The Sicilian's Mistress

Read The Sicilian's Mistress for Free Online Page B

Book: Read The Sicilian's Mistress for Free Online
Authors: Lynne Graham
flatly, refusing to consider his assurance that he had known her by that other name because such an astonishing claim raised questions about her past she could not yet bring herself to ask. ‘Why on earth did you bring me here?’
    â€˜You needed time out.’
    With a sudden start of dismay, Faith checked her watch. It was almost one. She began to scramble off the bed with alacrity. ‘I need to pick up Connor—’
    â€˜Call Mrs Jennings. You should eat before you get back behind a steering wheel.’
    Mrs Jennings? What an odd way to refer to her mother! Struggling to regain her equilibrium, Faith was even more disconcerted by the untidy cascade of hair now falling round her face. The clasp must have fallen off while she slept. Thrusting the waving mass back behind one small ear, she frowned in Gianni’s general direction. ‘Eat? I have to pick up Connor—’
    He extended a mobile phone to her. ‘Ask Mrs Jennings to do it today. We need to talk.’
    â€˜No, I—’
    â€˜You can’t run away from this.’
    You can’t run away from this. That blunt statement unnerved her. Her lower lip trembled, and then firmed. She twisted her golden head away and snatched in a shuddering breath. Once again Gianni D’Angelo had seen right through her. Her parents and Edward had always been content to accept what they saw on the surface.
    And how was her fiancé likely to react to the sudden appearance of Connor’s natural father? Badly—probably very badly, Faith acknowledged dully. Edward was a very conservative man. And he had once admitted that the very fact he was the only man involved in Connor’s life had made it easier for him to accept her son.
    The mobile phone was pressed into her tense fingers.
    â€˜You think you can just tell me what to do—’ she began accusingly.
    â€˜Right now, you’d seize on any excuse to walk out of here again!’
    Reddening at the accuracy of that stab, Faith turned back reluctantly to look at Gianni D’Angelo.
    And, like a slap in the face, she saw all the cool control she craved etched into the arrogant angle of his dark head and the steadiness of his burnished dark gaze. He had complete dominion over himself.
    â€˜When you’ve made your call, we’ll have lunch.’
    Her teeth ground together. She couldn’t hold back her hostility any longer. ‘I really don’t like you.’
    Gianni stilled with one brown hand on the door. ‘I know… The Sleeping Beauty woke up to a kiss—’
    â€˜She also woke up to a prince!’ Faith heard herself interrupt, and then she stiffened, disturbed by the speed of her own retaliation. She never argued with anybody. She was far better known as a peacemaker.
    â€˜If I’d kissed you, you might have screamed assault…although possibly that’s only what you’d prefer me to believe.’ Gianni surveyed her, a sardonic slant to his expressive mouth. ‘I think your body remembers me better than your brain does.’
    Faith was aghast at that suggestion. ‘How dare you?’
    Gianni gave an exaggerated wince. ‘Tell me, how do you square the outraged prudish virgin act with the reality that you’re a single mother?’
    Beneath his coolly enquiring gaze, Faith’s soft mouth opened and closed again. Colour flooded her complexion.
    â€˜When something irritates the hell out of me, I usually mention it,’ Gianni shared, before he turned on his heel and left her alone.
    In his wake, a combustible mix of anger and chagrin engulfed Faith. She punched out her home phone number with a stabbing finger. Her mother answered.
    â€˜It’s Faith. I’m sorry, but I won’t be home for lunch…and I hate to ask you at such short notice but could you pick up Connor from nursery for me?’ Faith asked tautly.
    â€˜Of course I can, darling,’ Davina Jennings responded instantly.

Similar Books

Jezebel

K Larsen

Lost Voices

Sarah Porter

The Shipping News

Annie Proulx

Three Faces of West (2013)

Christian Shakespeare

Fifty Grand

Adrian McKinty

Loving

Karen Kingsbury

Firewalk

Anne Logston