Chapter 10 #3
“Because you’ve suffered an ordeal in the last twelve hours and I’m not about to leave you alone now,” he says calmly as he proceeds to the front door, forcing me to scurry after him.
Don’t read into it, Gianna. He’s just being a decent human being.
Something you’re not used to after being married to Daniel.
Still, I don’t have the mental capacity to analyse his weird behaviour right now. How can he be cold and withdrawn one minute, then taking care of me the next?
“I think I can manage a few steps by myself,” I say, chasing him up the garden path. “I’m not about to be drugged again on my parents’ driveway. This really isn’t necessary.”
“I’ll just deposit you at the door, and then I’ll leave.”
Deposit? “What am I? A cheque? Don’t you have better things to do with your weekend?”
The blonde woman from last night flashes through my mind.
Would he have left the club with her if I hadn’t been drugged?
Again, the burning sensation in my chest returns, but I quickly shove it away as we approach the door.
I rummage around in my bag for my keys, but before I can find them, David lifts his fist and knocks on the dark wood. Hard.
What the fuck?
“What are you doing?” I ask, my voice a harsh whisper as my jaw falls to the floor. “Someone will see you!” His broad, muscled back may as well be a fucking brick wall for all he’s listening to me.
I try to wrench him back towards his car but the door swings open and my mum’s face appears before us. I watch in horror as her almond eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.
“Hello? How can I help you?” She asks David, and I notice that her voice has dropped a pitch or two so that it almost sounds…sultry. Gross. Seems David’s pretty face has the same effect on even the most married of women.
I clear my throat behind him, and my mum’s gaze darts over his shoulder to land on my face.
“Gianna! What on Earth is going on?”
The sultry lilt has disappeared, thank God, and she says my name like she’s scolding me.
I pass David with a slight shove that annoyingly doesn’t move his muscled body even an inch and step past Mum into the small foyer.
Now I’ll have to bloody explain to my family why a man was dropping me off at Sunday lunch while I’m still technically married to another.
Yes, I know I’m twenty-eight, but we’re Italian.
“Nothing. This is my lawyer, he was just dropping me off after an appointment.”
I turn to face David with a sarcastic little wave. “Thanks for the lift.”
I go to shut the door before anyone else sees him standing there in his joggers looking anything but professional for our alleged appointment, but Mum’s forearm blocks me as she flattens her hand against the door.
“Nonsense, Gianna. You will come in for lunch?” She cracks the door open wider for David, making her question sound more like a demand in the way only she does.
Of course Mum invited him in. Her unwavering hospitality is as much a part of her as her green eyes, or her naturally dark hair.
She couldn’t switch it off if she wanted to.
Almost like he was expecting it, David’s lips quirk up at the corners and he steps inside, greeting Mum and looking all delicious and annoyingly smug.
It’s the first time I’ve seen a genuine smile on his face, and it’s jarring.
Why would he orchestrate this? Is David actually joining my family for lunch?
The idea is so wildly nonsensical all I can do is tip my head back and look up at the ceiling in defeat.
Seriously, what could I have done in my past life to deserve this?
Was I Voldemort? It’s the only explanation for my luck.
And what’s David playing at? Two minutes ago, he was pissed off I slept with him without a contract in place, and now he’s manoeuvred his way in to meet my parents? Dear God, make it make sense.
Mum leads us both into the dining room, David following closely behind me, where my family -minus Leo and Lia- are already seated around the table.
A hush settles over the room as all eyes simultaneously land on David.
Ignoring my surroundings and the fact I’m about to introduce my one-night stand to my dad of all people, I sit down in my usual spot and watch Mum scurry away to grab David a table setting.
Suddenly this seems a bit like deja vu, Mum inviting unexpected guests to lunch.
Hopefully it doesn’t continue on the same trend with her tracking down the last remaining guy on my sexual-history list.
I toss the thought away before it can even be developed, in a very well-practiced move.
David, looking as calm and collected as always, lingers by my dad’s chair like this isn’t the most awkward situation he’s ever found himself in.
Although to be fair, with a face like his and probably a hundred one-night stands walking loose around the city, it probably isn’t.
The thought bothers me more than I care to admit.
He extends a hand to my father, who’s actually eyeing David with amused speculation. “Hello, Sir, I’m -”
“My lawyer!” I blurt out to Dad and Tony’s surprised faces, just in case they go about getting any ideas. “He’s my lawyer, joining us for lunch. Nothing weird about that at all.”
Dad meets his extended hand with his own stocky fingers and I watch them shake firmly, but Dad’s curious, warm eyes have turned to mine.
“A lawyer, Gianna?” He asks in his gravelly tone, his bushy, grey-streaked eyebrows lifting in question.
“Yes, my divorce lawyer. Who is joining us for lunch.”
I wait for the sound of protests, but they don’t come, and I remember it’s because Mum’s in the kitchen. Tony resumes loading salad onto his plate on the other side of the table, offers his hand to David, and says, “Good. Never liked Daniel.”
I snort into my plate knowing that’s a complete fucking lie, but I manage to avoid rolling my eyes while I take a bread roll from the stack and rip the end off just as Mum comes bustling back in with a plate and cutlery.
“Here, take a seat, darling,” Mum says to David, pulling out the chair directly opposite me. Leo chooses that moment to come hurling out of the kitchen, followed closely by Lia.
“Aunty G- HEY! That’s my spot!” He points a meaty little finger at David, who’s just taken a seat and is eyeing me in a way that makes my blood heat beneath my skin. “I always sit in front of Aunty Gia!” Leo whines, and I open my arms for him to run into me.
“Hey, buddy.” I grip him in a tight hug as Lia takes her seat next to Tony. “Today you can sit next to me instead. So much better.”
I drag the chair closer to me, completely aware that this five-year-old has me wrapped around his little finger. “There we go,” I say as I lift him onto the seat.
I ignore the gaze I can feel razing my face from the spot opposite me and put some plain spaghetti on Leo’s plate.
“Me and Aunty Gia watched Harry Potter yesterday!” Leo announces to the table, and in that moment I’ve never loved my nephew more for the distraction from the awkwardness.
Not that David looks awkward in the slightest. He actually looks perfectly content sitting at a table full of strangers, and I’m convinced he could walk in to a den of lions and not bat an eyelid.
“When I grow up, I want to go to Hogwarts!”
“Me, too,” I mumble, plonking spaghetti on my plate before offering the bowl to David with a saccharine smile.
He accepts, his fingers accidentally brushing mine when he takes the bowl from my grasp.
My heart pounds at the unexpectedness of his touch.
Why do I have to be attracted to assholes?
His gaze flicks up to mine, then narrows as he tries to read what’s on my face.
I quickly look away and busy my hands with pouring a drink of water.
“Yeah, well, maybe Aunty Gia should be checking the movie ratings before putting on the children’s equivalent of The Exorcist,” Tony snorts, forking his spaghetti a little aggressively.
“Or at least stay over afterwards so she can sleep on your floor when you have nightmares about giant snakes travelling through walls.”
Whoops.
“Comparing it to The Exorcist is a bit of a stretch,” I counter, stabbing my spaghetti. “Besides, I thought considering you let him watch Jaws -”
I’m interrupted by a gasp from Lia. “Tony! You let him watch what?”
Tony glares daggers in my direction and I smirk into my plate, but my amusement is short-lived.
“So, Gianna, tell us,” he says way too enthusiastically, leaning back in his chair and swiping a hand across his mouth. Here we go. “What kind of appointment were you having with your lawyer on a Sunday morning?”
I kick him under the table, but he sees me coming a mile away and moves his legs. David cocks an amused brow as his eyes dart between us, and I can’t help but wonder what he makes of me and Tony, two grown adults, riling each other up.
“It was unofficial, I just stopped past to have some documents signed.” David saves me with a lazy smile. “This is delicious by the way, Mrs Morello.”
My head snaps up to see Mum come in from the kitchen. Mrs Morello? How did he know my mum’s name? Is my maiden name listed in my file?
Mum wipes her hands on her apron as she takes a seat at the other head of the table.
“Thank you, dear. And what documents? What did I miss?”
I’m briefly distracted when David leans forward to pour himself a drink.
If you think sitting in front of my family would have a dampening effect on the way my body responds to this man’s looks, you would be absolutely wrong.
I have to glance away from the way his exposed biceps flex and pull when he takes a sip of water before I start panting right here at the table.
I make the mistake of locking eyes with Lia, who hangs her tongue out of her mouth and pretends to fan herself with her serviette for my benefit.
For fuck’s sake.