The Prince's Housekeeper Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

virgin flesh for the first deep stab of him. Biting his chest as he seared inside her, Alisa was unable to stifle the sob that welled in her throat, torn between want and agony as he swelled deeper within her tight, intimate space.
    â€œNo…” The reluctant word was a sob, a muffled scream as her thighs straightened in a regretful reflex as she tried to accommodate him.
    â€œI’ve hurt you?” His withdrawal was as rapid as his embrace, his shocked features taking in her tears as he scooped her against him. “I thought you wanted—“
    â€œI did…” she murmured. “I do…” She was crying now, scared and sore but still shamefully wanting, “I’ve never done this before…” Wincing against him, Alisa could almost hear his mind asking impossible questions. “I didn’t tell you the truth. Marietta isn’t my daughter.” She sobbed trying to cover herself, grabbing a sheet, terrified at what she must now admit to this very powerful man. “She’s my sister.”
    â€œYour sister?” He stared down at her, confusion lacing every feature. “Why?” He shook his head. “Why would you lie to me? Why say she is yours?”
    â€œBecause they would take her away!” Her tear-streaked face turned to his, her eyes pleading for his understanding.
    â€œBut you and your husband can surely—”
    â€œThere is no husband! I raise her alone.”
    â€œWhen?” As if she were on fire, he dropped her, emphasizing the very question Alisa had often asked herself. “When do you raise her?”
    â€œI have to work.” Alisa gasped. “I have to pay for her medicines. Benito, she is unwell, she needs medicine—”
    â€œIs it any wonder?” The harshness of his voice was like a slap. His dark eyes looked at her with utter distaste. “You are never there for her. And on your one day off you are out sailing and screwing—”
    Grabbing at her clothes, appalled at his reaction, she ran from the boat, but there was no hiding from the truth. His terrifying words taunted her over and over as she raced along the pier until, breathless and dizzy, she arrived at Sunday school to collect her sister.
    â€œMaybe she would be better off without you.”

Chapter Six
    â€œHe’s right.” Alisa shivered in misery. Once again Marietta’s sobs and coughing still had not abated despite the lateness of the hour. “I am not here for her enough.”
    â€œYou love her, though,” Bella pointed out. “As soon as you have your qualifications, you will be there for her each morning, at home in the evenings—”
    â€œDreams!” This time it was Alisa who gave a weary shrug. “How can I study when I have no work to pay our bills?”
    â€œYou don’t know that yet, not until you go back to the villa…” Bella attempted to be optimistic, but it was hopeless, they both knew that. Alisa had seen the anguish on the old lady’s lined face when, sobbing, Alisa had told her the story.
    â€œHold your head high when they fire you, Alisa. He had no right to say those things to you. How could a man of his status possibly know how hard it is?”
    Â 
    He didn’t want to know.
    Benito didn’t want to think about her life because then he might have to examine his own.
    Didn’t want to ask himself why it was easier to sleep with an unfaithful wife than a virgin aunt.
    Pacing the floor of the villa, a thousand times he halted by the phone, even picked it up a few times to arrange her dismissal as he had done to others so many times in the past, for a spilled glass of wine on his expensive suit, for the fire not being lit when he’d arrived home unannounced. The knot of self-loathing didn’t loosen as he downed a whisky in one gulp as, over and over, he tried to convince himself he was right.
    He worked hard!
    So had they.
    He deserved