A Pawn in the Playboy's Game

‘You don’t want to go. You want to run away. We both know that we could easily have ended up—’

‘I don’t want to talk about this,’ she said tightly. ‘It shouldn’t have happened. In fact, it probably only did because I had that drink. I’m not accustomed to drinking shorts. I wasn’t thinking straight!’

‘Tut-tut. You don’t really believe that, do you?’

‘You can’t just come here and take what you want because you’re bored,’ she said, drawing in a deep breath and finally meeting his gaze and holding it.

‘Whoever said anything about being bored?’ He still wanted to touch her, wanted to feel the softness of her body without the barrier of clothes. The dress might not have been an overcoat but it might as well have been.

Laura squeezed her arms tightly around her body. ‘I’m not looking for a guy like you.’

‘A guy like me?’ was the first response that came to hand, even though, more appropriately, he could have told her that if she wasn’t looking for a guy like him, then he, likewise, wasn’t interested in her or anyone else finding him and thinking they’d hooked him.

He wasn’t into the business of encouraging false hope. He shoved away the uneasy thought that he had already managed to tell her a hell of a lot more than he had ever dreamed of telling any other woman in his life before.

Circumstances.

‘You’re everything I disapprove of. I don’t know what the problem is with your father but you don’t even make an effort! In all these years you’ve never shown any interest in trying to get to know him! In finding out what his life here is like... Do you know that he was actually excited at the thought of you coming up here twice? Taking us out for dinner? He had a problem choosing the right tie!’

For a few seconds Alessandro was lost for words. He stood up and prowled through the kitchen before leaning against the kitchen counter.

She couldn’t read his expression. Was there uncertainty behind that glower? Surely not. Surely he wasn’t someone who was ever uncertain.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he muttered, standing directly in front of her, legs spread squarely apart, fingers hooked into the waistband of his trousers.

‘Don’t tell me I’m being ridiculous!’

‘I don’t think it’s possible for my father to get excited over my appearance here, especially given the circumstances surrounding it. Actually, I doubt it’s possible for my father to get excited over anything to do with me.’ His mouth twisted into a wry smile before he abruptly turned away, to say over his shoulder, ‘It’s an understanding we share. As few displays of emotion as possible. It works.’

‘He was excited because you were showing some interest in his life here. You should be so grateful you have him,’ she said quietly, to his averted back.

That had him turning round to look at her. ‘I count my blessings every night before I go to sleep.’

Are you always sarcastic? Laura wanted to ask him. And then it struck her that everyone had their defence mechanisms. That was his. He wasn’t just an arrogant bastard who was here to complete a mission that would make his life easier, even if it meant railroading Roberto into doing something he didn’t want to do.

He was far more complex than that.

‘I would give anything to have a parent,’ she said wistfully, ‘even one I didn’t get along with.’

‘That’s because you’re sentimental,’ Alessandro responded deflatingly. ‘I’m betting there are damp tissues all round whenever you watch a tearjerker at the movies.’

‘Would anything change your mind as far as removing your father is concerned? Are you just sticking around so that you can size my grandmother up and make sure she’s not going to nick the silver the minute your back’s turned?’

Alessandro shrugged. ‘I’m taking it as it comes.’

‘But it’s a good thing,’ Laura mused thoughtfully, ‘because you’ve had to actually put yourself out to integrate into your father’s life.’

‘Let’s not dress this up, Laura. It’s a two-way street.’ He had no idea what was propelling him to unpick scabs that had hardened over the years. Neither could he work out how they had managed to digress from the topic of when and where they were going to do something about the chemistry burning between them. Which was a far more interesting topic for discussion.