Free Renaissance Man by Unknown Page A

not lack
    for female companionship.
    So why, she wondered again later as she dressed with more than her usual care, had she always assumed him to be
    an isolated, even lonely man from his letters? He himself had confirmed this.
    She chose a full-sleeved burgundy velvet dinner dress that fell below her knee. The wide, romantic sleeves were
    caught in narrow cuffs stitched in gold. A metallic gold sash wrapped her waist, gently emphasizing her slenderness.
    The V-neck accented the simple gold chain at her throat, and she concluded the gold touches with a clip that held her
    softly folded hair. Battista would have liked the outfit Catching sight of herself in the mirror, Alina winced ruefully as
    she remembered Jared’s comments on her clothes the night before: barely restrained opulence.
    But when she opened the door to him later she was fiercely glad she had chosen the burgundy velvet. Nothing
    less would have done justice to her date for the evening.
    Jared’s basically conservative taste was evident in the fine, dark material of his suit, but the outfit had the sleek,
    close-fitting look of Italian design. It emphasized his lean, rangy strength so well she knew it must have been
    handmade. A subtly striped shirt and coolly marked silk tie also had that European look and fit The cocoa dark hair
    was still damp and carefully combed and Alina had to fight a horrifying urge to ruffle it with her amber-tipped nails.
    The thought brought a flush to her cheeks, which stayed there as she saw his slow smile of appreciation. There was
    no denying they were thoroughly pleased with each other.
    „Both of us may have been reading a little too much Italian Renaissance history,“ she said lightly to break the
    thread of sensual tension that hung in the air between them.
    „On us it looks good.“ Jared chuckled, handing her into the black car. „Aren’t you going to ask me where we’re
    going? Santa Barbara is, after all, your turf. I’d have thought you’d be worrying about an outsider not knowing where
    to take you for dinner.“
    „Frankly I hadn’t thought about it,“ she admitted, savoring the close intimacy which enveloped the small cockpit
    as he slid in beside her. „You would have asked for suggestions if you’d wanted them.“
    „You know me so well,“ he murmured lightly, switching on the ignition.
    She started to make a flippant reply, found herself hesitating, and said instead with a kind of wonder, „Sometimes I
    think I do. It’s strange, isn’t it? This afternoon I felt as if we’d known each other for – “
    „A good three months?“ He grinned.
    Alina laughed and the mood of the evening was set.
    He took her to the elegant lounge and dining room of an old-world hotel by the sea. As with almost everything else
    in Santa Barbara, the architecture was unmistakably Spanish, with cool vistas opening onto charming gardens. The
    cuisine and service, however, were continental. After a pleasant discussion of the possibilities on the menu, they
    settled on spinach salad with a sizzling hot dressing, scallops mousseline accompanied by paper-thin slices of smoked
    salmon and sauteed cucumbers, and a kiwi-fruit tart for dessert The wine was a pale Riesling from one of the exotic
    little boutique wineries of Northern California.
    The candlelight gleamed on the snowy tablecloth and polished the silver. It threw heavy, mysterious shadows on
    Alina’s burgundy velvet and burnished her gold jewelry. And it seemed to her that Jared’s eyes turned more and more
    into emeralds every time he looked at her.
    „Tell me,“ she asked midway through the scallops mousseline, „how did you come by your interest in Renaissance
    military history? A holdover from your college years?“
    „I’m afraid there wasn’t anything to be held over from my college years,“ he said quietly. „I went to work straight
    out of high school.“
    Alina, who hadn’t bothered to date a man in years who didn’t share her academic