Tasting Fear Read Online Free PDF Page A

officers used it during the Nazi occupation,” he replied, “that they used her father’s palace for their headquarters.”
    Nancy was startled. Lucia had not usually been so forthcoming about her family history. “The Nazi officers were the ones who made these graffiti,” she said, tracing some of the brutal scratches carved into the delicately carved tangle of flowers.
    “Incredible,” he commented. “A piece of living history.”
    “Lucia’s father was actually a count, you know?” she told him. “The Conte de Luca. Which means Lucia was technically a countess, even though she lived almost all of her life here, in New York.” She was babbling, but it felt good to talk about Lucia. Like a pressure valve opening, letting off a tiny bit of steam.
    “I’m not surprised she was a countess,” Knightly said. “She looked the part. That lady was a class act.”
    Nancy blinked back another rush of tears and shook the tablecloth into place with an angry little jerk. “Yes, she was.” She positioned the jade plant carefully in the center. “There. Who would guess?”
    “It looks butt ugly,” he said judiciously.
    “Thank you,” Nancy murmured.
    Knightly laid his hand on the table, as gently as if it were a living thing. “I’d love to study it someday. Figure out how the guy did it.”
    “Did what?”
    “Made something that’s still intact and still so beautiful after four hundred years. That’s talent.” He turned, and took his cup back into the kitchen.
    Nancy’s eyes fell upon Lucia’s shelf of photos as she gazed after him. She waited until he appeared again in the doorway. “How did you know who I was?” she demanded.
    His subtle smile lit his eyes. “Lucia showed me pictures of you,” he said. “She told me all about you. Bragged you up.”
    A dark suspicion dawned in her mind. “Bragged me up?” she repeated slowly. “What do you mean? What did she tell you?”
    “That you work too hard, and let everyone take advantage of you. That you live in an apartment surrounded by Hells Angels, crackheads, and the criminally insane. That you come across as bossy and managing, but you’d give the shirt off your back to a stranger in need—”
    Nancy winced. “Oh, no. I see where this is going.”
    “And that you’re definitely not married,” he concluded. “She also told me you’d be here for her birthday. She wanted to introduce us.”
    “Oh, God.” Nancy turned pink. That manipulative schemer.
    Lucia would never have done this to her if this guy was taken. A swift glance at Knightly’s left hand confirmed that he wore no ring.
    A glance that he intercepted. His subtle eye smile deepened. Her mortification deepened, too. “I’m, ah, sorry about that. You being put on the spot, I mean. Lucia couldn’t stand it that I’m single.”
    “Yeah, that was my impression. It is really strange, though.”
    She covered her hot cheeks with her hands. “What’s strange?”
    “Strange that you’re single. You’re not what I expected.”
    Don’t ask it. Don’t ask it. Don’t. “Ah…what did you expect?”
    “Well, she told me you were beautiful. I could see that from the pictures. But she didn’t tell me how beautiful. Photos can’t show that.”
    Beautiful? Oh, God. Strange, wild energy crackled through her nerves, as if he had touched her.
    Out of nowhere, she started to imagine how it would feel if he did.
    She started to vibrate. Strange that she was single? Whoo-hah. Little did he know. She forced her voice not to shake. “Don’t flatter me.”
    “Who’s flattering?”
    She looked away, flustered. She had no idea what to say to him.
    “I’m sorry,” he said quietly after a long moment. “I can’t believe I just said that to you, right now. It’s a bad time. Please forget I said it.”
    “Um, it’s okay,” she murmured. Right. Like she could.
    The easy, unexpected intimacy she had felt with him before was gone. Knightly’s face was cool and distant as they exchanged