Vettori's Damsel in Distress (Harlequin Romance Large Print) Read Free Page A

have a fitting for a bridesmaid dress in Melbourne on Tuesday. Unless you get your backside in gear and find a temp to take my place, come Sunday you’ll be the one getting up close and personal with the Gaggia.’ She took a swipe at the marble counter top with a cloth to remove an invisible mark. ‘Have you got a job lined up, Geli?’ she asked.
    ‘A job?’
    ‘You said you were here to work. Have you ever worked in a bar? Only there’s a temporary—’
    ‘If you’ve been travelling all day you must be hungry,’ Dante said, cutting his cousin off in mid-sentence. ‘We’ll have the risotto, Lisa.’ And, holding onto the details of her apartment and, more importantly, the map, he headed for a table for two that was tucked away in a quiet corner.

CHAPTER TWO
    ‘There’s nothing more cheering than a good friend when you’re in trouble—except a good friend with ice cream.’
    — from
Rosie’s Little Book of Ice Cream
    T OO SURPRISED TO REACT , Geli didn’t move. Okay, so there had been some fairly heavy-duty flirting going on, but that was a bit arrogant—
    Dante pulled out a chair and waited for her to join him.
    Make that quite a lot arrogant. Did he really think she would simply follow him?
    ‘Angelica?’
    No one used her full name, but he said it with a ‘g’ so soft that it felt like chocolate melting on her tongue and while her head was still saying,
Oh, please...
her body went to him as if he’d tugged a chain.
    ‘Give me your coat,’ he said, ‘and I’ll hang it up to dry.’
    She swallowed.
    It was late. She should be on her way but for that she needed directions, which was a good, practical reason to do as he said. Then again, nothing that had happened since she’d walked through the door of Café Rosa had been about the practicalities and, letting her tote slide from her shoulder onto the chair, she dropped her glove on the table and began to tug at its pair.
    Warm now, the fine leather clung to her skin and as she removed her glove, one finger at a time, Geli discovered that there was more than one way of being in control.
    A chain had two ends and now Dante was the one being hauled in as she slowly revealed her hand with each unintentionally provocative tug.
    She dropped the glove beside its pair and everything—the heartbeat pounding in her ears, her breathing—slowed right down as, never taking her eyes off his, she lowered her hand and, one by one, began to slip the small jet buttons that nipped her coat into her waist.
    There were a dozen of them and, taking her time, she started at the bottom. One, two, three... His gaze never wavered for a second until the bias cut swathes of velvet, cashmere and butter-soft suede—flaring out in layers that curved from just below her knees at the front to her heels at the back—fell open to reveal the black scoop-necked mini-dress that stopped four inches above her knees.
    She waited a heartbeat and then turned and let the coat slip from her shoulders, leaving him to catch it.
    An arch
got you
lift of an eyebrow as she thanked him should leave him in no doubt that the next move was up to him and she was more than ready for anything he had to offer, but as she glanced over her shoulder, fell into the velvet softness of his eyes, she forgot the plot.
    He was so close. His breath was warm on her cheek, his mouth was inches away and her eyebrow stayed put as she imagined closing the gap and taking his delicious lower lip between hers.
    Make that burned to a crisp toast. Toast about to burst into flames...
    She blinked as a clatter of cutlery shattered the moment and Dante looked down at her coat as if wondering where it had come from.
    ‘I’ll hang this by the heater to dry,’ he said.
    ‘Are you mad?’ Lisa, the table swiftly laid, took it from him. ‘You don’t hang something like this over a radiator as if it’s any old chain store raincoat. This kind of quality costs a fortune and it needs tender loving care.’ She checked the