His Fantasy Bride (Things to do Before You Die… #3)(8)

She rolled back over and slowly emerged from her cocoon, sitting up and pushing her hair out of her face. “Yeah.” She glanced at her watch. She’d slept for three hours—a post coital snooze; sex always made her sleepy—and she had to be at the theater in an hour and a half.

“Here.” Theresa pushed a mug of coffee under her nose, and she wrapped her fingers around it, brought it to her face, and breathed in the caffeine fumes.

“Thank you.” She glanced up at her friend. “You want to meet after the show?”

“Can’t. I have a night shift.” Theresa was an ER nurse. It was all she had ever wanted to be, and she worked long hours but seemed to love it. Plus, she was in lust with one of the ER doctors who so far didn’t know she existed but for whom she had high hopes. “Are you okay?” Theresa sank into the chair opposite and was studying her, eyes narrowed. Theresa was pure Sicilian—curvy, dark haired and dark eyed, with smooth olive skin. A total contrast to Gabby.

She tried for a nonchalant shrug. “Why shouldn’t I be?”

“Your lips are swollen. You look like you’ve been thoroughly kissed.”

“I wish. Though I did fall flat on my face during rehearsal this morning—twice.”

“Hmm.”

Trouble was, Theresa knew her too well. Gabby swallowed the lukewarm coffee in one gulp, then pushed the blanket off and got to her feet. “Shower time.”

She stood under the hot spray, trying to wash away her worries and failing.

Oh Lord, why had Vito come back now, after she’d finally let down her guard?

For the first few weeks after she’d run, she’d spent the whole time looking over her shoulder, expecting him to pop up at any moment.

And what had she felt when he hadn’t? Relief obviously. But lurking beneath the relief was a huge dose of disappointment. Had some stupid, pathetic part of her actually believed that deep down he’d loved her? That he’d seen through her pretense to the real Gabby underneath and fallen in love.

Hah. Never going to happen.

She’d been living in fantasyland.

He would have run a mile from the real Gabby. The real her was so not his type. She knew because she had studied his type, turned herself into his ideal woman. And as far as she was concerned—his ideal woman was a boring prude.

But in case he turned up again, she needed a plan of action. Something to tell him that would get him off her back once and for all. And if she felt a little twinge of…sadness at that, well, suck it up, bitch. He might be the best looking man she had ever kissed, and he might have the biggest cock she had ever encountered, and he might know exactly what to do with it…

All that was beside the point.

None of it changed the fact that his big cock was attached to a D’Ascensio, and was therefore off-limits and always would be.

When she came out of her bedroom, dressed and ready to go, Theresa was still sitting where she had left her. She glanced up as Gabby came into the room. “Luca called.”

That wasn’t good news. “What? When?”

“Five minutes ago. He wanted to know if I’d seen you.”

Gabby caught her upper lip between her teeth, worried on it for a while. She was quite aware that Theresa hated lying to her brother. But she wasn’t ready to face Luca yet. With luck, she’d soon be able to repay the money she owed him, and then she’d put an end to this. “What did you tell him?”

“That I hadn’t seen you in a while. Well, it was sort of true—I didn’t bother to define ‘a while.’ What’s going on between you two? Why are you hiding?” She pursed her lips. “What did my brother do to you? I’ll kill him.”

“Nothing. Really.” She shrugged. “I agreed to do him a favor and I sort of failed. But he lent me some money and maybe he’s a little pissed.”

“The money for your mother’s treatment? I wondered where you’d gotten it. I know you were broke at the time, but you clearly weren’t ready to talk.” Her lips turned down, and she rested her hands on her hips. “And Luca made you do something for it? My brother’s an *.”

“I wanted to help.” And she had at the time. And it hadn’t seemed such a bad thing, saving the family honor, or regaining it…or whatever. Now, it just seemed totally stupid, like something out of a bad movie. “Look, I’ve got to head out. I’m going to be late, and I’m already not the most popular person there. I don’t want to give Anton any more reason to be pissed at me.”

“But you’ll talk to me soon?”

She crossed to where Theresa stood and gave her a hug. “Yeah. Soon.”

After grabbing her bag, she headed for the door. As she exited the flat she almost catapulted straight into Vito. He stood just outside, finger raised as if to ring the doorbell.

Holy freaking moly.

She glanced back to make sure Theresa hadn’t spotted their visitor, and pulled the door closed behind her.

“What do you want?” The words came out harsher than she’d intended, but she was in shock. Why did he have to keep popping up where he wasn’t supposed to be? And how had he found her? She’d thought she would have a little more time to get her act together.

Christ, what had she decided to tell him? It had sounded so plausible when she’d come up with her plan in the shower.