Read Online Living the Charade by Michelle Conder - Free Book Online Page A

chest.
    ‘Problem with your shirt?’ she said, and could have kicked herself when his mouth curled into a knowing smile.
    ‘Only in as much as I don’t wear a shirt to bed.’
    Miller raised an unconcerned eyebrow. ‘Lucky you wear jeans, then.’
    ‘I don’t.’
    His eyebrow rose to match hers and she turned back to unfold a second blanket she’d picked up from the end of the bed. Flicking it out, she laid it on top of the first.
    ‘I repeat—what are you doing?’
    ‘Making up a bed. What does it look like?’
    Valentino looked bored. ‘If you’re worried about whether or not I’m going to jump your bones now that we’re alone, I doubt I could get through that passion killer you’re wearing with a blowtorch.’
    Miller stood up and moved to the wardrobe, where she had seen a group of pillows on the top shelf. She was glad that he didn’t like her quilt-style dressing gown. It had been a present from her late father, and although the stitching was frayed in places she’d never get rid of it.
    Thinking about her father made her remember the day her parents had told her they were separating. She’d been ten at the time, and while they’d talked about it calmly and rationally Miller had felt sick and confused. Then her mother had driven her from Queensland to Victoria and Miller’s world had gone from cosy and safe to unpredictable and unhappy. A bit like the steely, coiled man feigning nonchalance in the bathroom doorway.
    ‘Or are you worried you won’t be able to keep your hands to yourself after that kiss?’ he asked.
    Miller cast him a withering look and returned to the bed she was setting up on the floor. She wasn’t going to stroke his ego by responding to his provocative comments.
    He’d felt her response to his kiss and it still rankled. Afterwards she’d pretended that she’d been acting for the sake of their audience, but she hadn’t been, and she needed time to process that.
    In the space of a short time the solid foundations of her secure life had become decidedly rickety, and she wasn’t going to add to that by letting her plans for the future be derailed by a sexy-as-sin flamboyant racing car driver who treated life like a game. Because Miller knew life wasn’t a game, and when things went wrong you only had yourself to rely on.
    It had been a tough lesson she had learned hard after being sent to an exclusive girls’ boarding school, where her opinion hadn’t meant half as much as her lack of money. Teenage girls could be cruel, but Miller hadn’t wanted to upset her mother by telling her she was having a terrible time at school. Her mother had needed to work two jobs in order to give Miller a better start in life than she’d had, so Miller had put up with the bullying and the loneliness and made sure not to give her mother any reason to be disappointed in her.
    ‘If you think I’m sleeping on that, Sunshine, you’re mistaken.’
    Valentino’s arrogant assurance was astounding, and Miller stared open-mouthed as he crossed to the bed and placed his watch on the bedside table.
    Fortunately she had already anticipated this problem and, she thought grumpily as she fluffed up her pillows, she hoped the bed had bugs in it.
    ‘Good to know. At least there won’t be any more arguments between us tonight.’
    * * *
    Tino smiled. He couldn’t help it. Which was surprising since he was still irritated as hell by that kiss out in the garden and the way he had become completely lost in it. Drunk on it.
    He’d told himself all day to lay off the little fantasies he’d been having about her mouth, but had he listened? No.
    And what was up with that? If he ignored his instincts on the track as he had out in that garden he’d have bought the farm a long time ago.
    The problem was he had made her off-limits and that had spiked his interest. Stupid. But he wasn’t a man who could resist a challenge. And on top of that she was clearly not fawning over him as other women did once they knew