Lessons and Lovers Read Online Free PDF Page B

first thing that came into her head, “That’s a very nice shirt, Darryl. Did you get it in Milan?”
    It was banal. Wooden. But her companion turned to her, smiled cheerfully and touched his long brown fingers to the immaculate white fabric.
    “Why yes,” he said, his light, deliciously Latin voice playing tunes on her trembling nerves. “I chose it myself. I chose all my new clothes myself. Do you like it?”
    “You’ve been shopping ?” How bizarre! If he’d lived a life of semi-academic seclusion, and just suffered a tragic blow, fashion ought to have been an unknown quantity to him. But it seemed that he’d instinctively chosen things that suited his looks. Italian style was obviously bred into the bone.
    “Yes, it was fun,” Darryl answered lightly, “I found some magazines belonging to F—,” he faltered then, his smooth features crumpling for just a second, “to Cousin Renata’s friend. I saw beautiful clothes on every page, so when they arranged a credit card for me, I just wandered around the shops until I saw similar things, then I went in and bought them.”
    “You went shopping on your own?” What on earth was wrong with Ren? Leaving someone who’d lost their memory and was fresh out of hospital entirely to their own devices in a big cosmopolitan city.
    “I think Cousin Renata would’ve liked to have gone with me, but—” He paused, delicately, and Hettie understood the uncomfortable situation that must’ve prevailed at Palazzo di Angeli. And what a hideous, selfish and unfeeling man Renata had got herself hooked up with.
    “Was this Fausto guy hostile towards you?” she asked sharply, studying the perfect, Renaissance face of the man beside her.
    “I think…I think he felt threatened by me,” Darryl answered, sounding remarkably perceptive. “I was a challenge to his supremacy. And he was jealous when Renata tried to be nice to me.”
    Hettie’s jaw dropped. Lord, he was impressive! She’d expected Darryl to be awkward, geeky and not particularly sure of himself, but he was nothing of the sort! The quiet wisdom of his answer confounded all her preconceptions. If he could so accurately assess the power balance of his cousin’s shaky relationships, he could well be far less naïve—and in a lot more ways!—than Hettie had been led to believe.
    Sneaking a glance sideways, she caught him in the midst of a huge but politely smothered yawn.
    “ Mi scusi !” he said softly, rocking Hettie’s defenses with a smile of heartbreaking sweetness, “I haven’t been sleeping too well since… Since…” The smile was replaced by a frown which in its own way was just a sexy. “Since everything.”
    Hettie felt a great wave of tenderness rush through her, something vaguely maternal, but in other ways not motherly at all. She imagined hugging him and comforting, but at the same time wondered what it would be like to see him without his clothes, and to caress his body and stroke his eager cock to hardness.
    Dear God!
    The sensation had been so intense and physical that she gasped, and her eyes flew to the back of Starr’s blond head, wondering if he could sense her shameless imaginings. When her eyes flicked back to Darryl, he was frowning again, his eyes grown dark with remorse.
    “I’m sorry,” he apologized again, “I forgot… My condolences on the death of your husband.”
    He’d misinterpreted her response, of course. She was fantasizing about sex in a way her late husband would have heartily approved of. But Darryl obviously felt guilty for reminding of her loss by mentioning his own. What a mess!
    “Darryl,” she said quietly, turning to face him and trying to ignore a sudden mad urge to kiss him, “Don’t worry about me. I was sad for my husband but I’m coming to terms with his death now.” She couldn’t help but flick her eyes towards Starr’s broad back again, separated from them by the glass partition as he steered the car skillfully into a stream of traffic.