Golden Mistress – Angela Wells

In the meantime she must bide her time until she discovered the nature of the hold Nicolò had over Nonno, and determine how she could break it once and for all without endangering the old man’s future. Only then would she be free to escape from the bondage which enthralled her.

OceanofPDF.com THEY lunched on risotto primavera, a rice dish served with minced fresh vegetables, followed by Adriatic sole in a sweet and sour sauce served with white asparagus and wild mushrooms and then a creamy trifle of custard and liqueur sponge cake, with a light Italian vanilla ice-cream to round the meal off and cleanse the palate.

Nicolò had requested mineral water and a bottle of Soave to accompany the meal, both bottles reaching the table in an ice-bucket, their sides misted and dewed, their coolness a refreshing contrast to the delicious food. Refusing the offer of a liqueur to accompany the rich dark coffee which completed the meal, Catia watched Nicolò indulging himself with an Amaretto, taking it with him to the long, swinging canopied seat which overlooked the Grand Canal.

Her coffee finished, she joined him, subsiding on the soft cushions, her whole body glowing with a sense of well-being, her emotional pain temporarily allayed by the wild happiness of sharing the peace and beauty of the garden and its outlook with the man who, despite everything she had learned about him, could still make her beleaguered heart beat faster. ‘Here…’ He offered his brandy glass to her with a careless insolence. ‘Warm it between your breasts for me and turn a fine liqueur into a drink for the gods.’

Wordlessly, she obeyed him, nestling the cool balloon glass against the bare skin of her cleavage visible above the neckline of the soft pink silk dress she’d chosen to wear after her shower, handing it back to him when the glass no longer felt cold. Cupping it in his palms, Nicolò lifted it to his face, savouring the aroma, before sipping the contents with the air of a connoisseur.

‘Perfect.’ He allowed his eyes to drift over her reclining body. ‘The scent of almonds mixed with the scent of my lover.’ He ran his tongue over his full firm lips. ‘The taste of passion and desire. Tomorrow we must go to the priest and arrange for the church to recognise our union, amore mio.

NICOLÒ didn’t love her. Her eyes a blur of tears, Catia stared out of the window of the Boeing 737 somewhere high over Europe as it sped towards Venice and the start of her honeymoon. Serene skies and a view unmarked by clouds were in direct contrast to the turbulence which raged in her heart. Nervously the fingers of her right hand played with the twisted band of diamonds and rubies on the third finger of her other hand. At ten o’clock that morning she’d been the happiest girl alive—or so she’d imagined, as the handsome man who had courted her with such speed and seeming devotion had placed his ring on her finger.

Conscious of his warm, vibrant presence beside her, her body tensed as she fastened her gaze resolutely on the passing landscape beneath her. There was no way she dared look at him or the bitter tears of anger and pain would betray her. How had she managed to contain her grief for so long? she wondered. Probably because her grandfather’s guileless farewell had forced her into a catatonic state, she surmised, so that she’d moved like a zombie through the airport formalities, shown little reaction at the announcement that their flight had been delayed by air-traffic control problems over Europe, and, claiming a tiredness which was only half faked, had closed her eyes and pretended to rest in the club class lounge at Heathrow.

She had had doubts at first about her growing attraction towards Nicolò. Of course she had. The quiet life she had led with Nonno and her great-aunt Becky in the small Suffolk village where they lived had hardly prepared her for a glitzy social existence, with the opportunity of meeting a selection of young men. The few she had met during her teenage years and afterwards, during the first year of her career as a physiotherapist at a large London hospital, hadn’t managed to inspire any deep feelings within her, but at twenty-two, just starting her career, she’d been perfectly contented with her life.

Perhaps, she accorded sadly, if she’d experienced and recovered from an attack of calf-love in her formative years she would have been better able to deal with Nicolò Cacciatore! But she’d resolved to live the kind of life that wouldn’t offend the strict standards of the elderly couple who had cherished her since babyhood.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 1d4abd83eef647b0
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 647,156 bytes (0.617 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 138
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 255.94 minutes
• Total Words: 51,188
• Total Characters: 292,579
• Average Words per Page: 370.93
• Average Characters per Page: 2120.14

Most Frequent Words

nicolò (282), she’d (175), catia (173), time (124), one (122), eyes (104), face (103), nicolò’s (94), body (85), herself (85), now (80), grandfather (77), made (73), back (73), way (69), never (69), he’d (66), man (65), hand (64), gina (64), against (62), still (62), love (60), heart (60), voice (59), dark (58), mouth (58), wife (58), brunelli (58), i’m (57), towards (56), away (56), even (55), know (55), long (54), without (54), much (52), head (52), didn’t (51), cacciatore (50), hands (50), felt (49), first (48), left (48), thought (48), last (47), like (46), told (46), venice (45), make (45), already (45), see (45), husband (44), fingers (43), take (43), took (43), mind (42), find (42), loved (42), palazzo (42), lips (41), wanted (41), small (40), old (40), since (39), well (39), nonno (38), think (38), moment (38), i’d (38), two (37), knew (37), good (37), catia’s (37), nothing (37), deep (36), although (36), bed (36), night (36), cesare (36), aware (35), said (35), between (35), beneath (34), life (34), hadn’t (34), enough (34), every (34), something (34), antonio (34), found (34), smile (34), course (33), able (33), it’s (33), hair (33), morning (32), expression (32), behind (32), don’t (32).

PDF Download