Page 37 of His Fantasy Bride (Things To Do Before You Die)

“Probably. He lived by violence and coercion, but it was the way he’d been brought up, the only way he knew how to survive. He also lived life to the fullest and had no regrets. He said the one thing he couldn’t stand was hypocrisy. Take what you want and pay for it. That was his motto.”

“He sounds interesting.”

“He was. He also had a hell of a temper. And I swore I’d never be the same. I’m sorry got angry this afternoon.”

“It was my fault. But let’s forget it.” She thought about all she wanted to know about him, and how to lighten the mood. “When did you lose your virginity?”

At last, a smile curved his lips. “I was fifteen and staying here with my grandfather. She was sixteen and a local girl, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if my grandfather had put her up to it.”

Bitch.

She tried not to be jealous of something that had happened so long ago…and didn’t quite succeed.

Tomorrow they would return to London. The money she’d loaned her mother was back in her account. She had no reason to put things off any longer. She was going to have to go see Luca, pay him back, and afterward come clean to Vito. Though maybe she’d allow herself one more day.

After that…

Well, she would just go on with her life and put this whole thing down to time out of normality. Just another acting job.

Yeah. Of course I will.

Vito’s cell phone rang. He got up, walked to the edge of the terrace, listened for a moment, then spoke quietly into the phone. He watched her as he talked, then finally closed off the call and came back to her.

“That was my father,” he said. “He and my mother are in London next week and would like to meet us for dinner.”

She frowned. “They know about me?”

“I told them I was bringing someone to Sicily.”

“Oh.” He’d said that he hadn’t told his parents about her all those months ago. He’d obviously done so this time.

“I haven’t seen them for a while, and I want them to meet you.”

She bit her lip. She didn’t want to meet his parents; she would feel like a liar, a fraud. He must have seen the refusal hovering on her lips.

“They’re nice people, honestly. And they’ll love you.”

Did it matter what she said? She doubted he’d be talking to her next week, so it was academic, anyway. She took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ve never met a missionary.”

Chapter Ten

“You haven’t broken it off yet?” Theresa asked. “Are you crazy?”

Gabby plonked herself on the sofa and prepared for a lecture. Hopefully, it would be a quick one. She was meeting Vito at the Savoy in half an hour for an early dinner before she was due at the theater, and she still had to put her makeup on. “Probably,” she mumbled.Definitely. Absolutely crazy.

She wouldn’t have mentioned the dinner, because she could have predicted her best friend’s response, but Theresa had caught her filching her little black funeral dress from her wardrobe. Gabby had thought it appropriate for her last dinner with Vito. She wanted him to remember her with some sort of affection when it all turned to crap. Maybe it would remind him why he had first fallen in love with her. She’d dumped all her Gabrielle clothes when she got back from Sicily the first time. They weren’t her sort of thing.

“Go on, get the lecture over with,” she said as Theresa continued to stare sat her.

“I think you’re in big trouble.”

“No, I’m not. I have everything under control.”

“You were supposed to tell him, but instead, you go on holiday with him? That is so not under control. Why the hell haven’t you told him?”

“Because he’ll hate me. And I’m scared. And I know I’ll never see him again. And I…” The truth was she was living in fantasyland. By now Vito was supposed to have realized how unsuitable she was.Shewas supposed to have shocked the hell out of him. Instead, he seemed to genuinely like her. She’d tried her best to be outrageous, really she had. “I’m going to as soon as I’ve spoken to Luca.”

“Have you contacted him?”

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