One Summer At The Lake. Susan Carlisle

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ no choice but to introduce him to John, which was something she wanted to avoid if possible.

      She had promised Chloe she’d ask him about tonight and she would. This way she could sugar-coat his response—that it would be no was a given, that he wouldn’t go out of his way to frame his refusal nicely was an equally safe bet.

      ‘Good evening. I hope you had a good journey—’

      He cut across her, launching without preamble into blighting speech. ‘I do not find the sight of my housekeeper with her tongue down the throat of a tradesman a particularly edifying sight. In the future I would be grateful if you kept your love life or what passes for it behind closed doors and on your own time the next time you fancy a bit of rough.’

      For a second she was too startled, as much by the icy delivery as his interpretation of a simple goodbye hug, to respond to this ludicrous accusation. But when she did her voice shook with the effort to control her response. She took a deep breath and closed off her furious train of thought, tipping her head in an attitude she hoped suggested humility while she badly wanted to slap the look of smug contempt off his face.

      ‘I’ll keep that in mind when I feel the urge to force myself on some passing tradesman.’ Focusing her thoughts on the price of school sports kits helped her stay calm as she levelled a clear blue gaze at his dark lean face and finished her thought. ‘Though actually, for the record, on this occasion I was simply hugging a friend goodbye.’ Like it’s any of your business, you sanctimonious creep. ‘You’re right, he is a tradesman, but not rough at all,’ she added, unable to keep the note of shaky indignation out of her voice. ‘John is sweet.’ She lifted her chin. ‘And not the sort of man who judges people by appearances or what they do for a living.’

      Politely framed or not, it was impossible to miss the fact he was being called a snob. For a moment Isandro was too astonished to be angry. For a long time in his life now there had been no one who would presume to tell him if he was out of line.

      The moment passed and astonishment gave way to anger that caused the muscles along his angular jaw to tighten and quiver. ‘I do not care what the man does for a living!’

      She arched a feathery brow and said politely, ‘Of course not.’

      Isandro clenched his teeth, seriously tempted to give her her marching orders and to hell with the consequences, then he recalled the delicacy of the deal on the negotiating table and the outcome was by no means a given. Any hint of scandal now would make the old family firm walk away from the table.

      ‘What I care about is the man conducting his sex life on my doorstep!’

      She stared, her blue eyes widening to their widest before narrowing into angry sparkling slits. He made it sound as if he’d discovered her having an orgy! What she couldn’t understand was how could anyone have seen anything sordid in a perfectly innocent hug?

      He was madder than he had been when she had given him cause. His reaction to her using his house to raise funds without his permission had been clinical, but there was nothing at all clinical about his reaction to her imagined sin now.

      ‘The next time get a room.’ The snarled suggestion triggered a free-fall avalanche of images that made him lose his thread.

      ‘Get a room? John is married!’

      His nostrils flared. ‘All the more reason, I would have thought, to show a little more circumspection,’ he declared austerely.

      ‘I would not have an affair with a married man!’ She took a deep breath. It really hurt to have to explain herself to this man but what choice did she have? ‘What you witnessed, Mr Montero, was simply a goodbye hug between friends,’ she told him stiffly. ‘That was John, Chloe’s husband. You remember Chloe?’

      Taking his silence to be a yes, she explained further. ‘He was picking up the twins. They’re staying with his mother tonight. She’s babysitting, because John and Chloe are having a party…you remember?’

      He remembered.

      ‘I saw—’

      ‘You saw nothing, because there was nothing to see.’

      His mind replayed the image that had caused him to jump to conclusions and he realised he had not seen anything beyond two people close. His expression froze, his discomfiture revealing itself in the faintest deepening of colour along the slashing angles of his sybaritic cheekbones. Isandro cleared his throat. Embarrassment was a foreign sensation and one he did not enjoy.

      He stopped his jaw tightening. ‘I apologise. I made a mistake.’

      Zoe fought a smile. Clearly every syllable of his apology had hurt. ‘Apology accepted. I left your mail on your desk. I wasn’t sure if you wanted it forwarded. If you let me know what time is convenient I’ll let the maid know when she can clean your study. Oh, and shall I let your chef know what time you’ll want dinner, sir?’ She took a breath and thought, Wow, I’m good.

      His brows lifted. ‘I assumed that we would be dining out.’

      Zoe shook her head, losing control of her ‘perfect housekeeper’ smile. ‘Dining?’

      ‘What time did your friend say—seven?’

      She gave a little laugh, her face clearing. ‘The party! Oh, goodness, you don’t have to come.’

      ‘Then the invitation is not genuine?’

      ‘Yes, it’s genuine—Chloe and John are very genuine people. I just thought that under the circumstances…’

      He arched a questioning brow. ‘Circumstances?’

      This deliberate display of obtuseness brought her full lips together in a pursing line of annoyance. ‘They are going to want to thank you, and I’d assumed that you’d find that embarrassing.’

      Of course her analysis was dead on, but it turned out his reluctance to attend this party was not as strong as his enthusiasm to not follow the script she clearly wanted him to.

      Where women were concerned Isandro did not consider himself complacent, but neither did he anticipate rejection. It was his male pride responding, rather than common sense, as he bared his white teeth in a smile that did not reach his dark eyes and framed his silky response.

      ‘It is always pleasant when people are grateful.’ Some women would be grateful to be offered the chance of sharing an evening with him. ‘You will find I’m not easily embarrassed.’

      Zoe struggled to hide her dismay. ‘Does that mean you want to come?’

      While he knew it was illogical to put himself through what would be an uncomfortable and almost certainly boring evening, the dismay in her voice that she didn’t have either the skill or the good manners to disguise hardened his stubborn resolve to attend the damned party with her at his side—and she’d damned well enjoy it! he thought.

      ‘It’s not a matter of want. I gave my word.’

      She struggled to read the expression on his lean sardonic face and faltered. ‘They’d understand if you…’

      ‘What time will you pick me up?’

      Zoe’s heart sank to СКАЧАТЬ