The Italian's Pregnant Mistress(10)

'Smells good.'

'Angelo … ' She paused and turned around to look at him. 'We had our  chit-chat three days ago. And we had our serious talk about the menus  today. So please spare me the polite conversation.' He obviously hadn't  had time to completely change but the formal shirt had been replaced by a  rugby style sweatshirt. He looked devastating. Too devastating for  someone whose will-power had a tendency to flag whenever he was around.  She could almost fill her nostrils with his clean, manly scent when she  breathed in.

'Stop acting like a child, Francesca. There's nothing wrong with being  polite. You seem to forget that I didn't purposefully seek you out.'

Francesca didn't reply. She stalked into the kitchen, looked at the  mushroom omelette with distaste and made herself eat some of it while  she waited for the kettle to boil.                       
       
           



       

When he sat opposite her, she resisted the temptation to tuck her knees  to one side in case she touched him. Crazy! They had touched each other  with hunger three years ago and yet now she couldn't bear to think of  herself reacting to any inadvertent physical contact.

'I confess I was curious to meet your boyfriend. He wasn't what I was expecting.'

Francesca shrugged and pushed her plate to one side. 'What you were or  weren't expecting is none of my business.' She made him his coffee, only  belatedly realising that she had remembered how he took it. Strong,  black, one sugar, just a level teaspoon. 'There's no need for you to  apologise about your fiancée. It's easy to get a bit light-headed if you  drink wine at that hour of the evening, before there's any food in your  stomach. Was she pleased with what Jack and I had in mind for the meal?  I hope so because last-minute changes are very difficult to  accommodate.'

Angelo watched as she busied herself, tidying away things from the  kitchen counter, dumping dirty dishes in the sink, doing anything to  avoid looking at him. Talking about anything but what he wanted to talk  about-her partner. Jack was no ex-model, but they looked good together,  as though they belonged, and that had got to him. It enraged him that  this woman could still affect him after all these absent years and after  the way she had walked away from their relationship.

He had dropped Georgina off, returned to his flat, semi-changed, and  decided that he was old enough and experienced enough not to allow his  emotions to burst through their restraints. Somehow, though, he had  found himself back at his car, had found himself punching in that  address on the business card into the Satellite Navigation finder in his  car, driving to her house.

'After years mixing with the glamorous people in the modelling world, I  was a little surprised to find that your lover is … so … shall we say  unapologetically lacking in polish?'

Francesca opened her mouth to refute the assumption that Jack was her lover, and shut it.

'Maybe I find it refreshing to be with someone who isn't impressed by what people do for a living or how much money they earn.'

'Are you implying that I was?'

'I'm not implying anything.' But he was. Would he really have given her  the time of day if she had been a checkout girl in a supermarket? And  wasn't it telling that he had ended up with a woman whose pedigree would  be a credit to him?

'How long have you known him?'

'A while.'

'A while being … ?'

'Being none of your business, Angelo. In fact, my life is none of your  business. I can't take away the fact that we were once an item, but that  was then and this is now.' She was leaning against the sink, arms  folded, every muscle tense.

'Which doesn't mean that I don't still have your interests at heart.' He  liked the sound of that. Liked the way it made him rise above the  pettiness of jealousy into the higher realms of magnanimity.

Francesca snorted with open disbelief. 'And how do you work that one  out, Angelo? How have you gone from wanting to settle old scores to  caring about my personal welfare?'

'I admit when I first saw you it brought a lot of old feelings out into  the open. I am only human, after all,' Angelo drawled. 'But since then  I've realised that I owe it to you to be honest and I honestly cannot  see what you find stimulating about him.'

'And that's why you came? Because you're big-hearted and you just wanted  to express concern about my choice of partner?' She looked at him  resentfully, not liking the way he had come into her house and taken it  over. 'I love Jack,' she said truthfully. 'We work together and we get  along well.' She shrugged. 'It doesn't bother me that he's  unapologetically lacking in polish, as you put it. Actually, I think  it's pretty superficial to judge someone on their appearance. It's  what's underneath that counts. But I don't suppose you would agree with  that.' She knew that this was a pointless conversation. She knew that  she should be as polite but as distant as she could be with him, remind  herself that he was a man due to be married to a woman he was in love  with. But seeing him after all this time out of the blue had turned her  world upside down and she could feel herself hurtling towards an  argument, any argument.

'Because I'm such a superficial person?' He shot her a tight, cold  smile. 'I don't remember you accusing me of that particular trait three  years ago.'

'You went out with a model,' Francesca retorted. 'That says it all.'                       
       
           



       

'In other words, you consider yourself to have been superficial and shallow then. Is that it?'

'I was glamorous and you went for the glamour.'

'And your boyfriend didn't? Look in the mirror, Francesca. You might no  longer dress in skimpy designer outfits and strut down catwalks, but  you've still got the same face and the same body. You might think that  packing in the modelling job and going down the sensible career route  has suddenly turned you into Ms Averagely Good-Looking whose mind turns  men's heads, but let me assure you that the way you look is still going  to be what ropes them in.' He allowed the insult time to ferment before  going on. 'And, once you've roped them in, who knows how long the  attraction will last? You cannot have failed to notice that your lover  was paying more attention than was strictly polite to my fiancée … '

So that was what this visit was about, she thought. He hadn't come to  apologise about Georgina's slightly tipsy introduction to them, nor had  he come in the role of big-hearted Mr Kind who wanted to save her from  her incompatibility with Jack. He had come because he had noticed Jack's  flirting. It hadn't been obvious, but then Angelo was a man who noticed  the most subtle of nuances.

'That's not true!' Francesca said quickly. 'He's just very friendly, very outgoing, very charming.'

'So outgoing and charming that he barely looked at you once during the  entire time we were sitting at that table?' He laughed as though she had  taken leave of her senses.

'We weren't on a date. Of course he wasn't going to sit and stare at me  with big infatuated eyes!' She could feel patches of bright colour on  her cheeks. 'We were there to do a job and, since we'll probably be  dealing mostly with your fiancée, of course he's going to try and form a  bond, make sure that they can communicate!' Who was she kidding?  Underneath all the perfectly courteous chit-chat, Jack had pulled the  ladies' man out of the drawer. She had detected it in the modulation of  his voice and the husky note of his laughter which, she now reflected,  there had been far too much of. Georgina hadn't cracked any  thigh-slapping jokes and her coy remarks certainly hadn't deserved the  level of amusement they had received.

'You have no idea how difficult it is catering for someone when there's a personality clash,' she forged ahead valiantly.

'And how much easier when your lover can charm and flirt his way into  his client's affections, hmm? Is this a double act you two have  perfected? I imagine it works a treat with the golden oldies too.'

'Don't be sordid,' Francesca said sharply. 'If Jack's manner was out of  place, then I apologise on his behalf. So we're quits. Two apologies  that cancel each other out.' She pushed herself away from the counter  and was heading for the kitchen door when his hand snapped out and  caught her wrist.

The touch galvanized her body into immediate shameful response. She  clenched her fist and it was all she could do to maintain a normal  voice.

'I'm not finished yet,' Angelo said smoothly. He could feel the slight  tremble running through her body straight into his. It was shockingly  energising, and very satisfying. Lover or no lover, he still got to her.

He had to shake himself with the reminder that he was a man engaged to  be married. As quickly as he had grabbed her wrist, he now dropped it.