The Medici Mistress: Nothing and no one would stop him from having her. by Clare Connelly Read Free Book Online

some time. “I’m not staying here with you.” She shoved his chest, hard, feeling satisfaction as he stumbled backwards. “You don’t get to be back in my life. You’re nothing to me now, Giac. You can’t just have me when it suits you. That’s not fair to me.”
    His eyes were like black coal in his hard face as he watched Annie walk from the room.
    Thomas was grinning when she opened the door. “Thought you might have changed your mind.”
    Annie slipped out of her apartment. “My place is a tip. Can we go to yours?”
    Thomas hooked an arm around her shoulders. “Sure thing, princess.”
    She regretted it later, when they were ensconced in his artistic, elegant loft. His kiss felt like a snail was crawling on her mouth. She hadn’t felt that the last time she’d seen him. But then, there had been no Giac back in her life to compare him to.
    Thomas was perfect in every way. On paper, he was her dream guy. But, as he kissed her mouth, and her neck, her body was cold. Her heart didn’t stir. Her fingers didn’t long to lift and run through his hair. There was nothing there. She pulled back, guiltily, her smile paper thin. “I should get going.”
    He swiftly hid his disappointment. “It’s almost three in the morning. Why don’t you stay the night?”
    She shook her head. She couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to him. “Not tonight.” She regretted the words as soon as she’d said them. Did they imply that another night she would stay with him? Her head was a muddle.
    “I’ll walk you out.”
    “No need.” Thomas lived right in the middle of Chinatown. Even in the middle of the night, there was a din of noise outside his flat, as people carried on about their business. She smiled reassuringly. “Go to bed. It’s so late. Thanks for a great night. I had fun.”
    She had had fun. And, for the three or four minutes she hadn’t been obsessing over Giac Medici, she’d really unwound and enjoyed herself. A black cab pulled up almost as soon as she raised her hand in the air. Another virtue of living right in the heart of the city, she thought with a small shake of her head. At that time of night, it was easy to get from the west to east side of the city; none of the daytime congestion to slow their journey. She made as much small talk as she had the stomach for with the driver before settling back into the seat sleepily.
    The second she had paid him, and stepped out into the cool night air, she realized she’d been expecting Giac to still be there. Her apartment, upstairs, was darkened. He wasn’t on the street. Her heart dropped, and she told herself it was from relief.
    It was little wonder that the next day was excruciating for an exhausted Annie. Three coffees before she left the house, a Starbucks on the way to work, and a pot on her desk, had gone some of the way to jolting her brain into activity, but not enough. She muddled through her morning, but her usual enthusiasm and attention to detail were completely absent.
    “You coming, Annie?” One of her friends and colleagues popped her head into Annie’s office.
    Annie looked up, her eyes bloodshot in the corners. “Coming?” Her expression was blank.
    Patrice, who had joined the company precisely twelve months before Annie and therefore felt infinitely more experienced, moved into the neat office. Her bemusement was obvious in the way her bright red lips quirked in the corners, her brown eyes quizzical. She sat down at Annie’s desk. “Briefing?”
    “Oh, shoot, right.” She nodded. Mondays always included a touch-base briefing, in which the whole team was able to get a clear picture of what their work priorities were for the week ahead. Attendance was expected, but not compulsory. “I… I’m going to skip it today,” she said, lifting her coffee to her lips.
    “You look terrible,” Patrice said thoughtfully, skimming her eyes over her friend’s usually immaculate appearance. “Are you okay?”
    Annie nodded. “The kids