‘Let’s go.” He took her arm and the contact seared her just as she knew touching him again would do.
‘I didn’t say I was going with you,” she said, trying to pull her arm from his grasp.
‘Would you prefer to fix me dinner here?” He smiled as he’d used to and she felt a twinge in the region of her heart.
‘lt has been a long time since you cooked for me but I remember what a wonderful cook you are. I would enjoy the experience.”
The sheer arrogance of that statement blew her away.
‘I would prefer you left.” She glared up at him, carefully avoiding actual eye contact. ‘you’ve seen me safely home. There’s no reason for us to prolong our time together.”
‘you seem to be under a misapprehension.”
‘What do you mean?” She gav
e up the struggle for possession of her arm. He wasn’t letting go and every movement even infinitesimal increased her awareness of his closeness.
‘l’m not leaving you alone.”
Shards of fearful premonition sliced through her.
‘What exactly are you saying?” auntie the auction is over, I am your faithful sidekick.”
‘you, faithful?” she scoffed, trying very hard to come to terms with his grimly delivered assurance.
The grip on her arm tightened. ‘Iwas never unfaithful to you.”
She believed him, but she didn’t want to. Not when he’d refused to believe her similar claim when she told him about the baby. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of saying so, however.
Instead she focused on the issue at hand.
‘No’
His fingers uncurled from her arm and began a light caress. ‘No what dolcezza?”
‘you are not staying with me.” Her voice broke as his hand moved up to her collarbone. She felt like a bird being mesmerized by a snake. She couldn’t move but she knew to let him touch her was disastrous.
‘I made a promise to your father. I will keep it.”
‘I don’t need a bodyguard.”
‘That is not what he believes.”
‘My father does not dictate my life either.”
‘This is true. Unlike your sister you have a disconcerting tendency to go your own way, but I would have thought that even so your love for your father would not allow you to put him in a place of constantly worrying for your safety.”
She wasn’t going to be manipulated with that line. ‘According to him, he does that anyway.”
‘He had an episode with his heart last month. Did he tell you?” She felt as if all the air had been sucked from the room.
‘No.” Her voice came out a whisper.
‘He said nothing.”
‘Why hadn’t he called her? Why hadn’t his wife, Therese, told her? As she thought it, she said it.
‘I do not know, but perhaps he did not wish to worry you.”