Free The Italian's One-Night Love-Child by Cathy Williams Page B

primitive description to his wandering thoughts, to take her again and then leave her, but when the time was right and at his say-so.
    He surfaced from his unexpectedly pleasant thoughts to see her perched forward on the edge of her chair, staring at him intently.
    ‘Did you hear me?’
    Cristiano frowned. ‘Repeat,’ he commanded. ‘My mind was elsewhere.’
    Bethany could only assume that having given her the full force of his fury he was already thinking about leaving, getting back to his wonderful, privileged life—the same wonderful, privileged life he had mistakenly assumed she knew all about.
    And, God, she was so tempted to let him walk out of the door but then…how would she explain that to her parents? The web of deceit which she had begun weaving the minute she had accepted his dinner invitation all those months ago wrapped a little tighter around her.
    She was also discovering that the thought of seeing him for the last time again was already beginning to dig its claws in. She mentally stuck that inappropriate reaction into a box in her head and firmly taped it down.
    ‘I was saying that there are one or two things that I need to tell you before Mum and Dad come back down.’
    Cristiano’s antennae immediately went onto red alert.
    ‘You mean aside from explaining how it is that your parents seemed to know who I was without any introductions having to be made?’
    ‘I…um…told them about you.’
    ‘Really. And what exactly did you say? I’m keen to know, considering your amazing capacity for stretching the truth.’ His eyes drifted lazily from her flushed face down to her breasts—breasts which he had known intimately, had tasted and luxuriated in. It made no difference that they were well hidden under the capacious jumper. His memory was more than up to supplying an image of the luscious body beneath it.
    Bethany’s brain threatened to shut down. ‘I told them…you know…that we met while I was out in Italy…’
    ‘Oh, so they knew that you were in Italy. That’s a promising start. Did they know that you were house-sitting for a random stranger whom you had decided to impersonate?’
    ‘Yes, they knew that I was house-sitting!’
    ‘Lose the pious tone, Bethany. It doesn’t suit you. And I take it that you didn’t breathe a word about your charade of being one Ms Amelia Doni…? Hmm…?’
    Bethany could feel the slight dampness of perspiration on the palms of her hands, but she kept them well covered in the sleeves of her jumper. ‘No,’ she admitted.
    ‘Didn’t think so. Your parents didn’t strike me as the sort of people who would find it an amusing anecdote. So what exactly did you tell them about me?’
    ‘Right. Okay.’ Bethany cleared her throat and braced herself. ‘I know you probably think it a bit peculiar that I would even mention you, considering things didn’t exactly end well.’
    ‘Understatement of the year, don’t you think?’
    ‘But they’re very moral people. Great believers in the sanctity of relationships…’
    ‘Obviously a trait that they didn’t pass on to you, then.’
    ‘You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?’
    ‘Any reason why I should?’
    ‘I just don’t think that this is such a great time for us to be arguing.’ Her eyes flicked towards the door but her parents were still safely upstairs. Knowing them as well as she did, they would be taking their time, giving her time to be alone with Cristiano. She felt faint when she thought about the length, breadth and width of her crazy deception.
    ‘What have the moral values of your parents got to do with anything?’ Cristiano suddenly asked. Astute at reading all situations, two and two in this case was not adding up to four. Even for Bethany, downright liar, possible thief, massive opportunist and altogether unpredictable entity, there were strands of her conversation that were just not adding up to anything he could catch hold of.
    ‘Can I just say that I never, ever