Read Online Gianni's Pride by Kim Lawrence - Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t a dog, it was a cute kid. At least on this occasion the kid wasn’t stolen. She glanced at her watch and frowned.
He’s here and you’ll just have to work with it, Mirrie
, she told herself, adopting a brisk expression as she folded the damp tea towel. Her expression morphed into annoyance as she registered the time. Another hour and Joe would be here. She glanced down at her soiled shirt, her lips moving in a moue of distaste. She needed to change and move her things, which were still in the bedroom adjoining Liam’s.
    Feeling an extreme reluctance to enter the room while Gianni was liable to walk in any moment, she chewed the plump curve of her lower lip, wondering if she should clear out her stuff now or wait until he had finished settling Liam.
    How much longer was he going to be?
    A bang on the ceiling above followed by the unmistakable sound of small running footsteps and childish laughter overlaid by a deeper base tone suggested that the answer was not any time soon.
    She struggled to feel any sympathy for the man who was having trouble persuading his son it was time to go to bed. Even though she was not normally a person who took pleasure from the trials of others, Miranda did feel a small—all right, quite large—stab of ‘I told you so’ satisfaction … Only she hadn’t had the chance to tell him anything—he had cut her off at the knees when she had dared to offer advice.
    When Miranda entered the bedroom she had used the previous night a few minutes later, the laughter had been replaced by sobs, so loud and inconsolable she gave a grimace of sympathy. Ashamed of her previous spite, she even felt a flash of admiration. She couldn’t hear what Gianni was saying, butshe was able to recognise the even-tempered soothing quality in his deep voice.
    She stood for a moment listening to the soft rumble. There was no denying Gianni did have a particularly attractive voice, deep accented and smoky. She wondered if he’d ever thought of getting voice-over work. With his ability to make the most innocent of comments sound like an indecent proposal he’d never be short of work …
Or is that me hearing what I want to?
    The additional thought sent a sliver of shocked alarm through Miranda as she shook her head in a firm negative motion. The thought that she’d want a man like him to proposition her was laughable!
    Because he’s got nothing going for him beside a beautiful face, a perfect body and bucketloads of sex appeal
.
    She gave a tiny sigh of defeat … All right, she was not totally immune to his charms, when he chose to be charming, but he didn’t always choose to be so. In fact he could be totally obnoxious!
    An image of the bold bronzed features lingering stubbornly in her head, she tiptoed over to the wardrobe, her furtive technique more instinct than necessity. She could have blown a bugle and nobody would have heard her above the battle royal going on in the next room.
    Flinging open the wardrobe door, she grabbed the first thing that came to hand. It happened to be the only skirt she had packed. Scrunching it carelessly into a ball, she dashed over to the big scrubbed pine chest. She slid open one of the big heavy drawers, wincing as it made a loud squeaking sound, and snatched up the folded blouse that lay on top.
    Objective achieved, she made a breathless dash to the bathroom where behind the locked door she performed a lightning change. Peeling off her coffee-soaked jeans and tee shirt, she stuffed them with a grimace of distaste into thelinen hamper. Resisting the lure of the shower, she fought her way into the clean clothes and glanced at herself in the mirror.
    Amazingly the things she had grabbed didn’t clash. The pale apple-green of the silky sleeveless top with the loose cowl neck actually picked out a contrasting darker green in the swirly pattern of the long skirt that swished against her bare legs as she moved.
    Back in the bedroom Miranda worked quickly, first sweeping all