Moth to the Flame by Sara Craven Read Free Book Online

be provocative— her lips were genuinely
    dry—but she saw his slight reaction to it and her confidence grew.
    'You—you disturb me.'
    'I'm flattered, cara .' He sounded amused. 'And you, I need hardly
    say, would disturb any red-blooded male.'
    'Do you include yourself in that category?' she asked impudently.
    'Need you ask?' He was drawling again.
    She shrugged. 'I'm intrigued, that's all. I understood that it was
    because blue blood flows exclusively in the veins of the Vallone
    family that my candidature was unwelcome.'
    She'd drawn a bow at a venture, but she knew she'd hit the target.
    She sent him a demure glance and saw that he was laughing openly.
    'Poor Mario,' he said. 'He never stood a chance, did he? And where
    is he? Skulking in the bedroom perhaps, afraid to show himself?'
    'Oh, no.' She was startled by the unexpectedness of the question and
    came close to faltering. Naturally he would expect her to know
    Mario's whereabouts, but could she manage to stall him on that as
    well? 'I—I haven't seen him today.'
    He was no longer laughing, his brows drawn together in a dark
    frown.
    'That is curious. I missed him at the office and was told that he was
    meeting you here.'
    'Well,' she shrugged, 'perhaps he changed his mind.' She walked
    away and began to fiddle aimlessly with the roses. 'Perhaps he's
    changed his mind about everything and you don't have to worry
    anymore. Have you considered that, signore?'
    'I doubt it,' he said drily. 'For one thing, you don't find the prospect
    nearly worrying enough, cara. No woman sees a potential
    meal-ticket vanishing without making at least some effort to recover
    it. If you had any fears of Mario's deserting you, then you'd have
    come to terms with me long ago.'
    She pretended to yawn. 'Well, the meal-ticket is elsewhere just
    now, signore. Which is a pity really, because it's past time for
    dinner, and I'm starving—so if you'd excuse me ...'
    He consulted his watch. It was platinum, she noticed, and so were
    the elegant links in the cuffs of his silk shirt.
    'Go and pretty yourself, cara,' he said almost brusquely. 'I'll take
    you to dinner.'
    Juliet was frankly taken aback. She hadn't intended him to react like
    that. The strain of this play-acting was beginning to tell on her, and
    she had hoped he would take the hint and leave.
    'But you don't want to dine with me,' she said uncertainly. It was
    Juliet's peaking now, all the assumed bravado dropping from her
    like a cloak.
    'I didn't, it's true, but I find it an idea that gains in appeal with each
    minute that passes.' His lips curled in apparent self-derision. 'Hurry
    and dress, bella mia , while I phone and book a table for us.'
    She was about to protest again, but she hesitated. He was going to
    find it acutely suspicious, if, having led him on as she had to admit
    she had been doing, she now displayed a genuine reluctance to be
    in his company.
    She groaned inwardly. She was hungry all right. She'd made do
    with a simple lunch of fruit, but the thought of another couple of
    hours in his company, this time in the. secluded intimacy of a
    restaurant, was calculated to destroy her appetite. Jan would have
    carried the whole thing off without a tremor—she'd wanted after all
    to beard the lion in his den, but she—all she wanted was some
    peace. She had no real confidence that she would be able to
    continue with her self-imposed charade over the next few days. If
    she had to, she would leave the flat and trust to luck that she would
    find a cheap hotel somewhere, and that Santino Vallone wasn't
    having her watched, a course of action she was certain would not
    be beyond him.
    She gave him a cautious glance beneath her lashes. That terrifying
    anger she had glimpsed seemed to have subsided for the moment,
    but she sensed that it was still there just beneath the surface and she
    had no wish to unleash it again.
    She managed a breathless little laugh. 'Well, thank you, signore.
    But I wonder what the gossip