Кэрол Мортимер – One Christmas Night In...: A Night in the Palace / A Christmas Night to Remember / Texas Tycoon's Christmas Fiancée (страница 18)

‘Don’t wait up for me if you would rather go up to bed,’ he said as he squashed that tempting thought by glancing away on the pretext of rewrapping and securing the towel about his waist.

Her brows rose. ‘I’d like to stay and have coffee too—unless you would rather I didn’t?’

Dmitri’s jaw tightened just at the thought of Lily still being there when he returned. Waiting for him … ‘And what possible reason could I have for not wanting you to stay and enjoy a cup of coffee when you were actually the one to make it?’

‘No reason.’ She shrugged. ‘You just seemed … Well, as if you would rather be alone.’

Dmitri was accustomed to being alone. Claudia still lived at the palazzo with him, yes, but she was a late riser and he was an early one, meaning that they rarely ate breakfast together. Claudia also invariably went out in the evenings—latterly with Felix, he now realised!—and Dmitri was usually out at his office for most of the day and early evening. Meaning that brother and sister lived fairly separate lives for the main part.

In fact, Dmitri did not remember the last time he had spent as much time all at once in the company of a person he was not related to or discussing business with.

Even his physical relationships were usually conducted with the least amount of socialising, and Dmitri had always made a point of never spending the whole night with any of those women. Mutual physical gratification was one thing—eating breakfast or spending the day with any of those women was not something he had ever felt the inclination to do.

So this prolonged time spent with Lily was unusual for him. Something he should perhaps have thought of before he’d had her brought here …

‘If it takes you this long to answer then I was obviously right in my deduction,’ Lily drawled ruefully. ‘I’ll just pour myself a cup of coffee and disappear upstairs with it before you come back—’

‘It only took me so long because I considered the question too ridiculous to necessitate a reply at all,’ Dmitri said.

‘Ridiculous?’ Lily repeated slowly, her gaze wary as she waited expectantly for another one of his now familiar set downs. Nor was she disappointed!

He shrugged bare shoulders. ‘Ridiculous in that I see no relevance to me as to whether you choose to drink your coffee down here or upstairs in your bedroom.’

Ouch!

Lily deliberately stood her ground as she raised blond brows. ‘Now who’s getting cranky?’

She watched as Dmitri closed his eyes briefly, as if by doing so he might shut her out of his awareness altogether —or in the hope that she might just have disappeared by the time he opened them again.

No such luck! ‘I’m still here, Dmitri,’ she taunted gently.

Pale green eyes glittered as he raised his lids to glare across the room at her. ‘So I see.’ He breathed deeply. ‘I will return for my coffee shortly.’ He strode from the kitchen, amazingly still managing to look every inch—every delectable, edible inch—the proud and haughty Count Dmitri Scarletti, despite being barefoot and half naked.

Leaving Lily to make the choice as to whether she should go back upstairs or whether she should stay exactly where she was …

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘SO you decided to take your coffee upstairs with you last night, after all, then?’ Dmitri folded his lean length down into the chair opposite Lily’s at the kitchen table, where she sat at seven-thirty the following morning already eating toast and drinking coffee.

Instantly reminding her that she had taken the cowardly way out the previous evening and not waited for Dmitri to return from dressing …

At the time she had decided that caution was probably the better part of valour—which was a polite way of saying she simply hadn’t trusted herself to spend any more time in his provocatively disturbing company last night.

She placed her coffee cup carefully down on the saucer, continuing to look down at that saucer as she answered him. ‘I was tired after all the travelling and—and excitement of yesterday.’

‘That is one way of putting it, I suppose,’ Dmitri drawled.

Lily glowered as she looked at him properly for the first time this morning, her eyes widening slightly as she saw he was wearing faded blue jeans and a black cashmere sweater that emphasised the width and power of his shoulders. The sleeves of the sweater were pushed up to just below his elbows, revealing the strength of his arms and wrists—

Oh, good Lord—she couldn’t be stupid enough to find even his arms and wrists sexy, could she?

She had expected him to be dressed in readiness for going to his office this morning, to continue his search for Claudia and Felix. Once he had seen Lily safely delivered to a hotel, of course. ‘I was referring to the way the police descended on the palazzo last night.’

‘No doubt a thrilling tale for you to tell your friends on your return to England,’ Dmitri said dryly as he sat forward to pour himself a cup of coffee from the pot in the centre of the table.

Lily bristled. ‘If you think I enjoyed even one moment of that—that embarrassing episode, then you are sadly mistaken! In fact, I would prefer never to think of it again.’

Dmitri remained completely unruffled by her vehemence, and he sipped his coffee before replying. ‘Not even as an amusing tale to relate to your grandchildren one day?’

‘Of the night I tried to break out—unsuccessfully, I might add—of an Italian count’s palazzo?’ She eyed him scathingly.

He bared his teeth in a smile. ‘Exactly.’

Lily grimaced. ‘I think I’ll pass, thanks.’ Especially when those grandchildren might then ask what she had been doing locked away in there in the first place! Not only did this situation reflect badly on Felix, but her own behaviour so far had been less than suitable for telling any future children or grandchildren she might have.

Dmitri knew he should not be enjoying Lily’s obvious discomfort, but after the unsatisfactory night’s sleep he’d had he was feeling less than indulgently inclined towards her this morning.

Coming back down the stairs last night and discovering she had taken him at his word and already gone up to bed had been the start of that dissatisfaction. He had then wondered—despite having made the offer to take her to a hotel in the morning—if she had indeed gone to bed or if she was up in her room even now, plotting and planning some other way of leaving the palazzo. Hopefully avoiding detection this time!

Consequently, by the time he’d gone up to his own bedroom he’d been feeling less than sleepy, and had remained awake for some time after that, watching the security panel in his bedroom in case the alarm should go off again. Even once he had fallen into an uneasy sleep he was sure he had still been half listening for the sound of someone moving stealthily through the building!

To come downstairs this morning and find her calmly seated at the kitchen table enjoying her breakfast—and looking completely rested into the bargain—only increased his feelings of irritation at his own lack of sleep. ‘As you wish,’ he said unsympathetically. ‘The glazier should be here shortly, and in the meantime I have some telephone calls to make.’

‘In connection with Felix and Claudia?’ she prompted sharply.

His mouth tightened. ‘As it happens, yes. I take it you have still not heard from your brother?’

‘No.’ If Lily was being honest she was starting to get more than a little annoyed with Felix herself now. Not only had her brother just disappeared, but he hadn’t even bothered to so much as check whether or not Lily had received his message in time to cancel her trip to Rome. None of which was helped by the fact that Lily had realised first thing this morning that today was Christmas Eve.

‘The glazier should not take long to replace the window, and then I will be free to drive you to a hotel—if that is convenient for you?’

‘Yes. Yes, of course it is.’ Lily sat up straighter in her chair as he came straight to the point; obviously idle chit chat was not the order of the day. ‘Obviously I don’t have any other plans for today.’

‘Obviously not,’ he conceded dryly.

‘But I could always get a taxi to a hotel rather than put you to any trouble on my behalf. Any more trouble on my behalf,’ she corrected as Dmitri raised mocking brows.

His smile was strained. ‘It is no trouble, I assure you.’

Lily gave him a small smile. ‘No doubt you’ll just be glad to see the back of me?’

‘No doubt.’

Well, you asked for that one, Lily, she seethed inwardly. Gave him the perfect opening, in fact. ‘Is there anything I can do to help you?’

Dmitri eyed her coolly. ‘Such as?’

‘Make some of the telephone calls for you? No, that isn’t going to work when I don’t speak Italian,’ she acknowledged ruefully. ‘There must be something I can do!’

His mouth twisted into another semblance of a smile. ‘I cannot think of anything.’

Great. Now Lily felt completely superfluous. Which she obviously was.

Was it any surprise that he couldn’t wait to get rid of her when, instead of being a means of contact with Felix, as Dmitri had obviously hoped she would be, she had become nothing more than a liability. A liability who last night had caused him deep embarrassment with his security firm and the police. And she was another inconvenience to him this morning by making him wait at home for a glazier to replace the broken window. No wonder he couldn’t wait to get rid of her!