‘So why are you bothering to stay here if you’ve already made your mind up?’
‘Because I want to see first-hand what the situation is with my father and your grandmother,’ he said bluntly.
‘Meaning?’
‘I want to make sure that it’s all above board.’
‘I can’t believe you just said that!’
‘Why?’ He shrugged. ‘We’ve been through this before. You might as well accept that I’m not one of these idealistic, trusting types who takes whatever’s told to him as the whole truth and nothing but the truth.’
‘You are just so cynical. Isn’t it enough that your father has found someone at his age? Someone who makes his life a better place?’
‘Beautiful. And even more beautiful if that someone has his physical well-being at heart and frankly couldn’t care less about the well-being of his bank account.’
Laura ground her teeth and glared at him. How was it that someone so good-looking could be so...cold?
But, then, Colin had been good-looking as well, hadn’t he? And he’d turned out to be as genuine as a three-pound note. She obviously had a problem when it came to her judgement. She obviously was one of those people who could be swayed by good looks. Well, it had happened once before and it wasn’t going to happen again.
And there was a big difference between Colin and Alessandro. Colin had been suave and charming. Alessandro was just...outspoken, arrogant and downright charmless.
If he had any reserves of charm, he wasn’t going to use up any of his supply on her, at any rate.
And when it came to attractiveness...the differences were extreme as well, once you started looking a little more closely. Colin had been attractive in a sanitised way. His blond hair had always looked ever so slightly helped along with products, his smile had dazzled, his body had been slim and trim but not overtly muscular.
Alessandro, on the other hand, was good-looking in a more raw, untamed way. Underneath the sophistication you could half sense something more elemental, something powerful that was barely leashed.
And thank the Lord for that, she thought. Because that made her far safer from his brand of good looks!
‘Gran is away until next week.’ She reined in the desire to get into a shouting fit with him.
‘And I can’t wait to meet her.’
‘And once you’ve sized her up, what do you intend to do?’
‘I enjoy crossing bridges when I get to them.’ Not strictly speaking true. He was a guy who had always preferred to plan in advance. However, in this instance he would have to think out of the box and react accordingly. The disturbing truth was that he had planned on a more clear-cut situation and was realising that that was not the case. He had counted on his father’s stubbornness. What he hadn’t counted on was the fact that that stubbornness was not misplaced if he saw himself as being dragged away from connections he would find difficult to replace in London.
But the thorny issue of trekking back and forth remained. Maybe if he and his father had had anything remotely resembling a functioning relationship, that situation might have been different. Maybe then those journeys wouldn’t have been seen as a nuisance. But why beat around the bush? They didn’t and Alessandro wasn’t thrilled at the thought of having to make more and more inconvenient trips, staying for longer and longer periods of time, should his father’s health nosedive.
He might not be lining up to receive the son of the year award, but neither was he so lacking in a sense of filial duty that he would be able to switch off completely.
‘Don’t you have to be...er...back in London? Running your company?’
‘Companies. Plural. I have more than one and, no, I can take some time out to assess this situation.’ He sighed suddenly and raked his fingers through his hair. ‘It’s not ideal,’ he admitted. ‘I didn’t think I’d end up having to spend time here, checking up on a life I had no idea my father had. It makes things...slightly more problematic.’
Laura swallowed the last of her drink. She’d had nothing to drink over dinner as she had been driving and now the gin and tonic rushed pleasantly to her head, warming her and making her feel relaxed, not as defensive. He looked weary. Still sexy as hell, but weary.