His Sicilian Cinderella. Carol Marinelli

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       CHAPTER ONE

      Five years later

      BELLA GATTI.

      Matteo did not want to hear her name, yet tonight it had peppered the conversation.

      Neither did he want to remember a love that had made him a fool.

      And so he sat through his closest friend and business partner’s small engagement party, which was being held at Luka’s luxurious Rome penthouse, avoiding, as best he could, any references to an extremely chequered past.

      Matteo and his girlfriend of three months, which was a bit of a record for him, had flown in from London for the occasion. Knowing that Luka and Sophie’s engagement was an extravagant farce, Matteo just wanted the night to be over and done.

      Sophie Durante had turned up at Luka’s London office just a few days ago and demanded that, on her father Paulo’s release from prison, Luka uphold their long-abandoned engagement for the little time that her father had left.

      Had Luka sought advice from Matteo they would not be sitting here now.

      He had not and so they were.

      Paulo kept speaking about Sicily, or rather the beautiful west and the people he had known there. Matteo, doing his level best not let his mind return there, had kept guiding the conversation back towards his true passion.

      Work.

      No, his passion wasn’t Shandy, the woman who sat beside him, even though she would prefer that it was.

      Honest work was his passion.

      Matteo’s reputation in the business world was his most prized possession. He had clawed his way back from less than nothing. He had made something of himself after a violent, criminal past and nothing and no one would ever reduce him or drag him back to the ways of old.

      ‘So when do you go to Dubai?’ Luka asked.

      ‘Sunday,’ Matteo answered. ‘Unless you’ll be needing the plane.’

      Luka understood the slight taunt behind Matteo’s words—Matteo was convinced that Sophie wanted more than an engagement ring on her finger.

      He didn’t believe Sophie’s sob story for a moment.

      Matteo didn’t believe in anyone.

      ‘Sunday?’ Shandy checked. ‘But I thought you said that you didn’t have a firm date yet.’

      ‘I only just found out.’ Matteo’s jaw gritted. Shandy had got it into her head that she would be joining him on this business trip. If they wanted to share a room then a ring on her finger might well be required and he could feel her squirm in expectation. No doubt she was thinking that this sudden trip to Rome might have a deeper meaning.

      ‘Where are you staying?’ Paulo asked.

      ‘Fiscella,’ Matteo answered, referring to the luxurious hotel he had booked into.

      ‘It’s very romantic,’ Shandy said, but Matteo quickly crushed that.

      ‘Luka and I are thinking of buying it,’ he explained to Paulo. ‘It is a nice old hotel but it needs a lot of refurbishment. I want to check out a few things for myself.’

      ‘Doesn’t Bella work there?’ Paulo asked Sophie, and Matteo took a belt of his drink.

      Bella.

      The sound of her name had his throat tighten, so much so that he had to think, he actually had to tell himself to relax, in order to swallow the sickly limoncello down.

      He loathed the taste, it reminded him too much of home and that was a place he had spent the last five years doing his level best to forget.

      He did not want to think about his past and certainly Matteo did not want to hear what Bella Gatti was up to.

      He’d already been told.

      A couple of months after leaving, his half-brother Dino had told him that Bella was a regular at the bar.

      He had told him a few other things that had had the bile rising in Matteo’s chest and burning the back of his throat, but he had kept his voice impassive when he’d spoken with Dino.

      If his half-brother got even a hint that Matteo cared then Bella would be punished for his leaving, just for the pleasure of Matteo being told.

      He swallowed down the liquor as Sophie answered Paulo’s question.

      ‘She does,’ Sophie said, and despite his best intentions not to delve further Matteo found himself asking Sophie a question.

      ‘Doing what?’

      ‘She’s a chambermaid.’ Paulo answered for his daughter. ‘Isn’t she, Sophie?’

      ‘Well, I guess it gives her access to a richer clientele.’ Matteo’s response was surly and, taking Shandy’s hand, he led her to the floor to dance.

      He didn’t want to dance.

      He just wanted to get away from the conversation.

      Rome glittered beneath them. He could feel the pulse from the street below and the guarded Matteo suddenly wanted to escape the shackles and to shed his skin. He wanted to take a moped and explore the ancient, beautiful city. He wanted to ride high up СКАЧАТЬ