A Night in the Palace by Carole Mortimer

Author:Carole Mortimer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-21T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘SO you decided to take your coffee upstairs with you last night, after all, then?’ Dmitri folded his lean length down into the chair opposite Lily’s at the kitchen table, where she sat at seven-thirty the following morning already eating toast and drinking coffee.

Instantly reminding her that she had taken the cowardly way out the previous evening and not waited for Dmitri to return from dressing...

At the time she had decided that caution was probably the better part of valour—which was a polite way of saying she simply hadn’t trusted herself to spend any more time in his provocatively disturbing company last night.

She placed her coffee cup carefully down on the saucer, continuing to look down at that saucer as she answered him. ‘I was tired after all the travelling and—and excitement of yesterday.’

‘That is one way of putting it, I suppose,’ Dmitri drawled.

Lily glowered as she looked at him properly for the first time this morning, her eyes widening slightly as she saw he was wearing faded blue jeans and a black cashmere sweater that emphasised the width and power of his shoulders. The sleeves of the sweater were pushed up to just below his elbows, revealing the strength of his arms and wrists—

Oh, good Lord—she couldn’t be stupid enough to find even his arms and wrists sexy, could she?

She had expected him to be dressed in readiness for going to his office this morning, to continue his search for Claudia and Felix. Once he had seen Lily safely delivered to a hotel, of course. ‘I was referring to the way the police descended on the palazzo last night.’

‘No doubt a thrilling tale for you to tell your friends on your return to England,’ Dmitri said dryly as he sat forward to pour himself a cup of coffee from the pot in the centre of the table.

Lily bristled. ‘If you think I enjoyed even one moment of that—that embarrassing episode, then you are sadly mistaken! In fact, I would prefer never to think of it again.’

Dmitri remained completely unruffled by her vehemence, and he sipped his coffee before replying. ‘Not even as an amusing tale to relate to your grandchildren one day?’

‘Of the night I tried to break out—unsuccessfully, I might add—of an Italian count’s palazzo?’ She eyed him scathingly.

He bared his teeth in a smile. ‘Exactly.’

Lily grimaced. ‘I think I’ll pass, thanks.’ Especially when those grandchildren might then ask what she had been doing locked away in there in the first place! Not only did this situation reflect badly on Felix, but her own behaviour so far had been less than suitable for telling any future children or grandchildren she might have.

Dmitri knew he should not be enjoying Lily’s obvious discomfort, but after the unsatisfactory night’s sleep he’d had he was feeling less than indulgently inclined towards her this morning.

Coming back down the stairs last night and discovering she had taken him at his word and already gone up to bed had been the start of that dissatisfaction.

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