Note: Upgrade your browser if you can't see the images.
Di CESARE PREGNANT MISTRESS - Chapter 27
You are reading Di CESARE PREGNANT MISTRESS Chapter 27 at mangacake.
Please use the Bookmark button to get notifications about the latest chapters of Di CESARE PREGNANT MISTRESS next time when you come visit our manga website
‘She was five years old when my mother died. Her birth had taken my parents by surprise, but she was a very welcome addition to the family. After my mother’s death Jocasta clung to me, her big brother, and when my father remarried she needed me more than ever. Monica did not like children,’ he added grimly. ‘And when my father banished me he refused to allow Jocasta to see me. We were only reunited after my father my died, when I returned to Italy and cared for her for the remainder of her childhood. We remain close, and I took her and our cousin to one of Florence’s finest restaurants to celebrate her birthday.’
Alexander fell silent as they crossed the courtyard and entered the Villa. From his expression it was clear he was thinking about he past, and his hatred for the woman he blamed for destroying his relationship with his father. Stephanie sighed; Alexander seemed determined to believe she was a woman like his stepmother, and she didn’t know how she could convince him otherwise.
‘The work on the Villa is really coming on,’ she said when they stepped into the hall. ‘The new terracotta floor tiles are down, and most of the paintwork in the lower floor rooms is finished.’ She nodded to the workmen, who were busy applying paint in a subtle shade of gold to the walls of the wide, airy hall. She had established a good relationship with all the contractors and smiled at the men, unaware that their gazes lingered on her long, tanned legs and the way her denim shorts moulded her pert derrière.
But Alexander noticed, and was surprised by the intensity of the urge that made him want to grab the workmen by their necks and boot them out of his house. He did not pay them to leer at his woman, he thought furiously, and snarled at them to get back to work before he followed Stephanie into the lounge, his frown deepening. When the hell had he begun to think of her as his woman?
But she soon would be, he decided fiercely. All his attempts to dismiss her from his mind had failed—four weeks of agonising frustration was testament to that, he acknowledged derisively. His only alternative was to face the problem head-on and seduce her into his bed.
He was furious that Stephanie seemed to have some sort of hold over him. Despite her protestations of innocence, he was still convinced that she had deliberately forged a friendship with James Grainger for Financial gain, and the realisation that she had previously done the same thing with elderly war hero Edward Abbot reinforced his view that although she had the face of an angle she did not have the heart to match.
But this knowledge made no difference to his hunger for her. Night and day he couldn’t stop thinking about her, and he was determined to take steps to control the situation. His father’s obsession with an avaricious slut had caused him to make a series of business blunders that had severely damaged the House of Di Cesare—but he was not obsessed with Stephanie, Alexander reassured himself. He simply wanted to take her to bed and expurgate his inconveniet desire for her.
‘I’ve made up a work board of fabrics and colour schemes for the dining room, but I don’t know if you’ve time to look at it now,’ Stephanie said, while Alexander glanced around the sitting room that looked bright and stylish now that the dark walls had been painted in shades of cream and peach. ‘Are you going back to Florence tonight or in the morning?’
‘I shall be here for the next few days at least. I don’t have any meetings scheduled, and I can just as easily work here as at my office.’
‘I see.’ Stephanie’s heart lurched, and she immediately decided that she would avoid him as much as possible. She was terrified that she might unwittingly reveal how much she longed for him to take her in his arms and kiss her. ‘Well, I’ll do my best not disturb you,’ she murmured.
She made to walk past him, but he stepped closer, blocking her path. But you do disturb me, Stephanie,’ he said softly. ‘You’ve disturbed me since the moment we first met.’
His eyes glittered with unmistakable invitation, but from somewhere Stephanie found strength of will to fight the insidious warmth that flooded through her veins. ‘When you decided that I was planning to con a vulnerable widower out of his money, you mean? She snapped coldly.
Alexander was too close. She could feel the warmth of his body, and her sense flared when she caught the subtle musk of the cologne he favoured. She needed to move away from him now, while she could still think straight, but he reached out and ran a finger lightly over her cheek before cupping her chin in his palm.
‘I have been thinking about that,’ he murmured, his voice as soft and sensuous as crushed velvet. ‘And maybe I was wrong,’
‘You don’t really believe that,’ Stephanie whispered, even while hope flared in her chest. ‘You think I’m a woman like your stepmother.’
Alexander had moved closer still, and now his arm snaked around her waist, drawing her body into intimate contact with his. His eyes were hooded and slumberous, but Stephanie could feel his tension, and knew he was exerting his formidable will over his body, to prevent himself from lowering his head and ravishing her mouth with hot, hungry kisses. But she wanted him to kiss her, she acknowledged as a tremor ran through her. She wanted it more than she had ever wanted anything in her life.
‘I’m not what you think I am. I’m really not,’ she told him huskily, her eyes locked with his by some invisible force.
’Now I know about your family history I understand why you assumed the worst of me, but I swear that I have no hidden agenda for my friendship with James.’