The Undoing of de Luca by Kate Hewitt Read Free Book Online Page B

pots?’
    Smiling a little bit, a bubble of laughter threatening to rise up inside her and escape, Ellery showed him where everything was. Within a few minutes he was playing at executive chef, dicing a few tomatoes with surprising agility as a big pot of water bubbled on the stove. Ellery knew she should go upstairs and make the beds, but instead she found herself perched on the edge of the table, watching Larenz move around the kitchen with ease and grace. He was wonderful to watch.
    ‘How did a man like you learn how to cook?’
    His shoulders seemed to stiffen for a single second before he threw her a questioning glance. ‘A man like me?’ he repeated lightly. ‘Just what is that supposed to mean?’
    Ellery shrugged. ‘You’re wealthy, powerful, entitled.’ She ticked the words off on her fingers, not meaning them as insults although, from the still stiff set of Larenz’s shoulders, she had the uncomfortable feeling that he took them as such.
    ‘Entitled?’ he repeated wryly. ‘I’m afraid not. You’re the one with the title.’
    Was she imagining the bitter undercurrent in his voice? Surely she was. ‘I don’t mean an actual title,’ she said. ‘Useless as they are—’
    ‘Are they?’
    ‘Mine is.’ She swept an arm to encompass the whole Manor, her whole life. ‘It’s just a courtesy anyway, because my father was a baron. Besides, what’s good about being Lady Maddock, besides having to pay death in taxes?’
    ‘Nothing is certain except death and taxes,’ Larenz murmured as he minced two fat cloves of garlic.
    ‘Exactly.’ Ellery paused, both unable and unwilling to voice how this new side to Larenz had surprised and even unsettled her. ‘Men like you don’t usually learn basic life skills,’ she finally said.
    ‘Men like me,’ he echoed thoughtfully. ‘And that’s because someone is always doing it for us, I suppose?’ He paused in his slicing and dicing. ‘Fortunately, my mother had a more prosaic view. She made sure I learned all of life’s necessary skills.’ He slid her a sideways smile that did strange things to her middle; it was as if something were opening and closing inside her, like a fist.
    ‘I see,’ Ellery murmured. She felt herself blushing, her whole body heating from just a single look. Suddenly the kitchen felt very warm.
    ‘We can eat as soon as the pasta is done,’ Larenz told her. ‘No more than a simple tomato sauce, I’m afraid. My skills are indeed basic when it comes to the kitchen.’ Yet his playful emphasis suggested that his skills were both more advanced and adept outside of the kitchen.
    Such as in the bedroom.
    Or was that where her own desperate thoughts were taking her? She was mesmerised by the way his hands moved so quickly and skilfully as he prepared their lunch; she watched the sunlight play on his dark curls as he bent his head to his task and felt nearly dizzy with need.
    She needed to stop this, Ellery told herself. She had no intention of getting involved—in any way—with Larenz de Luca. She might feel a brief and admittedly intense attraction for him—intense simply because she’d denied her body for so long—yet she had absolutely no interest in acting upon it. She couldn’t.
    The thought of being intimate—vulnerable—with someone like Larenz actually made her shudder. She would not be beholden to a man like Larenz de Luca, a man who would surely turn his back on her without a second thought. A man who, by all evidence, treated women as playthings, as amusements. And surely he was merely amusing himself with her in an effort to while away a long lonely weekend. Was that why he had stayed? For his own bored amusement? Surely the supposed business proposition was no more than a pretext.
    Larenz peered into the pot. ‘I believe it’s done.’
    Ellery forced her thoughts—and their natural direction—away. ‘Isn’t it supposed to stick to the wall?’ she asked, half-teasing, and he grimaced.
    ‘Foolish folk tales. An