Нина Харрингтон – British Bachelors: Gorgeous and Impossible: My Greek Island Fling / Back in the Lion's Den / We'll Always Have Paris (страница 10)

‘That’s ridiculous,’ Mark sniped back at her, quick as a flash. ‘You can’t escape the fact that your family was involved.’

‘You’re right.’ She nodded. ‘I’ve had to live under the shadow of what my father did for the last five months. Even though I had nothing to do with it. That makes me so angry. And most of all I hate the fact that he abused my mother’s generous, trusting spirit and used me as an excuse to get into that hospital. If you want to go after someone, go after him.’

‘So you didn’t benefit at all?’

‘We got nothing—apart from the media circus when your lawyers turned up and hit us with a gagging order. Are you starting to get the picture? Good. So don’t presume to judge me or my family without getting your facts straight. Because we deserve better than that.’

Mark pushed both hands deep into his trouser pockets. ‘That’s for me to judge,’ he replied.

Lexi hoisted the suitcases upright, flung on her shoulder bag and glanced quickly around the patio before shuffling into her sandals.

‘I’m finished here. If you find anything I’ve left behind feel free to throw it into the pool if it makes you feel better. Don’t worry about the cases—I’ll see myself out. Standard social politeness not required.’

‘Anything to get you out of my house,’ Mark replied, grabbing a suitcase in each hand as if they weighed nothing. ‘Rest assured that if we should ever run into each other again, unlikely though that may be, I shall not try my best to be polite.’

‘Then we understand each other perfectly,’ replied Lexi. ‘As far as I’m concerned, the sooner I can be back in London, the better. Best of luck writing the biography—but here’s a tip.’

She hoisted her bag higher onto her shoulder and nudged her sunglasses farther up her nose.

‘Perfectly happy people with perfect families living perfect lives in perfect homes don’t make interesting reading. I had no idea you were my client when I came here today, but I was actually foolish enough to hope you’d be fair and listen to the truth. I even thought we might work together on this project. But it seems I was wrong about that. You won’t listen to the truth if it doesn’t suit you. Apparently you’re just as cold, unreasonable, stubborn and controlling as the tabloids claim. I feel sorry for you.’

And with that she grabbed the vanity bag and tottered across the patio. She was already down the steps before Mark could reply.

Mark stood frozen on the patio and watched the infuriating girl teeter her way across the crazy paving, the flimsy silk dress barely covering her bottom. How dared she accuse him of being cold and stubborn? That was his father’s speciality, not his. It just showed how wrong she was. How could she expect him to believe her story and put aside what he had seen with his own eyes? Mario Collazo being comforted by his daughter on the floor after Mark had knocked him down. Those were the facts.

He had recognised who she was the second she’d taken off her sunglasses. How could he forget the girl with the palest of grey eyes, filled with tears, looking up at him with such terror?

He had frightened her that morning, and in a way he regretted that. He wanted no part of his father’s arrogant, bullying tactics. But at that moment he had allowed anger and rage to overwhelm him. Justifiably. It had still shocked him that he was capable of uncontrolled physical violence. He’d worked long and hard to make himself a different man from his father and his brother.

Edmund wouldn’t have wasted a moment’s thought before knocking any photographer to the floor and boasting about it later.

But he was not his older brother, the golden boy, his parents’ pride and joy, who had died falling from a polo pony when he was twenty-five.

And he didn’t want to be. Never had.

Mark wrapped his fingers around the handles of the wet luggage, his chest heaving, and watched the small figure in the ridiculous outfit struggle with the door handle on the car before lowering herself onto the seat with an audible wince as her bottom connected with the hot plastic. Seconds later her legs swung inside and the door closed.

So what if she was telling the truth? What if she had been used by her father that day, and was just as innocent a victim as his mother had been? What if her turning up at the villa really was a total coincidence?

Then fate had just kicked them both in the teeth. And he had handed that monster an extra set of boots.

But what alternative did he have? He knew what the response would be if his father or even his sister found out that he’d been sharing precious family memories and private records with the daughter of the stalker who’d destroyed his mother’s last day alive. It would be far better to forget about this fearless girl with the grey eyes and creamy skin who’d challenged him from the moment she arrived. A girl whose only crime was having the misfortune to be the daughter of a slimeball like Mario Collazo. And she had defended her mother from an attack on her reputation. In anybody else that loyalty was something he would admire.

Oh, hell!

He’d spent the last seven years of his life trying to prove that he could take his brother’s place, and then his father’s as head of Belmont Investments. He took risks for a living and he liked it. And now this girl turned up out of the blue and accused him of being cold and unreasonable and unwilling to listen to the truth because it didn’t agree with his pre-established version of the facts.

Mark dropped both suitcases on the patio. Perfect families living perfect lives. Was that what she really thought the Belmont family was like? Perfect?

Hardly.

He looked up. The hire car hadn’t moved an inch. How did she do it? How did she make him feel so angry and unsettled?

And about to make a potentially very dangerous decision.

Lexi collapsed back against the driver’s seat and was about to throw her luggage onto the passenger seat when something moved inside the car. She froze, and for one fraction of a millisecond considered screaming and running back to Mark as fast as her legs could carry her.

But that would make her wimp of the week.

Hardly daring to investigate further, Lexi slowly looked sideways and blinked through her blurred vision in disbelief at the two white faces with pink ears staring back at her.

One of the kittens yawned widely, displaying the cutest little pink tongue, stretching his body out into a long curve before closing his eyes and settling down to more sleep on the sun-warmed passenger seat. The other ball of white fluff washed his face with his paw, then curled back into a matching position.

A low chuckle started deep inside her chest and rambled around for a few seconds before emerging as slightly manic strangled laughter, which soon evolved into full-blown sobbing.

Lexi closed her eyes, slumped back against the headrest and gave in to the moment. She could feel the tears running down her cheeks as the deep sobs ripped through her body, making her gasp for air. This was not fair. This was totally not fair.

Swallowing down her tears through a painful throat, Lexi slowly cracked open her eyes and took a firm hold of the steering wheel with both hands, curling her fingers tightly around the hot plastic as if it was a lifeline to reality.

It took a moment to realise that with all the sniffing she had not heard the gentle crunch of Mark’s footsteps on the gravel driveway.

She stared straight ahead at the olive and lemon trees as he slowly strolled over to the side of the car, then leant his long tanned forearms on the open driver’s window and peered inside without saying a word.

They stayed like that for a few seconds, until the silence got too much for Lexi.

‘There are cats. In my car. I wasn’t expecting cats in my car.’ She sniffed, and then flicked down the sun visor and peered at herself in the vanity mirror.

‘And look at this.’ She released the steering wheel and pointed at her eyes. ‘It took me an hour to put this make-up on at the airport. And now it’s totally wrecked. Just like the rest of me.’

She slapped her hands down twice on the dashboard, startling the cats, who sat up and yawned at her in complaint. ‘Now do you understand why I never mention my dad when I’m working? Just the mention of his name makes me all …’ She waved her arms towards the windscreen and waggled her fingers about for a few seconds before dropping them into her lap.

‘I noticed,’ he murmured, in a calm voice tinged with just enough attention to imply that he was trying to be nice but struggling. ‘And, by the way, allow me to introduce Snowy One and Snowy Two. They live here. And they tend to snuggle on warm car cushions, towels, bedding, anywhere soft and comfy. You might want to think about that when you’re working outside.’

Her head slowly turned towards him so that their faces were only inches apart. And his eyes really were sky blue.

‘Working?’ she squeaked. ‘Here?’

He nodded.

‘I don’t understand. A minute ago you couldn’t wait to see the back of me.’

‘I changed my mind.’

‘Just like that?’

He nodded again.

‘Have you considered the possibility that I might not want to work with you? Our last conversation was a little fraught. And I don’t like being called a liar.’