‘Pah?’ he repeated.

‘Yes. You are talking about how a person looks.’ Her mother had been feted and glorified for her beauty. Men tumbled head over heels for Marigold Turner but it never lasted, no relationship ever made it past the attraction—once reality kicked in they slowly faded away. Yet with every man Marigold waxed lyrical about ‘instant attraction’, ‘magnetic pull’ and, of course, ‘love at first sight’.

Hell, Emily could date her childhood years by husbands’ number two to four. At the start of each ‘magical romance’ Marigold had ‘known’ this was ‘the one’ and Emily had been relegated, encouraged to fade to the background of her mother’s life. Remembered pain at the sense of isolation, the hurt at knowing she was seen as an obstacle, tingled inside her.

‘Darling, I need you to keep out of the way. I don’t want Kevin to think you’re a nuisance.’

‘Sorry, sweetheart, I know I promised I’d read you a bedtime story...come to Sports Day...but Alex is more important.’

Yet when each relationship ended in the slam of the door as each husband left, Marigold would turn to her daughter for solace and comfort and Emily would help pick up the pieces of her mother’s shattered heart. Time and again ‘instant attraction’ had translated to ‘later misery’.

Now she glared at Luca. ‘Looks don’t matter.’

‘I disagree. First impressions count. Do you not judge people by the way they dress or the way they cut their hair or...?’

The size of their muscles? asked a small sly inner voice that she shushed instantly.

‘Of course, I don’t. Because if you get all caught up in that you forget what is important. And that’s what is inside. Attraction isn’t enough to make a relationship work. Not in the long term.’ Her father’s second marriage was proof of that. Neela was the antithesis to his first wife; she wasn’t beautiful, just...ordinary and the marriage had been content. They had five children and she knew her dad was happy. So happy that Emily felt a bit redundant. Someone he’d seen once or twice a year during her childhood, and during those visits Emily had felt out of place. In the hurly burly rough and tumble of a real family life, she’d been an invisible outsider, an extra accorded a politeness due to a guest.

But that was beside the point. ‘Attraction is too...distracting.’ Which presumably explained why her gaze continued to dwell on the breadth of his chest, the lithe swell of his forearm, the clean strength of his jawline. If she could kick herself, she would.

Luca watched her carefully and now his lips tipped up, his grey eyes lit with a hint of amusement. ‘A happy distraction, or a start point—that initial spark is...exhilarating.’

‘I...’ Now their gazes seemed to mesh; her lips went su

ddenly dry and it felt as though the edges of the world fuzzed, to leave only Luca and Emily in the room. Madness. But, mad or not, she couldn’t seem to break free of the sheer tug of desire that pulled her feet, urged them to move closer to him. ‘I suppose so.’

She forced herself to break the gaze only to find herself focused on his lips, firm, strong and such a defined shape. She’d never studied the shape of a man’s lips before, the contours, never wanted to touch, to smooth her fingers over a mouth.

Enough. There was going to be no clicking of any kind going on. ‘So,’ she said. ‘I guess it’s time to circulate.’

‘To enter the fray,’ he said in echo of her earlier words.

‘Yes.’ Reluctance gripped her and without meaning to she sighed. Once again she wished she had a camera with her to render her invisible.

‘You have no need to be nervous.’ The nerves she’d alluded to, the nerves that had completely vanished during their conversation. Replaced by the cartwheel of her hormones, the spark of attraction and the sparkle of an interesting conversation with an undercurrent of simmer. A happy distraction indeed.

‘I think I do. There are a lot of people out there with a preconceived opinion of me, who have already made judgement.’ Her voice was imbued with a hint of bitterness as she scanned the room. Recalled the number of people who had already avoided her emails and calls.

‘Does it matter?’ His tone was serious now. ‘Surely the only people whose opinions matter are the people you care about. And who care about you.’

In theory that held good, but, ‘You’re right. I know you are, but when I see the pity or the judgement in people’s faces I...’

‘Crumble inside a little?’ he offered.

‘Yes.’ How did Luca know? And how on earth had this conversation with a stranger got so personal? The idea sent unease through her—no way should she be sharing on a personal level with a complete stranger, even if he was Ava’s half-brother. In this case especially because he was Ava’ s half-brother.

‘When you feel like that you need to remember it is their problem, not yours. Show them they are wrong. Wrong to pity you and wrong in their judgement.’ There was a resonance in his voice and a shadow crossed his features. Then, as if he too sensed that the conversation had edged into deep waters, he shrugged and there came that smile again. ‘It also helps to imagine the people you are most worried about making silly faces or dressed in absurd costumes. Or in embarrassing situations.’

‘Do you do that?’

‘Absolutely.’

Now she chuckled. ‘Is that what you are going to do now?’ It sounded as if he spoke from experience, yet she couldn’t imagine this man being worried by anyone.

‘If need be, absolutely. I am sure there are plenty of people out there who have judged me too, as the evil villain, the usurper of the Dolci inheritance.’

‘Ava doesn’t believe that.’ She knew her best friend didn’t hold Luca to blame at all.

Tags: Nina Milne Billionaire Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net