‘No!’ she blurted, leaning forward in her seat and shouting. ‘We’re here!’ The man ignored her. She turned to round to face Draco. ‘Is he deaf?’
‘I think you mean hearing-impaired, cara, and he wasn’t deaf, but after you yelled down his ear like that it’s certainly possible. There is parking around the rear.’
‘Oh. Sorry.’
The car pulled into one of the parking spaces Draco had referred to and came to a standstill. Draco said something in Italian to the driver, who laughed.
‘Are you talking about me?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘Not everything is about you, cara. Do you really want to eat?’
Eve stared at him. ‘Wasn’t that the idea?’
He looked at her for a moment and then gave one of his inimitable shrugs. ‘It is an option certainly.’ This time when he spoke to the driver it was in English. ‘Thank you, Carl, we’ll get a cab back.’
The restaurant was busy; people were waiting for tables. Eve felt relief that there was absolutely no way they were going to get one.
CHAPTER NINE
FIVE MINUTES LATER they were being shown to their table by an attentive Italian waiter who at Draco’s request conversed in English.
‘In case you thought we were talking about you.’
‘Very funny. Is that man really your driver…?’
Draco looked at her curiously. ‘Carl…? What do you think he is?’
‘A bodyguard?’
Draco’s throaty laugh caused several heads to turn. She covered her glass with her hand. ‘I’m working.’
‘It’s your birthday.’
The battle was short, as the constant bickering was tiring. It might be better, she decided, to save her energy for the important points…and anyway a glass of wine might help soothe her jangling nerves.
She tipped her head. ‘All right, just a small one.’ Actually there were worse ways to spend your birthday than sitting in a really good restaurant with a man whom every woman in the room had stared at when he walked in, though she imagined that the novelty would wear thin pretty quickly and it might even cause the odd jealous twinge to be with a man so universally lusted after. She angled a glance at his face. Was he really as oblivious as he seemed to all the lustful stares…?
‘No, Carl is my driver.’
‘So you don’t have a bodyguard?’ she probed, unable to hide her curiosity.
‘The best sort of security is the sort people don’t see.’
She put down her fork and leaned back in her seat, cradling her glass. ‘That’s not an answer.’
His response to her indignation was a slow, lazy grin. ‘It is the only one I am giving.’ He sat back in his chair and watched her make serious inroads into the rustic pasta dish she had chosen.
‘This is really good.’ Eve took another sip of her wine, determined to make it last. She glanced at his plate. ‘Steak is a bit safe.’ He had only eaten half of it. ‘How did we get this table anyway?’