The Greek's Unwilling Bride Read Online Free PDF

easily taken in.”
    We are, indeed, he thought. What had happened to Gabriella’s sweet nature and charming Italian accent? The first had begun disappearing over the past few weeks; the second had slipped away gradually during the past hour.
    â€œAnd that dress. Honestly, if that skirt had been any shorter...”
    Damian glanced at Gabriella’s legs. Her own skirt, which had never done more than flirt with the tops of her thighs, had vanished along with what was left of her pleasant disposition and sexy accent.
    â€œShe’s Dawn’s aunt, I understand.”
    â€œWho?” Damian said pleasantly.
    â€œDon’t be dense.” Gabriella took a deep breath. “That woman,” she said, more calmly, “the one with the cheap-looking outfit and the peroxide hair.”
    â€œAh,” he said. The turnoff for the inn was just ahead. He slowed the car, signaled and started up the long gravel driveway. “The model.”
    â€œModel, indeed. Everyone knows what those women are like. That one, especially.” Gabriella was stiff with indignation. “They say she’s had dozens of lovers.”
    The car hit a rut in the road. Damian, eyes narrowed, gave the wheel a vicious twist.
    â€œReally,” he said calmly.
    â€œHonestly, Damian, I wish you’d slow—”
    â€œWhat else do they say about her?”
    â€œAbout...?” Gabriella shot him a quick glance. Then she reached forward, yanked down the sun visor and peered into the mirror on its reverse side. “I don’t pay attention to gossip,” she said coolly, as she fluffed her fingers through her artfully arranged hair. “But what is there to say about someone who poses nude?”
    A flash fire image of Laurel Bennett, naked and flushed in his bed, seared the mental canvas of Damian’s mind. He forced himself to concentrate on the final few yards of the curving road.
    â€œNude?” he said calmly.
    â€œTo all intents and purposes. She did an ad for Calvin Klein—it’s in this month’s Chic or maybe Femme, I’m not sure which.” Gabriella snapped the visor back into place. “Oh, it was all very elegant and posh, you know, one of those la-di-da arty shots taken through whatever it is they use, gauze, I suppose.” Her voice fairly purred with satisfaction. “She’d need it, wouldn’t she, seeing that she’s a bit long in the tooth? Still, gauze or no gauze, when you came right down to it, there she was, stark naked.”
    The picture of Laurel burned in his brain again. Damian cleared his throat. “Interesting.”
    â€œCheap is a better word. Totally cheap...which is why I just don’t understand what made you bother with her.”
    â€œYou’re talking nonsense, Gabriella.”
    â€œI saw the way you looked at her and let me tell you, I didn’t much like it. You have an obligation to me.”
    Damian pulled up at the entrance to the inn, shut off the engine and turned toward her.
    â€œObligation?” he said carefully.
    â€œThat’s right. We’ve been together for a long time now. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
    â€œI have not been unfaithful to you.”
    â€œThat’s not what I’m talking about and you know it.” She took a deep breath. “Can you really tell me you sat through that entire wedding without feeling a thing?”
    â€œI felt what I always feel at weddings,” he said quietly. “Disbelief that two people should willingly subject themselves to such nonsense along with the hope, however useless, that they make a success of what is basically an unnatural arrangement.”
    Gabriella’s mouth thinned. “How can you say such a thing?”
    â€œI say it because it’s true. You knew that was how I felt, from the start. You said your attitude mirrored mine.”
    â€œNever mind what I said,” Gabriella said sharply. “And you