Название: A Savage Betrayal
Автор: Lynne Graham
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
isbn: 9781408996447
isbn:
A mere year Cesare’s junior, Sandro was a foulmouthed, workshy, ignorant boor who without the protection of his big brother would not have been employed by any reputable company. That Sandro had been in a position to destroy her reputation in a cosy little chat with Edwin Haland was somehow the most gross betrayal of all. It was the ultimate humiliation.
‘It doesn’t really matter who saw him, does it? Unless you’re back-tracking on what you said last night and were planning to mount a cover-up on my behalf!’ Mina vented a sharp little laugh at that ridiculous idea and surveyed him with unhidden loathing.
Cesare was oddly pale beneath his bronzed skin. His gaze flared gold as he connected with that look of hers, and his beautifully shaped mouth twisted. Mina stood there, quivering with bitter resentment and distress, and damned him with her eyes.
‘We need to talk,’ he murmured in a taut undertone.
‘The only person I need to talk to right now is a solicitor, and I am so grateful that your slime-bag of a brother has put himself in the hot seat beside you, because now I can kill two birds with one stone…and, believe me, I intend to!’ Mina slung at him rawly, yet knowing even as she spoke that there was no way she would carry out such a threat. ‘Now get out of my way!’
His strong jawline clenched. ‘I would not advise approaching a solicitor——’
‘Oh, boy, I just bet you wouldn’t! After all, it’s a free world, isn’t it? It’s OK for you to go around telling filthy lies about me and putting me out of yet another job, but no, it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to try and defend myself. Who do you think you’re kidding?’ Mina demanded aggressively, her fists clenching when he still neglected to step out of her path. ‘Move, Cesare!’
Cesare continued to stare at her as though he was mesmerised, brooding golden eyes intently fixed on her. Outraged by his lack of response, Mina planted a small hand against his broad chest to thrust him out of her way. A lean hand whipped up and unexpectedly trapped hers, preventing her from withdrawal.
‘What the heck are you——?’ she began.
Without the smallest warning he grabbed her right there in the middle of the street. Two strong hands clamped to her waist as he lifted her up against him and brought his mouth smashing down on hers with an explosive sexual hunger that travelled through her like forked lightning.
A stifled gasp of shock escaped low in her throat and then, equally abruptly, Cesare was lowering her back to the pavement again, sliding her with instinctive sensuality against every fiercely taut line of his long, powerful body.
Her head swimming, her mouth tingling, every thought an effort, she discovered for herself what had provoked that sudden assault. Her cheeks burned as she felt the unmistakable thrust of his male arousal. In the middle of an argument, too, she conceded, hopelessly disconcerted by the mysteries of the masculine libido.
‘Dio!’ he grated in a seething undertone. ‘I want you so much, I ache…’
CHAPTER THREE
SUDDENLY appalled by the awareness that she was standing submissively in the circle of his arms, Mina broke free, clumsily side-stepped him and vanished through the battered door a few feet behind him. She thudded up the narrow stairs, reaching the top landing in record time as she fumbled for her key and stuck it in the lock. She only heard Cesare behind her as she pushed open the door.
‘Go away!’
In one long stride he was in front of her, preventing her from slamming the door in his face. ‘Per amor di Dio…’ he whispered, looking over the top of her head at the tiny, claustrophobic room as bare and tidy as a cell.
‘I don’t want you in here!’ Mina snapped.
With an arrogant hand, Cesare pressed her back and stepped inside. There was very little floor space. There was a bed, a small table against one wall to carry a two-ring burner, and a curtained alcove for storage on the other. He surveyed his surroundings with an air of incredulous distaste.
‘It’s clean. You’re not likely to catch anything.’ Mina was horribly embarrassed but struggling not to show the fact. ‘Maybe you’d like to conduct a search for the loot you’re so convinced I’ve got!’
Cesare angled his dark head back to her. ‘You cleared over a quarter of a million pounds on the stock-market. I assume you have it salted away somewhere safe—perhaps in property down in the country where you spend your weekends?’ Diamond-hard dark eyes glittered over her, scanning for the smallest change of expression.
Her lower lip dropped from her upper. ‘A quarter of a million, and you think I’d be living here like a rat in a cage?’
‘It would have been very foolish of you to flaunt it, but this…’ Cesare spread fastidious brown fingers as he took another almost fascinated glance around. ‘This dump is decided overkill. Your salary at Earth Concern might have been low, but it would certainly have enabled you to live more comfortably than this,’ he informed her drily.
‘Maybe I have expenses you don’t know about.’ As soon as she said it she regretted it, her profile pinching tight with tension. ‘A quarter of a million,’ she muttered in a hurried aside, very tempted to laugh like a hyena as she imagined how different the last few years would have been had she had access to even a tithe of that amount of money.
‘What did you do with it?’ Cesare enquired grimly.
‘I never had it, for goodness’ sake,’ Mina retorted wearily, suddenly totally fed up with the thankless task of reiterating her innocence to someone determined not to listen to her.
‘You deposited fifty thousand in your current account—what did you do with the rest of it?’
Fifty thousand. Alarm bells went off like Klaxons inside her head. A month after Mina had been sacked she had been stunned to receive a bank statement which informed her that she was miraculously fifty thousand pounds richer than she had thought she was. She had immediately contacted the bank to tell them that there had been a mistake and that the money they had credited to her account could not be hers. Incredibly they hadn’t been interested and had indeed assured her that there had been no mistake.
For a couple of days she had actually wondered if Cesare had deposited the money as a pay-off to salve his own conscience for the brutal way he had treated her. But that explanation had struck her as unlikely. In all, it had taken her quite a few weeks to persuade the bank that they had to take that money back out of her account. Finally they had done so and a while after that, when she had asked, a bank clerk had gone off to enquire and returned to tell her that yes, there had been a mistake and the money had since been returned to its true owner.
‘How did you know what was in my account?’ Mina probed.
‘I have my methods. Now perhaps you’ll cease this painful refusal to admit the truth,’ Cesare suggested.
Mina burned with bitterness. It was too much of a coincidence. She had been smoothly set up as a fall guy. Cesare had been able to trace some of the money right back to her. Somebody had laid a careful trail for him, but who? And how could she ever find out and prove her own innocence? Surely the bank had a record of that transfer of the fifty thousand into another account? Well, she wasn’t about to waste her breath sharing her suspicions with Cesare, СКАЧАТЬ