The Unwanted Conti Bride (The Legendary Conti Brothers) Read Online Free PDF Page A

because of how much dessert she’d eaten in her anxiety tonight after the strict diet of the last two weeks.
    Luca pulled her to him; she tried to swat him away.
    He won in the fight for possession of her. She swallowed hard. Fingers on her chin, he examined her cheek. “I apologize. She had no right to behave like that.” His mouth became a hard line. All the charm, the wicked laughter, was gone.
    She waited for the inevitable question about her and Kairos, but it never came. But then, the one thing Luca had never been was a hypocrite.
    “Marriage to Kairos is not good for her.”
    She frowned but he didn’t elaborate. “Kairos can be hard to—” he raised a brow and she realized she’d jumped to her supposed lover’s defense “—understand.”
    “You feel sorry for her?” he said, amazement in his eyes.
    Sophia shrugged. Despite the sting in her cheek and the burn in her stomach at the comment on her looks, something inside Sophia recoiled at the vulnerability in Valentina’s eyes. A palette of emotions for Kairos, who was as hard-hearted as hell, to see. And everything was acted upon, too...
    No man was worth that self-doubt, that haunting sense of inadequacy, Sophia wanted to tell Valentina.
    Swift anger rose through her at Kairos; he was supposed to be her friend. Couldn’t he have reassured Valentina instead of using Sophia to keep his own wife at a distance?
    “It’s obvious that what I suggested is a disastrous idea.” She chanced a glance at Luca, greedy to the last second. She’d make sure it was another decade before she saw him again. Something in her clenched tight. “Forget what I suggested.”
    Without waiting for his answer, Sophia turned and walked away.
    And in that moment she hated all men.
    Antonio, for planting that horrible idea in her head, for using her desperation to promote his own agenda.
    Kairos, for using their friendship as a barrier against his own wife.
    Salvatore, for never giving her a chance in the company, even though he called her his daughter.
    And the man behind her, more than anyone else, for kissing her like he meant it. Now and ten years ago. For making her want him so much, for making her weak and foolish, for making her imagine, even for a second, that she was all the things she could never be.

CHAPTER THREE
    L UCA SPENT THAT Monday morning with Huang from the design team of Conti Luxury Goods, studying the prototype for new heels that would be released the coming spring.
    Huang and he had worked together for almost ten years now, since Leandro had convinced Luca to take a small part in Conti Luxury Goods. Luca interacted only with Huang, and Huang worked with the rest of the design team.
    He picked up a royal blue pump, tracing the aerodynamic sole with his fingers. The success of these pieces didn’t worry him. As always, anything he designed, from pumps to handbags, became instantly covetous among the fanatically fashionable.
    Seeing something raw and shapeless transform into something so pleasing, that was success to him. But this particular design run had come to fruition and he felt the loss of it keenly. It had been quite a challenge—the design of the new heel. Now the production team would take over.
    Familiar restlessness slithered through his veins. What to work on next? Sophia’s outrageous proposal from Friday night winked at him.
    Dio , but that had challenge and fun and all kinds of things written into it. She hated him—had every right to, but she was still attracted to him. When his looks tripped Sophia into that kind of a kiss, he couldn’t quite hate them. It should have been one of a hundred kisses, she one of numerous, interchangeable faces he filled his life with and yet, the taste of her lips lingered, the passion with which she had taken him lingered, filling him with a restless craving for more.
    Since he had no intention of following that up with Sophia, he needed a woman. To forget her and her kisses and that he had no place in