The Devil to Pay Read Free Page B

hours.
    Poking her head around Gianpiero’s vast body for a final wave, she blindly threw her handbag onto the back seat before lowering herself down into its leather confines. The door closed with a luxurious click.
    “You almost cost me an hour’s work with that bag of yours, Miss Peters.” Daniel Bracchi’s deep voice sliced into the silence as she turned with horror to see him gesturing at his laptop screen. “It landed like a ton of bricks on the keyboard. What the hell have you got in there?”
    The car shifted as the trunk closed down on her suitcase, and Rianna realised she was staring at him open-mouthed like a demented goldfish. “I didn’t realise—” She could feel her entire face pulse with embarrassment. “God, I don’t know what to say, I am so sorry!”
    He frowned and gestured toward her passenger window. It had been lowered and the cold damp air felt like balm on her hot cheeks. “Say goodbye properly then,” he instructed as Gran smiled weakly and Gavin and Fiona bobbed up and down on the pavement.
    Rianna’s heart twisted as they squealed with excitement. It was to be expected, the poor things had never seen such a big, shiny car before. Then she suddenly felt the warmth of Bracchi’s body as he leaned across and stuck his own face out of the window. A prickle of awareness pulsed through her as his large frame pressed her breasts against the cool door trim and the rumble of his voice thundered through her chest wall. She swallowed hard.
    “She’ll be back soon,” he called out to the children. “With presents, I expect . ”
    He withdrew silently to his side of the car as they pulled off. Rianna took a sharp breath, irritated about the handbag incident and annoyed with herself for not realising that, of course, Daniel Bracchi would be in the car, too. What did she expect? Two cars?
    Honest to God.
    She craned her neck out of the window and waved until the trio were reduced to specks on the horizon and then disappeared completely as the car turned out of Oliver Street into town.
    ****
    “You’ll miss them, I guess?” Daniel said, as he tapped methodically at his keyboard. He’d noticed she’d looked a little sad as she’d closed the window. “They’re cute.”
    She placed the palms of her hands firmly down on her thighs and pressed her lips together. “Of course I will, but they’ll be fine with my gran.”
    Daniel ticked off imaginary boxes in his mind: two children already, the shop assistant was spot on. He was rapidly building up a picture of this woman. “Beautiful dark eyes,” he replied without looking at her.
    “They’re half-Malaysian,” Rianna replied curtly and shot him a defiant glare. “They stick out a bit in Taff’s Weir, I grant you, but we’ve all grown used to it.”
    Daniel’s squeezed his eyebrows together as he focused on the computer screen. His analytical mind formed a collage of possible events and scenarios, slotting in the information he already had, downloading every tense movement of her body, each sharp breath she took. The rational side of his brain urged him to bypass the human detail. This was work, she was work. She was also a mother, a partner and… pregnant. She had history. She was trouble. He should just forget it. But for some reason, he couldn’t let it go.
    “So their dad will be back tonight to take over?” He eased the lid of the laptop down and folded it into a panel in front of him.
    “No. No, he won’t…not for some time. If ever.” Her eyes blazed straight ahead, like silver arrows blasting into the back of Gianpiero’s head. “But life goes on. So how did it go with the dishwasher in the end?”
    Daniel was impressed by her slick refusal to elaborate on her personal life and the way she had turned the focus directly back on to him. Smart. He also congratulated himself on successfully confirming Mr. Malaysia was well and truly off the scene. This meant, this meant nothing much at all as far as he was concerned, but