Renaissance Man by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

into fashion during the time, partly as a defense against muddy streets, but ultimately
    because women had liked the look of them.
    The clothes and jewelry were beautiful, a feast for the eye. But it was the face of the woman that held the attention.
    There was no smile on the sensuous lips. People took portraits seriously in those days. But Alina was sure there was
    humor in the blue-green eyes. Certainly mere was a hint of elegant challenge. Battista had forced the world to come to
    her on her terms.
    „He wants to know what happened to you, Battista,“ Alina told her friend and mentor. „He’s as curious as I am. But
    he’s another Francesco. He thinks he can seduce me into giving him the film. You should have heard him tonight All
    that talk of having fallen for me because of my letters. If s just a ruse, naturally. He’d do anything to get hold of the
    film and prove to himself that he was right about the ending of your story.“
    She toyed with a pen, thinking of the man who had intruded into her world tonight. Jared Troy had been not quite
    real to her for the past three months. A safely distant fantasy man from the past Not one who could ever reach out and
    put his hands on her. Until this evening.
    She shivered for no accountable reason and got restlessly to her feet The bronze shoes sank deeply into the plush
    white carpet as she trailed slowly over to the window. Her condominium was perched on a hill above the town. Below
    her an array of lights washed down to the ocean’s edge. The night-darkened Pacific stretched on from there to infinity.
    She felt the familiar guilt that always welled up when she remembered how she had used Troy’s name to convince
    Molina to have the documents filmed.
    „But he’s being just as underhanded in his efforts to get the film from me,“ she declared staunchly to Battista. „He
    didn’t just show up at my door tonight and demand that I at least share the information with him. He probably knew I’d
    never surrender it until I have the answers, regardless of how guilty I feel! No, he was much craftier. He thinks he can
    seduce me the way Francesco seduced you. But I won’t make the mistake you did, Battista. Francesco threw a real
    monkey wrench into your life, didn’t he? And then he walked out, leaving you to put all the pieces back together
    again.“
    Alina caught her lower lip between her teeth as she thought about her own past The divorce had been a traumatic
    experience. All divorces were. But she knew in her heart that it hadn’t been the emotionally damaging experience
    Battista had been through with her Francesco. Alina had been lucky. It was only after her professor of philosophy had
    betrayed her mat she realized he had never been and never would be the great love of her life.
    She’d begun creating her Renaissance fantasy, using all of Battista’s cleverness, with the vague notion of
    somehow finding the great love she thought must be waiting for her. She would know him when he came along, she
    thought He would be intelligent, beautifully mannered, witty, and utterly captivated by her. So entranced, in fact, that
    she would never have to wonder if he was out sleeping with one of his students! Because, of course, he would
    probably be a professor. A successful author or artist had also been a distinct possibility, she acknowledged, but he
    would definitely be well educated and well acquainted with the elite world of academia. He would most certainly not be
    a businessman!
    And then, after having put together her witty, glittering court of literary and academic friends, it had dawned on her
    that she no longer needed that great love, that, in fact, it was undoubtedly a mythical thing, anyway. She was, to put it
    simply, content with the world she had created.
    With the perverse manner of the world, that inner satisfaction had somehow only served to attract other people
    and success in general. She had, Alina told herself once again, everything she wanted.