‘More guests to greet,’ Brian Kingston murmured apologetically as he glanced across the room. ‘Excuse me, won’t you, Gabriel? I’m sure Bella and Claudi will be only too pleased to keep you entertained.’ He shot a teasing glance at the younger of the two cousins before turning and making his way back across the crowded room to his fiancée’s side.
Gabriel’s gaze was hooded as he continued to look steadily at Bella. ‘Will you?’
An irritated frown appeared between her eyes. ‘Will I what?’ she prompted sharply.
‘Be pleased to keep me entertained?’ he drawled with cool mockery.
Purple lights flashed in the depths of her eyes. ‘Do you need entertaining, Mr Danti?’
‘In truth, I doubt I will be staying long enough for that to be necessary,’ he conceded.
Gabriel hadn’t intended attending this party at all this evening, but at the last moment his father had asked him to represent the Danti side of the family, as he didn’t feel well enough to attend the party of his niece this evening as well as her wedding tomorrow. Gabriel had reluctantly agreed to come in his place, his intention to only stay long enough to satisfy the proprieties.
At least, it had been…
Gabriel Danti wasn’t staying long, Bella triumphed with inward relief. ‘I’m sure Claudia and I can manage a few minutes’ polite conversation, Mr Danti.’
Gabriel Danti gave a mocking inclination of his head before turning his attention to Claudia. ‘Are you enjoying your visit to San Francisco, Claudia?’
Bella allowed her breath to leave her lungs in a soft, shaky sigh as she at last felt herself released from the intensity of Gabriel’s dark, compelling gaze, and she took those few moments of respite to study him more closely.
The man she had met five years ago had possessed the broodingly magnetic good looks of his heavenly namesake. Along with a lazy self-confidence and charm that was utterly captivating, and a warm sensuality in those chocolate-brown eyes that undressed a woman at a glance.
Or, in Bella’s experience, made a woman want to undress for him at a glance!
The man talking oh-so-politely to Claudia still possessed those broodingly magnetic good looks—the livid scar down the left side of his face only added a dangerous edge to that attraction!—but his eyes were no longer that warm and sensual colour of melted chocolate but were instead a flat, unemotional brown, and the lazy charm and self-confidence had been replaced with a cold and arrogant aloofness.
As far as Bella was aware, Gabriel had never married—although, in all honesty, Bella hadn’t particularly gone out of her way to learn anything about his life in the five years since they had parted so abruptly.
What would have been the point? The two of them had shared nothing more than a night of unimaginable and unrepeatable passion.
‘Would you care for a drink?’
Bella raised startled eyes to 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
