The-Italian's-Runaway Bride by Jacqueline Baird

Author:Jacqueline Baird [Baird, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Kelly was wearing the dress she had married him in, and for a moment

Gianfranco was stunned anew by how beautiful she looked. His wife,

with her pale hair swept up on top of her head, her slender body ripening

softly with his child. Yes, he had made the right decision marrying her, he

congratulated himself, his chest swelling with pride. She was every inch a

lady and, contrary to what he had been led to believe by married men of

his acquaintance, marriage had made little difference to his life at all—

except he had a warm and willing woman in his bed every night. Married

life was good. His friends adored Kelly, the evening was a

great success, and he wished the whole lot would leave so he could take

her to bed.

The music stopped and he disengaged himself from his courtesy dance

with his sister-in-law. He was stopped from claiming Kelly by Olivia's

hand on his arm. He listened with barely concealed impatience to what

she had to say, but when his mother joined in his attention was caught.

Old loyalties vied with new, and slowly his dark brows drew together in a

frown.

Kelly saw the frown, and she watched as he worked his way through the

crowd towards her. Gianfranco reached for Kelly with a strong arm and

pulled her to his side. T see you've changed,' he said, bending his dark

head towards her, and under cover of apparently kissing her neck, said

softly, 'Beautiful though you look, would it have been too much of a

hardship to wear one of the gowns Mamma chose for you?'

'Yes,' she declared mutinously. She had already had this argument earlier,

and she was not about to start trying to defend her choice again.

'Dance with me,' Gianfranco demanded. She stilled, and the large hand at

her spine pulled her closer. 'Smile,' he suggested silkily, glittering dark

eyes absorbing the defiance in her beautiful face. 'Or people might

suspect that we are arguing.'

'Heaven forbid anyone would dare argue with you, Gianfranco,' she

drawled sarcastically. And was punished by being kissed in a brief, hard

kiss. Her nostrils flared on the disturbingly familiar scent of him, her

body instantly melting in the circle of his arms. 'People are watching,' she

said, her face flushing scarlet.

'So what? I am master in my own home,' he murmured against her ear as

he guided her gently around the floor. 'You would do well to remember

that. I am not used to the

women in my life bending my ear about clothes,' he declared with all the

aristocratic arrogance of his illustrious ancestors. 'It has got to stop—

understand?'

Involuntarily Kelly flinched and missed a step, stung by the implied

threat in his statement...

'Olivia was right, you are rather clumsy tonight,' he remarked.

Judy had not been lying! In that second Kelly wanted to thump him; her

blue eyes flashed fire as they met his. 'And you are a blind chauvinist

pig!' she whispered tightly.

Her sapphire eyes were magnificent when anger or passion aroused her,

but he did not want to argue with her. 'Don't get upset, Kelly.' His

gleaming dark eyes held hers. 'I will forgive you. It's probably your

hormones playing up.'

Kelly pulled free just as the music stopped, but before she could speak

Carmela tapped Gianfranco on the arm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.