The Unwanted Wife (Unwanted #1)(24)
“Indeed.” The other man smiled even though it was obvious, in the way he glanced at Sandro, that he knew something was amiss. “I’m glad you overcame your aversion to football and decided to join us tonight. The guys will be delighted to meet Alessandro’s beautiful wife.” Her aversion to football? So that was how he’d explained away her conspicuous absences.
“And I’m looking forward to meeting them,” she said warmly. She was annoyed with Sandro and hurt by his transparent ploys to keep her appeased, but this tall, broad-shouldered man with the warm smile seemed lovely, and Theresa could not help but instinctively like him.
“Everybody’s around back, Sandro,” Gabe informed the silent man who stood at her back. “I’ll join you soon, I’m waiting for Bobbi.” He relinquished Theresa’s hand and grinned down at her. “Don’t let the guys flirt with you too much, Theresa. They’re an incorrigible lot and they’re suckers for a pretty girl!” He seemed to mean it, if his lingering glance over her blushing face was any indication.
“Enough with the flirting, Braddock,” Sandro suddenly growled, stepping forward to place a possessive hand on her elbow, and Gabe’s grin took on a decidedly wicked slant.
“I can’t believe it,” Gabe hooted, his voice alive with discovery. “You’re jealous…of me!” The very idea was so ludicrous that Theresa laughed along with him, but Sandro’s grip tightened on her elbow.
“I’m not jealous,” he retorted scathingly once their laughter had died down. “Just trying to protect my wife from your smarmy attentions, you smart-ass.”
“No, I’m beginning to believe you kept her away from all of us for so long because you can’t handle the competition,” the other man ribbed with the nerve that only a long-standing friend would possess.
“I am confident of my wife’s excellent taste,” Sandro dismissed before trying to steer Theresa away, but she resisted.
“Now hold on a second, Sandro. I haven’t exactly been spoiled for choice, you know! I may find that my taste has changed.” Oh, he did not like that, not one bit! He slanted a hard, narrow-eyed glare at her that the other man, who was laughing in delight at her pithy comeback, did not see, and Theresa tilted her chin stubbornly and met his glare with a defiant glare of her own.
“Ooh, I like her, Sandro,” Gabe laughed, wiping at his eyes. “She’s a feisty one.”
“Yes…” Sandro’s eyes warmed with reluctant amusement. “This I am beginning to see for myself.” He tugged at her arm again, and before Theresa could say or do anything more, he was leading her away. She followed docilely until she was certain that they were out of sight and earshot of the other man before she yanked her elbow from his grasp and turned on him furiously.
“You despicable, manipulative bastard!” she seethed, venting her frustration by punching him in the chest for good measure. He grimaced and rubbed at the spot she had hit before stepping out of the range of her swing.
“What the hell is your problem?” he growled angrily.
“My problem?” She managed to keep voice just under a screech. “My problem is you! You lied to me…again. You said that this was a business thing.”
“Technically, it is. I am in business with at least five of the men here tonight!” he responded defensively.
“But this isn’t really business is it? This is your precious little football game, the one I wasn’t good enough to be invited to until after I threatened to leave you!”
“You said that you wanted to meet my friends.” He seemed genuinely baffled. “Now when I give you that opportunity, you go crazy! I don’t understand you at all.”
“The only reason you brought me here tonight was because you thought it would appease me. Throw the vicious dog a bone, and it’ll soon be eating out of your hand!”
“More like vicious bitch,” he muttered beneath his breath, and when he realized that she had heard him, he shrugged unrepentantly. “If you’re going to be using animal metaphors, you might as well get it right.”
“Fine, I’m a bitch…whatever!” She knew her response was childish, but she was feeling more than a little put out by the situation.
“Look, I don’t understand why you’re so angry when you said you wanted to meet them.”
“A year ago, sure. But not now! Don’t you understand that this is too little too late?” She shook her head in frustration. “It’s like putting a Band-Aid on an amputation!”
“You’re being overdramatic, as usual,” he said dismissively.
“Oh, you knew what my reaction would be, and the only reason you knew that was because you recognized how inadequate and pathetic this gesture really is.”
“And how do you figure that?” he asked defensively, crossing his arms over his broad chest and glaring down his beautiful nose at her.
“Why else would you be so sneaky about bringing me here?”
“Maybe because you’ve been so ridiculous about going anywhere with me lately!” he snapped angrily. “I knew you’d refuse if I asked you to come here tonight, so I had to fabricate a business dinner. Recently you’ve done nothing but overreact to everything I say and do, as well as completely misread my intentions, so I couldn’t take the chance. I was hoping that for once I’d be wrong about you…but sure enough you had to go and be unreasonable about this too. You’re so determined to put a negative slant on everything I do these days, that you’re not willing to accept anything at face value. There are no ulterior motives here. I merely recognized that you had a point about never meeting my friends. I have been unfair, and I wanted a chance to make it right.” She bit her lip, unwilling to trust him but unable to resist the sincerity in his eyes. He looked like he actually meant his words.