The Devil Served Desire

by Shirley Jump

  "You old fool. I haven't been petite since you married me." But Ada passed the vegetables anyway.

  Sal scooped some zucchini onto his plate, grinning at the woman across from him. "In my eyes, you are but a beautiful rose."

  "You're legally blind."

  "I can still see my heart's true love."

  She scowled and reached for a slice of bread. "That's the cataracts."

  "You have lost your romance. Where's the little butterfly I married?"

  "She got old. Now pass the risotto."

  "Are they always like this?" Dante whispered into Maria's ear. Her dark brown hair curled against her ear-lobe, and for an insane moment, he longed to toy with the springy tendril.

  Probably not a good thing to do at the family dinner table.

  "Pretty much." She shrugged, smiling at them. "Wait till they really get going. My grandmother's a little hard of hearing so they sometimes end up practically screaming at each other by the end of a conversation. Nonna and Nonno would give the best presidential candidates a run for their money at a debate."

  "I think it's wonderful." He'd always craved that kind of family. That kind of life for himself. This exact kind of setting.

  Maria turned and looked at him, fork hovering over her plate, big brown eyes catching his. God, she had gorgeous eyes. Like deep pools of mink he could settle into, and be comfortable there for a million years. "You need mental help," she said.

  "Oh, come on, look at them. Still in love, still flirting."

  "That's not flirting. It's verbal combat." But her voice was soft and admiring, full of love for her grandparents.

  "Ah, ma petite," he whispered, his voice a lower, deeper version of her grandfather's, "where's your romance?"

  Her eyes widened and filled with something that simmered hotter than the steam coming off the veal. He clenched his free hand in his lap to break the urge to reach out and touch her, to draw her to him and taste her ruby lips again.

  "So, Dante, what are your intentions with my little girl?" Maria's father leaned back in his chair, one arm draped over the back.

  Dante straightened and coughed, tearing his attention away from Maria. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smirk. The grilling had begun. "To drive her crazy until she finally says yes and goes out on a date with me."

  "He's a smart man, that one," Sal said to his wife, emphasizing the point with a fork. "Comes from strong stock. I know his father. Good man."

  "What?" Ada cocked an ear at him, cupping her hand around it.

  "I said he's a smart man."

  "A smart-ass? You shouldn't say those kinds of things at the dinner table. There are young people present."

  Maria's father turned his attention toward Dante again. "You have a good job?"

  Dante cleared his throat. "I own a restaurant."

  "A what?" Ada asked. "A rest stop? How can you make a living at that?"

  "A restaurant," Dante repeated, louder.

  Her father raised a brow. "And?"

  "And that's it. It keeps me pretty busy."

  "In my day, a man worked three jobs," Sal said, nodding. "Supported his family in style."

  "What style?" Ada snorted. "I drove an Edsel. We lived in a two-room walkup with three kids for fifteen years. Style, my—"

  "Mamma!" Maria's father cut her off. "There are young people present. Remember?"

  She went back to her zucchini, muttering about Edsels under her breath.

  Biba bustled in from the kitchen, depositing additional bread onto the table and then hurrying from place setting to place setting, refilling the wineglasses.

  "Sit Biba," her husband said. "You never eat with the rest of us."

  "My kitchen—"

  "Will not burn down if you stop to eat." He grabbed her wrist and tugged her toward the chair beside him. "Maria's boyfriend is here. We need to make sure he's the one."

  Dante grinned at Maria. She let out a sigh that said her parents had visited this territory more often than Lewis and Clark. "He's not my boyfriend. And he's not the one."

  He thought about holding up a sign saying he was interested in the position, but figured Maria wasn't taking applications.

  "Good for you," her grandmother said, adding salt to her zucchini. "Don't settle down. Men are a pain in the ass."

  "Mamma!" Biba gasped.

  "What? It's true. They're about as useful as a dead elephant in the freezer."

  Dante stifled a laugh. Maria choked back one of her own.

  Sal grabbed his wife's hand and brought it to his lips, giving it a loud kiss. "Later, I'll show you useful."

  "Don't you dare." She jerked her hand back. "I took that self-defense class at the community center last year. I know how to use a fist."

  Sal chuckled. "There's no defense against amore."

  Ada let out a chuff of disgust. "Are you sneaking those Viagra pills again? I swear, that Sonny is a terrible friend, giving you those things. Make you act like an animal."

  "Mamma!" Biba said.

  She dug into her plate again. "I'm old. I can say whatever I want now."

  Biba started in on her plate at a furious pace, her cheeks pink. Dante cast an amused glance at Maria, who made a concerted effort to ignore him. He could see the amusement in her gaze, though, and knew as much as she wouldn't admit it, her family and all their quirks were dear to her heart.

  The ringlet was back around her ear again, teasing at him, making his fingers itch to brush it back.

  As soon as she finished eating, Maria leapt to her feet to help clear the table. Biba got to her feet as well, like a rising chorus of the Rockettes.

  Dante stood. "Mrs. Pagliano, please sit. Maria and I will clean up."

  "But—" Mamma was half out of her seat.

  "You work hard," Dante said. "Let us spoil you for once."

  "Suck-up," Maria muttered to him.

  "Smart man," Sal said.

  "Don't call him a smart-ass," his wife said, swatting him from across the table. "He's a nice boy. Look how he helps."

  Clearly, Dante had won over everyone at the Pagliano table. Except Maria. He now had a whole team rooting for him to win her stubborn heart. Dante smiled at Maria's mother. "Let Maria and I do the dishes," he said again.

  Confusion flitted across Biba's face, as if she didn't know what to do with herself now. "Well, if you're sure..."

  "I know my way around a kitchen." Dante laid a gentle hand on her shoulder and she slowly retook her seat. "And I promise to leave yours exactly as you would."

  "I changed my mind," Ada said, grabbing Maria's hand. "Marry him. Even if he is a smart-ass."

  Dante's Winning-a-Stubborn-Heart Sicilian Ricotta Cake

  2 cups ricotta cheese, sweet and tempting

  1/2 cup heavy cream

  2 tablespoons vanilla sugar

  Rind of one orange, finely grated

  5 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur

  1/4 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped (the way to a girl's heart)

  5 tablespoons candied orange peel, chopped and divided

  1 pound sponge cake, sliced into 1/4-inch slices

  1 cup whipping cream, sweetened, like she is

  Combine the ricotta and heavy cream, beating until smooth and creamy, just like you wish everything was between the two of you. Add the sugar, orange rind and orange liqueur. Fold in chocolate chips and all but one tablespoon of the candied orange peel. Now you've made the filling completely irresistible.

  Line a five-cup loaf pan with parchment paper. Layer sponge cake, then ricotta mixture, finishing with sponge cake. Try not to imagine you and she layered together after she tastes this creation of yours, or you'll end up ricotta-ing yourself.

  Press down lightly, wrap with wax paper and plastic wrap, then refrigerate overnight while you dream about her eating that first delectable bite.

  Before serving, invert the cake onto a plate and ice it with the whipped cream. Decorate with candied fruit.

  Or, better yet, you c
an frost each other with the whipped cream and forget the cake altogether.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Dante could see Maria wasn't going to give him the time of day, much less the dish soap. She loaded the dishes into the sink, doing her best to ignore him, taking over every chore that she could and avoiding him, probably hoping he'd give up and go away.

  "Wash? Or dry?"

  "Huh?" she asked.

  "Which do you want to do?"

  "We have a dishwasher."

  "Let's do it ourselves. Sometimes I like to do the dishes. It's... mindless." He picked up a plate, ran it under the faucet and watched the Arborio rice run off the side. "You can see the clean happen in front of your eyes. You feel like you accomplished something."

  "You are a sick man." But she'd moved beside him and was already squirting Ivory liquid into the sink and filling the basin.

  "Did you want to wash?"

  "I'll dry. I have my manicure to think about." She tossed him a grin.

  "You just want to see me wear the rooster apron, don't you?"

  "Hell, yes. Might as well go for maximum humiliation. You'll score big in Mamma's book if you actually put your hands in the soapy water." Maria shut off the faucet and stepped away, opening a drawer and withdrawing a clean dish towel. "I don't think my father ever comes into the kitchen. Unless it's to ask my mother what time dinner will be."

  "Are you serious?"

  "He's your traditional Italian man. Wife takes care of him and the house; he brings home the money. He doesn't cook, clean or get his own coffee in the morning."

  Dante began to load the dirty dishes in. "And as much as you love your father, that's not the kind of guy you want to marry."

  Maria wrapped up the leftovers and started putting them into the refrigerator. "I don't want to marry anyone. I'm not the marrying kind."

  Dante rinsed off the plate, then started on a bowl. "I think you tell yourself that, but I see you as a very different woman."

  "You have me all wrong."

  He paused to look at her. "No, I don't think so. One thing I am, is good at reading people. And from the minute I met you, I've seen a different woman beneath what you try to project." He chuckled. "Maybe that's why I haven't given up on you yet."

  "Maybe you're a glutton for punishment."

  "Quite the opposite." He grinned. "But if you don't date me, you'll never know. Not to mention how you'll disappoint your mamma," he warned, turning to wash another bowl.

  "Don't forget Franco. The two of them could bemoan my old maid status over a bowl of wedding soup." Maria laughed.

  "I don't think either of our Cupids would put down their arrows that easily." He noticed she'd managed to avoid answering him about the marriage question. Was he wrong? Or had he been right and she didn't want to admit it?

  She'd called him a study in contrasts the last time they'd seen each other. But that wasn't true. She was the one who said she wanted one thing yet seemed so clearly meant for another.

  Maria took the clean bowl he handed her and dried it, then placed it in the cabinet. She put a hand on her hip and looked at him. "You look like you're having a blast with the bubbles. Is there something I should know?"

  He laughed. "I told you, I like doing dishes. It's a stress reliever." He leaned in her direction and whispered in her ear, lowering his voice into a sexy, teasing range, hoping to coax her back to the intimacy they'd had before. "Sometimes I even do them at home. Alone."

  She moved back a few inches, but not before he saw her let out a staggered breath. "I hate anything to do with washing dishes. Paper plates were invented for people like me."

  "I like getting my hands into the dough, so to speak. Sometimes, I miss the little stuff in running the restaurant. I get so busy with phone calls, bills, employees fighting like two-year-olds."

  "I know what you mean." She moved to his left to load clean glasses into the cabinet. "There are days at the shop when we're so wrapped up in the business end that it feels like we lost the fun somewhere."

  Dante's ears perked up. What was this? Detente? A common ground, built on business?

  "So your dad started the restaurant?" she asked.

  He nodded. "My father opened Vita when he came here from Italy. He loved the place, but he was never very successful with it. He could cook better than Wolfgang Puck and Julia Child rolled into one and he taught me how to cook, too, but he had no head for business."

  "Not everyone does," Maria said. "When the three of us started Gift Baskets, we divvied things up according to our skills. Clearly, I didn't get kitchen duty." She laughed and gave him a slight jab in the arm.

  Dante wanted to smack himself in the head. Why hadn't he thought of it earlier? Maria was part owner of a business; he owned a business. Right there was the bridge he'd been looking for to cement the connection between them.

  Besides the sex connection, of course.

  "How'd you three end up in business, anyway?" He started in on one of Mamma's rooster-decorated serving platters.

  "We all went to Suffolk and ended up meeting in business class. We were assigned together as a team for one of those projects where you have to invent a business. Being women, our idea involved cookies and chocolate." She laughed, turning the dish towel around and around in her hand. "We must have all been PMSing at the same time. But it worked and we worked. After college, we made the leap into business together. Never looked back. Never had second thoughts."

  "So you do take risks?"

  "With things I can control."

  He handed her the clean platter, but didn't let go of his end. Yet. "You never really control anything. Not in business and not in life."

  "I like the illusion."

  "Another thing we have in common." He grinned, then gently released the platter into her grip. "There are a lot of days when it seems the employees run me, rather than the other way around."

  She laughed. "All you need is a good manager. And a great business plan."

  Dante returned to the sink and worked his way through the silverware. "For that, I'd need time. And in my business, it's the one thing I can't order off the menu."

  She sighed, picking up a handful of the silverware he'd washed and began drying the pieces. "It's been a long day. I don't really feel like talking about work. Let's just do the dishes."

  Plan A—shot down with a torpedo before it got a chance to do much more than leave the battleship. Guess he'd have to resort to Plan B. The sex connection.

  Gee, pity.

  Before he could do anything more sexy than suds a plate, Biba Pagliano entered the kitchen. She stopped at the window and pulled back the curtain. "Oh, would you look at that," Biba said. "It's raining. Maria, you can't walk home in that. You'll get sick."

  It was, indeed, raining, Dante saw. Not hard, but strong enough to require an umbrella and a fast walk.

  "Mamma, I walk in the rain all the time. I won't drown. And, I only live four blocks away."

  "You'll catch a cold." Biba let go of the curtain and stepped back, directing a hinting look at Dante. "You don't even have a raincoat with you."

  "Let me drive you," Dante said. It would give him some moments alone with her. Maybe he could build that bridge he'd been trying to work on all night. He wasn't winning the war with Maria yet.

  But he wasn't a man who gave up easily, either.

  "You don't have to."

  Dante squeezed out the sponge and put it on top of the sink, then pulled the plug and let the water drain from the now-empty sink. "It would be my pleasure."

  "It's not a long walk. Really. You don't have to go out of your way."

  "Maria, hush." Biba waved at her. "If the man wants to drive you home, let him be a gentleman."

  Maria shot her mother a glare. Mamma and her matchmaking had leapt up notches unknown now. She'd gone way beyond grocery clerks. Now she was blatantly asking Dante to make a pity drive.

  "It's not out of my way at all." Dante grinned. "Besides, I've learned it's wise
to always take a mother's advice." He gave Mamma a wink.

  And Mamma blushed, actually blushed, like a schoolgirl smitten by his charms.

  Maria glanced out the window and saw God had taken Mamma's side, too. The rain had started pouring down in sheets. Clearly, Maria was outnumbered. "All right, you both win." She gave her mother a hug as an apology for the way she'd been acting.

  Mamma beamed. Probably calculating the cost of catering in her head. "Go, go," she said, shooing them out of her kitchen. "I finish drying." Mamma took the dish towel right out of Maria's hands and bumped her with her hip, sending her stumbling toward the door.

  A second later, Dante and Maria were outside the house, under Mamma's bright pink umbrella, dashing toward his car. "I want to apologize," Maria said once they were inside.

  "For what?"

  "For my family. They're a little... overbearing at times. And beyond obvious in their attempts to get me married off."

  Dante smiled. "I thought they were great."

  "Have you been drinking?" He might find them entertaining for a one-meal performance but over time, her family was like the Ringling Brothers without the ringmaster.

  "Only the wine at dinner." He turned the key and the engine revved to life. "Even when my dad was alive, my family was nothing like yours."

  "There are days I'd love to have a 'normal' family. One you can actually introduce to friends without being afraid they'll have them fill out a marriage license at the dinner table." She pointed at the street sign ahead of them. "It's shorter if you take a right here."

  He obliged. "They only have your best interests at heart."

  "They don't listen to what I want." She sighed.

  "What parents do?"

  She laughed. "Maybe the ones on Mars. Certainly not the ones that live in the North End."

  He chuckled softly at that. The wipers on the Honda swished back and forth, sluicing the rain from side to side. Dante reached up a hand and rubbed at the back of his neck. He sighed. "What a week."

  "Long days at the restaurant?"

  "They all are. It's part of the business."