Bartering Her Innocence by Trish Morey Read Free Book Online Page B

you?’
    ‘I told you it was simple.’
    Did he imagine she was? Did he not realise what he was asking her? To sell herself to him like some kind of whore—and all to save her mother? ‘Thank you for coming, Signore Barbarigo. I’m sure you don’t have to trouble Carmela to find your way out. I’m sure you can find the way.’
    ‘Valentina, do you know what you are saying no to?’
    ‘Some kind of paradise, apparently, the way you make it sound. Except I’m not in the market. I’m not looking for paradise. I certainly wouldn’t expect to find it in your bed.’
    ‘You might want to reconsider your options. I do not think you are giving this offer the serious consideration it deserves.’
    ‘And I don’t think you’re giving me any credit for knowing when I’ve heard enough.’
    ‘And your mother? You care not for what happens to her?’
    ‘My mother is a big girl, Mr Barbarigo. She got herself into this mess, she can damned well get herself out of it.’
    ‘And if that means she loses the palazzo and ends up homeless?’
    ‘Then so be it. She’ll just have to find somewhere else to live, like anyone else who overspends their budget.’
    ‘I’m surprised at you. Her own daughter, and you will do nothing to help her.’
    ‘You overplayed your hand, Luca, imagining I even cared. I will play no part in your sordid game. Throw my mother out if you must. Maybe then she might learn her lesson. But don’t expect me to prostitute myself to bail her out. When I said what we had was over, I meant it.’
    He nodded then, and she felt a rush of relief like she had never known before. She had just consigned her mother to her fate, it was true, but it was no worse a result than she had come here half expecting. Perhaps if her mother had been more of a mother, one who inspired loyalty and affection, she might even consider Luca’s barbaric bargain. For five minutes at least. Then again, a mother like that would never put her in a position such as this. A mother like that would never have fallen victim to such an opportunistic despot.
    ‘In that case you give me no choice. I will go. And I will call your father and let him know the bad news.’
    ‘My father?’ she asked, with an ice-cold band of fear tightening around her chest. Lily had been talking to her father on the phone when she’d arrived and she’d never got around to finding out exactly why, even though it had seemed odd. What had they cooked up between themselves? ‘Why would you call him? What’s Mitch got to do with this?’
    ‘Does it matter? I thought you wanted no more part of this.’
    ‘If it’s about my father, then of course it concerns me. Why would you need to call him?’
    ‘Because Lily spoke to him today.’
    ‘I know that,’ she snapped, impatient. ‘And?’
    ‘And he didn’t want to see your trip wasted. Lily told me he would do anything for you, and apparently she was right. He offered to put up the farm as security if you could not find a way to help.’

CHAPTER FIVE
    ‘I CAN ’ T believe you dragged my father into this!’ Tina burst into her mother’s room, livid. There was no risk of waking her, she’d just ordered Carmela to bring her brandy. ‘What the hell were you thinking?’
    Luca had departed, taking his smug expression with him but leaving a poisoned atmosphere in his wake and now Lily wasn’t the only one with a headache. Tina’s temples pounded with a message of war.
    ‘What are you doing in here? What’s all this screaming?’
    Tina swiped open the curtains in the dark room, letting in what little light remained of the day. Too little light. She snapped on a switch and was rewarded by a veritable vineyard lighting up above her mother’s bed head, clusters of grapes in autumn colours, russets and pinks and golds, dangling from the ceiling amid wafer-thin ‘leaves’ of green and pink. For a moment she was too blindsided to speak.
    ‘What the hell is that?’ she demanded when at last she’d found