Uncovering the Silveri Secret - By Melanie Milburne Page 0,28

a promise to your father. He trusted me to keep you out of trouble. He worked damn hard to get where he got. I'm not going to stand by and see some gold-digging gigolo waltz into your life and take everything.'

'Why do you think I'm gullible enough to let something like that happen?' she asked with a frown.

'You're too trusting,' Edoardo said. 'You're so desperate for approval and acceptance you can't see the difference between genuine friendship and exploitation.'

She flashed him a glare. 'I have lots and lots of genuine friends. Not one of them exploits me.'

He cocked a brow. 'How much rent do you charge those four girls who share your house?'

She pressed her lips together without answering, her cheeks turning rosy red.

'Nothing, right?' he said. 'You're a fool, Bella. They're using you, and you can't or won't see it.'

'You know nothing about my friends,' she said. 'So I help them out with a place to stay - what of it? They help me in turn.'

'How?' he asked with a curl of his lip. 'Let me guess: they help you spend your allowance on useless fripperies each month.'

Her eyes gave an annoyed little roll. 'I don't have to explain my personal expenses to you.'

'For God's sake, Bella, you went through fifteen thousand pounds in the last couple of months,' he said. 'You can't keep spending like that. You have to take responsibility for yourself. I'm not going to be around to keep you on track for ever.'

She sent him a caustic look. 'I can keep myself on track. I don't need you.'

'You do need me,' he said. 'And you've got me for another year, so you'd better get used to it.'

'What's the point of stringing this crazy guardianship thing out for another year?' she asked. 'You want to be free of me just as much as I want to be free of you. Anyway, once I get married to Julian, you'll have to relinquish your hold over me.'

'You're not getting married until you're twenty-five,' he said. 'Not while I have anything to do with it.'

She clenched her hands by her sides, anger in every rigid line of her body. 'Is that why you've been busily trying to seduce me any chance you could?' she asked.

He returned her fiery look with cool ease. 'Are you going to tell your God-fearing boyfriend that you've slept with me?'

Her eyes turned to flint. 'I have not slept with you.'

'Are you going to tell him you had an orgasm with me, then?' he asked.

Her cheeks bloomed with colour again. 'I didn't have any such thing with you. You didn't...you know...' She whooshed out a little breath and shifted her eyes from his. 'We didn't go that far.'

'You probably won't have to tell him.'

Her eyes flew back to his. 'What do you mean?'

'He'll know as soon as he sees you,' Edoardo said. 'You won't be able to hide it, especially if he sees you interact with me.'

She clamped her lips together as if she was struggling to keep back a retort. She released them after a moment. 'I can't think of any situation or event where you and Julian would be present at the same time.'

'So you're not going to invite me to your wedding?' he asked.

She gave him a pointed look. 'Would you come if I did?'

Edoardo considered her question for a moment. Over the years his mind had occasionally drifted to the day when she would walk down the aisle to some man standing at the altar. He had no doubt she would make a beautiful bride. She would love being the centre of attention; it would be her chance to be a princess for the day.

But he hadn't planned on being there to see it.

'Weddings are not really my thing,' he said.

'Have you ever been to one?'

'Two, a few years ago,' he said. 'They're both divorced now.'

She folded her arms across her middle. 'Not all marriages end up on the rocks,' she said. 'Many couples spend a lifetime together.'

'Good for them.'

She frowned at him. 'You don't believe love can last that long?'

'I think people get love and lust confused,' he said. 'Lust is a transient thing. It burns itself out after a while. Love, on the other hand, is something that grows over time, given the right conditions.'

'I thought you didn't believe in love,' she said.

'Just because I haven't been in love myself doesn't mean it doesn't exist,' he said. 'I can see it works for some people.'

'But you don't think I'm