The Correttis (Books 1-8). Кейт Хьюит

doing?’

      ‘Relaxing. I do yoga. It’s good for the core and helps keep me flexible.’

      ‘Flexible?’ His voice slightly rough, Luca lifted his gaze from her legs to her face, his phone forgotten. ‘How flexible?’

      The temperature in the room shot up and suddenly all she could think of was the way his mouth had felt on hers.

      ‘Flexible enough to make sure that when we’re seen in public you’re looking very tired.’ Unable to resist teasing him, she wrapped one leg behind her neck and his brows rose.

      ‘That position has amazing possibilities but there’s no way I’d look tired in public. I have endless stamina. Maybe you’ll be the one who is looking tired, tesoro, from my male demands.’

      Her heart thudded a little harder. ‘I’ve been working with a trainer for months in preparation for this role. I can cope with any physical demands you care to throw my way.’

      ‘Is that a challenge?’

      ‘Absolutely not.’ Taylor swallowed and allowed her leg to slide back into its original position. ‘So what advice does your website offer?’

      His eyes lingered on hers and then eventually he looked back at the screen. ‘Touching.’

      ‘Pardon?’

      ‘According to this, newly engaged couples touch all the time. They can’t bear to be next to each other and not feel each other. Does that mean I have permission to stroke your breasts in public? Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.’

      ‘Public. Of course. We have to be seen in public.’ Taylor pushed away thoughts of his hands on her breasts. ‘We need to be seen, otherwise no one is going to believe this is real. We should go out for dinner or something.’

      ‘What’s the point of that? You don’t eat anything.’

      ‘All the better. People will assume my love for you is putting me off my food.’

      ‘Just as long as you don’t expect me to be off my food too, because I have no intention of starving myself for the role.’ He scanned the screen, his expression comical. ‘Cristo, is there anything good about being engaged?’

      ‘Why ask me? I’ve never been engaged before either. Nor do I want to be.’

      ‘No?’ His gaze lifted to hers. ‘Then that makes us a perfect pair. So what happened to you to put you off relationships?’

      Her heart thudded a little bit faster. ‘Life.’

      ‘You mean a man.’

      Would a real man take advantage of a vulnerable girl? Would a real man cynically manipulate someone’s feelings for his own benefit? She felt the panic stir deep inside her and squashed it down. ‘Well, he had a penis, if that’s what you mean. But apart from that no, I wouldn’t call him a man.’ The words tasted like acid in her mouth and they must have sounded the same way because he lowered his phone, his dark gaze suddenly sharp.

      ‘Is this guy the reason you hate the press? What did he do?’

      Why on earth had she started this conversation? Especially with a man as shallow and superficial as Luca Corretti. She was surprised he’d even asked the question. what did he know about loneliness? Or vulnerability, come to that. He came from a huge family. He had no idea what it was like to have no one. He would never in a million years understand what had happened to her.

      ‘It isn’t relevant.’

      ‘I’m your fiancé. If you have something in your past that had that big an impact on you, I need to know about it.’

      ‘No, you don’t.’ She felt the panic rise from deep inside her and block her throat. ‘My past is none of your business.’

      ‘For someone who claims this is in the “past” you look pretty stressed out.’

      ‘It’s being with you that makes me stressed out. And what about you?’ She turned it back on him. ‘Anything in your past I need to know about?’

      ‘Nothing at all.’ He deflected her question with ease. ‘My life is an open book.’

      No one’s life was an open book, she knew that now. There were hidden corners, areas of darkness, a graveyard of secrets.

      She wondered what his were.

      While she was musing on the comment he’d made about his mother, he strode across the room, picked up the phone And spoke in Italian. ‘I’m taking you out to dinner. My team will book us a table at Da Giovanni. It’s very elegant. And high-profile. You can push a lettuce leaf around your plate and gaze at me adoringly.’

      ‘You’ll have to gaze at me adoringly too.’

      ‘I can do that as long as you don’t get confused and start thinking it’s real.’

      ‘When I grab a gun and shoot myself through the head you’ll know I’m starting to think our relationship is real,’ she told him in a cool tone. ‘Until then, you’re safe. Unfortunately I don’t have any faith that you are capable of even acting the part of a man in love, so concentrate because I’m going to give you some hints.’

      ‘I’ve already told you I don’t need an acting lesson.’

      She ignored that. ‘The best way to convincingly play emotion is to conjure up the feeling. So if I’m playing someone sad, I try and remember a time when I was sad.’

      ‘I’ve never been engaged so I can’t conjure up the horror that went with it.’

      ‘Very funny, but not helpful. Tonight you have to look as if I’m the only woman in the world for you. Is there any chance you can do that?’

      ‘Are all the other women in the world dead? I suppose if that were the case, I might be relieved to be shackled to you. You’re not bad once you’re fed.’

      Taylor clenched her jaw. ‘This is a nightmare. You are never going to be able to act as if you’re engaged. It isn’t in your nature.’

      ‘Watch me prove you wrong. I can act. I can dredge emotions from deep inside me or wherever it is emotions are stored. You want happiness, right? I can do happiness as long as I’m not expected to associate it with relationships.’

      Taylor breathed slowly. ‘All right, let’s try this another way. What is the happiest moment you can remember?’

      He didn’t hesitate. ‘The day they delivered my Ferrari.’

      ‘Fine! Tonight, you are going to look at me as if I’m your Ferrari.’

      ‘Do I get to put your top down?’

      ‘You are infuriating!’ So why did she want to laugh? ‘This was such a bad idea. You’ll blow it and this will be the shortest engagement on record.’

      ‘I am not going to blow it. I love my Ferrari. I love my Ferrari.’ He muttered the words under his breath and shot her a glance. ‘Perhaps I’d better dress you in red, just so that there’s a similarity.’

      Taylor shook her head in despair. ‘And on that note, I have to go back to my hotel. I can’t go out to dinner in the same clothes I’ve been wearing all day, and anyway, if we’re going to stay here I need to pack up my things and move them here.’

      ‘One of the advantages of being engaged to the head of a fashion house is that clothes aren’t a problem.’ He sent a quick message on his phone. ‘If we’re going to be seen together, you might as well showcase something from Corretti.’

      ‘So now you’re using me for free publicity?’

      ‘Of course I’m using you. That’s what this is all about. I’m using you. You’re using me.’

      Of course I’m using you.

      Taylor