Читать книгу Flame Of Desire - Кэрол Мортимер, Carole Mortimer - Страница 6

‘OH, but—–’

Her father frowned. ‘Surely that isn’t necessary, Luke. A couple of sittings down here would be enough.’

Luke shook his head. ‘I am afraid not. I do not work that way. I cannot work from sketches, and as I said, I do not have the time to travel down here for the necessary sittings.’

Sophie was speechless after her first words of protest. She didn’t want to travel up to London to see this man, visit his apartment, spend any more time in his company than she needed to. The glittering satisfaction in his deep brown eyes told her that he was enjoying her discomfort, and she knew with sudden clarity that this was his revenge on her for her rudeness of yesterday. Well, his satisfaction would be shortlived.

‘Mr Vittorio’s right, Daddy,’ she said with a smile, looking for some sign of surprise on the artist’s face and finding none. An expert at hiding his true feelings, was this man. That just made her all the more determined to thwart him. If he expected her to protest at his proposed plan he was going to be disappointed. ‘I can travel up to London at the weekends. I could stay at the apartment with Mummy,’ and so make it awkward for the couple to meet!

Her father looked undecided. ‘I suppose it is a solution. I must admit that when your mother first suggested this I didn’t realise I would have to lose my daughter’s company at the weekends too.’

‘Perhaps Mummy will come home and keep you company.’ Although she doubted it, she doubted it very much.

As if on cue her stepmother joined their little group, smiling her pleasure when told of the proposed portrait. She put her hand in the crook of Luke’s arm, smiling up at him, looking very petite against his superior height. ‘That’s marvellous, Luke,’ she said huskily. ‘It means we’ll see a little more of you.’

Not if Sophie could help it! Perhaps this was a good idea after all, perhaps this was a way to stop this affair before it became too important. ‘Not really, Mummy,’ she put in quietly. ‘It just means I’ll see more of Mr Vittorio.’

China-blue eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean?’ The seductive purr was gone from her voice.

‘I’ll be staying at the apartment and visiting Mr Vittorio at his home.’ The way she put it it sounded like an intimate arrangement.

A fact Luke Vittorio was quick to notice. ‘For professional reasons only,’ he said softly.

‘But of course,’ she glared at him. The remark hadn’t been meant for him.

‘Yes, of course,’ her stepmother echoed sharply. ‘And when is all this to start?’

‘I will call Sophie when I am free,’ Luke replied. ‘It will not be for a few weeks yet, I am engaged in other work at the moment.’

Sophie didn’t speak to him again until after dinner, but deliberately sought him out before he left. ‘I’ll look forward to seeing you again, Mr Vittorio,’ she said tauntingly.

‘I am sure you will,’ he returned mockingly.

‘Just tell me this, why did you agree to paint me?’ Her curiosity had got the better of her.

He raised a dark eyebrow as he slowly studied her from head to foot. ‘Why should I not? You will make an interesting study. There is a coolness outside belied by the heated passion inside. I will enjoy trying to capture this elusiveness of yours.’

Sophie’s face was fiery red by this time. ‘I’m sure you’re reading things into my character that simply aren’t there.’

‘I do not think so.’ He crossed one well-shod foot over the other.

They were seated together on one of the sofas, Sophie slightly unnerved by his closeness. He was clothed in a cream suit and brown shirt open at the neck to reveal the start of the thick mat of hair that she felt sure covered most of his body, and if anything he looked even more attractive than he had the previous evening. He would be leaving shortly which probably accounted for his less formal attire.

‘I do,’ she disagreed. ‘It isn’t’ heated passion you can detect, it’s burning anger.’

‘We shall see.’

‘We most certainly will not!’ She sat forward in her agitation.

Luke laughted softly. ‘How you delight in jumping to conclusions! You seem to do it often where I am concerned. One of these days you will realise how foolish your thoughts are concerning myself.’ He stood up. ‘But not yet. That will come with time.’

‘Time is something I don’t intend to give you too much of,’ she glared up at him.

‘You will give me all the time I want,’ he told her haughtily. ‘It could lead to some awkward questions from your father if you do not—and I am sure you would not want that. Would you?’

‘No, I wouldn’t, damn you! Is this portrait so important to you that you’ll go to these lengths?’ she demanded disgustedly.

He shrugged. ‘I will not know that until I actually begin. I look forward to seeing you again soon,’ he bowed arrogantly.

‘I’ll make sure it’s a memorable meeting!’

His teeth flashed whitely in his swarthy face. ‘I am sure you will.’

Sophie didn’t feel quite so confident as she travelled up to London for her first sitting four weeks later. She wasn’t looking forward to seeing him again, for all her bravado at their last meeting. As it had turned out she hadn’t been the one to talk to him on the telephone when he finally rang to arrange this sitting, she had been at Nicholas’s, having at last given in to his persuadings to visit his house for tea.

As she had expected, Mrs Sedgwick-Jones hadn’t stopped listing her son’s virtues all the time she was there, virtues that to Sophie seemed to make him even more unsuitable as a husband for her. She was disappointed therefore when she returned home to find Luke Vittorio had telephoned in her absence, disappointed because she would have enjoyed another of their verbal clashes.

But now she was going to London and would see him face to face, and she found the prospect a little daunting. Today she would be meeting him on his home ground, and she was very aware of the fact that she would be at a disadvantage. As a guest in her parents’ home he had not been as forthright as she suspected he could have been, but any rudeness from her here would not go unpunished.

But first she had to face her stepmother. The two of them had seen little of each other the last four weeks and Sophie could feel herself tensing for their meeting as she travelled in the taxi from the station.

As it turned out she needn’t have worried; Rosemary was out when she reached the apartment, and a solitary lunch was served to her by Bernard the butler. He was a silent individual, revealing only that her stepmother had gone shopping and was meeting friends for lunch. She hadn’t expected Rosemany to be overjoyed to see her, but she hadn’t expected her to be out altogether either.

She had no idea what she was supposed to wear for this painting; Luke Vittorio hadn’t said and she hadn’t thought to ask. Her stepmother could probably have advised her, but she hadn’t been very approachable lately, in fact she had rarely been home. Consequently Sophie had brought a couple of dresses with her, hoping to consult her stepmother when she reached London. She had travelled down in denims and a purple sun-top, having decided to have a refreshing shower before changing for her meeting with Luke Vittorio.