CHAPTER 21

          Hailee went hot, then cold, then began tingling all over as his softly provoking tone sent disturbing little messages to all her senses.

“Alessandro, if you don’t mind, I will eat my dinner here in the suite,” she said coolly as a way to counteract the disturbance.

“Out of the question! You will eat in the dining room as is the custom in this house,” he ordained.

          She didn’t feel bothered by it. At least that other tone, the more intimate one, had gone from his voice. Hailee shook her head.

“No. I won't leave Ari here alone. She may wake up and be frightened.”

“Assunta is here, with her, is she not?”

“Yes, she is,” Hailee conceded that point. “But Assunta is not Ari's mother, is she? She's had enough upsets in her little life recently without waking to a str