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CHAPTER 12
His reply to what she just said was a short, hard, mocking laugh.
“You’re really something else, you know that?” Alessandro said in scathing disbelief. “Your own sins are not allowed to linger long enough to place a single line of guilt or shame upon your lovely face! It’s no wonder you remain so stunningly beautiful when you can shed blame as easily as you do! It must be the perfect recipe for eternal youth!”
“And what's your recipe, Alessandro?” Hailee countered, then went very still, realizing what she had just said.
He was still too, silent, unbreathing, pumping the wretched Freudian slip for all it was worth.
“For my beauty?” he prompted silkily after a while.
Her nerve-ends went into panic mode, forcing her hands to move again in short, jerky
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The afternoon dragged on interminably. Lunch, which Hailee didn't even bother to turn up for, came and went. Then more hours… hours where she roamed from room to room, drifting out if someone else came in, wanting to be alone, needing to be alone because there was no one she could share her torment with. Dinner that evening was another grim, silent affair, if only because none of them were prepared to pretend that there was anything even vaguely normal about it. Hailee had joined Alessandro and Giovanni for the meal, but only because Alessandro had sent up a message to her room ordering her to attend, and she just didn't have it in her even to try to argue. So, she sat at the table, tasted Mrs. Bradshaw's delicious chicken soup, cut up the light, fluffy omelette that must’ve been specially prepared to tempt her fa
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 14
“But your father doesn't like me.” She'd tried to make him understand.“I'm not what he wanted for you, Alessandro, and he lets me know it at every chance he gets!”“He teases you for your shyness, that's all. It’s your own paranoia that makes you see everything he does as malicious!” Alessandro was always so blind when it came to his father. Guido hadn’t been just malicious in his dealings with his son's unwanted wife, he had been downright destructive.“Okay, I’m listening,” Alessandro said gruffly now. “Let’s talk about it.” The command made her blink, simply because she had been so lost inside her thoughts about him that she had forgotten he was actually there.
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 15
“No!” She was in shock. They were both… naked. Her nightdress was gone… His clothes, too… The crisp hair on his chest was rasping against her breasts, and one wonderfully muscular thigh was heavy across her own.“You want me, Hailee,” Alessandro insisted. “I can feel it. Your body wants me. Your subconscious wants me! Don't tell me no when I can see you burning with desire for me!”“I don’t… I don’t want this. And you said comfort,” Hailee reminded him whimperingly.“This is comfort, Hailee,” he declared. “The most exquisite comfort there is.”“But…”“No,” he gritted. “I need this too, piccola! We both do.” Then he cut off her protests with the hungry crush of his m
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 16
By the time Alessandro got downstairs, he was back to being the man most people knew him to be. He entered the study to find it a veritable Batcave of hi-tech equipment. Giovanni, the two policemen, two men he didn’t recognize but knew came from some special services department, all of them stood or sat about messing with the complicated array of communications stuff. Stone-faced, hard-eyed, he went directly toward Giovanni. Not by so much as a flicker of an eyelash did Giovanni's face reveal what he must be thinking, knowing how long Alessandro had been with Hailee.“It’s almost time, Alex,” he said quietly. “Everything’s already prepared.” Alessandro gave a curt nod and moved over to the desk. The others in the room watched him like wary cats following the hunting pace of a da
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 17
She sucked in a breath of air, her heartbeat pounding in her head. But it was no use. The fact that Alessandro had actually convinced himself that Guido, his father, had nothing to do with Ariana's abduction, only made this moment of truth more impossible to deal with.“Oh, my God, you’re still protecting him, aren't you?” she derided bitterly. “No matter how many dirty tricks he pulls on you, you still refuse to see what a nasty, cunning, evil man he is… Even when the proof of it is shoved right under your very…” His hand snaking around her neck and yanking her forcefully towards him stopped the words.“Hold your tongue, you little shrew!” he rasped. “Before I bite it off!”“Right now, I hate and despise you so much… You have no idea…” Hailee threw into
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 18
The car stopped and her heart too, for a few seconds. The driver got out, stepping up to open her door. Her senses were assailed by the sweet scent of flowers and the crisp tang of fruit, the quietness, the sheer peace that enveloped her just another deception she had to do battle with. The house from the back appeared quite humble when compared with its dramatic front. It had a big white wall with blue-painted shutters thrown back from small windows and a terracotta-tiled roof. Twin blue doors stood open to offer a welcome. Hailee gritted her teeth, tried to make her suddenly shaky legs move. A cicada sawed lazily, hidden somewhere in a tree. No other sound. Nothing. She remembered that silence and felt her back frozen even if outside the sun was high and hot. &n
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 19
It was like witnessing the most spiritual communion life could offer. And no one privy to it couldn’t be moved by the vision. Not Guido, who lowered his silvered head and shook it with a sharp, jerky motion that was almost pained. Not the thin, dark-haired woman standing quietly in a corner of the room. Not even Alessandro, still standing tensely in the open doorway, who had to close his eyes to block out the heart-wrenching vision. The seconds ticked by. No one moved. Not Hailee. Not the baby. Not father or son or the strange woman present in the room. Not even the air in the room... Then the small head lifted, still frowning, still cross as she fixed her mother with a condemning look.“I love you, mummy,” Ariana said. Hailee's legs gave away beneath her. Hearing her was such a sweet but also a gut-wr
SOMEBODY LIKE YOU CHAPTER 20
Frustration and fear that came from experience in dealing with Guido Baroni, made Hailee tremble inside. Black and white… Alessandro dealt in black and white. The grey area in Guido's favor was that Hailee would never be able to prove she didn’t go to bed with another man! “Signora? (Ita for ‘Ma’am’)” The demand brought her eyes flickering into focus. Assunta was standing by her chair, her smile warm. “Signora Baroni… La bambina, (Italian for ‘little girl’)” she prompted softly. “No need to give you my baby… At last, Ari sleeps peacefully with her mummy's arms around her.” Asleep… Hailee glanced down in surprise to find that Ariana was indeed fast asleep, her body heavy and her limbs slack, her steady breathing a sign that, just as, Assu
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