Free Castellano's Mistress of Revenge by Melanie Milburne Page B

business.’
    He gave her a smouldering look. ‘Soon will be, cara . We have a deal, remember?’
    Ava crossed her legs and her arms, but even so her body still felt as if it had been set alight with longing. Just thinking about him making love to her made her skin tingle from the base of her spine to the roots of her hair. ‘You can hardly force yourself on me,’ she pointed out.
    He gave her a knowing smile. ‘I don’t think there will be any chance of that being an issue for tworeasons. The first is I do not believe in forcing a woman to have sex with me, and the second is you are just as attracted to me as I am to you. That is one thing that hasn’t changed in the five years we have been apart.’
    Ava shifted agitatedly in her chair. ‘You’re imagining it. I hate you. I detest every minute I have to spend with you.’
    His mouth curved upwards into a lazy smile. ‘Then perhaps the sooner we make love and get it over with the better, sì ? Who knows? Perhaps I will be bored by you within a week or two.’
    â€˜I wish,’ she muttered.
    He reached across the table and took her wrist in his hand, his fingers overlapping her fragile form, reminding her yet again of how outclassed she was in trying to win a single battle with him, let alone the war. His eyes burned as they held hers, searing her to the core. ‘I think it’s time you stopped playing games with me, Ava,’ he said. ‘I know what you are doing. All those little secrets and lies are for a purpose, are they not?’
    Ava gritted her teeth as she pulled out of his hold. ‘I am not playing any games. If anyone is guilty of that it is you, blackmailing me back into your life the way you have.’
    He gave her a contemptuous look as he rose from the table. ‘You can leave any minute you wish, Ava,’ he said. ‘But if you go you will not be taking a penny or a single possession with you. All you will be taking is a folder full of bills your husband left unpaid. Do I make myself clear?’
    She sat fuming at him, stubbornly refusing toanswer, hating him with such intensity she was practically shaking all over with it.
    â€˜I said, do I make myself clear?’ he barked at her.
    Ava rose to her feet in one stiff, angry movement which toppled her chair backwards onto the terrace tiles. ‘Don’t you dare raise your voice at me!’ she said, glaring at him.
    Celeste came running at the sound of the chair crashing to the ground, but Marc sent her away with a look that would have stopped an express train in its tracks.
    He turned back to Ava once the housemaid had scuttled away, his eyes still flashing their ire. ‘This is not how I wish our relationship to be conducted,’ he said, lowering his voice with an obvious effort. ‘You will learn respect if I have to spend every hour of every day teaching you.’
    Ava curled her top lip at him, even though she knew it was likely to stoke his anger towards her. ‘How is our relationship going to be conducted, then?’ she asked. ‘With you insulting me at every turn, calling me every vilifying name you can think of as if you’ve never put a foot wrong in your life. Your hypocrisy is nauseating. You’ve made plenty of mistakes, Marc. The difference is you won’t admit to them.’
    When she moved past him to leave the terrace Marc let her go without a word. He picked up the lukewarm coffee and took a sip, frowning heavily as he looked at the sparkling blue water of the ocean below.

CHAPTER FOUR
    A VA spent the rest of the morning in her room, filling in time by sorting through her wardrobe, a task that she could just as easily have assigned to Celeste, but she wanted the mental space of a menial activity to calm her restive mind.
    When she came downstairs for a light lunch Celeste informed her Marc had left the villa and would not be back until dinner. Ava felt her tense shoulders and