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‘Mr Leonetti,’ she said as politely as though they had never met before
‘Gaetano, please,’ he countered wryly, seeing no reason to stand on ceremony with her ‘We have known each other since childhood’
‘I don’t think I ever knew you,’ Poppy said frankly, studying him with bemused concentration
She had expected to notice unappetising changes in Gaetano After all, he was alent and, by all accounts, decadent life By this stage he should have been showing some physical fallout from that lifestyle But there was no hint of portliness in his very tall, powerfully built fra, stubbled jaw line And his dense blue-black curly hair was as plentiful as ever
An electrifying silence enclosed them and Poppy stepped restively off one foot onto the other, her slender figure tense as a dra string while she studied hieous than he had been seven years earlier when she had fallen for hiirl that she had been, she conceded ruefully, but there was no denying that even then she had had good taste because Gaetano was stunning in the way so very few hs together, war over her skin His dark eyes, set below black straight broere locked to her with an intensity thatthick lashes, she was recalling dizzily, so dark and noticeable in their voluuy liner like some of the boys she had known back then
‘Do you still live here with your mother and brother?’ Gaetano enquired
‘Yes,’ Poppy ad that had briefly closed round her brain ‘You’re probably wondering why I’ve co Horseman down the road and I’ve only just finished my shift’
Gaetano was pleasantly surprised that she had contrived to speak two entire sentences without spluttering the profanities which had laced her speech seven years earlier Of course, right now she was probably watching her every ith him, he reasoned A bartender? He supposed it explained the outfit, which looked as though it would be htclub
‘I saw the newspaper article,’ she added ‘Obviously you want to sackthose photos I’ood reason to do that’
‘Where did the photos come from?’ Gaetano asked curiously ‘Who took them?’
Poppy winced ‘One of the guests invited my brother to join the party when she saw hi men would do when they see half-naked wo him but he didn’t sell those photos It was my mother who took his phone and did that—’
‘I assume I’ll see your mother in person tomorrow before I leave But I’ll ask you now My family has always treated your mother well Why did she do it?’
Poppy breathed in deep and lifted her chin, bracing herself for what she had to say ‘My mother’s an alcoholic, Gaetano They offered herabout was probably how she would buy her next bottle of booze I’ht now’
Taken aback, Gaetano frowned He had not been prepared for that revelation It did not h Disloyalty was not a trait he could overlook in an e alcoholic, then,’ he assuood order’
‘No, she’s not functioning’ Poppy sighed, her softup for her forafter this place’
His lean, darkly handsohtened ‘In other words there has been a concentrated ca on here,’ he condemned with a sudden harshness that dismayed her ‘At any ti and even my help—yet you chose not to do so I have no tolerance for deception, Poppy Thisis at an end’
A hundred different thoughts flashing through hervery fast with nerves and consternation ‘But—’
‘No extenuating circumstances allowed or invited,’ Gaetano cut in with derision ‘I have heard all I need to hear fro more to say Leave’