The Infamous Italian's Secret Baby Read Online Free PDF

Gabriel’s, frowning slightly as she saw the glass he held out to her. Champagne. It would have to be champagne, wouldn’t it?
    ‘Thank you,’ she accepted stiltedly.
    Gabriel watched beneath hooded lids as Bella’s cheeks warmed with colour as she took the fluted glass from him with a deftness that prevented her fingers from coming into contact with his.
    His mouth twisted derisively as he asked, ‘Is this your first visit to San Francisco, too, Bella?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘You like the city?’
    ‘Very much.’
    ‘Have you done much sightseeing since your arrival?’
    ‘Some, yes.’
    Gabriel’s gaze narrowed at the economy of her replies. ‘Perhaps—’
    ‘Excuse me for interrupting, Gabriel,’ his cousin Dahlia, tomorrow’s bride, cut in lightly as she joined them, ‘but my brother Benito is anxious to become reacquainted with Claudia,’ she added indulgently.
    ‘Really?’ The younger of the two Scott sisters glanced across the room to where Benito stood watching her intently.
    Bella felt herself begin to tremble as she was overwhelmed with an impending sense of doom. If Claudia left then Bella would be completely alone with—
    ‘You don’t mind, do you, Bella?’ Claudia’s eyes were glowing with excitement. She had confided in Bella earlier today, after being introduced to Benito the previous evening, that she definitely wanted to get to know Dahlia’s older brother better.
    Obviously the attraction was reciprocated—which didn’t help Bella in the least when she had no inclination whatsoever to be left alone with Gabriel Danti!
    ‘I assure you, Claudia, your sister will be perfectly safe with me,’ Gabriel replied with dry mockery before Bella had a chance to say anything.
    Bella shot him a glance beneath her long lashes. She still had absolutely no idea whether or not Gabriel remembered her from their night together five years ago—and she didn’t want to know, either.
    She remembered him , and that was bad enough!
    But before she could add anything to his reply Claudia gave her arm a grateful squeeze. ‘Thanks, Bella,’ she whispered before moving away to accompany Dahlia over to where the dark and handsome Benito stood waiting.
    The sudden silence the two women left in their wake seemed deafening to Bella.
    The room was full of people, at least a hundred or so of the guests invited to the wedding tomorrow, all of them chatting or laughing as they either renewed old acquaintances or met new ones. And yet as far as Bella was concerned she and Gabriel could have been alone on an island in the Arctic—the air between them was certainly frigidly cold enough for them to be on one!
    ‘There is a more—private sitting area next to this one in which we might talk,’ Gabriel bit out abruptly.
    Bella raised apprehensive eyes, knowing that wariness was justified as Gabriel looked down his nose at her with a glacial brown gaze, his mouth—the mouth she had once found so sensually mesmerising!—flattened to a thin, uncompromising line above that cleft chin.
    She moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘I’m perfectly happy where I am, thank you, Mr Danti.’
    His eyes became even more icy as he reached out and curled his fingers compellingly about the top of her arm. ‘It was a statement of intent, Bella, not a question,’ he assured her grimly as he began to walk towards the exit, Bella firmly anchored to his side, the stiffness of his left leg barely noticeable.
    ‘But—’
    ‘Do you really want to have this conversation here, in front of Dahlia and Brian’s other guests?’ he asked harshly as he came to a halt halfway across the crowded room to look down at her through narrowed lids.
    Bella swallowed hard as she saw the unmistakeablyangry glitter in that dark gaze. ‘I have absolutely no idea what conversation you’re referring to—’
    ‘Oh, I think that you do, Bella,’ he retorted menacingly.
    Bella thought that she did, too!
    She only wished that she didn’t. But Gabriel’s behaviour