“What is so different about your center, cara?”
“There’s a lot more structure for one thing. Children need to learn how to follow rules so they’re prepared when they enter the school system. A certain portion of the day is dedicated to learning, mostly in the form of games because with kids that young their attention span is pretty short. And they get a lot of personal attention, which is so important at this stage in their lives.”
“How do you manage that?”
Paige shrugged. “I keep the groups small. It helps to eliminate stress on my assistants and the children don’t feel like they’re lost in a crowd. In today’s society it’s almost necessary for both parents to work in order to survive which means they’re away from their children more than they’re with them. And once they do get home in the evenings, there’s dinner to cook and baths to take, household chores, grocery shopping, basically a million and one things that rob the children of even more time with their parents.”
“That is not something you can resolve no matter how much you want to, Paige.”
“I know. But what I can do is make sure my children get a lot of love and attention while they’re in my care. I also have what’s called special time which both the children and parents simply love. I recognize that most of the parents have very little time to spare during the work day but all I ask for is three minutes.”
Dante was genuinely engrossed. “And what happens during this three minutes of special time?”
“The parents get to talk to their children through the use of a web cam. You should see the children, Dante. Their little faces light up when their mommy or daddy miraculously appear on the screen, and the parents are just thrilled to take a few minutes of their day to see their babies.”
“As much as you love children, I’m surprised you haven’t married and had a few of your own by now.”
Her chest tightened and for a few minutes all she could do was feign interest in the pudding which suddenly tasted like sawdust. What would he say if she told him she did have a child, a little girl who looked just like him? How she wished she could tell him, but of course she couldn’t.
At one time their lives hadn’t been so very different but now they were worlds apart. She lived in a modest little house in a quiet little neighborhood while Dante lived in a house big enough to earn its own zip code. He even had servants to make his meals and wait on him while she ran herself ragged just trying to keep the house picked up and the laundry done.
****
“You have gone so quiet,” Dante broke into her thoughts. “Does that mean that you have been married?”
“No. I’ve been too busy trying to get the center established to even date anyone.”
“So you have not been deeply involved with anyone since me.”
It was more of a statement than a question, though he seemed to want an answer. “Define deeply,” she said because she knew what he was digging for and wasn’t about to hand it to him on a silver platter.
Dante’s eyes narrowed. “Do not play games with me, carissima, you know exactly what I mean when I say deeply involved.”
Paige set her spoon down and dabbed at the corners of her mouth with the napkin before answering. “There’s been no one since you.”
“And yet you say I cannot kiss you as I did in the park because there is someone in your life now. I find that very interesting.”
“Just because I haven’t slept with him yet, doesn’t mean I have no intention of doing it,” she said, hoping to wipe the arrogant smile off his face.
Dante’s nostrils flared in anger but his voice was as calm as a summer breeze. “You will not sleep with this man.”
Paige arched a brow. “Oh, really? You seem awful sure of that for someone who knows absolutely nothing about my relationship with…with this man.” Oh God, she was getting deep!
“I am sure, cara mia, and for more than one reason.”
Don’t do it, she told herself, he’s setting you up and you know it. She took a sip of wine to keep her mouth occupied and would have eaten more pudding if she wasn’t so sure she’d choke on it. Paige bit her lip, idly looking around the room but even without making eye contact there was no doubt in her mind that the wretched man was smiling because, damn him, he knew she couldn’t keep from taking the bait.
“What reasons?”
“I thought you would never ask,” he mocked. “I think you will not sleep with this man because you obviously do not have strong feelings for him. If you did, you would not have kissed me in the park the way you did and you would not be having dinner with me now.”
“So I had a few moments of insanity in the park,” Paige brushed his reasoning aside. “As for having dinner with you, I was practically blackmailed so you can hardly consider that as indication I don’t intend to sleep with…him.”
Dante’s lip quirked. “You cannot even say his name, why is that?”
“Maybe I don’t want you to know his name,” she shot back.
“It is of little importance,” he shrugged, “since you will be rid of him soon anyway.”
Paige laughed. Did his arrogance know no bounds? “Enlighten me, Dante. Why will I be rid of him soon?”
He leaned forward, his eyes dark and seductive. “Because he does not make you feel the way I make you feel, mio bello. His touch does not make your heart race and his kisses do not make you go wild in his arms.”
Paige’s throat constricted. “You don’t know that,” she croaked.
“I do know that,” he said with a wicked grin. “Just as I know you are not the type of woman to have more than one lover at a time.”
“Wh-what is that supposed to mean?”
“Simply put, it means that once you and I become lovers again, this man will be out of your life.”
Her pulse jumped, and even as she shook her head, the ache deep down in her abdomen began to throb. “I told you…”
“You can tell me a thousand times,” Dante said as he rose from the table, “but while your lovely mouth says no, your trembling body says yes.”
How he managed to make it around the table before Paige was even halfway out of her chair was beyond her, but suddenly he was just there, towering over her like an avenging angel. She had just enough time to let out one breathy protest before she was in his arms.
Dante murmured something in Italian as his lips lightly brushed against hers, the gentleness of his kiss almost as devastating as the passionate one she’d been expecting. It was slow and provocative; gradually stoking the fire that was burning inside of her and making her yearn for more.
“Madre di Dio, the things I want to do to you,” Dante whispered as he feathered kisses along her jaw and down the side of her neck.
There was a husk in his voice that sent a shiver up her spine, while the tingling sensation his warm breathe left on her skin was busy doing a number on her heart. It was pounding at such a furious pace she could hear the roar of it in her ears, and if Dante had started kissing her again, Paige was fairly certain she would have fallen into a dead faint.
She was embarrassingly weak when it came to Dante, and she finally understood what had driven her to write that note all those years ago. If she’d gone to him, stood anywhere near him, she never would have had the strength to let him go.
Even now, when she knew how much was riding on dissuading him from pursuing a relationship with her, Paige was completely helpless to do anything but melt in his arms. Worse than that, she found herself trying to devise a way to keep him from seeing the awful panties she was wearing when he took her to bed.
****
Maybe she could insist he turn all the lights off or excuse herself and go to the bathroom and remove them. He might even think it was sexy that she’d worn thigh high hose beneath her dress and nothing else. Paige was so intent on working around the cotton panty issue that she didn’t even notice Dante had stopped the assault on her neck until he spoke.
“Would you like to take a walk in t
he gardens?”
Paige opened her eyes. Was he kidding? Here she was, clinging to him like a human vine while every female hormone in her was clamoring for more kisses, more caresses, more of everything, and he wanted to take a walk? Did he realize how close she was to surrendering herself to him? Peering deep into those dark eyes of his, she saw the same raw desire she knew Dante saw reflected in hers. So why was he drawing away from her?
She could see the strain on his face and when she let her hands slip from around his neck, Paige also felt how rigid the muscles in his neck and shoulders had become. There was no question as to how much he wanted her right now, but he was deliberately holding himself back. To heighten the sexual tension between them? To punish her for even suggesting she’d chose another man over him?
It was pure torture to be this close to Dante and not be able to pull his mouth back down onto hers, but if he wanted to continue this game of cat and mouse then so be it. In all honesty, she understood his reasons for doing it. After all, where was the fun in it if his prey didn’t at least try to elude him?
Paige looked up at him from beneath her lashes as her hands drifted slowly down his chest. She ran her tongue over her lips and experienced a moment of triumph when Dante’s eyes darkened and air hissed through his teeth. His big body trembled and she could feel his heart hammering against her palms, but just as his resolve started to crumble she let her arms fall to her sides and broke the physical contact between them. Two could play at this game, Paige thought as she offered him a sexy smile that forced a groan of sheer agony from deep in his throat.
“Strega,” he muttered when she twisted away from him with a light-hearted laugh. “You are a witch for beguiling me with a smile that promises the very thing you tell me I cannot have.”
“And you are wicked man for tempting me after I told you I didn’t want to rekindle an old flame.”
Dante’s brows furrowed. “An old flame, is that what I am?”
Paige couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s not an insult, Dante. It just means we were romantically involved once but now we’re not.”
“But we will be,” he said with certainty.
Paige’s smile faded. “Maybe if things were different, but they’re not. I’m sorry, Dante.”
“What things?”
“Just…things,” she shrugged.
Dante’s voice dipped an octave as he advance on her. “I will change your mind, carissima.”
“You won’t,” she said with much more confidence that she felt.
“I will,” he persisted. “You see, I know your weaknesses.”
Paige held her ground, albeit on shaky legs. “I don’t…have any…” a soft moan vibrated in the back of her throat when Dante threaded his fingers through the hair on either side of her face and silenced her with a very long and thorough kiss.
“You were saying?” Dante murmured against her lips.
Paige’s eyelids fluttered open. It would be so easy to give in to her own desires and let him seduce her back into his bed, because the truth was she wanted him to make love to her more than she wanted her next breath. Oh yes, he knew her weaknesses all right, and nearly all of them had to do with Dante.
But there was one he didn’t know about; a dark haired little girl with her father’s eyes who trusted Paige to keep the happy smile on her beautiful face. If only she could be sure Dante would welcome the idea of being a father and that he wouldn’t try to take Daniella from her.
“Dante, I…I think you should take me home now.”
“Of course, cara mia, if that is what you want.”
His immediate and almost cavalier acquiescence made her wary, and it must have shown on her face because he drew her back in his arms and just held her for several minutes. How many nights over the past four years had she lay awake aching for the feel of his strong arms and praying for a second chance to build a life with him? And now that there was a very real possibility of it happening, she was running like a scared rabbit.
Dante absently stroked her hair, savoring these precious few moments with her. It was difficult to harden his heart against Paige and remember the reason he was being so relentless in his pursuit of her when he still found her kisses as intoxicating as they’d always been. He couldn’t even be in the same room with her without wanted to caress her soft skin or get close enough to inhale her sweet scent.
That’s why he’d so readily agreed to take her home; he was afraid if she stayed much longer he wouldn’t be able control himself and they’d end up in bed together. It was thoughtless of him not to consider she’d find that a little suspicious after he’d taken advantage of every opportunity to kiss her the entire evening. He’d just have to put her mind to rest and then everything would be back on track again.
“I wish you could spend the night with me,” he said softly, “but it is probably best that I take you home. In spite of what I said earlier, when I make love to you I want both your mind and your body to say yes.”
She didn’t tell Dante this was the last time she’d see him, he wouldn’t have listened to her anyway. But she couldn’t risk being alone with him again because she didn’t trust herself not to succumb to his considerable charms. Paige was under no illusions; the only reason she hadn’t slept with him tonight was because he had been strong enough to stop it from happening. And since he’d told her in no uncertain terms that he was going to be her lover, she had no choice but to cut off all contact. Her heart ached just thinking about it.
****
Her mood was solemn on the drive back to her house and she didn’t say much. When Dante asked if there was anything wrong she forced a smile and claimed to be tired. She tried to keep him from walking her to the door once they arrived at her house but he would have none of it. She was glad he didn’t ask to come in because she would have had to flat refuse. Besides the fact that Chantel was there, the moment Dante walked into her house he’d know a child lived there.
Paige kept a pretty tidy house but there was still evidence of Daniella everywhere. The coat hook just inside the foyer had a number of miniature sweaters hanging on it, and there was a small toy box with cartoon characters painted on it in one corner of the living room. Even the kitchen, which was kept obsessively spotless, had pictures that Daniella had drawn for her stuck to the refrigerator by colorful magnets. Luckily, she’d thought to move the tricycle off the front porch and into the backyard before Dante had arrived.
“Thank you for dinner,” she told him when they reached the door. “I had a nice time.”
Dante arched a brow. “Nice?”
“Okay, it was more than nice,” she laughed because he looked genuinely appalled by her choice of words. “I had a wonderful time at dinner. The food was magnificent and the conversation was utterly stimulating. There, have I sufficiently stoked your ego?”
Dante slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her up tight against his body. “You have left something out, have you not?”
“Maybe just one little thing,” she said on a sigh as he lowered his head and feasted on her mouth.
Her body instantly became a madhouse of jumbled sensations; a million butterflies took flight inside her stomach, her brain was lost in a dense fog, and her body temperature skyrocketed. Her heartbeat was erratic, her breath ragged and shallow, and when he hitched her even closer so she could feel just how aroused he was, the muscles in her abdomen clenched so tight she nearly climaxed right there. By the time he drew away from her, Paige felt as if she’d just gotten off one of those spinning rides at the carnival.
“That will have to hold you until we see each other again,” Dante said.
“Dante…” she looked up at him with eyes that were misted with tears. Oh God, this was killing her. “I can’t,” she managed to squeeze out.
He frowned at the glistening tears. “Do not cry, mio tesoro. We will be together again soon, I promise you. I have work to do in the morning but we could have lunch together…”
“No,”
Paige shook her head. “I can’t see you again, Dante.”
“Ah, it is those things you spoke of earlier but refused to elaborate on.” Dante cupped her chin and tilted her head back so she was forced to look at him. “I lost you once, Paige. I will not lose you again. Understand this, cara; Io vogtio te, I want you, and I will not rest until I have you. We will become lovers again, it is inevitable.”
Paige trembled beneath the fierce intensity of his gaze. She’d never seen him look so determined and it shook her to the core because she knew he meant every word just as she knew she was powerless to stop him from trying. And God help her, but when Dante took her in his arms and unleashed the passion he’d been holding back all evening, she clung to him like the love sick idiot she was and always would be where Dante was concerned.
VITTORIO'S MISTRESS Page 4
