Reunited with Her Italian Ex by Lucy Gordon Read Free Book Online Page A

Mario?’
    â€˜No doubt of it,’ he said bleakly.
    â€˜You’re very kind, both of you. Now, excuse me, gentlemen.’
    Giving them both a polite smile, she headed for the lift.
    Upstairs, she plunged into work, making more notes about the morning before things went out of her head. She was so immersed in her work that at first she didn’t hear the knock on the door. It had to be repeated louder to capture her attention.
    â€˜Sorry,’ she said, pulling it open, ‘I got so—’ She checked herself at the sight of Mario standing there with a trolley of food.
    â€˜Your meal,
signorina
,’ he said.
    She stared at the sight of the food. Someone had taken a lot of trouble preparing this meal, which Mario laid out for her with care.
    â€˜Giorgio told the kitchen to produce their best, to make sure you stay with us,’ he said. ‘So you have chicory risotto, followed by tiramisù, with Prosecco.’
    Her favourite wine. How many times had he ordered it for her in Venice? And he had remembered.
    â€˜It’s delicious,’ she said politely as she ate.
    â€˜I’ll tell Giorgio you approve. And I brought you this,’ he said, handing her a large file.
    It was the information she’d requested about the
Comunità
—hotels, owners, background information.
    â€˜That man I met today seems to come from the biggest and best,’ she said, flicking through it. ‘The Albergo Splendido.’
    â€˜It was a palace once. You’ll like it. You’re making a considerable impression, you know.’
    â€˜Amadore certainly seemed to think so.’
    â€˜Just don’t take him too seriously. He flirts with every woman on the planet.’
    She gave a brief laugh. ‘You warned me about Giorgio; now you’re warning me about Amadore. But you don’t need to. I can recognise when a man is role-playing. He puts on a performance as the “romantic Italian” because he thinks an Englishwoman is bound to be fooled. I don’t mind. He’s charming. But don’t expect me to fall for it.’
    â€˜I suppose I should have known you’d say that,’ Mario growled. ‘I wonder if you ever fall for anything.’
    â€˜Not these days. Never again.’
    â€˜And you think that’s admirable?’
    â€˜I think it’s safe.’
    â€˜And safety matters more than anything else? Never mind who you hurt.’
    She turned on him, her quick temper rising. ‘Who
I
hurt? Did I really hear you say that? After what you did?’
    â€˜I didn’t do what you thought I did, and I could have explained. But you vanished without giving me a chance to defend myself.’
    â€˜What was there to defend? I know what I saw.’
    â€˜Natasha, why won’t you realise that you misunderstood what you saw? Yes, I’d been having an affair with Tania. I’m not a saint. I’ve never pretended to be. But it was only a casual relationship and I’d started to feel that it must end. Things had changed in my life. I’d met you and nothing looked the same. I had to face the fact that I wanted you, not her.
    â€˜So that day I met Tania and told her we couldn’t be together any more. But I couldn’t make her believe it. When I left her she followed me, and that was how she found us together.
    â€˜I went after her, trying to explain that I was sorry to hurt her, but she screamed at me and ran off. I came back to our table, hoping I could make you understand. But you were gone. I tried your phone but you’d turned it off. I went to the hotel but you’d left just a few minutes earlier. Over the next few days I tried your phone, your email, your apartment, but you’d shut off every way of contacting you. It was like you’d ceased to exist.’
    â€˜Exactly. I
had
ceased to exist. The girl I was then—naive, slightly stupid, ready to be fooled—vanished into nothing. But now