Far From Perfect by Portia Da Costa Read Free Book Online Page B

Nick,” she observed, “It seems you know more about my life these days than I do. Both business and personal.”
    He had the grace to look perplexed for a microsecond, but when he answered, his tone was as unabashed, unrepentant.
    “Busted.” He put up his hands in a quick, graceful gesture of surrender.
    “Why, Nick? Why spy on me?” she murmured, leaning back to let one of the hired waitresses take her barely touched plate.
    “What you so dramatically call spying is merely concerned interest, Anna. Don’t you follow the course of my life too? You admitted yourself that you’re an avid reader of magazine articles.”
    Heat blossomed in Anna’s face. If Lydia had revealed to him the extent of her obsession with the celebrity press, and the way it so often featured him, there was little point in denying it.
    “I never said ‘avid’, and I only read those things because the mind boggles, wondering whatever you’re going to get up to next. Or who you’re going to get up to it with. There doesn’t seem to be a single high-profile woman on two continents that you haven’t been linked with.”
    “Oh, that again.” He gave a cool little shake of his shining head. “It seems to me that you’re far more interested in my love life than I am myself.”
    By rights, it should have been Anna’s turn to say busted and backtrack gracefully, but she couldn’t.
    “The whole world can’t help but follow your love life, Nick. Those pictures at the Cannes Film Festival with Maria Rossi all over you like a rash…well, they were borderline pornographic.”
    And those photos had hurt. Seeing Nick with Italy’s hottest and most beautiful young actress entwined around him had been a shock, inducing a reaction that Anna didn’t want to think about.
    Nick remained unfazed.
    “You’re exaggerating, Anna. And anyway, Maria is Italian, and we Italians tend towards the demonstrative. Don’t you and your adorato Johnson ever show affection to each other in public?”
    Red mist floated in front of Anna’s eyes, and she wanted to say a very bad word and tell him it was none of his business. He’d hit a particular nerve with stinging accuracy. Martin was reserved and a little old-fashioned, and not prone to demonstrating his feelings. It was one of the main reasons she’d come to the conclusion they were completely unsuited, should go their separate ways and both be happier and better off. She longed for a touch, a possessive kiss that others might see, and unfortunately, much as she tried to deny it, her heart knew from whom she wanted those touches and kisses. Worse, she knew that if Martin had been anything like Nick, nothing on earth could have stopped him from publicly proclaiming she was his, almost caveman style.
    Don’t go there!
    Drawing in a deep, invisible breath, she searched for a calm centre. The only thing for it was a radical change of tack.
    “Why did you offer to invest in my business, Nick?” she questioned in an undertone, “Looking for a way to get control over me or something?”
    “God, you’re a cantankerous woman, Anna.” There was a silvery edge of exasperation in his voice that made Anna feel aggressive and guilty, yet at the same time a tiny bit pleased with herself. So, the mighty Niccolo Lisitano wasn’t completely unflappable after all. “Can’t you just believe that I wanted to help you? Without strings?”
    “No. I can’t.”
    Doggedly, she glanced around to make sure that curious ears were not tuned their way, “You’re devious, Nick, and you’re a power-tripper. And I know you’re not averse to underhanded tactics if they’ll get you what you want.”
    Nick took a sip from his water glass before he replied. “And I’m not the only one,” he said, soft and low and sexy, his eyes darker now, full of sensuality and thrilling masculine threat.
    Anna’s silver fork clattered onto her plate and everybody did look their way.
    Was he never, ever going to let her forget that night?