Chapter 4

• Leo D’Alessandro’s chest, Astoria discovered breathlessly when she raised her gaze reluctantly to look at his handsome face above a black silk sweater.
• Brooding dark eyes chillingly returned her startled gaze, and that same coldness was in the derisive twist of Leo’s sculptured lips as he grasped the tops of her arms with elegantly long hands and put her firmly away from him.
• ‘Astoriaella,’ he acknowledged as he released her. ‘I should have guessed.’
• Astoria’s eyes narrowed at his sarcastic tone. ‘Should have guessed what, exactly?’ she challenged, two bright wings of colour in her cheeks. Colour she knew would not be complementary to the bright red of her straight below-shoulder-length hair.
• But at least she had the answer to her earlier question—Leo had obviously arrived in England for the wedding next Saturday.
• And he was looking even more devastatingly gorgeous than ever, making Astoria’s pulse race and her breath catch in her throat. The colour burning her cheeks was from physical awareness this time. Complete physical awareness. Of Leo D’Alessandro.
• Her breasts tingled uncomfortably and a fierce heat gathered between her thighs.
• Oh, God!
• She had thought she was over this infatuation—had imagined that no man would appeal to her ever again after what Edward had done to her. But she knew she had been wrong as every nerve ending, every part of her, silently screamed her attraction to Leo—of all men!
• She looked up at him from beneath lowered dark lashes. Maturity had given him lines beside those chocolate-brown eyes and the firmness of his mouth, but instead of detracting from his good looks they merely added another layer to his attraction, giving him that dangerous sexual aura Fiona had alluded to earlier.
• Leo was dangerous, Astoria acknowledged to herself. He exuded power, a complete domination over everything and everyone within his vicinity.
• Well, not her. She’d had enough of domineering men—Edward and her grandfather to name but two—to last her a lifetime.
• She turned away abruptly. ‘Never mind,’ she said, in answer to her own question.
• ‘I thought this morning would be the perfect opportunity for Leo to come by and look at the house,’ Fiona said awkwardly.
• Astoria knew by the way Fiona refused to meet her gaze that there was a lot more to it than that. By inviting him here at the same time as Astoria, Fiona had perhaps been hoping for yet another chance of reconciling her brother with her best friend.
• Astoria sighed in irritation. ‘I really do have to go now, Fiona.’
• ‘Surely you are not leaving on my account, Astoriaella?’ Leo taunted softly, his voice moving like husky velvet across Astoria’s already sensitised flesh.
• Astoria’s chin rose at the challenge she heard in his tone. ‘No, I was leaving anyway,’ she snapped.
• Leo watched Astoriaella Ken from between narrowed lids, noting that she wore her red hair longer than when he had seen her at Fiona’s engagement party a year ago. Now styled in layers, it tumbled fierily onto her shoulders and down her spine. Long, dark lashes were lowered over eyes he knew to be an unfathomable green. Her nose was small and pert and dusted with a dozen or so freckles. Her face was thinner than he remembered, her cheeks hollow, giving those softly pouting lips a fuller appearance above her determinedly pointed chin. Her loss of weight was also borne out by the slenderness of her waist and narrow hips, although her breasts were still firmly full.
• And unless he was mistaken—and Leo felt sure that he wasn’t—they were also naked beneath that clinging green sweater!
• His mouth tightened. Ten years ago he had not approved of or understood Fiona’s affection and friendship for the gawky English girl she had only known for less than a year, and had absolutely refused to allow his sister to complete her education in England so that she could remain in England with her new friend. Fiona had eventually complied with his decision, of course, and instead continued the friendship by telephone and letter.
• Then, at the age of eighteen, a much more stubbornly determined Fiona had informed him that she intended attending an English university, and she had instantly met up with Astoriaella Ken again. If anything, the friendship between the two women had become all the stronger as they had matured.
• Admittedly Astoriaella had grown into a self-assured woman of passable beauty, and Fiona reported she was very successful as an interior designer, but Leo still did not approve of her as a friend for his young sister. Even less so after Astoriaella’s brief marriage two years ago, followed by an equally hasty divorce. It just proved how fickle she really was.
• ‘I’ll see you later.’ Astoriaella moved to kiss Fiona on the cheek. ‘Mr D’Alessandro.’ She gave him a curt nod as she straightened.
• Astoriaella didn’t exactly approve of him either, Leo recognised with wry self-mockery.
• ‘What? You have no parting kiss for me, Astoriaella?’ he asked, a smile curving his lips as she stared at him incredulously.
• ‘We’re hardly kissing acquaintances, Mr D’Alessandro,’ she finally managed to splutter in disgust.
• ‘Possibly not.’ He drawled his amusement. ‘Perhaps when we meet again at the wedding…?’
• Those green eyes flashed. ‘I believe I will forgo that dubious pleasure!’ she came back waspishly.
• Leo’s gaze was intent on Astoriaella as he ignored his sister’s snort of laughter at his expense.
• Astoriaella, he knew, had been in awe of him when they’d first met almost ten years ago—an awe that had quickly turned to infatuation. An infatuation he had been aware of, but had chosen to ignore, even to deliberately rebuff; to a man of twenty-seven years of age Astoriaella Ken’s calf-like devotion as she’d watched his every move with those deep green eyes had been a danger as well as a nuisance.
• It was an infatuation she’d seemed to have got over completely by the time the two of them had met again years later, when he’d delivered Fiona to England at the start of the university term.
• But Astoriaella had grown up in the last five years, Leo recognised, and in her maturity she was certainly no longer in awe of him.
• In fact, it was safe to say that over the last five years Astoriaella had become less in awe of him than any other person of his acquaintance!
• As head of the D’Alessandro family, and of D’Alessandro Banking, Leo was accustomed to wielding power and authority, to having his every instruction obeyed. His domestic needs at the D’Alessandro palace—his title of prince had fallen into disuse several centuries ago—were supplied quietly and efficiently, usually before he had even made them known. And no one, in any sphere of his life, stood up to him or answered him back in the frank way that Astoriaella Ken did on the rare occasions they met.
• ‘The prospect of the two of us ever kissing seems just as unpleasant to me, I do assure you,’ he said, deliberately baiting her.
• ‘Then it’s so nice to know we’re agreed on something!’ Astoriaella snapped, before turning sharply on her heel and leaving.
• ‘Why do you do that, Leo?’ Fiona asked gently once the two of them were alone.
• He turned to look at his sister. ‘Do what?’
• ‘Behave like such a—a—an overbearing Venetian!’ she accused.
• ‘But Fiona, I am an overbearing Venetian,’ he returned mockingly.
• ‘Yes, but you don’t have to keep proving it!’ His sister glared at him.
• Leo gave a rueful shake of his head. ‘Your friend brings out the worst in me, I am afraid.’
• ‘And you bring out the worst in her!’ Fiona muttered with a frown.
• Leo was unconcerned. ‘Then it seems we are all agreed it is best if Astoriaella and I stay well away from each other.’
• ‘I suppose so,’ Fiona conceded heavily, disappointed they both so obviously felt that way.
• ‘Cheer up,’ Leo teased affectionately. ‘After the wedding she and I will probably have no further reason ever to meet again.’
• ‘What about my masquerade party in the summer?’ his sister protested. ‘The two of you are sure to meet again then.’
• Not if Leo first ensured that he knew exactly which of Fiona’s masked guests was Astoriaella Ken—and then avoided her like the plague!