Latin Lovers: Italian Playboys: Bought for the Marriage Bed / The Italian GP's Bride / The Italian's Defiant Mistress. Kate Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ more time with her, had counselled her to think a little further ahead than the next moment of pleasure.

      ‘It was a stupidly impulsive thing to do …’ she finally said, her voice low, her eyes downcast. ‘I had no idea of how it would backfire on … me.’

      Again her answer seemed to surprise him. She chanced a look at him and found his hard accusatory expression had softened slightly as he looked across at her, the child in his arms nestling against him preparatory to sleep.

      ‘There are few of us who get through life without one or two regrets,’ he offered.

      Nina gave him a rueful smile. ‘Don’t tell me the great Marc Marcello admits to getting it wrong now and again?’

      He held her gaze for a moment before looking down at the child in his arms. ‘I have made one or two errors of judgement in the past but I have no intention of ever doing so again.’

      Nina wondered if he bore the internal scars of a broken relationship which had made him wary of emotional commitment. The more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed. What better way to take himself out of the game than to marry for convenience, not love? He would be free to liaise with whomever he chose without the pressure of formal commitment due to the piece of paper that would soon be documenting her as his wife.

      His wife.

      She swallowed a lump of panic as she thought about all such a relationship would entail. Even though he’d stated implacably that the marriage would not be consummated, they would still be living in the same house which would force certain intimacies on them both regardless.

      She imagined seeing him in less formal attire, perhaps in sports gear or after a shower with a towel around his waist, his long strong body exposed. Or seeing him unshaven in the morning, his chiselled jaw dark with stubbly growth, the sort of growth that tingled female skin if it brushed up against it …

      Nina pulled back from her thoughts with a little jerk in her chair, her guilty glance meeting Marc’s questioning one.

      ‘Is something wrong?’ he asked. ‘No, of course not.’

      ‘You do not seem yourself,’ he observed.

      ‘Oh, really?’ She gave him one of Nadia’s scathing looks. ‘And you know me so well after, what is it—’ She checked her watch for the date and looked back at him. ‘Less than a week?’

      ‘Suffice it to say I am familiar with your type,’ he answered smoothly.

      ‘So you think one size fits all?’

      His smile was cynically lopsided. ‘I have been around long enough to recognise danger when I see it.’

      ‘Danger, eh?’ She arranged her lips into a smirk. ‘You see me as dangerous? What exactly are you threatened by? My sex appeal?’

      His mouth tightened and she knew she’d scored another hit. It struck her as ironic that he was fighting an attraction to her when she was pretending to be someone else. What chance did she stand of him being attracted to her as Nina—the real Nina? The Nina without the reputation or the Nina without the baggage? Not to mention the Nina without the designer wardrobe. The Nina who was in very great danger of falling in love with a man who despised the very sight of her.

      ‘Your ego no doubt has had considerable stroking over the years but I refuse to join your band of avid admirers,’ he said. ‘If you are looking for compliments I am afraid you will have to go elsewhere.’

      Nina gave him an arch look. ‘But you do find me attractive, don’t you? Go on, admit it.’

      ‘I admit nothing.’

      She laughed. ‘You’ll get sand in your eyes if you bury your head too deeply.’

      She saw his jaw tighten another notch. ‘Women like you think they are irresistible but let me tell you, you are not. Do you think I am so easily swayed by full breasts and pouting lips and come-to-bed eyes?’

      She pursed the said pouting lips and affected a super-confident pose. ‘I can feel your interest from right over here,’ she said in a breathy undertone. ‘I bet if I slipped my hand under this table and examined the evidence for myself you’d have some serious back-pedalling to do.’

      Black eyes met grey in a challenge that rocked Nina to her very core but she was determined not to back down. She held his look with a spirited defiance she hadn’t thought herself capable of.

      Although he tried to disguise it, she noticed he shifted backwards in his chair as if he didn’t trust her not to do exactly as she’d said. Her mind began to wander of its own volition. What would he feel like fully aroused? Would he shudder at the touch of her fingers around his length or would he groan with deep out of control pleasure? And what would his reaction be if her mouth were to close over him, drawing from him a response that would spill his life force out of his body in an explosion of pleasure?

      ‘It’s time to leave.’ His announcement was curt as he got stiffly to his feet.

      Georgia gave a soft rumble of protest about the sudden movement but soon settled back against his chest, her tiny eyelids fluttering closed, her miniature fingers still grasping his breast pocket.

      Nina rose with less speed, taking her time to gather up the baby’s changing bag and her own handbag, shooting him a glance from across the width of the table.

      ‘Do you think it’s worth disturbing her to put her back in the pouch?’ she asked.

      Marc looked down at the tiny infant against his chest and shook his head. ‘No.’ He lifted his gaze back to hers. ‘I will carry her.’ He scooped up the bill the waitress had left and added, ‘Is there anything else we need to buy?’

      It was the ‘we’ that really got to her. Seeing him with Georgia cradled so tenderly in his arms, she couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of regret over how circumstances had led them both to this. How different things might have been if they had met without the baggage of both of their wayward siblings. If the truth were known they probably had more in common than not. He was the solid dependable type, anyone could see that, and she … well, she was hardly the sleep-around town tart he thought her to be. If only he knew!

      ‘No.’ She carefully avoided his eyes in case he saw the glitter of sudden moisture. ‘I think we’re more or less done.’ She hoisted the changing bag over her shoulder and followed him out of the café with her head well down.

      The city streets were so busy as to make conversation both difficult and unnecessary. Nina was glad of the reprieve. Guilt flooded her from every direction. Maybe she should have been firmer with Nadia, should have insisted she stay and face her responsibilities. But then, when had Nadia ever faced anything? Her policy had been to move from one disaster to the next with her twin picking up the pieces behind her. Nina had even done it for their mother in the past, becoming the parent instead of the child in an attempt to provide some level of security for them. Much good it had done in the end, she thought sadly. Her mother had still drunk and drugged herself into an early grave and there had been nothing Nina could do to stop it.

      Marc pressed the pedestrian button and flicked a glance down at the silent figure beside him as they waited for the lights to change. ‘You are very quiet all of a sudden.’

      Nina СКАЧАТЬ