Unguarded Moment by Sara Craven

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

It was in several ways a memorable meal. The food was delicious—ice-cold melon and Parma ham, followed by veal with mushrooms and herbs cooked in a delicate white wine sauce, but Alix found her appetite had deserted her.

She was seated next to Paola at the big circular table in the dining room. Across the expanse of dark, shining wood she could see Liam, leaning back in his chair, his fingers idly playing with the stem of his wine glass, his face shadowed and enigmatic. Bianca was in the chair next to him, talking and laughing with an almost feverish vivacity, although Alix noticed she wasn't eating much either. She was too busy being the life and soul of a singularly lifeless and soulless party.

There were undercurrents around that table which Alix couldn't even begin to fathom, but she guessed somehow that they were centred in the girl who sat beside her, barely speaking, as golden and serene as a Botticelli goddess.

One explanation could be that Bianca now knew that Paola was involved with Liam, and was jealous, but Alix could not believe it. Bianca never allowed such a mundane emotion to stand in her way. She brooked no interference from other women in her relationships, and her methods were ruthless.

Paola was a beautiful and sexy girl, but there was a basic docility about her, Alix thought, which did not augur well for her in any battles of will with Bianca over Liam or anything else.

She wanted to ask Leon what he thought, but although he was sitting next to her, any private conversation was out of the question. He was still drinking, she realised, and looking more morose with every minute that passed. By the time dinner was finished, she doubted whether he would be capable of telling her anything coherent.

Only Carlo seemed to be behaving normally, eating and drinking with gusto, roaring with laughter at Bianca's anecdotes, and capping them with some of his own, spicing the conversation with scandalous snippets about well-known figures in the film world.

A marvellous performance, Alix thought detachedly. If he hadn't been a famous director, he could have made a good living as an actor. Because she had no doubt it was all an act. He wasn't an insensitive man. He must be attuned to the inner tensions and vibrations around the table,, but he was choosing to ignore, them, perhaps in the hope that they would go away.

Some hope, Alix reflected bitterly. Almost involuntarily she found she was looking at Liam. It was safe to do so. He was mostly watching Bianca, although his gaze sometimes flickered to Paola.

Judging his options? she surmised painfully. She knew she ought to hate him—despise him for being a womaniser, for not being able to resist the temptation of practising his all too potent sexuality on any female who strayed within his orbit. He doesn't need me, she thought miserably, he probably doesn't even want me as a person. It's the chase and the conquest that matters to him.

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