Free The Medici Mistress: Nothing and no one would stop him from having her. by Clare Connelly Page B

that.” He spoke with a certainty he didn’t feel. He’d given Annie space, to work out what she wanted, but she’d gone to ground. He’d realized she wasn’t going to come back to him without some further encouragement.
    “I don’t like this. Annie Carlton is just a kid.”
    “She’s twenty five,” Giac interrupted, a hard edge to his voice.
    “And you’re thirty six,” Lincoln persisted. “You’re in the middle of a marriage break up. I don’t feel right setting her up like this.”
    Giac tried a different tact. “We need a lawyer for the Paris trip. Why not Annie?”
    Lincoln frowned. Though he had reservations, he knew better than to set himself at odds with Giacomo Medici. The man always, without fail, always got what he wanted. If he had decided he wanted to ease his loneliness with Annie Carlton, the woman didn’t stand a chance.
    “Fine. I’ll have HR organize it.”
    Giac stood with a nod. Lincoln’s cooperation had never been in doubt. Nonetheless it was a relief to have one less stumbling block in his way.
    * * *
    Annie replaced the receiver slowly, a small, quizzical frown on her face.
    She had not been working on the Paris project at all.
    She’d have to spend the next twenty four hours reading up on the requirements to be fit to go on the trip. Still. She smiled. Paris would be amazing.
    Annie Carlton always arrived prepared. She took her job extremely seriously, and so she sacrificed sleep in the interest of being as prepared as possible for the negotiations ahead.
    But when she arrived at City airport, tired and excited by the opportunity to work on something new, she realized she had missed one vital piece of information.
    She’d failed to check the trip manifest. Had failed to realize that she’d be traveling with the gossipy Donna Mills, the man who ran Amicus, Lincoln Barrett, and the man she’d been dreaming about for over three years. The sinfully sexy, completely heart breaking Giacomo Medici.
    Giac’s eyes locked with hers as she walked slowly through the airport. The sun was only just coming up; the sky tinged with pinks and yellows. Inside, it was a haze of shiny linoleum and fluorescent lights. Despite the earliness of the hour, crowds were milling, assembled at various queue points throughout the terminal.
    And in the midst of it all, Giac. A shiver ran down her spine, and her insides clenched with red hot desire. Everyone else failed to exist, except him, and her, and the powerful sensations throbbing between them.
    She was going to Paris with the man she loved, and it scared the heck out of her.
    CHAPTER SEVEN
    “You’re very adept at your work,” Giac said smoothly, as they rode the elevator at the end of a long day’s negotiations.
    Annie’s heart hadn’t stopped racing. The ten or so coffees she’d drunk to get through the meetings hadn’t helped. Now, at the end of it, adrenalin alone was keeping her on her feet.
    “Thank you,” she murmured, not meeting his eyes. They were alone. For the first time in a week, it was just the two of them, and she didn’t know what to say. She hardly knew how to feel.
    “No, thank you . Without your charm and skill, I’m sure this negotiation could have dragged on many weeks longer.”
    She arched a brow, but still didn’t look at him. “That’s patently untrue. I did nothing except cement the last few details. It’s the team back at the office who worked everything out.”
    “So modest,” he muttered, his voice not quite disguising his frustration.
    She didn’t respond. She needed to be in the safety of her own hotel room. She needed a bath, a cup of tea, and bed. She had no ability to parry verbal spars with Giac at that point in time.
    “You used to be better at taking compliments.”
    She bit back on the urge to tell him she used to be a fool. “I know I’m good at what I do.”
    “Not so modest, then,” he drawled, his deep voice tinged with amusement.
    “I don’t like the idea that women – or anyone,