One Christmas Night In...: A Night in the Palace / A Christmas Night to Remember / Texas Tycoon's Christmas Fiancée. HELEN BROOKS
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bottom lip as she saw the grimness of Dmitri’s expression as he made another phone call—her little brother was in deep, deep trouble! Probably the biggest trouble he had ever been in in his life. Once Dmitri caught up with him, Felix would be lucky if he was even allowed to remain in Italy—let alone see Claudia again.
And Lily was left standing there like a spare part, not knowing what to do with herself while Dmitri engaged in another rapid-fire conversation in Italian with whomever it was he had telephoned now.
Self-pity wasn’t something that she had ever allowed herself to indulge in—mainly because she had been too busy these past eight years just managing to keep all the balls of her life in the air rather than letting them crash to the ground—but she was definitely starting to feel a little sorry for herself now. It was Christmas Eve, after all, and it looked as if Dmitri was almost ready to leave the palazzo to drive her to a hotel. Where she would no doubt spend the rest of the day alone. And tomorrow too. Really not the way in which Lily had envisaged spending her Christmas Day!
‘Where are you going?’ Dmitri placed his hand over the mouthpiece of the telephone in order to talk to Lily as he realised she had turned away, with the obvious intention of leaving him to the privacy of his telephone call.
She gave a small shrug as she looked at him over her shoulder. ‘I thought I would just take my suitcase downstairs so that I’m ready to leave whenever you are.’
So that she was ready to leave …
Dmitri had actually forgotten his offer to drive her to a hotel in these past few minutes, because he finally felt as if he was making progress where Claudia and Felix was concerned. But he remembered it now. It also occurred to him that Lily, once at the hotel, would then be completely alone over the Christmas holiday. Just as Dmitri would. Which had never been a problem for him before.
It was not a problem for him now, either, he told himself harshly. It was Lily of whom he was thinking—not himself. ‘There is no rush, is there?’ Did her expression brighten slightly? Dmitri wasn’t sure.
‘No,’ she answered. ‘No, of course there’s no rush.’ She smiled. ‘I was just going to make some coffee for the men downstairs. Perhaps you would like a cup too?’
‘I would—thank you,’ Dmitri agreed warmly.
Too warmly? What on earth was the matter with him? A short while ago getting Lily out of his home had seemed like a good idea—a wonderful idea, in fact. Yet now he felt only reluctance at the very thought of her leaving.
For Lily’s own sake, he assured himself again firmly. Because she was a visitor to his native city, and so far had not received the welcome that Roma extended to all its visitors. Nor was her brother here to spend Christmas with her, as expected. Those had to be the reasons for his current hesitation; what else could it be?
‘Count Scarletti?’
The voice squawking down the earpiece of the telephone reminded Dmitri that he was still in the middle of a call.
‘I will come down to the kitchen shortly,’ he said to Lily, before turning in his chair to look out of the palazzo window while he continued his telephone call.
‘I take it the work is finished?’
Lily turned from laughing at something the glazier had just translated into English for the slightly flirtatious security man, her smile fading as she saw a stony-faced Dmitri standing in the kitchen doorway, observing their conversation. ‘I— No, I don’t think so.’ She shifted uncomfortably, aware that she had been the one distracting the two workmen.
‘Then perhaps they might be allowed to get on with their work?’ Dmitri suggested, as he came farther into the room to look pointedly at the other two men.
A look that obviously needed no translation, as they instantly put down their half drunk cups of coffee and hurried back to attend to the window.
Lily turned back to Dmitri. ‘Wow—can you do that to a whole roomful of people?’
‘Without even trying,’ he drawled dryly as he walked over to the table. ‘Considering I don’t usually enter this part of the palazzo, I seem to be spending a lot of my time in here at the moment.’
She stood up to pour him a cup of coffee. ‘I spend a lot of time sitting in the kitchen in my flat at home.’
‘Sitting? Not cooking?’ He made himself comfortable on one of the chairs around the table.
Lily put the cup down on the table before resuming her seat. ‘Oh, I can cook, Dmitri.’
‘You just choose not to do so while you are here,’ he acknowledged, adding neither cream nor sugar before sipping the hot brew.
Lily looked at him closely, not fooled for a minute by the apparent casualness of this conversation, and knowing that moments ago he had not been in the least happy at finding Lily and the workmen laughing together. Because she was delaying them? Or because of something else?
She gave a shrug. ‘I’m a teacher, not a cook.’
He gave an inclination of his head. ‘And I am sure you are a very good one.’
‘Goodness me!’ Lily’s eyes were wide as she leant back in her chair. ‘Did you just pay me a compliment?’
Dmitri frowned his irritation with her sarcasm. ‘I do not believe any of my insults have been levelled at you.’
‘Not personally, no. But by association, yes.’
And why should he not have expressed his displeasure with her brother, when he and Claudia might be the cause of the biggest scandal to rock the Scarletti family in several hundred years! ‘I do not in the least blame you for your family connections, Lily,’ he stated frostily.
‘You could have fooled me!’ An angry flush darkened her cheeks. ‘And, whatever Felix may or may not have done, he will always be my twin brother, and I love him.’
They were well on their way to having another disagreement, Dmitri recognised impatiently, when all he had meant to do was apologise for his earlier abruptness by paying her a compliment. Added to which, his comment had been sincere; he was certain that her no-nonsense attitude made her an excellent teacher.
He sighed. ‘I am not about to engage in another argument with you, Lily.’
‘The only way that isn’t going to happen is if we don’t speak to each other again before I leave!’ Her eyes flashed her annoyance at him.
A nerve pulsed in his cheek above his tightly clenched jaw. ‘Did you remember to return your telephone call this morning?’
She looked at him blankly. ‘Sorry?’
‘I seem to remember that last night you promised your friend Danny that you would call him back today.’ He raised dark brows.
Lily frowned; if this was his way of avoiding an argument then he was failing miserably. ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, Dmitri, do you?’ she challenged, having no intention of telling him that she wasn’t going to return Danny’s call—today or any other day. That relationship was definitely over.
‘As the man who was interrupted in the middle of making love to you on this table last night when you received Danny’s telephone call, I think my curiosity is understandable,’ he shot back.
‘Would you keep your voice down?’ Lily seethed across the table at him, very aware of the fact that there were two other men in the room, and that at least one of them understood English. ‘I think the important word in that statement is “interrupted”,’ she continued with hushed fierceness. ‘And it doesn’t give you the right to question me about any of my friends!’
Dmitri dearly wished he had never begun this conversation. He had no idea why he had done so—except that he’d been annoyed, coming down the stairs a few minutes ago, to hear the sound of Lily’s laughter mingled with the two workmen’s.