Read Online Under the Italian's Command by Susan Stephens - Free Book Online Page B

something had gone well. She handed Ronan a glass of wine.
     
    ‘We had to throw it down,’ Lorenzo said solemnly, staring out of the window.
     
    ‘Into the dumper?’ Carly exclaimed, glancing in the same direction and then at the empty plate. But even as she gasped she was sure she saw Lorenzo exchange one of his wicked grins with Ronan. As she stood there the two men clinked their glasses, and with gusto the ice cubes collided.
     
    ‘Ice?’ Lorenzo’s stare didn’t so much burn into her as presage Armageddon.
     
    Ronan tried to soften the situation, suggesting pleasantly, ‘Aren’t you going to join us, Carly ?’
     
    He turned to look at his friend as a stab of something unaccustomed took him by surprise. It wasn’t jealousy, of course, more head-of-the-herd instinct. Well, Ronan was no angel, and it was up to him to defend his pupil. ‘My apologies, Carly ,’ he said sternly. ‘Allow me to present Ronan O’Connor, a friend of mine and a trader in futures. Ronan, this is my pupil, Carly Tate…’
     
    Ronan gave Carly a sympathetic look as he stood to shake her hand.
     
    ‘We’re discussing the possibility of extending the Unicorn scholarship to the City,’ Lorenzo explained to Carly . ‘Would you care to join us?’
     
    Sit between them while they drank Lorenzo’s expensive wine, which she had watered down with ice cubes? No, thank you! It was time to head for the badlands away from Lorenzo’s accusing stare!
     
    She didn’t want to brood in her bedroom either, Carly realised , not with Lorenzo in her head darkly mocking. She was going to dress up, go out, and show him!
     
    After making a somewhat feeble excuse about leaving the men to it, she went to her room to get ready. Faded jeans wouldn’t cut it, and so she ditched them in favour of a black spangled top from a charity shop, along with a short denim skirt from the same place. And then, because she’d always known they’d come in useful, she unpacked the killer heels she’d bought at the sale.
     
    Lorenzo would never guess it was all a sham. The tip tap of heels on a laminate floor would tell him everything she wanted him to know. She was a sophisticated city girl in full control of her life.
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    THE BAR CARLY was heading for was popular with young city types, and tonight it seemed busier than ever. Odd for midweek, but perhaps not when you considered that this was the lead up to Christmas…
     
    Peering in through the tinted windows, she felt daunted. She had only been for a drink in a crowd before. She tried to identify a free table before taking the plunge, but then a few spots of rain hit her in the face, forcing her to act.
     
    Noise and warmth hit her as she walked inside. An earnest young man in designer jeans and a smart black top came towards her right away. ‘Ah, good,’ he said, as if he had been expecting her. ‘You’re just in time.’ Without any explanation he grabbed her elbow and started steering her through the throng. She was about to protest he’d got the wrong person, but then she noticed he was leading her towards an empty table. At least she’d get the chance to sit down and read her book. Buzzy ? The place was heaving.
     
    At least this wasn’t Lorenzo’s type of place, Carly consoled herself, pulling out her novel. But as she tried to read Lorenzo’s face replaced the cover, the first page, the second, and the—Slamming the book shut, she tried to attract a waiter. This was an emergency! What she needed was coffee: hot, sweet and strong.
     
     
     
    Lorenzo made coffee and then settled down with Ronan to chat about old times, but he kept thinking about Carly and an image of her alone and unprotected in the city sharpened in his mind.
     
    He’d caught sight of her as she click-clacked past the door, and she’d been dressed up by Carly’s standards. Surely he’d have heard on the chambers grapevine if there’d been a party, which left a meeting in a bar or in a