New Year Fireworks. Diana Hamilton
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Название: New Year Fireworks
Автор: Diana Hamilton
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Эротическая литература
Серия: Mills & Boon M&B
isbn: 9781472009630
isbn:
“What can we do to help?” Marco asked his mother.
“Nothing. Everything is as well ordered as it’s going to be. But I hope you and Sabrina will excuse me if I, too, go rest a bit before dinner.”
“We’ll go up, as well. We can unpack and have an aperitif before the hoards arrive.”
He and Sabrina accompanied the duchess up the grand staircase and parted company on the third floor.
“You’d best be downstairs by a quarter to seven to greet our guests,” she told her son.
“We will.”
She turned toward the east wing, hesitated. Her glance flicked from her son to Sabrina and back again. “Have you warned her about the paparazzi?”
“Not yet.”
“They could be … difficult.”
“We’ll don our armor before we come downstairs.”
“Bene.”
Sabrina contained her curiosity until Marco escorted her into his suite of rooms in the east wing. She caught a glimpse of their bags set side by side on a padded bench in a cavernous bedroom before demanding an explanation.
“What was that about?”
“You’re not the only one who has fed the beasts,” he commented with a dry reference to the articles his mother had pulled off the Internet about her. “They attacked like sharks after Gianetta’s death. One tabloid even hinted I had somehow sabotaged the sailboat.”
“Dear God! Why would you do that?”
“The usual reasons. Jealousy, anger, to rid myself of an inconvenient wife so I could marry my mistress.”
Shrugging, he opened the doors of a parquetry chest to display a well-stocked bar.
“It didn’t seem to matter that I had no mistress. What would you like to drink?”
“It’s going to be a long night. I’d better stick with something nonalcoholic for now.”
Marco chinked ice into two glasses and twisted off the lid on a bottle of Chinotto. The dark liquid fizzed like a carbonated drink and had a unique taste that combined bitter and sweet at the same time.
“We always allow a few members of press to take photographs at the ball. Be warned, they’ll have an avid interest in you.”
“Because I resemble Gianetta?”
His dark eyes held hers. “Because you will be the first woman I’ve invited to the ball since Gianetta.”
Ohh-kaay.
Sabrina took another sip of the fizzing soft drink and willed her heart to stop hammering against her ribs. The waltz Marco had described so beautifully earlier suddenly seemed to have picked up in tempo. She couldn’t shake the feeling she’d just been swept into a sultry tango.
The tempo kicked up yet again a little over an hour later.
Gowned, gloved, her hair anchored high on her head with the topaz-studded comb, she swept out of the bedroom in a glitter of gold. Two paces into the sitting room she caught sight of Marco and stopped dead.
Her jaw sagged. Her breath got stuck somewhere in the middle of her throat. The best she could manage was a breathless whisper.
“Wow.”
“My sentiments exactly,” he answered in a low growl. “You look magnificent, Sabrina mia.”
His eyes devoured her as he crossed the room. Hers drank in the snowy white tie and pleated shirt, the black tails, the jeweled insignia of some royal order pinned to the red sash that slashed across his chest.
Tonight, Sabrina realized as her heart drummed out a wild beat, her handsome doc was every inch a duke.
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