A Sicilian Husband - Kate Walker [33]
‘So I invited you up for coffee—and you thought that you were in there. That I was yours for the cost of a posh meal and an after-dinner brandy?’
‘And you weren’t?’ he came back at her with the deadly swiftness of a striking snake as his dark eyes dropped to the tray, resting thoughtfully on the still-full glasses.
‘No! No, I wasn’t!’
He might have thought she had come cheap, but he couldn’t be more wrong. Last night had cost her much, much more than he imagined, and she was only just beginning to realise how expensive it had actually been. But she was damned if she was going to let him see the payment she had made to him in her emotions.
In her heart.
‘I’m not that cheap!’
‘Forgive me if I beg to differ…’
His tone spoke of anything but an apology.
‘But neither of us was exactly particular last night. We both saw an opportunity and went for it.’
An opportunity for a quick lay. Terrie didn’t know which hurt most. The implication that she hadn’t been exactly picky about choosing him. Or the reverse—that if he had had more choice, he might not have wanted to be with her.
But she had been available. Oh, so available. She had been totally bowled over by him and as such had been easy prey for him to take that ‘opportunity’ he had spoken of.
‘Well, in that case…’
Deliberately she kept her voice quiet, calm, hiding the true turmoil of her feelings behind a careful, apparently controlled mask.
‘You must be sorry that you didn’t have your brandy last night. Something of a waste, don’t you think?’
Just as she had planned, hoped, his gaze went to the tray, then back up to her face, a faint frown drawing those straight black brows close together.
And somehow she managed to force a bright, vivid and totally fake smile right into the darkness of his eyes. One so brilliant that it totally distracted him from just what her hand was doing.
‘Perhaps you’d like to have it now?’
The glass was in her grip. She brought it up and out, swiftly, tossing the contents straight into Gio’s watchful, puzzled face.
‘Enjoy!’ she laughed, almost meaning the amusement as she watched him gasp and splutter, wiping the liquid from his face. ‘Oh, and while you’re at it—you paid for this one too!’
Before he had recovered, the second brandy had followed the first, hitting his chest this time and soaking rapidly into the fine linen of his shirt.
‘Dannazione!’ Gio swore savagely, still wiping the back of his hand across his face, blinking the stinging liquid from his eyes. ‘You—’
‘Oh, spare me the insults!’ Terrie broke in furiously, the pain and the bitterness welling up and overflowing like lava down the sides of a volcano, impossible to stop. ‘We both know what you think of me and I don’t care to hear it again! We both made a mistake—a big mistake—coming together last night. If I had my time again then believe me I’d have done things totally differently.’
If she’d known what was coming then she’d have run, in the opposite direction, as far and as fast as she could.
‘We both would,’ Gio inserted drily, uncannily seeming to sense her thoughts.
‘Well, we can’t put the clock back, it’s too late for that. But I’d prefer it if you’d go—right now…’
‘Teresa…’
She hadn’t expected him to protest and it shook her, weakening her so that the tears she had managed to fight against until now flooded her eyes and threatened to spill over.
‘Right now!’ she flung at him, hiding desperation behind fury. ‘I want you to go—get out—leave me in peace.’
Still he hesitated, and she couldn’t bear it. She wanted to be left totally alone, to hide and lick her wounds in private. And she was determined that there was no way she was going to break down in front of him.
‘Not had enough?’ she asked, her voice low and deadly with warning. ‘There’s always the coffee…’
Her hand had actually reached for the coffee-pot, was curling round the handle, when Gio finally decided to move. Throwing up his hands and muttering something dark and vicious in incomprehensible Italian, he whirled away from her,