Uncovering the Silveri Secret - By Melanie Milburne Page 0,19

counter until the tendons on the back stood out starkly against his tan. Was she never going to give this up? What was it about women that they had to know everything? To talk about everything? He wanted to block it out, not dredge it up all the time.

He wanted it to go away.

He needed it to go away.

The percolator hissed and spat in the silence.

Edoardo heard her move across the floor. She had such a light, almost silent tread but the hairs on the back of his neck lifted all the same. He felt her just behind him. He could smell her perfume. It danced around his nostrils. If she touched him, his control would snap. He could already feel it straining on its tight leash. It felt like a wild beast being held back by a thin, rusty chain. One of these days one of those fragile, corroded links would break.

He heard her draw in a small breath and then she spoke his name, softly and hesitantly. It was like a caress on his skin. It made every pore react as if a soft feather had brushed over him. 'Edoardo?'

He waited a beat before he turned around and looked down at her. Her beautiful heart-shaped face was uptilted and her big brown eyes were soft and dewy, her rosy lips full and moist. 'I know what you're doing,' he said with a cynical look. 'You always lay on the charm when you want something. I've seen you do it to your father hundreds of times. But you're wasting your time. It won't work with me.'

Her expression soured. 'Why must you be so...so beastly?' she asked.

'I won't be manipulated by you or anyone,' he said. 'I made a promise to your father and I'm going to keep it.'

'I want to get married here,' she said, throwing him a combative look. 'I've dreamed of it all of my life. My father would have wanted it. You can't say he wouldn't.'

Edoardo thought of the highbrow, vacuous crowd she would have swarming around her like bees around a honey pot. The press would besiege the place. They would crawl over his private domain like ants at a picnic. His private sanctuary would become party central. And, if that weren't enough, he would have to watch Bella smiling up at some toffee-nosed man who - he could almost guarantee - only wanted her for her money. 'No,' he said. 'He wouldn't have wanted it, otherwise he would've left you the manor in the first place.'

She narrowed her eyes to hairpin-thin slits. 'You're doing this deliberately, aren't you?' she said. 'All that talk of wanting me was rubbish. You don't want me at all. You want the power. It turns you on, doesn't it? You get off on it. You just want the rush it gives you to have me squirming in the palm of your uncivilised hand.'

Edoardo captured one of her wrists and held her fast. The urge to touch her had been unstoppable. He had barely even realised he had reached for her when he heard the gasp of her breath. He saw the sudden flare of her pupils. He felt the rapid jump of her pulse. He brought her closer, inch by inch, watching as her brown eyes went wider and wider. 'Maybe I should show you just how uncivilised I can be,' he drawled silkily.

Her pulse went wild beneath his fingers as he tugged her against his swollen groin. She swallowed and then licked her lips, her gaze tracking to his mouth as it came inexorably closer. He felt the soft gust of her breath against his lips. 'If you kiss me I will scratch your eyes out,' she said in a breathless little voice that was at odds with her warning.

'Before or after I kiss you?'

Her eyes blazed with hatred. 'During.'

He held her gaze for a throbbing heartbeat. 'I'd better not risk it, then,' he said, stepped back from her and reached for his keys on the hook near the door.

She blinked a couple of times as if she had been expecting him to call her bluff. 'Where are you going?' she asked.

He tossed the keys in the air before deftly catching them. 'Out.'

'Out where?' she asked with another frown. 'It's close to midnight.'

'Can you let Fergus out before you go to bed?' he asked. 'I might not get back before dawn.'

She gave him an irritated look. 'Is that how you stay under the press's radar?' she asked. 'By