Page 19 of Awakened in Her Enemy's Palazzo

They probably hadn’t.

‘Plans?’

‘I am meeting with Nic, the estate manager, to discuss—’

‘Fine. I’ll join you.’

Her face fell, alarm widening her eyes and sending her stomach into a sickly dive. He didn’t have to say anything or be objectionable. His presence alone would ruin the casual chat over coffee with Nic, who didn’t patronise her, or make her feel unqualified, or make her stomach quiver.

‘That really won’t be—’

She might as well have saved her breath. He was already moving towards the door.

‘I can be with you...’ A glance at his watch. ‘When? Where?’ he said casually. ‘I’ll be there.’

‘That r-really isn’t—’

He closed down her stuttered protest with a sardonic look. ‘What’s on the agenda?’

‘Agenda?’she parroted. ‘It’s not a board meeting...just a chat and a coffee.’

Although her jangling nerves suggested more coffee would not be a good idea.

He sketched a quick smile and drew a hand down his jaw, drawing her eyes to the dark shadow he hadn’t shaved yet.

‘Fine. I’ll ditch the tie.’

She hadwantedhim to take an interest, and yet now he was the situation seemed more worrying, somehow. But then maybe it was her own antipathy stopping her from viewing this as a good thing, making her suspicious when there was no hidden subtext to read.

She thought there probably was plenty of hidden subtext, but she decided to take a more positive approach. This could be an opportunity to soften Theo’s negativity about his inheritance, appeal to his emotional side.

Hemusthave had some affection for the place where he had grown up, she reasoned. If she could only reawaken those feelings...

His hand on the wall beside the door, he felt his cynical amusement at the panic written on her face become curiosity as panic faded into resolve.

Catching himself wondering what had put it there, he levered himself off the wall. He was really not interested in her thought processes, or what made her tick...what thoughts were going on in that beautiful head.

He had already admitted that their chemistry—animal attraction, sex, whatever you liked to call it—made total indifference impossible, but he was not about to look beyond the beautiful surface.

Grace arrived at Nic’s office before Theo, but only by moments. There was no chance for her to explain to Nic her idea of playing the nostalgia card before Theo walked in, his hair still wet from the shower, his chiselled jaw clean. Along with the chip on his shoulder he seemed to be carrying an almost electrical charge.

Her relief that he was wearing more clothes only lasted a fraction of a second. He was still more handsome than any man had a right to be. From under the sweep of her lashes she took in the details of his outfit: pale blue poplin shirt and grey jeans, a dark belt securing them over narrow hips. He was minus the tie, as promised, and the small vee of deep gold skin at the base of his throat made her stomach muscles quiver.

Before she could gather herself enough to react, Nic was stepping past her, his hand outstretched and a grin pulling his mouth upwards.

‘Nico?’ Smiling, Theo was moving forward. ‘I thought it couldn’t be you... The only Nic I know would be as far away from here as he could get!’

Nic clasped the hand extended to him and responded in a burst of warm, fluid Italian before sliding seamlessly back into English.

Grace’s mouth opened as she watched the two men exchange a handshake and a masculine thump on the back. Her indignation grew as she watched them—she had been put the other side of the conspiratorial divide.

‘I was going to be a rock star, Theo, but things change—people change.’

‘Not everything,’ Theo said, his face shuttering.

‘When Dad got ill I came back...initially to help out.’

‘And you stayed?’

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