One Night In His Bed. Christina Hollis

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СКАЧАТЬ back for that, and at least no one but me will be any the poorer if my wrap has to be given away, rather than sold. It won’t cost you a thing. I can easily make the co-operative another one.’

      ‘You made this?’

      She nodded, on firm ground for once. ‘I keep rabbits for meat. It is easy to hide a few Angoras in their shed as well.’ Sienna warmed with the thought of that tiny triumph, which she had managed in the face of Imelda and Aldo. Neither of them would have recognised a rabbit outside of a casserole dish.

      Intrigued, he lifted the trailing edge of the cornflower-blue shrug and inspected the fine stitches. ‘It’s exquisite. And you look ravishing in it, by the way,’ he added disarmingly. ‘But I find dedication and skill like this in one so young slightly worrying. A beautiful woman like you really should get out more, signora.’

      ‘I’m not allowed—that is, I don’t get the chance. I have to keep house for my stepmother on top of everything else,’ Sienna corrected herself quickly. Imelda might treat her like Cinderella, but she did not want this real-life Prince Charming to think she was a push-over—especially if they were about to enter a secluded alleyway together. ‘That doesn’t leave me the time or the energy for anything else,’ she finished primly.

      ‘I see.’

      Her message must have been clear enough, for his grip on her elbow eased slightly. To Sienna’s relief, he let go completely as they entered the warren of streets leading out of town.

      She thought it was because he respected the line she had drawn between them, but Garett’s mind was actually elsewhere. He was uneasy. His escape from Manhattan had been so sudden, and it meant travelling without the comfort of a schedule. His working days used to run like clockwork, but that was behind him for the moment. The alphabet soup of PAs, PDAs and GPS which made sure he got from A to B and back again in the shortest possible time was nothing but a memory. He patted his jacket, feeling the reassuring bulge made by his passport. With that, and his unlimited funds, Garett could do what he liked and go where he wanted. The world should be his oyster. But he was finding freedom unexpectedly hard work.

      This thought carved furrows in his brow. He had more money to burn than most people made in a lifetime, and yet it was no longer enough. Why not? Something—some basic truth obvious to everyone else—still evaded him. From the age of six he had worked continuously—because when he stopped the restlessness returned. A vital element was missing from his life. He had discovered a disturbing new side to himself earlier that week. It had made him realise he must find out what he lacked—immediately—but how? Work was clearly part of the problem. The only way he could think to avoid its siren song was to put a few thousands miles and complete radio silence between him and his headquarters. The moment he tried to log in to the office computer system his staff would be on his case like kids mobbing a tomcat. He needed space, and time to think.

      Garett put one hand in his pocket. It was only the third time he had checked for the hire-car keys since they’d been handed to him. He must be slowing down. As he thought that, he noticed another change in himself. Strolling through these airless city passageways with a nervous stranger should have been hell—a horrible reminder of what he had escaped. Instead, he found himself actually enjoying the sensation of not being expected to make conversation. What was happening to him?

      Without realising it, he slowed his walk still further. It gave him the chance to look around for once. Lifting his gaze from the pavement, he sent it up to where the tenement canyons showed a strip of sky. The silhouette of a woman with bulky breasts and a wayward home perm loomed out of an upstairs window. She was holding a big juice container. With a shout of cheerful warning she poured water from it into her flower boxes. A noisy cascade of liquid ran out from beneath her billowing scarlet geraniums, darkening the front of the apartment block before dripping down to the flagstones.

      A trickle ran towards the feet of Garett’s unwilling companion. She was lost in thought and had not noticed the gardener overhead. Now she looked up and frowned at the clear, cloudless sky above.

      ‘An April shower?’ Garett spoke his thoughts aloud. Then he smiled, realising that for the first time in decades he was thinking about something other than work.

      It might not be the whole answer to his problems.

      But it was a start.

      

      The car was every bit as beautiful as he’d said it would be. Sienna slid into the passenger seat with a sigh of real longing.

      ‘Good, isn’t it?’ He smiled, slipping behind the wheel with similar satisfaction.

      Sienna nodded, but did not speak. She was determined to keep her head down. Garett Lazlo had not laid a finger on her since letting go of her arm. Whatever her secret feelings about that, she knew she must not encourage him in any way. But modesty was not the only reason for her silence. On the way to the restaurant they would be passing within a few kilometres of Piccia. She could only hope and pray that none of the villagers saw her being driven along in a car like this.

      Although I’m the last person anyone would expect to see in a Lamborghini. She smiled to herself. They’d probably write it off as a hallucination, brought on by too much sun.

      ‘You’re the first girl who’s ever smiled at my driving. They usually squeal and grab at something.’ Garett glanced at her as he pulled away from the kerb. ‘What’s the joke?’

      ‘N-nothing,’ she said nervously, ‘except that…travelling along like this reminds me of that old song: “If My Friends Could See Me Now”. I was wondering what my stepmother would say if she caught sight of me in this!’ She ran her hand lovingly over the passenger seat. It was made from softest glove-leather, and had the fragrance of money well spent.

      His face cleared, and his eyes narrowed with devilment.

      ‘Let’s call in on her and find out, shall we?’

      Sienna was horrified. ‘No! Please don’t! She would kill me! Respectable women aren’t seen in fast cars with strange men.’

      ‘Why not? Better that, surely, than being spotted in a strange car with a fast man? Are we going to pass your house?’

      ‘No—thank goodness,’ Sienna said with real feeling. ‘It’s too far from here to take a detour without making you late for your table reservation, signor.’

      ‘I get the message—you’re keeping me safely at arm’s length. But that’s no reason to be so formal. You can call me Garett.’

      Sienna’s lips flickered briefly into a smile. Then it was gone and she looked out of her window again. This was not what he had come to expect from women.

      ‘Don’t you have a given name, signora?’ he prompted her.

      ‘Of course, but perhaps we should keep this formal.’ Sienna pursed her lips.

      ‘I call all the ladies of my acquaintance by their first names, so why not give me yours?’

      Sienna took this as an order. She was used to those, but it didn’t make carrying them out any easier. Besides, this was a total stranger. She had to make a stand somehow, and insist on keeping him at a distance. Resisting would overturn everything she had been taught about obedience—but the idea excited her. She had already done one astonishing thing today, by coming this far with him. Why not another?

      ‘My СКАЧАТЬ