Renaissance Man by Unknown Read Free Book Online

chance to
    write your scathing rebutted for the journal!“
    „You’re not getting your hands on that film until Fm finished with it!“ she vowed seethingly.
    „How can you deny that I have every right to it?“ he inquired with mocking reasonableness.
    „I worked hard tracking those letters down! They belong to me!“
    „They might have, if you had figured out another way to persuade Molina to film them for you. But you decided
    my name would be the magic key you needed, didn’t you? You knew Molina would be impressed by a request from
    me…!“
    Alina chewed her lip for an instant, anxious to change the topic. „How did you find out what I’d done?“ she finally
    asked slowly. „I just got the film yesterday.“
    He slid his hands from her shoulder up to encircle her throat, his eyes warming with private humor. „I'll tell you in
    the morning,“ he promised softly, „over breakfast“
    He used the gentle hold on her throat to keep her still for his kiss. This time he didn’t ask for a response. His lips
    molded hers with quick possessiveness, and then he was freeing her, striding toward the door.
    Without a backward glance at Alina’s bemused face.
    Jared let himself out into the night Belatedly jerking herself free of the enthrallment he had succeeded in placing on
    her senses, she hurried to the window in time to see a sleek black Ferrari pulling away from the curb. It disappeared
    down the hill and into the night.
    Alina realized with a start that her fingers were shaking as she lowered the white curtain. Almost compulsively she
    headed toward her study at a quick, light run. It was as if she had to make certain, had to be sure nothing had
    happened to the precious film.
    She swung around the door into the white-carpeted room, reaching the old oak rolltop desk in a rush. Yanking
    open the drawer she drew a sigh of satisfied relief at the sight of the little film canister. Of course it was safe. Why
    shouldn’t it be? Jared Troy had been in the living room every moment. And he wouldn’t have known where to start
    looking anyway.
    Still, she told herself resolutely, as long as he was anywhere in the vicinity she would have to take care. Slowly she
    shut the desk drawer. She knew Jared Troy very well after three months of impassioned argument, in spite of her
    attempt to deny that earlier. He hadn’t fooled her for an instant this evening. He’d come to Santa Barbara for one thing
    and one thing only. He wanted the microfilm she’d wangled from Virtorio Molina’s private collection of rare historical
    books and papers.
    Flinging herself down into the leather chair behind the desk, Alina leaned back and propped her crossed ankles on
    the oak surface. The bronze leather of her small, low-heeled shoes gleamed in the lamplight, throwing sparks off the
    delicate inset pattern of metal; lie trim. With a determined frown she studied the portrait on the opposite wall. With the
    ease of long familiarity she met the eyes of the other woman who shared her study.
    It was not a genuine portrait of Battista, of course. Alina had never been lucky enough to find one and couldn’t
    have afforded a genuine Renaissance painting even if she had found it The artist had been a modern one, but he had
    caught the essence of what Alina knew Battista must have been – what the new, emerging Renaissance woman must
    have been like.
    She was dressed in a rich gown of green velvet and gold brocade. Her near-blond hair was piled high in one of the
    elaborate coiffures of the age, a string of pearls marking the artificially high forehead. Battista, like many fashionable
    women of the Renaissance, had probably plucked her hair to achieve that much-admired high forehead. The brocade
    bodice of the gown was cut very low, revealing an elegant curve of breast Gold and emerald chains encircled the
    slender throat The portrait was cut off at the waist, but Alina knew the woman would have been wearing the
    high-heeled slippers that came