Vettori's Damsel in Distress (Harlequin Romance Large Print) by Liz Fielding Page B

it’s bitter outside.’
    ‘So this is antifreeze?’
    He laughed and the tension, awkwardness was defused. ‘Let’s hope so.’
    She dipped in her spoon and let a mouthful, sweet and warming, dissolve on her tongue. ‘Oh, yum. Pastries and pudding for breakfast. My mother would have so approved.’ He looked up. ‘When anything bad happened she’d make us cupcakes for breakfast. With pink frosting and gold stars.’
    ‘Pink?’ His brow kinked in amusement. ‘Really?’
    ‘Black frosting is just creepy.’ She shrugged. ‘Except at Halloween.’
    Dante looked as if he was about to say something but the bleep of an incoming text distracted her and she searched in her bag for her phone. ‘Oh, no... ’
    ‘Problema?’
    ‘You could say that. I shipped my heavy stuff before I left. Who knew it would get here so quickly?’ She showed him the phone. ‘I think the driver is trying to the find the non-existent address I gave them.’
    Dante read the text then replied to it before handing it back. ‘I told him to bring it here.’
    ‘Oh... This is so embarrassing.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘This was supposed to be me standing on my own two feet. Being grown-up. Self-sufficient.’
    ‘Would you like me to tell them to leave it on the pavement?’ he asked.
    ‘No!’ She shook her head. ‘No... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful but this is my first excursion into the unknown, the first time I’ve ever done anything totally on my own and it’s all going wrong.’
    ‘It’s hardly your fault,’ he assured her. ‘And it’s just until Monday.’
    Monday?
‘Yes, absolutely. I’ll have found a room by then.’
    ‘That’s Monday, when you can move into the apartment I’ve found for you. I’m afraid that, like the job, it is only temporary, but it will give you a little breathing space while you get yourself sorted out.’
    ‘You see? Like that,’ Geli said and then swallowed. ‘I’m sorry. That sounded so ungrateful.’
    ‘Yes, it did.’
    She groaned. ‘I bet you wish you’d listened to the weather forecast and closed an hour earlier last night.’ He didn’t answer and she said, ‘You’re supposed to say no.’
    The creases bracketing his mouth deepened slightly in what might just have been the promise of a smile. ‘I’m thinking about it.’
    She rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, how much is this temporary apartment you’ve found to go with my temporary job?’
    ‘Just the utilities. It’s only for a month while Lisa and Giovanni are at the wedding, but it will give you time to look around.’
    ‘Lisa and Giovanni?’ She frowned. ‘But I thought—’
    ‘She wants me to give you a job so I offered her a deal. You get the job if she takes Giovanni as her plus one to her sister’s wedding. They will need someone responsible to keep the pipes from freezing, make the place look lived in and feed the goldfish,’ he added matter-of-factly. As if it was nothing. ‘You are responsible, aren’t you?’
    ‘No goldfish has ever gone hungry on my watch,’ she said, ‘but why didn’t Lisa tell me herself?’
    ‘Because she wants you to stay here.’
    ‘So that she doesn’t have to take Giovanni?’
    ‘No. His flight is booked.’
    She went back over the conversation then shook her head. ‘I seem to be missing something.’
    ‘Lis believes that if we share the same apartment we’ll inevitably fall into the same bed.’
    The
zabaglione
took a diversion down her nose and Dante calmly handed her a paper napkin from the tray.
    ‘That is outrageous.’
    ‘I agree. I told her I never sleep with the staff, but apparently temps don’t count.’
    Never...?
‘I wouldn’t try that on an employment tribunal.’
    ‘No,’ he agreed with the wryest of smiles. ‘And I did point out that, since you had nowhere else to go, any move on my part would be open to the worst interpretation.’
    And any move on hers might be seen as...
    ‘So you suggested moving me out so that I’m available?’ She