Billionaire's Secret. Chantelle Shaw
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Billionaire's Secret - Chantelle Shaw страница 11
Название: Billionaire's Secret
Автор: Chantelle Shaw
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Зарубежные любовные романы
isbn: 9781472095916
isbn:
Nicolo instinctively rejected the sympathy he could see in her hazel eyes. He despised pity. In the almost two decades since he had been burned, countless women had seen him naked. He had grown used to witnessing the horror in their eyes when they saw his scars and he told himself he did not give a damn that Sophie looked sickened by the sight of his damaged body.
‘I don’t want your concern,’ he growled. ‘I suggest you get out of my room before the sight of you in your very fetching night attire makes me forget that I’m a gentleman.’
His mocking taunt reminded Sophie that she was only wearing a peach satin nightdress. Her nightwear was not especially revealing, but the gleam in Nicolo’s eyes made her feel as if she’d shimmied into his room wearing nipple tassels and a thong! Flushing, she crossed her arms defensively over her breasts.
‘If you were a gentleman you wouldn’t have thrown me out of the house like a bag of rubbish,’ she said tightly. She marched over to the door, but the memory of his desperate groans during his nightmare made her hesitate. ‘Do you need anything to help you sleep?’
His low, sexy laugh sent a frisson of awareness through Sophie. ‘What did you have in mind, Miss Ashdown?’
‘A mallet,’ she said through gritted teeth, and stalked out of the room before she gave in to temptation and hit him over the head with the pewter vase.
After Sophie had gone Nicolo switched off the bedside lamp and stared into the darkness, trying to clear his mind of the remnants of his dream. His nightmares were not so frequent now, unlike the months and years following the fire when he had suffered almost nightly flashbacks.
Sophie had been right to guess that his injuries had been agonising. It was impossible to explain the intense pain of third-degree burns that turned flesh into raw, weeping wounds, or the gut-wrenching agony of surgical dressings being changed. He had been in hospital for months and had undergone several skin grafts. Even after he had been allowed home he’d had to wear compression bandages and take high doses of antibiotics to prevent his burns becoming infected, as had happened to his friend Michael.
Nicolo closed his eyes and pictured the smiling face of the young man who had been a fellow patient at the specialist burns unit. Michael Morris had been amazingly cheerful, despite having suffered burns to eighty per cent of his body. He had been Nicolo’s inspiration. But Michael had developed an infection and septicaemia and his sudden, shocking death had plunged the thirteen-year-old Nicolo into the depths of despair. He had cried like a baby when one of the nurses had told him that Michael had died.
Muttering a curse, Nicolo sat up, switched the lamp back on and picked up a book from the bedside table. Goddamn Sophie Ashdown, he thought grimly. Her arrival had unsettled him and her curiosity about the fire had opened a door in his mind that he usually kept bolted shut.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.