The Italian's Price

But deep down where it matters you are astonishingly different.' On that assurance he cupped her flushed face with b0th hands. stilly is hard, self centred. Manipulative. Charming when it serves her purpose but insincere. She flaunts her sex to get what she wants. That makes her ugly.'

The balls of his thumbs stroked her delicate cheekbones and Milly's heart missed a beat then turned over making her forget what she'd been about to say in her sister's defence as he continued.

'You are beautiful. You are warm and gentle caring. Yet unafraid to speak your mind if you think someone else has suffered an injustice-as you rebuked me quite rightly, when my recent anxiety made me speak sharply to my grandmother. I admire that. That is the difference that sticks out a thousand mi Ies . ' Glorying in the touch of his hands, heat curling deep in her pelvis, her nipples searingly prominent, it was all Milly could do to stop herself from hurling herself at him, hold him close, beg him to kiss her.

She had to remind herself very vigorously that he was merely being kind to someone who'd just been shocked to learn she'd been the biggest fool in Christendom. Showing him that she wanted him quite desperately would only make her look an even bigger fool in his eyes than she already did! 'Now-' his hands left her face as he unfurled his impressive length and rose to his feet 6-aII this must have been difficult for you. come-' he took her hand and urged her to her feet a-you will shower and change into something more suited to you and then we will eat and you will explain why you felt it necessary to impersonate your sister.'

Loving the feel of his strong fingers as they curled around her own and despising herself for that weakness, Milly allowed herself to be escorted to the bed.

‘Choose what you would like to change into,' he suggested, hitting the nail on the head with the shrewdness she was beginning to expect from him when he added 'You clearly are not comfortable in your sister's choice of clothing.'

That comment needed no reply but Milly's hands were unsteady as, at his prompting, she opened the nearest box and gasped as Cesare plucked a dream of a dress from the tissue layers. Delicate voile in subtle soft stripes of oyster and pale pink, it had a discreet V neckline, a slightly bloused bodice and a soft flowing skirt below the neat waistline. It was just the sort of dress she would have bought herself had she ever been remotely able to afford to do so.

Quelling her excitement as further goodies were revealed-tailored linen trousers cream-coloured and light charcoal elegant shirts cool filmy skirts and tops, shoes with neat kitten heels delicate fine cotton underwear hand-embroidered with pretty sprays of forget-menots-Milly felt

deeply regretful as she stressed ‘I can't possibly accept all this.'

‘But of course you can.' Cesare swept her objection aside with a downward slash

of one long-fingered hand. ‘Look on these things as payment in lieu of wages.'

'You said I had to work for nothing,' she reminded him sternly because so far he had held the moral high ground and she was determined to snatch some of it for herself. Gentle and caring in his eyes-although she had never looked at herself in that light-but a doormat she most certainly wasn't!

But as usual he had an unassailable come-back. ‘I made that stipulation when I believed I had cornered your sister. You are not your sister. You have put in the hours caring for my grandmother.

Reading to her chatting, bringing her flowers taking her mind away from her injuries. I wouldn't expect anyone to work for my family for nothing. I suggest you take that shower and get out of that thing you are wearing.'

Cesare turned away.

The temptation to take that tacky apology for a skirt off her strip the tight-fitting matching leather top from her lovely body and join her in the shower was overwhelming. An over-active libido? Or something else? Milly had given up trying to figure him out. Basically he was a good man. He cared for his staff was always polite and considerate in his dealings with them and he adored the grandmother who'd brought him up after he'd been orphaned. So knowing she wasn't the twin who stood accused of theft in his eyes, he had been kind to her mostly, especially after he'd decided not to come down on her like several tons of bricks.

It really puzzled her. And it was pointless trying to figure it out and tying her brain in knots she decided as she stepped out of the most welcome shower she'd ever taken in her life.

Wrapping herself in one of the huge fluffy bath sheets, a different thought struck her like a bolt of lightning and robbed her of the ability to breathe, to move.

When he'd started to make love to her it hadn't been because he believed she was his ex-lover as she'd thought. He'd known she wasn't! It was she, Milly, who'd turned him on! Her gaze met her reflection in one of the floor to ceiling mirrors and her heart jumped. Her eyes looked huge, sparkling and her mouth looked swollen, soft, as if she'd just been kissed to within an inch of her life.

Smothering an internal groan she turned away and began to towel dry her hair with startling vigour. She wasn't going to go there! It was a non-starter of a track ending nowhere! She would just enjoy feeling fresh and clean, her skin perfumed with the fragrant body lotion she had found and was using lavishly. She slipped on the pretty undies and the dream of a dress which fitted her to perfection and made her look cool classy and strangely elegant-a far cry from the way she'd presented herself in Jilly's cast-offs.

Locating a comb on the dressing table she ran it through her silky hair and was ready. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the pair of oyster-coloured butter-soft leather kitten heels she'd selected and walked to the en suite bathroom door ready now to do her utmost to convince Cesare that Jilly wasn't a thief, that there must have been some terrible mistake. To beg him to try to trace her whereabouts because she was growing increasingly anxious for her vanished twin's well-being.

As she entered the bedroom Cesare appeared in the doorway that led to the sitting room.

He had shed his suit jacket and his silk tie and there was a tension about the broad shoulders beneath the fine white cotton of his shirt. After a timeless head to toe scrutiny his eyes held hers for what seemed to Milly like long breathless moments as if he could reach into her soul and read it.

And then he smiled. Slow and devastating. And commanded, his voice thick, score here.'

CHAPTER TEN

MILLY WENT LIKE a sleepwalker something in the depths of those fathomless dark eyes, something slow burning and impossible to resist was drawing her to him.

Her whole body unbearably sensitized, she stood before him, felt the heat of him, the firm caress of his hands as they settled on either side of her tiny waist.

Lush ebony lashes veiled the gleam in his eyes and his voice was a purr of masculine appreciation as he murmured ‘Bella, you understood my directions perfectly.' Then the line of his gorgeous mouth wry with a hint of amusement ‘Forgive me. Not one word of my native language must be spoken because you do not understand it! It was the first test I ran weeks ago, and it heightened the suspicions I was already having.'

Cesare's thumbs were rotating seductively against her ribcage, the wicked sensation making her breath tremble in her lungs, her breasts surge in urgent invitation for his touch against the confines of her pretty flower-sprigged bra. Her rosy flush had nothing to do with the humiliation of knowing that she hadn't fooled him for more than a handful of hours and everything to do with her fierce hunger for him.

His hands had worked their way upwards and tension held her very still. Burningly expectant. Another fraction of an inch and his seductive hands would be touching the underswell of her breasts.