At The Sicilian Count's Command. Кэрол Мортимер

line Wolf’s thoughts had been following had taken him in another direction entirely!

      ‘Stephen, I really don’t think—’

      ‘Oh, come on, Angel.’ The older man cut chidingly through her protest. ‘Unfortunately I have a conference call to deal with this morning, and you know I don’t like you going out alone just yet. Angel has only just learnt to ride,’ he explained to Wolf.

      But Wolf Gambrelli was the last person Angelica wanted to accompany her anywhere!

      A fact Stephen should have been all too aware of after the conversation they’d had before breakfast, when she’d told him that she believed he ought to explain their real relationship to Wolf—that the Sicilan seemed somewhat confused as to her role in Stephen’s life.

      She could have put it more bluntly than that, but was aware that Wolf Gambrelli had been a close friend of Stephen’s for years—that it wasn’t up to her to cast a shadow over that friendship. Stephen had assured her that he had every intention of talking to Wolf about their relationship this weekend. Just not yet, it seemed…

      ‘I’m sure Count Gambrelli has better things to do this morning than go riding with me.’ She spoke determinedly even as she shot Stephen an appealing glance, not sure she could take any more of Wolf Gambrelli’s insulting remarks without retaliating.

      Because if she really had been Stephen’s latest mistress, then she would have lost no time in telling Wolf Gambrelli exactly what he could do with his very personal remarks!

      The one thing she had absolutely insisted on when she’d agreed to spend time with Stephen, so that the two of them could get to know each other better, was that she didn’t want anything from him. Not the help with her career that he’d offered, or the money he had wanted to settle on her.

      But she would have felt exactly the same way if she had been Stephen’s mistress rather than his daughter!

      ‘You don’t have anything else to do this morning, do you, Wolf?’ Stephen asked.

      Something didn’t add up here, Wolf decided. For one thing, Stephen didn’t seem in the least concerned at the thought of Wolf going off for the morning with Angelica. Obviously Stephen knew him well enough to know of his code concerning attached women, but even so the other man was putting a lot of trust in him…

      And Wolf still couldn’t work out why Angelica hadn’t told her lover about his earlier rudeness to her. It had been the obvious thing for her to do, after all.

      ‘Why not?’ he accepted languidly. ‘I’m sure I would greatly enjoy riding with Angel,’ he added softly, and he saw the delicate colour creep into Angelica’s alabaster cheeks at his deliberately provocative reply.

      ‘Great!’ Stephen nodded his satisfaction with the arrangement, seeming totally unaware of the undercurrents in the conversation. ‘I’ll feel much happier knowing Angel is in safe hands.’

      Wolf wouldn’t have felt so quite so pleased about the arrangement if he were Stephen—not when Wolf’s own feelings towards Angelica Harper were far from innocent.

      And, more disturbing, far from under his normally rigid control…!