Miss Thornton...this is Mr Leopardi and Miss Nina Franklin. Giles introduced them in the oily voice he employed solely around wealthy clients.
Daisy froze. Leopardi. That name thudded into her brain like a sharp blow. Stunned, she stared at the large male presence now blocking out the sunlight. All she could focus on was a pale blue tie set against a slice of snowy white shirt bounded by the lapels of an exquisitely tailored charcoal-grey jacket. Numbly she tipped her silver-fair head back and looked up at him. Disbelief enclosed her in complete stasis. It was Alessio! The shock of recognition was so intense that she couldnt move a muscle. She simply stood there, all colour drained from her triangular face, her polite smile sliding away into nothingness. The hand she had begun to extend dropped weakly back to her side again.
Helplessly she collided with deep-set dark eyes fixed on her with an incredulous intensity that was as great as her own. And then luxuriant black lashes swept low, swiftly screening his gaze from her. She saw the tautness of his facial muscles beneath the gold of his dark skin, grasped the fierce control he was exerting and, with a huge effort, dragged her shattered eyes from him, fighting to regain her composure.
Mr Leopardi... she muttered in a wobbly undertone, and began to raise her hand again with all the flair of a malfunctioning automaton.
Alessio ignored the gesture and spun on his heel to address Giles. Is this woman the only employee you have available? he enquired harshly.
There was a sharp little silence.
Miss Thornton is one of our most experienced members of staff. Giles fixed an ingratiating smile
to his full lips but his dismay was obvious. Perhaps you think she seems a little on the young side but shes actually a good deal older than she looks!
Daisy flushed to the hairline. The beautiful blonde giggled. The thick silence pulsed like a wild thing in a room that now felt suffocatingly airless. She focused on Alessios shoeshand-stitched Italian loafers. She remembered him barefoot and in trainers. That was the only thought in her mind but it speedily flowed on into another.
She remembered a teenage boy, not a full-grown adult male. She knew the adult only from pictures in newsprint that fractured her peace for days afterwards. But how much more disturbing it was to be faced with Alessio in the flesh...and without any warning whatsoever. Her tummy muscles were horribly cramped up. She felt sick, physically sick, and could not have opened her mouth had her life depended on it.
Giles cleared his throat uneasily. Im afraid that there isnt anyone else available this morning. If it wasnt for this he frowned down at the clumsy plaster cast on his foot I would have been delighted to personally escort you round the Blairden property. As it is
Alessio... if we dont get a move on, Ill be late for my booking, the blonde complained petulantly, unfolding lithely from her chair to reveal a height very little short of Alessios six feet three.
The woman was a modela very well-known model, Daisy recognised belatedly, her dazed eyes scanning that impossibly perfect bone structure. She had seen that same face on countless magazine covers. And what had Giles said her name was? Like a sleepwalker, she moved forward and extended her hand. Miss Franklin...
Manicured fingertips brushed hers only in passing. Bored green eyes flicked dismissively over her. The blonde slid her hand into Alessios in a gesture of possessive intimacy and curved right round him to whisper something in his ear, her other hand moving caressingly up over his chest to curve finally to one broad shoulder.
Daisy went rigid and stared. Then abruptly she looked away, but every nerve in her body screamed as she did so. For a split second, as her own fingers had closed tightly in on themselves, she had been tempted to thrust their bodies apart. That insane urge shook her inside out.
If youll excuse me, Ill brief Miss Thornton. Giles closed a taut hand round Daisys elbow and practically pulled her out into the corridor.
His heavy features were flushed and angry. Whats the silent act in aid of? No wonder the bloke wasnt impressed! Dont you know who he is?
Daisy studied the wall opposite.
The Leopardi Merchant Bank...thats who he is! I mean, you just stood there gawking at him! Hells teeth, why does the richest client weve had in months have to come through the door the one and only day Barrys away sick? Giles groaned in disbelief.
And it couldnt be happening to a nicer person, Daisy found herself thinking, because it was easier to think about that than to think of what had just happened. Of all the estate agencies in the London area, why had Alessio had to choose this one? Was it because of the grovelling service Giles offered to the well-heeled? Alessio was so rich that he would get that kind of service anywhere. Her temples pounded with sick tension.
Hey...youre not coming down with this blasted virus too, are you? Giles demanded, taking an almost comically fast step back from her.