Free Da Silva's Mistress by Tina Duncan Page A

half-serious, half-not.
    ‘Don’t worry,’ he soothed. ‘I’ll check on her.’
    He ended the call with another instruction for her to call him if there was any news, phrasing it carefully so Morgan wouldn’t guess what he was talking about.
    He slid the phone back into his pocket. ‘Are you ready to go?’
    As they stepped into the hallway Morgan felt as if her head would never stop spinning. Everything—Joseph’s illness and her agreement to become Luca’s mistress—had happened so fast she was still trying to come to terms with it.
    But if she’d had any doubts that she’d made the right choice, then listening in on Luca’s conversation with Stefania had erased them.
    Her decision had already paid off.
    She now knew Joseph was suffering from high blood pressure and had had a heart attack. She had also learned the prognosis was good, although a second opinion was being sought.
    Luca handed her into the same big dark car that had collected her the previous day.
    Gino was behind the wheel.
    ‘Good afternoon, Gino,’ Morgan said.
    His head turned so that his eyes met hers in the rear vision mirror. ‘Good afternoon, Ms Marshall,’ he said, putting the car in gear and pulling smoothly into traffic.
    Her jaw dropped halfway to the ground when sherealised he’d spoken in almost perfect English, burred only slightly with an Italian accent.
    ‘You speak English,’ she accused the back of his head.
    ‘Yes,’ he said, nodding.
    Heat rushed into her cheeks as she remembered what she’d said about him the previous day. ‘Gino…’
    He glanced in the mirror. ‘Yes, Ms Marshall?’
    ‘What I said yesterday…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it,’ she said awkwardly.
    He shrugged. ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ve been called worse.’
    ‘Still, I shouldn’t have said it.’
    ‘Forget it. I have.’
    She turned and found Luca staring at her with an odd expression on his face. ‘What?’ she asked.
    He was studying her hard, as if she were a particularly interesting insect. ‘Most people treat Gino as if he’s invisible.’
    She folded her hands in her lap. ‘Then they’re not very polite.’
    As they drove through the busy London streets Morgan was very aware of Luca sitting beside her. The clean male smell of him mixed with the fragrant aroma of the leather seats. Every time they turned a corner his thigh brushed hers and a shot of electricity fired through her system. By the time Gino pulled into the zoo car park she could hardly wait to get out.
    Several hours later, Morgan tugged on Luca’s shirtsleeve. ‘Come on, Luca. You can’t stand here watching Spike all day.’
    Spike was the leader of the pack of lions at London Zoo. Luca had taken one look and had been captivated.They’d been watching the big cats’ antics for well over an hour now.
    Well, if she were honest, Luca had been watching the lions and she had been watching him.
    Staring at his profile.
    Watching the flash of his smile when Spike did something he liked.
    For the last five minutes, however, she’d been looking backwards and forwards between them. It had been a sobering moment when she’d realised just how much they had in common.
    Strength.
    Pride.
    And a steely determination to protect their own.
    Much to her shame, Morgan realised that not once—until now—had she looked at their situation from Luca’s point of view. She’d been so concerned about her own position—and Joseph’s—that she hadn’t given a thought to how their relationship must look to Luca.
    It was public knowledge that Luca and his sister were close. And Joseph had told her just how protective Luca was of Stefania—to the point of being over-protective. She’d also heard it for herself when she’d listened to Luca’s end of his telephone conversation with Stefania.
    Luca thought she was some husband-stealing trollop trying to break up his sister’s marriage. Of course he was going to do something about it; he wasn’t the kind of man to sit back