'This is probably good at this time if the year", he suggested pointing. Autumn is the best time for wild mushrooms and I love them served with seafood'.
'Mushrooms and seafood?' Sharon asked.
'Exactly'. Bryan's deep voice had a husky tone. She felt his warm breathing on her bate shoulder.
'Okay, I'll have that', she said hurriedly, nervously aware of him and his body even closer to hers.
'And I suppose that I'll just have pasta for the main course'.
She would have moved away then but Bryan shook his head, pointing to the menu again.
'Don't be so predictable!', he said softly, very close to her ear. 'Try the saltimbocca....'
'What's that?'
'It means...hmmmm...'Jump in the mouth'... it's veal escalope, rolled in harm, flavoured with sage, fried and then simmered in Marsala wine. Very rich but it's a Roman specialty. You must try it once at least. While you are in Italy and especially in Rome,you must be more adventurous, take a few risks for once in your life!'
She tensed. Picking up the undertone, the hidden meaning and hedged instinctively.
'Risks and banking don't go together!'
'Oh but they do', he drawled, looking at her intently. 'Lending money is always a risk but if you don't gamble, you don't accumulate as you know very well.
You have been working for David for long. He has the excuse of being middle aged but you're not.
'David is not middle aged', she said flushed and angry. 'He's just in his forties'.
Bryan laughed coldly, 'That is middle aged!
'Yes, well, David is still very....' she broke off the sentence not sure how she had wanted to end it in the first place and Bryan finished it for her in a hard Sardonic voice.
'Attractive?' Was that what you were going to say? I know you worship the ground that he walks on, and I'll be curious to know why you are so fixated on a man who was at university before you were even born! Dies he remind you of your father? Or didn't you have a father? If I had a crude mind, I'd suspect that it was David's money you were really interested in and that thought did occur to me before I got to know you but I have realised that you aren't materialistic.
No! It's David himself isn't it?' His dark eyes watched her tense profile closely.
'You have a real problem, Sharon. The gap is too wide. You'd regret it bitterly sooner or later if David is crazy enough to take what you are dying to give him'.
Her face was burning and a choking rage filled her throat. She turned on him furiously, her green eyes Stony with resentment.
'How dare you....?' she stopped as the waiter approached. Quivering, dark red, Sharon had to swallow the words that were boiling to get out.
Bryan was as cool as the icecubes in their drinks.
He smiled at the waiter. 'Ah, ready to take our order? Right'.
He ordered for both of them without consulting Sharon again which at any time would have infuriated her but which she accepted without comment then because she knew that she wouldn't have said a word without her voice shaking.
By the time the waiter left, Sharon had worked out what she really wanted to say to Bryan.
Before she could actually speak, someone else came to their table.
'Howdy, Bryan's, the woman said engulfing him in what looked to Sharon like a passionate embrace.
The woman was in her thirties. She had a figure that looked like the number eight. curving in and out exaggeratedly, full warm breasts, a tightly belted waist with rounded hips giving a curved line to the black satin evening suit that she wore. Her jewelries were loud. Diamonds shone on her ears, at her throat and at her wrists. Her hands sparkled with rings too.
She was someone who dressed to be noticed in every sense of the word. Sharon thought drily to herself.
The way she was kissing Bryan, they surely must have been lovers at one time. Good friends don't kiss on the mouth like that. So, that was the sort of woman he liked?
Sharon's eyes chilled. She was observing every little detail about him. Everything she could gather about him could help her defeat him before he succeeded in destroying David but she would not have expected him to love a woman like that.
'What kind of woman would you have expected him to be interested in?' a little voice asked in her head. 'Someone like you?'
'Of course not! she thought fiercely. 'I'd rather die than allow myself to get close to such as he'.
A second later, Bryan turned her way to introduce her.
'Angel, this is a colleague from London, Sharon Smith. Sharon, this is the wife of an old friend of mine, Angel Coleman's.
Sharon smiled politely and coldly, offering her hand. The other woman took it, her own smile cool, studying her with shrewd sophisticated eyes.
'You are in banking?' she said. 'Yes, I can tell that you are. A career woman, obviously. And it gives you all you need, why not? Fir some women, it is the answer, we don't need to get married these days afterall!'
Sharon kept her face cool, her teeth together but she knew that she had just been patronized and insulted
Bryan smoothly intervened. Openly amused by the instant hostility between the two women.
'I think your friends are about to leave Angel's.
She turned to look a Ross the room at a group near the door and wave, nodding.
'Yes I must go, love! Will we see you while you're here? Now promise that we will!'
'I'll do my best though I have many commitments and engagements in this conference but my last day here is free. Maybe we could meet then?'
'You must come to dinner, arrange it with John, Ciao!' Angel gave him another hug, nodded dismissively to Sharon and walked away.
Bryan sat down again, gave Sharon an amused glance. 'Well, you and Angel didn't hit it off, did you? A pity, she's a warm hearted woman....'
'So I noticed', Sharon said.
'Wow! he murmured, laughing silently. 'Well that's Angel. It doesn't mean anything, she's always very over the top whatever she dies'.
'Dies her husband know that she's so ... fond ...of you?'
The icy sting in her voice didn't bother him, his eyes had a mocking gleam in them.
'John? He adores her the way she is... they have a very happy marriage. She's a wonderful wife and mother. They have four boys and two girls, she runs their home to perfection. John is lucky and he knows it's.
Sharon stared at him, uncertain now about his relationship with Angel, wishing she knew the truth about that, about every other aspect of his life. What sort of man was Bryan Ferdinand?
They went into dinner a few minutes later. The Neal was superb, the wine matched it. Sharon only intended to drink one glass but without noticing it, drank far more because the waiter kept refilling her glass.