even got more than the
    lucky few she took to her bed. She fell in love with Francesco, didn’t she? And that’s why she was so damn mad when
    he showed up a year later. Any other client who paid his tab would have been welcomed as a repeat customer. But
    Francesco had claimed everything Battista had to give as a woman and then disappeared. She barred him from the villa
    when he returned because she was afraid of him….“
    „Battista was afraid of no man! She could handle them all!“
    „Except Francesco. Her low-born condottiere, who had bought his way into the upper classes by selling them his
    sword, who couldn’t even read Latin or Greek, and who collected art as an investment rather than out of noble
    appreciation, he was the one who reached out and caught the butterfly in his net, wasn’t he?“
    „Battista learned her lesson.“ Alina sniffed, slamming the dishwasher shut Jared came away from the counter,
    catching her gently by the shoulders and holding her still in front of him. „Don’t try barring me from your home the
    way Battista tried to do with Francesco. It won’t work with me, and I’ll lay you odds it didn’t work with him. If s too
    late. You, like Battista, have already given too much of yourself to a man. Oh, yes, if s true, honey. You put all of your
    inner warmth and passion in those letters you wrote to me. You revealed too much of yourself. Did you think you were
    somehow safe letting down your barriers with a stranger through the medium of those letters? Or did you have an
    illusion of safety because you could pretend to yourself that you were discussing another woman’s feelings instead of
    your own?“
    „I think,“ Alina forced herself to say evenly, „that if s time you left!“
    He hesitated and then nodded slowly. „I suppose it is. But I’ll be back. I know too much about you, and I’m going
    to use everything I’ve learned over the past three months to convince you to come to me.“
    „Why, you arrogant, insufferable…!“
    „Careful,“ he advised with a flash of white teeth, „or I'll demand that microfilm back before you’ve had a