Read Online The Secret She Can't Hide by India Grey - Free Book Online
Authors: India Grey
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car, it certainly wasn‘t going to come out of her own pocket.
‗Very well, mademoiselle .‘ The concierge gave a little bow. ‗I am sorry not to have been able to help. If there‘s anything more I can do for you, please don‘t hesitate to call down to Reception.‘
‗Thank you,‘ Kate murmured faintly, shutting the door behind his departing back and leaning against it for a moment while she struggled to control her desolation.
She wanted so much to go home—back to Alexander. Dominic had given them all a week off to enjoy the considerable luxury of the hotel and explore the city, so their scheduled flight home wasn‘t until Friday. She hadn‘t argued because, she now realised, deep down she‘d secretly hoped that she‘d be with Cristiano.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
She turned round abruptly, gritting her teeth as a crashing wave of homesickness and despair washed over her, not knowing what to do now. Cristiano was at the window. He had pulled the curtain back and was standing by the doors to the balcony, the lurid lights from the square outside casting hollows beneath his cheekbones and making his olive skin look strangely bleached of colour.
‗So, it looks like you‘re not going home after all,‘ he said, without turning round to look at her.
‗You don‘t have to sound so pleased.‘ She hated the bitterness and misery in her tone, but was suddenly too tired to hide them any more. Too tired to pretend.
He dropped the curtain, so his face was suddenly plunged into shadow again.
‗I don‘t want you to run away until we‘ve had a chance to talk.‘
‗What about?‘
Oh, God. For the first time it occurred to her that he might somehow have already found out about Alexander. Nausea rolled through her. She wanted to sink down onto the bed, but knew she‘d feel at a disadvantage with him towering over her, so settled instead for perching on the edge of the dressing table. Her heart was battering against her ribs as he came towards her, and she searched his face for clues.
There were none. Apart from a muscle flickering in his lean, tanned cheek it was very still and completely blank.
‗The night we spent together.‘
She gave an anxious laugh. ‗I don‘t know why. It clearly didn‘t make it onto your list of top ten one-night stands, so unless you need the details to put in some kind of no-holds barred, X-rated autobiography there‘s really not much point in going over it.‘ Nerves were making her talk too much, too fast, and tears stung at the back of her eyes. ‗It‘s funny,‘ she went on. ‗Although on some level I understand that when you sleep with a man who is known throughout the world as a heart-breaking, womanising playboy you can‘t exactly expect flowers and a card on your anniversary, it would at least be nice to think that he‘d recognise you again. Especially after—‘
She stopped, suddenly breathless. An image, suppressed for the last four years, rose to the surface of her mind. The sun rising over the sea, bathing their naked bodies in rosy pink light, painting streaks of gold into his hair while, bleak-faced and rigid, he told her about his past.
‗After what?‘
The man in front of her looked the same—agonisingly, mockingly the same—and yet so different. Tears welled in her eyes and she got sharply to her feet.
‗Forget it.‘ Impatiently she dashed the tears away as she made to move past him, and gave a broken laugh. ‗Oh, but of course you already have—haven‘t you?‘
He gave a low, savage curse. Catching hold of her arm, he pulled her back so that she hit the hard wall of his chest.
‗Yes,‘ he rasped, his face ashen, his eyes like glittering pools of tar. ‗Yes, I bloody well have. I‘ve forgotten everything from the time I got into that car to qualify for the race to the moment I hit the barrier. It‘s lost. Twenty-four hours of nothingness. So that‘s why we need to talk. I want to know what happened.‘
For a long,
‗Very well, mademoiselle .‘ The concierge gave a little bow. ‗I am sorry not to have been able to help. If there‘s anything more I can do for you, please don‘t hesitate to call down to Reception.‘
‗Thank you,‘ Kate murmured faintly, shutting the door behind his departing back and leaning against it for a moment while she struggled to control her desolation.
She wanted so much to go home—back to Alexander. Dominic had given them all a week off to enjoy the considerable luxury of the hotel and explore the city, so their scheduled flight home wasn‘t until Friday. She hadn‘t argued because, she now realised, deep down she‘d secretly hoped that she‘d be with Cristiano.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
She turned round abruptly, gritting her teeth as a crashing wave of homesickness and despair washed over her, not knowing what to do now. Cristiano was at the window. He had pulled the curtain back and was standing by the doors to the balcony, the lurid lights from the square outside casting hollows beneath his cheekbones and making his olive skin look strangely bleached of colour.
‗So, it looks like you‘re not going home after all,‘ he said, without turning round to look at her.
‗You don‘t have to sound so pleased.‘ She hated the bitterness and misery in her tone, but was suddenly too tired to hide them any more. Too tired to pretend.
He dropped the curtain, so his face was suddenly plunged into shadow again.
‗I don‘t want you to run away until we‘ve had a chance to talk.‘
‗What about?‘
Oh, God. For the first time it occurred to her that he might somehow have already found out about Alexander. Nausea rolled through her. She wanted to sink down onto the bed, but knew she‘d feel at a disadvantage with him towering over her, so settled instead for perching on the edge of the dressing table. Her heart was battering against her ribs as he came towards her, and she searched his face for clues.
There were none. Apart from a muscle flickering in his lean, tanned cheek it was very still and completely blank.
‗The night we spent together.‘
She gave an anxious laugh. ‗I don‘t know why. It clearly didn‘t make it onto your list of top ten one-night stands, so unless you need the details to put in some kind of no-holds barred, X-rated autobiography there‘s really not much point in going over it.‘ Nerves were making her talk too much, too fast, and tears stung at the back of her eyes. ‗It‘s funny,‘ she went on. ‗Although on some level I understand that when you sleep with a man who is known throughout the world as a heart-breaking, womanising playboy you can‘t exactly expect flowers and a card on your anniversary, it would at least be nice to think that he‘d recognise you again. Especially after—‘
She stopped, suddenly breathless. An image, suppressed for the last four years, rose to the surface of her mind. The sun rising over the sea, bathing their naked bodies in rosy pink light, painting streaks of gold into his hair while, bleak-faced and rigid, he told her about his past.
‗After what?‘
The man in front of her looked the same—agonisingly, mockingly the same—and yet so different. Tears welled in her eyes and she got sharply to her feet.
‗Forget it.‘ Impatiently she dashed the tears away as she made to move past him, and gave a broken laugh. ‗Oh, but of course you already have—haven‘t you?‘
He gave a low, savage curse. Catching hold of her arm, he pulled her back so that she hit the hard wall of his chest.
‗Yes,‘ he rasped, his face ashen, his eyes like glittering pools of tar. ‗Yes, I bloody well have. I‘ve forgotten everything from the time I got into that car to qualify for the race to the moment I hit the barrier. It‘s lost. Twenty-four hours of nothingness. So that‘s why we need to talk. I want to know what happened.‘
For a long,
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