A Pawn in the Playboy's Game

‘Quite a picture,’ her grandmother had said approvingly. ‘Dress to impress?’

Which had almost made her take the whole lot off and climb back into her usual garb but she didn’t and she was glad she hadn’t when Alessandro opened the door and...

Black jeans, a faded black polo-neck jumper...he was so drop-dead gorgeous that her mouth went dry. She made sure not to look at him as they were ushered inside but she could feel his eyes on her as coats were removed and in just the tight top and her long skirt she was as conscious of the plunging neckline as she’d feared she might be.

‘Fetching outfit,’ Alessandro murmured, as Roberto and Edith walked towards the sitting room. ‘Did you wear the top because you knew I wouldn’t be able to take my eyes off you?’

‘This old thing?’ Laura said airily. ‘I just stuck on the first thing in the wardrobe that came to hand.’

‘What else is there in that wardrobe? I’m curious...’

‘I told you that I’m not interested in...in anything...so...’

‘I know.’ He put both hands up in a gesture of mock surrender. ‘You only kissed me because you had a couple of sips of gin and tonic and suddenly all your reservations were washed away! But I’m not your type because I’m an arrogant bore.’

‘I never said you were boring.’

‘So you find me scintillating company and as sexy as hell...it’s almost impossible to keep your hands off me...but you’re going to do your best to resist because some loser you met in London let you down.’

‘This isn’t the time or the place to be talking about this!’ She looked surreptitiously at Roberto and her grandmother. Edith was doing a lot of talking and Roberto was laughing at something she had said. They were as absorbed in one another as a couple of teenagers on a first date.

‘I like it. You can’t run away. You never said what he did to you. Promised you the earth and then failed to deliver? Like I said, relationships are so much more straightforward when you lay down the boundary lines from the start.’

Laura stopped and looked up at him. ‘He strung me along and I found out that it really wasn’t going anywhere because he was married.’ Remembered shame washed over her.

‘What a class-A bastard,’ Alessandro murmured softly. He looked down into those sea-green eyes and wanted to strangle the creep who had let her down. ‘But you can’t take that with you for ever and let it hang round your neck like an albatross.’

‘I can learn from it.’

‘Granted you can learn from it and then move on or else you can become so risk-averse that you never take a chance again.’

‘I can reduce the odds by not having a stupid fling with someone who’s totally unsuitable. I can wait until I meet the right guy for me. I don’t think that’s being risk-averse. I think that’s being sensible!’

‘Yes, but where’s the fun in that?’

‘It’s not all about fun. When it comes to relationships, it’s much more than having fun.’

‘I bet your grandmother wouldn’t agree. She looks a feisty lady. Should I ask her?’

‘Don’t you dare!’

She was so wrapped up in their conversation that she only noticed Roberto and her grandmother looking at them out of the corner of her eye, then she smiled a little faintly and cleared her throat.

‘What’s going on here?’ Roberto tapped his way towards them and looked at both of them narrowly.

‘Nothing,’ Laura said.

‘Good! Now, come along. No more of this hush-hush nonsense! Wasn’t my idea to have a dinner party but now that it’s happening, then into the sitting room you both go! No more standing out here and whispering! Bad damned manners!’

‘Don’t blame me!’ Laura laughed and linked her arm through his. ‘Blame your son!’

‘Hope...’ Roberto turned to look at Alessandro through narrowed eyes ‘...I won’t have to.’

CHAPTER FIVE

HE WOULD LEAVE for the week and return on the weekend. It made sense.

‘Bloody waste of your time,’ Roberto grumbled. ‘Don’t see the point of it myself.’