A Pawn in the Playboy's Game
‘Don’t you get a little bored?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Sitting in a classroom, marking exercise books in a village that has twenty residents.’
‘Are we back to your comments about it being a backwater? Because we just have to agree to disagree on that one.’
‘Do you find it constricting, living with your grandmother?’
‘Why would I?’
‘Because you’ve lived on your own in London, had all the freedom you wanted. It might have suited you while you felt that Edith needed your presence, but she seems in full working order now, from what I’ve seen.’
‘You didn’t barge into my classroom so that we can discuss whether I enjoy living here with my grandmother or not.’
‘So that’s a no...you don’t really enjoy it... What’s that pub like? Any good?’
Laura glared at him. He was just so damned sure of himself! When she and her grandmother had joined him and Roberto for dinner, she had felt his dark, lazy eyes on her, as tangible as a caress, making her want to squirm, forcing her into awkward speech so that she stumbled over her words, blushing like a gawky teenager.
Had either her grandmother or Roberto noticed? She didn’t know, and she had made sure to talk about him as little as she possibly could afterwards, even though her grandmother had asked leading, nosy questions.
‘It’s fine. Getting back to Evelyn—’
‘Evelyn? Who’s Evelyn?’
‘The deputy head.’
‘Never met the woman in my life before but, by all means, let’s get back to her.’ He pulled into a space, killed the engine and then relaxed back in the seat to look at her.
‘She showed you to my classroom.’
‘Ah. That lady... It took a while for her to crack a smile, but I sense an empathetic person. Remind me why we’re talking about her?’ The lights in the car park of the pub glinted off her vibrant hair, which was still in a ponytail. The expression on her heart-shaped face was cross and earnest. She had dragged a shapeless black coat over the red jumper outfit. It drowned her but that made no difference to her sex appeal. She still oozed it by the bucketload.
‘She’s going to wonder who you are.’
‘She knew who I was. Someone had told someone who had told someone else who worked for your grandmother. It seems that I’m a talking point without even knowing it!’
Laura groaned. ‘Lord knows what she’s thinking.’
‘Who knows what anyone’s thinking?’ Alessandro mused softly. He abhorred gossip but he had to admit that he was getting a certain buzz from this situation. ‘Sometimes, though, it’s easier. For instance, you must know what I’m thinking and here’s what I think you’re thinking...’
‘I don’t want to hear.’ She looked at him and discovered that she couldn’t look away. As fast as his image had crept into her head, she had done her best to dispel it by thinking about Colin and reminding herself that there was no point to learning curves if you just went ahead and ignored them the second they got a little inconvenient.
Colin had worked his charm on her, had used her own trusting nature against her, had played the part of the perfect boyfriend, and she had fallen for all of it, hook, line and sinker.
There was no way that she was going to jump headlong into a similar situation! Alessandro might be more upfront and more straightforward...he might call it more honest, but they were essentially made of the same stuff.
She had made a mental promise to herself that the next guy she got involved with would be a normal, considerate, one hundred per cent sincere and honest gentleman. The sort who didn’t have a wife and a couple of kids stashed away in a house somewhere. Like Colin.
The sort who didn’t change catwalk models as often as he changed his suits. Like Alessandro.
In fact, Alessandro posed a far more dangerous option. Which, frustratingly, was probably why she couldn’t get him out of her head.
In fact, and this thought only now occurred to her, she had managed to clear her head of Colin with a lot more success than she was having trying to clear it of Alessandro.
Probably because she had been able to dump her job, dump London and disappear.