One Christmas Night In...: A Night in the Palace / A Christmas Night to Remember / Texas Tycoon's Christmas Fiancée

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. A light and flirtatious laugh that she had never been at ease enough to share with him.

His eyes narrowed. ‘Then what does it give me the right to do?’

‘Nothing. Absolutely nothing,’ she repeated firmly, angry colour high in her cheeks. ‘Now perhaps we could change the subject and you could tell me whether or not you’ve managed to make any progress with your telephone calls?’

He recognised her method of averting the argument by changing the subject back to Claudia and Felix. Sensible, perhaps; it had been a senseless argument in any case—one he had allowed himself to be provoked into inciting because of his curiosity about the man who had telephoned Lily so inconveniently the night before. If they had not been interrupted then Dmitri knew that he would have taken Lily on top of this table without a second thought. Without a first one, in fact.

Which perhaps explained why he was now taking his physical frustration out on her …

Perhaps. But it was not the cool, logical behaviour he usually expected of himself …

‘Dmitri?’

His attention returned to Lily where she sat across the table, looking at him curiously. ‘I managed to find out that Claudia hired a car at Milano airport. After that nothing has been seen of either her or your brother,’ he added grimly.

Lily sighed as she slowly leant back in her chair. ‘Which means they could still be in Milan.’

‘Or not.’

Or not …

Lily was going to personally throttle her little brother when they finally caught up with him! If Dmitri didn’t beat her to it …

CHAPTER NINE

‘I CAN’T possibly afford to stay here!’ Lily squeaked, looking up, aghast, at the obviously exclusive and hideously expensive building outside where Dmitri had parked his sleek black sports car.

The hotel was only a mile or so from his home, but the journey had been long enough to show her that he drove like all the other Italians she had observed—basically without any sense or regard for traffic signals or other drivers, let alone the dozens of people who risked life and limb by travelling about on bikes and motorcycles!

Nevertheless, it was finding herself seated beside him in his expensive-smelling car, outside a hotel where she could see a doorman and several porters dealing with the luggage of chicly dressed guests going in and out of the glass front doors, which now caused the nauseous churning in her stomach—forget butterflies, they had been replaced by giant bats!

‘You don’t need to be able to afford to stay here,’ Dmitri assured her coolly as he opened his door and got out of the car before coming round to Lily’s side and opening the passenger door for her. ‘Obviously you will be staying here as my guest,’ he said as she made no move to get out of the car.

‘There’s no “obviously” about it.’ She gave a stubborn shake of her head. ‘Because I’m not staying here or anywhere else as the guest of Count Scarletti. I pay my own way, thank you very much.’

Dmitri felt some of his irritation drain out of him as he looked down at her stubbornly rebellious face. He was almost tempted to smile at her obvious indignation—if he had not known that any amusement at her expense would only make her more stubborn! ‘At least come inside and look at the room, Lily,’ he cajoled.

‘There’s no point in doing that when I’m not staying.’ She gave another firm shake of her head as she continued to stare at the elegant façade of the hotel. ‘Good Lord, Dmitri, when you said you would drive me to a hotel I didn’t mean for you to take me to Rome’s version of the Ritz!’ She glared up at him.

This time Dmitri was unable to stop himself laughing. Lily looked so much like an indignant little bantam hen at this moment that it was impossible for him not to smile. ‘Let me do this for you, Lily.’ He went down on his haunches beside the open door to take one of her hands in his. ‘As an apology for my boorish behaviour to date,’ he explained.

Lily eyed him frustratedly. It wasn’t fair that he should look so appealing boyish as he gazed at her with those warm green eyes and smiled at her so wistfully. As for that tingling sensation in her fingers and up her arm from the touch of his hands on hers …

‘A verbal apology would have sufficed,’ she muttered.

‘This is my apology,’ he insisted.