The Sicilian's Deal For 'I Do' (Brooding Billionaire Brothers, Book 1) (Mills & Boon Modern) by Clare Connelly

Author:Clare Connelly [Connelly, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2024-02-14T18:30:00+00:00

Their hands were laced on the top of the table as the older woman brought out a platter of risotto, scampi and salad.

‘My housekeeper,’ Luca had said on Mia’s last visit, when the sound of the door closing had alerted them to someone else being in their space and Mia had panicked. ‘When I am at the villa, she comes for two hours each night. She can be trusted, Mia. She’s worked for me a long time, and before that she was a friend of my mother’s. She will not tell a soul that you are here.’

There was that word again: trust.

Mia smiled at the older woman as she bustled about with a wine bottle and then, when they were alone once more on the starlit terrace, the smell of night-flowering jasmine and honeysuckle heavy in the air, Mia pulled her hand back, flexing her fingers a little to remove the tingling effect of Luca’s touch, and fixed him with a level stare.

‘Do you trust her?’

His eyes locked to Mia’s, then he reached for his wine glass, taking a sip of the crisp, white liquid before responding. ‘Catarina? With my life.’

Mia frowned.

‘You weren’t expecting that answer?’

‘No.’ She speared a scampi and tasted it. Delicious.

‘Because...’ he prompted, when Mia didn’t respond.

Her lips tugged to one side. ‘You don’t strike me as a man who trusts anyone.’ She thought about that a little more. ‘Or who lets people get close.’

‘You’re close. Look.’ He reached out and touched her under the table.

Mia smiled but rolled her eyes. ‘You know that’s not what I mean.’

He sipped his wine, said nothing more.

‘So?’ she asked, leaning forward, elbows on the table, no longer interested in the food, though it was absolutely spectacular.

‘What do you want to know?’ There was a guardedness to his voice, a wariness about what she might ask him, and how he might answer.

Mia didn’t back down.

She had a limited time to get this man out of her system and that meant coming to understand him, because she didn’t want to find herself thinking about him in six months’ time, wondering what made him tick, what made him a certain way.

‘Why?’

‘Why?’ He let out a sound of exasperated amusement. ‘That’s unquantifiable. A thousand things happen in a person’s life that cause them to behave or feel a certain way, it’s rarely just one.’

‘And I’m asking about yours.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, because I’m here for a week and we can’t be in bed the entire time,’ she pointed out, cheeks blushing.

‘Is that a challenge?’

She dipped her gaze to the table. ‘I want to understand you, Luca.’

He reached over and lifted her chin. Mia’s eyes hooked to his and her heart lurched in her chest. ‘That wasn’t part of the deal.’

Did he really mean to keep her at arm’s length emotionally while physically exploiting all of their chemistry?

‘Is this what you do with women?’ She changed tack. ‘Have sex but refuse to talk?’

‘I’m happy to talk.’

‘About things that matter.’

His eyes were hooded, no longer easy for Mia to comprehend, but they were darkened by emotion, so she wished she had the key to understanding.

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