The Mysterious Italian Houseguest by Scarlet Wilson

Author:Scarlet Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Romance
Published: 2017-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

THE NEXT TWO days were awkward.

It was clear Portia was unhappy about something. She was distracted and tired-looking. Sometimes she even looked as if she could burst into tears.

He’d love to use her as a sounding board. When it came to work and Hollywood she was completely sensible and, at times, frank. He respected her opinion.

But he couldn’t tell her why he was reacting in an emotional way. He couldn’t tell her how guilty he still felt about the death of his friend, and why he was so mixed up.

Because Portia was press. And he couldn’t wipe his past experiences from his head—the press couldn’t be trusted.

Part of it was pure and utter selfishness. What if she thought badly of him if he told her? There was a definite attraction simmering between them. Nothing like telling her he’d ignored a friend in need to squash it completely.

It didn’t help that the reason he was shutting her out was because he still felt a pull towards her. Something he didn’t feel as if he had any right to act on.

In the meantime a plan had formulated in his mind. He now knew what he wanted to do. Money was no problem. But he wanted to make sure that he did things well—not just throw a bunch of money at the project and walk away. He wanted to be involved and that would take business plans and commitment.

He looked around the painted drawing room. He’d plastered the crack again, skimmed most of the other rooms in the house. The conservatory glass would all be replaced in a matter of days. But he had to be careful and take his time. The frame was delicate. He couldn’t manipulate and replace too many small panes at once. So far he’d completed all the plain glass and added some random red, blue and yellow panes. The green, pink and purple glass panes were sitting in a corner, waiting for their turn to be anchored in place and transform the conservatory into a rainbow of sunlight.

Up above him he could hear some noise. Portia had disappeared into the attic this morning. Maybe it was time to try and smooth the path between them.

He walked through to the kitchen and made some coffee, finding some pastries he’d picked up at the baker’s this morning. He knew better than to go empty-handed.

Portia Marlowe didn’t take her pastries lightly.

* * *

She could smell the coffee before she saw him. In fact, a steaming cup of coffee and a delicious-looking pastry laced with chocolate were sitting on top of one of the trunks near the entrance to the attic.

She crawled forward on her hands and knees, reaching the entrance to the attic and sticking her head out of the door. Javier was sitting on the floor outside, sipping coffee from a huge mug. He was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt that seemed to be smudged with bits of off-white putty. She scanned the floor around him. ‘What—no pastry?’ She wagged her finger at him.

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