Enemies at the Altar by Melanie Milburne Read Free Book Online Page A

good enough to eat,’ he said.
    The air seemed to thicken in the ensuing silence.
    ‘You probably should take a little more care with your diet,’ Sienna said. ‘Too much sugar is bad for you.’
    ‘Yes, but once in a while it’s good to have a little of what you fancy, don’t you think?’ Andreas said.
    ‘Only if you can keep control,’ she said, holding his look with a haughty air he found incredibly arousing. ‘For some people, one taste is never going to be enough. They can’t just have one square of chocolate. They have to have the whole bar.’
    His gaze swept over her slim figure again. ‘You’re obviously not speaking from personal experience,’ he said. ‘I could just about span your waist with my hands.’
    ‘Lucky genes, I guess.’
    Andreas saw a flicker of something move throughher gaze. ‘What are you going to tell your sister about this arrangement between us?’ he asked.
    She rolled her lips together for a moment. ‘I feel uncomfortable about lying to her, but I don’t want her to worry about me either,’ she said. ‘I think it’s best if I stick to the script for now.’
    ‘We should probably tidy up a few details then,’ Andreas said. ‘Like how we came to fall in love so quickly.’
    Sienna gave him one of her worldly looks. ‘Do you really think people are going to believe you fell in love with me? We have nothing in common. I’m a cleaning lady’s kid from the wrong side of the tracks. You’ve had more silver spoons in your mouth than most people have had hot dinners. Men with your sort of heritage don’t marry trailer trash. It’s just in fairy tales where that sort of thing happens. Not in real life.’
    Andreas frowned. ‘That’s rather a harsh way to speak of your background,’ he said. ‘I have never once referred to you as trailer trash.’
    ‘You don’t have to,’ she said. ‘I see it in your eyes every time you look at me.’
    He felt a little stab of guilt. He had called her plenty of other things in the past and none of them were any less disparaging. ‘Look, Sienna,’ he said. ‘I realise we have some ill feeling because of our history. But I’m prepared to put that aside for the moment in order to get through this period.’
    She chewed at her lower lip in a childlike manner he found at odds with what he knew of her. ‘Are you saying you forgive me?’ she asked.
    ‘I wouldn’t go as far as saying that,’ he said. ‘What you did was unforgivable.’
    ‘Yes,’ she said, biting down on her lip again. ‘I know …’
    Andreas ratcheted up his resolve. She was toying with him, trying to appeal to his better side to get herself off the hook. He wasn’t buying it for a moment. Behind that forgive-me-I-was-too-young-to-know-what-I-was-doing façade was a conniving little social-climbing trollop who was on a mission to land herself a fortune. She might have fooled his father into writing her into the will, but it wasn’t going to work on him.
    He scooped up his jacket from the sofa. ‘I’m going to be tied up for the next few days,’ he said. ‘I hope you can stay out of mischief until Friday.’
    ‘It’ll be a piece of cake,’ she said.
    He gave her a droll look before he left. ‘Just stick to one slice, OK?’

CHAPTER FOUR
    W HEN Sienna came down after a shower the next morning there was no sign of Andreas. Elena hadn’t yet arrived so it gave her some time to wander about and get her bearings. She made a cup of tea and took it out onto a wisteria-covered terrace. She felt the heat of the sun-warmed flagstones through the bare soles of her feet as she walked towards one of the wrought iron chairs. She sat and looked out at the expansive view. There were a hundred shades of green and a thousand fragrant smells and sounds to dazzle her senses.
    She put her cup down and went back inside to get her camera from her handbag. It was compact but hightech enough to allow her to capture images that took her fancy. She went back down to the