Lynne Graham's Brides of L'Amour Bundle

‘You lied to me,’ Pippa condemned. ‘When we first met I asked if you were involved with anyone else and you said no.’

‘As far as I was concerned it was true. Lili knew she would be travelling for a couple of months. Our relationship was casual. We agreed that if either of us met anyone else we would be free to follow it up. I met you. Lili said she met no one, but I suspect that what she really meant was that she met no one worth mentioning,’ Andreo completed with rich cynicism.

So, according to his version of events, Lili had just existed in the background of his life, a casual bed partner when she’d been physically available. Surely that was all that she, Pippa, could have been to him as well? Had she not originally decided to allow their relationship to run only until she left for France? Hadn’t that been the most sensible attitude? After all, Andreo was not looking for a long-term relationship with her either. It was better to be the one leaving than the one who was left.

In any case, how could she trust a word he said about Lili Richards? Since when was it possible to believe anything a man said when it came to the other woman in his life? How many times had her late father lied to her trusting mother and persuaded her that an affair had been over when it had been in fact still continuing? Or even that his extra-marital activities had existed in her mother’s imagination alone? How many times had he voiced arguments that had sounded credible but that had eventually turned out to be cruel, unfeeling lies?

‘Any comment?’ Andreo murmured flatly.

Pippa shot him a driven glance, imagining how she would feel watching him leave her again only to recoil from that prospect. No matter how bitter and suspicious she was, she still had to fight a demeaning desire to keep him with her. Ashamed of her weakness, she tilted her chin. ‘Coming here was a waste of your time!’

Andreo frowned. ‘I don’t believe I’ve ever had a more one-sided dialogue with a woman. You don’t even appreciate what you’ve done.’

‘What I’ve done?’ Pippa echoed with incredulity.

‘Sì. Without a word of warning or explanation to anyone, you vanished into thin air—’

‘I handed in my notice and I returned your gifts…didn’t that all speak for itself?’

‘That you were annoyed about something? Didn’t it once cross your mind that when you disappeared I’d be worried sick about you?’

Pippa jerked up a rebellious shoulder. ‘Why should it have done?’

Savage anger flared in Andreo’s censorious gaze and he moved closer. ‘We were in a relationship. I gave you no reason to believe that I would do anything to hurt or betray you. Dio mio…you trusted me enough to give me a key to your home!’

Her throat closing over on a flood of tears, Pippa focused on a point to one side of him for she did not want to be reminded of how easily she had initially given her trust.

‘When you didn’t answer my messages I went to your home to check that you weren’t lying there ill. I could see that you had packed and left in a hurry and that remained a source of genuine anxiety to me.’

Involuntarily, Pippa glanced up and encountered scorching golden eyes of contempt that froze her to the spot.

‘At that point I had no idea that you had already terminated your employment with Venstar. Concern prompted me to hire private investigators in an effort to trace your movements. Of course, a less honourable guy would just have sat down and opened your diary and read it from start to finish!’

Those final terrifying words hung there in the air while Pippa stared back at Andreo as if he had just developed horns and cloven feet. Every scrap of colour had ebbed from her face. ‘My…my diary? You know I keep a diary?’

‘It was hard to miss. There it was beside your bed—bright pink and furry and adorned with the words, “My diary” and a tiny girlie padlock which I could break with one finger.’ Andreo seemed to positively savour that description and assurance.

‘You saw my diary…’ Pippa was sick with horror at him having got that close to her every written secret thought, especially when her every written secret thought had recently related to him. Why had she given him the key to her home? Why had she not had the wit to hide her diary away?

‘Saw it and lifted it—’

‘Lifted it?’ Pippa gasped strickenly.

‘It’s just amazing the way you’re finally giving me the attention I deserve, cara mia,’ Andreo remarked silkily.

Pippa was paralysed to the spot. ‘Did you break the padlock?’

‘Not as yet but it strikes me as the most straightforward solution to your refusal to talk—’

‘I’m not refusing to talk…where’s my diary?’ she steeled herself to demand.

‘In my case—’

‘You brought it with you?’

Andreo gave her a silent nod of confirmation.

Pippa breathed in very deep and thought fast but there was just no way out that she could see. ‘I’ll do just about anything to stop you reading my diary.’