Revenge at Bella Terra

Revenge at Bella Terra Read Free

Book: Revenge at Bella Terra Read Free
Author: Christina Dodd
Ads: Link
understatement.
    “Tamossa has been married, what? Five times, I think. He loves women. That’s part of his magic.” Francesca ran her hand through her long auburn hair. “You should try showing your love for the women, Eli. Nothing interests a female as much as a man who finds her fascinating.”
    He gave Francesca a lazy smile, bending all his charisma on her. “For a man like me, to be surrounded by women is a pleasure none other can surpass.”
    “Very good,” Francesca purred, and fluttered her lashes.
    Brooke applauded. “Wow. Impressive, Eli. I’ve always said you Di Luca men have raised the art of flirtation to new heights.” She was pretty, smart, and talented, the head concierge of his family’s Bella Terra resort (although in her determination to get away from Rafe, she had resigned . . . That hadn’t worked out as she had planned). Because Brooke was also the first bride for one of the three Di Luca brothers . . . although if Tamosso Conte had his way, not the last.
    Still smiling, giving not a hint of his inner turmoil, Eli asked, “This Tamosso Conte—have you ever met his daughter?”
    “His daughter?” Francesca lifted her perfectly arched brows. “He has been married many times, but he has no children.”
    Eli knew she was wrong. He’d seen the photo Tamosso had proffered.
    The girl—she didn’t look old enough to be called a woman—sat at a cluttered desk smiling at the camera. Her blond hair was twisted on top of her head, held up with a sharpened pencil, and careless wisps fell artlessly around her cheeks. She cradled her chin in her fist—a very determined chin, by the look of it—and peered right at the camera through big brown eyes. She was, as pictured, very pretty.
    And all Eli had been able to think was . . . Photo-shop.
    Because her father had sagging jowls and a droopy nose, and he wasn’t just short—he sported a workingman’s build, with a barrel chest, broad shoulders, and a rotund gut. With genetics like that, the girl was doomed.
    Eli supposed he shouldn’t be so shallow . . . and maybe when he met her, no matter what she looked like, he’d like her.
    Maybe when he married her, he’d worship her.
    Maybe when pigs could fly, all the chicken would taste like bacon.
    “You okay, honey?” Nonna asked. “You look a little ill.”
    She saw too much, so he moved the wine box in his arms as if he were growing tired of the weight, and looked around. “Where’s Rafe? Where’s the bridegroom?”
    “He’s in the kitchen.” Brooke smirked at him. “Cooking.”
    Eli smirked back at her. “Training him right, hm?”
    “He complained about the shouting, said that our voices were so high we gave him a headache, but I said if he thought that was going to get him out of sex tonight, he—”
    Eli’s sweet little eighty-year-old grandmother, the one who never swore, shouted, “Shit! Did you see that?” She pointed toward the screen.
    The women started shouting again.
    Eli backed out of the room and headed down the hall for the kitchen. He passed the dining room, passed the one bathroom in the house—when the extended Di Luca family got together, that made for some desperate moments of pounding and pleading—and went into the brightly lit and recently renovated kitchen.
    Rafe was layering slices of eggplant with pasta, cheese, and Nonna’s marinara sauce.
    Noah was putting chicken fillets on a cooling rack, and that was placed on a cookie sheet that would catch any loose breading, and spraying them with cooking oil.
    Both of his brothers had their sleeves rolled up and kitchen towels tucked into their belts. Both wore frowns of concentration.
    “Does anyone besides me see the irony of having the women in the living room watching sports while the men cook dinner?” Eli put the case down on the counter and pulled out the first three bottles of wine.
    “Shut up and put on your apron.” Noah was the youngest of Gavino’s sons, handsome, charming, and urbane, the

Similar Books

Dead Secret

Janice Frost

Darkest Love

Melody Tweedy

Full Bloom

Jayne Ann Krentz

Closer Home

Kerry Anne King

Sweet Salvation

Maddie Taylor