Revelations of the Night Before by Lynn Raye Harris Read Free Book Online Page B

wanted it far more than she should.
    And then his breath was in her ear, and a deep shiver rolled through her.
    “I would not say
enjoy
so much as endure, perhaps,” he said before dropping his hand and taking his own seat.
    Tina picked up her water and took a sip. She felt raw inside, exposed, as if he’d seen to the deepest heart of her and knew that her body betrayed her every time he was near. “I was being sarcastic.”
    His eyes glittered darkly. “Yes, I realize this. And I was simply saying what you were thinking.”
    They were silent while the food arrived. There was an antipasti platter, a delicate angel-hair pasta in sauce, broiled fish,
verdure
and an array of cheeses. The women who’d brought the meal disappeared and Nico proceeded to serve her. She didn’t say anything while he filled her plate. Once he finished, he poured more sparkling water into her glass.
    She waited while he began to fill his own plate, but he stopped and looked at her. “Eat, Valentina.”
    “I will,” she said softly. “I’m waiting for you.”
    “Don’t wait.”
    “It’s not polite to start eating.”
    “To hell with polite. Eat.”
    She picked up an olive and popped it into her mouth. “Everyone calls me Tina,” she said. “You might as well, too.”
    “If you prefer it.”
    She shrugged. “I don’t, but it’s what my friends call me.”
    He arched an eyebrow, and she couldn’t help butthink he looked like the devil, all sinful and dark and tempting. “Are we friends then?”
    “Hardly. But Valentina makes me think I’m in trouble.” She ate another olive and sighed. “Which I suppose I am, really.”
    “Are you?”
    “It certainly seems that way. I started the day in Rome and I’d made plans to go to Capri. This is not Capri.”
    He inclined his head. “No, it’s prettier. And more exclusive.”
    She took a bite of pasta. It was delicious and she nearly moaned with the pleasure of eating solid food again for the first time in days. A light breeze blew over them then, and she was glad she’d put her jacket on again. It wasn’t unpleasant, far from it, but it would be too cool without sleeves. “Did you grow up here?”
    “No.”
    “I imagine your family has a lot of homes.”
    “Yes.”
    Tina pushed an olive around her plate. “Which was your favorite?”
    His gaze speared into her then, intense and dark and forbidding. His smooth jaw was tight, and she realized that she’d stumbled into something he didn’t want to discuss. It made no sense to her. He’d grown up with so much, while she and Mama and Renzo had lived in tiny apartments in back alleys for most of her childhood.
    “I have no favorite,” he said shortly. “I spent much of my time away at school.”
    Sympathy flooded her, though she couldn’t imagine his experience being bad. He was an aristocrat, wealthy and very beautiful. He would have been the sun around which the other kids orbited.
    “I did, too, once I hit fifteen,” she said. “It wasn’t a good time to go away.”
    “It never is.” He took a sip of wine. “I went to school when I was six. I came home on breaks until I was seventeen.” He shrugged. “So I have no particularly favorite house. I spent more time at school than I did here, or in any of the Gavretti estates.”
    “I didn’t know,” she said softly. “I’m sorry.”
    His eyes were as hard as diamonds. “There is nothing to be sorry about. I received a spectacular education and went to a top university.”
    “And spent summers with Renzo in the garage,” she added.
    “Yes.”
    Tina let out a heavy sigh. “Did you at least enjoy the time you spent with us? I had thought you did, but I was young. It’s just that you seemed … happy.”
    She thought she might have said too much, but he only looked toward the cliffs and didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I was,” he finally said. “I enjoyed building the prototype with Renzo.”
    “And yet you left. And Renzo refuses to speak of