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

couldn’t help himself. He reached out and touched the ends of her hair. So silky and smooth, so dark and shining. He was struck with the memory of how she had looked, lying across his white bed linen.
    Instead of pulling away, as she felt she should, she stayed perfectly still. Her breath hitched in her throat. “Please don’t,” she whispered, fluttering her eyes shut, as his fingers drifted from her hair to her shoulder.
    “I seem as completely unable to help myself with you now as I was then.”
    Her green eyes flew wide. “Giac, you’re married. Are you trying to start an affair with me?”
    “Carrie and I are getting divorced.”
    She made a small, choking sound, as her whole perception of reality began to fuzz and fade around the edges. Two years ago, she would have died to hear those words. She would have thrown herself in his arms, and pretended that everything was okay. That he hadn’t slept with her a month before marrying another woman. But, over time, things had changed. Her love for him hadn’t lessened, but her resentment had grown. And her determination that she would never be vulnerable to him again was at the forefront of her mind. She pushed down on her reaction and nodded, her face a mask of bland disinterest. Of impersonal sympathy, as might suit a long lost friend mentioning that a parent had passed away. “I’m sorry; that’s too bad.”
    She looked down at her menu, scanning the French words with assumed interest. They were blurry before her eyes. “I hear the food here is excellent. What are you going to have?”
    He pushed her menu aside and took her hands in his. “Is that all you have to say?”
    She intentionally misunderstood. “I have only heard a few reports of the food,” she said with a shrug. “I think that the chef is famous for his lobster Thermidor. You know how everything old is new again?”
    Not everything, she silently added. Their relationship would not be renewed. It couldn’t be.
    “Madre di Dio, Annie. Does it not interest you at all that I am leaving my wife?”
    She narrowed her eyes. “You’re leaving her, or she’s leaving you?” It made no difference. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter.”
    “It was a mutual decision.”
    “So, what? You think that atones for the past? Three years down the road, you want to pick up where you left off, because you tried marriage on and decided it didn’t suit you?”
    It was so much more complicated than that, but respect for Carrie kept him silent as to the details. He had foolishly believed the strength of his connection with Annie would be enough to overcome whatever objections she might have had. “The details are irrelevant.”
    Not to me, she thought. Her eyes were heavy with emotion. “I don’t want to talk about the past.”
    “So let’s talk about the present, then.” He leaned closer towards her, his eyes purposeful. He waved away an approaching waiter, his bearing unconsciously dictatorial.
    She stared at him, unseeing.
    “I want you back in my life, cara. ”
    “NO.” She looked around self-consciously. A few diners were staring at her curiously, after the shouted word. She dipped her head forward, and her black hair fell like a curtain about her blushing face. “It’s not going to happen, Giac.”
    “I thought we agreed last night that our being together was inevitable.”
    “Not if we don’t see each other again,” she demurred, leaning backwards to put some vital space between them. “I’ll quit, if I have to.”
    His nostrils flared. “I would follow you. I would find you.”
    “Why?” She was weary. “I’ve had a long time to think about this, you know.” Her voice shook a little but she forced herself to carry on. “I can’t imagine I was the first woman you cheated with.” She could see that he was about to interrupt, and so she carried on. “You were too comfortable seducing me for it to be a first. You were so utterly without shame for what you were doing.”
    “Which