The Italian's Price

Face flaming, her chin notched up by several degrees, Milly faced the unwelcome truth that they were indeed alone here.

She ought to have known how the other half lived. Just one word and a minion would be found to carry out orders at a moment's notice! Silly of her to have overlooked that fact of a life! And she wasn't about to ask again exactly why he had brought her here and risk another loaded answer.

Instead she said tightly, ‘show me where I'm supposed to sleep and tell me what you want for lunch. I'm sure you expect me to wait on you' Because he wouldn't know how to boil water. He might be a whiz at doing whatever clever stuff he did to earn a dazzling living, but brought up surrounded by a platoon of servants anxious to cater to his slightest wish, he wouldn't have a domesticated bone in his body.

'Now there's a thought' Slumbrous eyes scorched her, and Milly hastily looked away. He was lethally attractive and she sure as Hades wasn't going to follow her twin down that fatal track. She heaved a sigh of relief when he picked up her suitcase and led her up the staircase tucked away at the far side of the room.

There were two doors leading off the square landing. The first he flung open revealed a bathroom of almost clinical utility, the second a bedroom that contained the biggest bed she had ever laid eyes on and not much else.

Did Cesare, following his father's track record, bring his women here? Had he brought Jilly? If so,

she had goofed badly when she'd queried the lavish supply of foodstuffs, asked where she would sleep, because there appeared to be only this one bedroom.

So where would he sleep? Her throat closed and her stomach churned with the weirdest sensation she had ever experienced. Whipping round on her sandalled feet intent on telling him that there was no way she was sharing a bed with him and if he had brought her here with that in mind he was going to have to think again.

But there was just empty space where he had been and from downstairs she could hear his tuneful whistle. She ground her teeth in frustration. He sounded in a good mood, was her ireful thought.

Looking forward to making the woman he'd dragged back to Italy to make reparation for her supposed sins pay off par

t of her dues in his bed?

CHAPTER SIX

MILLY HAD STRETCHED her wash and brush up into the best part of an hour she realized guiltily when she finally glanced at her watch. Most of that time had been spent leaning out of the bedroom window, breathing the warm scented air and making herself concentrate on nothing else but the view of the shallow wooded valley, the arc of the blue sky overhead, soaking up the utter tranquility. Anything to take her mind off her decidedly dodgy situation.

In any other circumstances she would have loved being here especially with the man she loved.

It was the perfect place for a romantic idyll.

And where that had come from she had no idea. The wayward thought shocked her. She didn't have a man to love here or anywhere else! Unlike her sister, to whom the male of the species gravitated like moths to a brilliant light, Milly hadn't had much to do with the opposite sex. Quiet and unsure of herself always deep in her twin's shadow she hadn't exactly been sought after and had certainly never been in love.

Her first date had been a disaster. Sixteen years old and, compared with Jilly, still wet behind the ears, she'd been hugely flattered when, out of the blue, the local pin-up, Mitch Farraday, had asked herout.

He'd been earthily good-looking, full of himself, pushy. Her girl friends had all drooled over him.

But the date had ended up in a scary tussle at the back of the cinema with him calling her vile names.

He had taken it for granted that buying her a seat in the stalls fully entitled him to have sex. It had horrified her and she'd fought him off like a wild spitting cat.

It had frightened her had put her off the male sex for ages.

Then she'd met Bruce. Twelve years her senior, an accountant, he'd lived with his widowed mother.

He'd called into the shop to buy a pot plant and they'd got talking. Discovering a mutual interest in visiting local gardens open to the public he'd returned a week later and invited her to accompany him and his mother to Bassett Hall gardens an annual pilgrimage for them apparently.

And because she'd heard of the acres of rhododendrons and azaleas-at their best at that time of the year, the lakes and grottos she'd accepted. Without her own transport she hadn't been able to get there under her own steam.

And because Bruce was solid and worthy, without a flash bone in his body, and she was comfortable in his company they had seen each other once a week for the last two years.

He was a pleasant companion. He made no sexual demands. It had only been after the death of her mother that things had changed, subtle hints from him and not so subtle ones from his mother about settling down, formalizing their relationship.

Sighing, Milly turned away from the window. She liked Bruce-and his mother-but she didn't love him and never would. She'd been trying to think of a way to tell him, before he decided to come out with a proposal. She didn't want to hurt his feelings or his pride.

But Cesare had happened. His misconceptions about her twin his threats. In the turmoil she hadn't given poor Bruce a thought. He'd be worried about her and she felt really bad about that. But there was nothing she could do about it until she got back to the mainland. She could phone him and tell him she'd taken a temporary job as a companion. And thinking about Bruce-something she rarely did unless she was actually with him-was she recognised a cowardly delaying tactic.

Sooner or later she was going to have to face Cesare carry on the deception as best she could and hope to discover why exactly he had brought her here. And hope to heaven that it wasn't what she thought it was! Sex.

She was pretty sure Jilly had confidently expected marriage. Was as sure as she could be that her twin had taken off, hurting and humiliated, the moment that brute had told her that all he wanted from her was hot sex.