Five Dates with the Billionaire - Alyssa J. Montgomery Page 0,44

them.

Connor said nothing as their plates were cleared and a waiter topped up their wine glasses.

Sitting back in her chair, Mia avoided making eye contact with Connor and looked around the restaurant instead.

That’s when she saw him.

Recognition hit hard and her blood chilled.

Someone far more frightening than Sully.

Far more dangerous.

Lou Correlli.

The name punched at her solar plexus and she gasped for breath.

‘Mia? Are you okay? You’ve gone very pale.’

She hardly heard Connor’s comment as she stared beyond him.

It was definitely Lou. Giovanni’s right-hand man.

Short and squat. Balding now, but still with that lecherous look in his eye as he passed by a female diner and leered at her. His walk was the same sleazy swagger and the scar that ran from the right corner of his mouth all the way up his cheek hadn’t faded. It’d always made her fearful of him and she knew now that her childhood instincts were right. He was a man to be feared. A man to be avoided at all costs. A man she couldn’t avoid because he was coming her way.

‘Mia?’ Connor repeated. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you or try to tie you into a situation you’re uncomfortable with.’

‘I’m fine. I … er… I’ve dropped my napkin.’ It was lame in the extreme, but it gave her a chance to bend down under the table to hide her face. Hopefully Lou would walk past their table if she stalled for long enough.

If Sully and Lou were both in Venice, surely that meant Giovanni was here too.

Breaking out in a cold sweat, she scanned the floor from underneath the tablecloth. She waited to see Lou’s shoes as he passed by and prayed fervently that Giovanni wasn’t here too.

Damn it! What was taking Lou so long?

Had he stopped to talk to someone or had he been seated at a table before he’d reached theirs? If so, she hoped to hell he wasn’t in a position where he’d see her.

‘Mia?’

‘Oh… dear!’ Thinking fast, she grabbed the clasp on her handbag and let the contents fall on the carpet. ‘I’m so clumsy. Everything’s dropped out of my handbag.’

Connor’s head appeared under the table, level with hers. He was looking at her in disbelief. ‘Do you need a hand?’

‘No. I’ll just gather everything up.’

The movement of shiny black shoes in her peripheral vision made her freeze.

The shoes stopped right in front of a…

Dear God! Her gold lipstick tube had rolled directly into the path of the man she was trying to avoid.

Horrified, she watched silently as the tube was picked up by short, chubby fingers—one sporting a large silver onyx signet ring. They were fingers that had reputedly pulled a trigger to end the lives of many of Giovanni’s enemies.

‘As long as you’re being clumsy and not hiding away from me.’ Connor’s voice caught her attention. ‘I actually find your clumsiness rather cute.’ His face wore an amused expression as he held her phone out to her under the table. ‘I think that’s everything.’

‘Are you good people looking for this?’ The distinctive New York accent made all the fine hairs at the nape of her neck stand on end and her heart pounded against her ribs.

Connor’s face disappeared from her line of sight as he straightened up from under the table. She heard him say, ‘Thank you.’

Mia stayed right where she was, taking her time pretending to organise the contents of her bag.

‘No problem.’

‘Mia, do you need a hand up?’ Connor asked.

Her upper lip was damp with perspiration.

Shit. Shit.

She couldn’t stay down here under the table or she’d draw even more attention to

herself.

Lou’s not going to recognise me.

I mustn’t show that I recognise him.

‘I’m quite alright.’ Although she’d protested about all the laborious elocution lessons she’d been subjected to as a teenager to rid herself of every trace of her American accent, she was thankful for them now. Sitting back up, she spoke with the most upper-crust British accent she could muster. ‘Thank you ever so much.’ She reached for the lipstick Lou held out, but couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye. ‘I’m so awfully glad you didn’t trip on it.’

Her hand was shaking so badly she practically snatched the lipstick from him, then busied herself by putting it back into her handbag.

‘Thank you again,’ Connor repeated, signalling the end of the interaction.

Lou didn’t take the hint. ‘You look very familiar, ma’am. Have we met?’

Nausea churned in her gut.

She couldn’t avoid his eye contact any longer and steeled herself to remain calm