The Unwanted Conti Bride (The Legendary Conti Brothers) by Tara Pammi Read Free Book Online Page B

leather Conti pumps, throwing caution to the wind.
    So what if she felt like her legs would fall off later?
    Whipping her unruly hair into a French plait and adding a dab of peach lip gloss, she’d been ready. Her gut twisted into a thousand knots, she had guzzled down two cups of coffee and munched her protein bar on the way over.
    Minutes ticked by. Quarter past ten flew by. A couple of old men walked past her, up the steps, and she had a suspicion they were friends of Salvatore’s.
    Before they could catch her eye, she turned away and checked her phone. She walked up and down the steps, went back into the hall, got a bottle of water then walked back out. And all the while she waited, a sense of déjà vu came upon her.
    She’d been waiting, just like this, ten years ago, too. In his bedroom, in his bed. In her underwear, albeit the sheet pulled up to her chin.
    Waited for Luca, to tell him that she was in love with him.
    He hadn’t shown up. Marco Sorcelini had, instead, with a lascivious smirk on his face and his cell phone in hand. Before Sophia could make sense of what was happening, he’d clicked a picture of her. Told her to put her clothes on and go home...
    Because Luca Conti had won the bet.
    He had seduced Sophia the Shrew, made her fall in love with him and walked away. Why else would any man touch a woman like Sophia , Marco had added, who was neither beautiful nor docile and far too smart for her own good?
    She’d thrown the sheet away, launched at Marco and punched his nose. She’d lived for months in terror that that photo of her would be plastered all over everyone’s cell phone. That her humiliation wouldn’t be limited to Luca and his cronies.
    It hadn’t.
    The most nightmarish day of her life and it was on repeat again. This time it was her entire family’s future that she had trusted him with.
    Forty minutes past ten. Frustration and fury scraped Sophia’s nerves. Stupid, so stupid, to trust his word. To believe that he’d really want to help her. When everything she’d ever known of him said Luca didn’t give a damn about anyone.
    Just as she walked down the steps, a great beast of a bike came to a shuddering stop, right in front of her.
    Black leather jacket, wraparound shades and a killer, megawatt smile that was like a shot of adrenaline straight to her heart. A small crowd of onlookers whispered behind her.
    With sleek grace, Luca pulled his tall form off the bike and handed it off to a valet. Dark shadows, even worse than usual, bracketed his eyes. He looked gaunt, the curve of his mouth almost obscenely lush against the sharp angles of his face.
    His jet-black hair gleamed with wetness. He looked like hell and yet, utterly, breath-stealingly gorgeous. The world wasn’t a fair place.
    He covered the few steps between them, looked her up and down, leisurely, thoroughly. Took the fabric of her glove between his fingers, frowned and then sighed. A twinkle shone in his eyes as it moved over her hair and her face. “That dress is not only ghastly but loose. And that color is not an improvement on black.
    “You have to do better in this department if we want the world to believe we’re utterly in love. I do not need extra incentive to tear your clothes off you.”
    Her fingers clenched tight on her phone, Sophia counted to ten. He wasn’t going to reduce her to a screaming shrew in front of the whole city. “You’re late. By fifty-five minutes. I...” She gritted her jaw so tight, she was going to need dental surgery. “And you look like hell. I texted you and called you, like fifteen million times. You don’t reply—”
    “I overslept.”
    “You overslept?”
    “I didn’t get to bed until the early morning. And I didn’t want to show up here for you all dirty and unshaved.”
    “You couldn’t lay off partying for one night?”
    “This whole thing made me nervous.”
    Her tirade halted on Sophia’s lips. Of course he was nervous. Getting married was probably akin to