Challenging Dante

by Lynne Graham

  Topsy glanced up again. ‘Do they?’

  ‘It may have taken Vittore and I thirty years to finally get together but we first met and fell in love when we were sixteen years old,’ Sofia divulged quietly.

  Topsy was stunned by that information. ‘Why did you break up?’

  Sofia looked sad. ‘Vittore was the son of the town drunk and I was the daughter of the most successful local businessman. My family would never have allowed us to be together. My father owed Dante’s father a great deal of money and when I agreed to marry Aldo, the debt was written off.’

  ‘That must’ve been horrible for you!’ Topsy breathed in horror.

  ‘It was but in those days you did as your parents told you.’

  ‘So, how on earth did you meet Vittore again?’

  Sofia grinned. ‘I found him on the Internet and do you know? The minute I saw him it was like the thirty years hadn’t happened and we didn’t want to waste any more time,’ she confided.

  ‘What does Dante think of that story?’ Topsy frowned. ‘You haven’t told him, have you? But it’s so romantic, Sofia.’

  ‘Dante is not a romantic man,’ Sofia declared ruefully. ‘He would think us both even more foolish if he knew the truth.’

  Touched by that story, Topsy took a while to get back to checking the seating arrangements. Her brain was teeming with busy thoughts. It was a shock to learn that Dante had once been married and that he had gone from losing the wife he loved to taking on three mistresses. Had he tried to bury his pain in rampant sex?

  Whatever, Sofia’s warning earlier was kindly meant even though Topsy had not needed it for she’d seen from the start that Dante was not interested in anything more than a fleeting affair. And she was content with that, wasn’t she? She would return to London a lot less ignorant of men and look back on Dante as her first lover with fondness rather than regret. She had no other expectations, absolutely none, she assured herself doggedly, silencing and squashing the cry of pain deep down inside her. If she had accidentally managed to become a little too attached to him she would soon overcome that foolishness.

  * * *

  In Milan, Dante was frowning and tossing his phone on the desk. He had been candid with Cosima and, to be fair, she had matched his candour. Choice didn’t come into the situation when the PR power of the ball would have a direct effect on the funds being raised. What was he supposed to say to Topsy? But then why was he worrying about saying anything? He reminded himself that Topsy had refused to accompany him to Milan. He didn’t owe her any explanations, nor did he want to take their affair in a direction that implied that he wanted more. Accidenti! He didn’t like complications and hated hassle, particularly with women. Keep it simple, he told himself impatiently. Saying nothing was wiser.

  * * *

  The night before the ball, Topsy agreed to join Gaetano for a drink in the village café when he rang. She was grateful for the distraction the invite gave because she had repeatedly and pointlessly revisited her decision not to go to Milan with Dante and just as often she had told herself that she would not rearrange her life, ignore her safe boundaries or fall down on the job she was doing simply for Dante’s benefit. She had made the right decision and she had no regrets, and in the same way she wasn’t sitting around waiting for Dante to come home like faithful Penelope. After all, he hadn’t phoned her once since his departure.

  Dressed in a bright geometric print shift and high wedge sandals, she skipped down the steps and climbed into Gaetano’s car.

  ‘I’d have taken you for a meal but I don’t want my family to get the wrong idea and assume we’re dating,’ the builder confided ruefully. ‘Before you know where you are my mother will get the baby albums out.’

  ‘Your mamma already told me that you had gorgeous curls as a baby,’ Topsy told him with a giggle.

  ‘Besides, I hear you’re seeing Dante,’ Gaetano commented.

  Eyes wide, Topsy swivelled in her seat. ‘Who told you that?’

  ‘My kid brother saw you walking hand in hand through Florence,’ Gaetano admitted. ‘There’s no such thing as privacy around here, particularly not when it comes to love lives. Gossip is the spice of life.’

  Topsy seriously hoped that nobody knew about the picnic in the woods and went pink. ‘Dante and I...well, we’re just a casual thing.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want to tread on his toes,’ Gaetano confided. ‘When I phoned, I thought you’d say no to coming out.’

  ‘I don’t even know when Dante’s due home,’ Topsy admitted.

  Gaetano asked her what she was wearing to the ball. ‘It’s a glorified maid’s outfit,’ she confided. ‘Sofia wanted me to choose something fancy but basically I’m staff and she’s the hostess, so I thought it made sense to choose something plain.’

  ‘You could never look plain...’

  In a white-hot rage shielded by formidable cool, Dante focused on her vivid little face from across the street. Infuriatingly, she looked as though she was enjoying herself. He had been incredulous when he learned that she had gone out with another man when he was within an hour of coming home and he had been forced to sit through a session of his mother pontificating over whether or not Gaetano could get over his ex quickly enough to properly appreciate Topsy. As far as he was concerned, Topsy needed no other male appreciation. He was convinced that if he left her alone by the side of the road for five minutes he would find her surrounded by men when he came back. Topsy’s je ne sais quoi sexiness and energy were a magnetic draw for the opposite sex.

  Topsy very nearly fell off her chair when Dante strode into the café. Within seconds the proprietor was by his side and hurrying off to serve him. She studied Dante, hopelessly greedy for the sheer rush of seeing him again, her heart rate kicking up, a steady tension infiltrating her every muscle. As she met his remarkable green eyes her surroundings vanished into oblivion. It was a severe overreaction to his presence and she knew it was but she couldn’t suppress it. A physical infatuation might have seized hold of her formerly controlled self, but her brain told her she could cope with it as long as she didn’t let it take over entirely.

  Gaetano was already cheerfully exchanging talk of the ball with Dante as he sat down, a glass of wine arriving magically fast at his elbow. Topsy glanced across the table at him, noting the heavy black lashes that concealed his eyes, the spectacular bone structure beneath his olive-toned skin. Dante had been married, she found herself thinking afresh. He had promised to love, honour and share with another woman and she had died and he had ended up alone. Alone but for the three mistresses, she reminded herself staunchly, keen not to idealise her image of him. Without warning he looked at her and a surge of unwelcome heat and awareness blossomed between her legs. Conscious her breasts were swelling and her nipples tightening, she sucked in a deep audible breath and soft pink warmed her cheeks.

  ‘You won’t mind if I take Topsy home,’ Dante murmured to Gaetano.

  ‘I’ve only had one drink,’ Topsy objected. ‘This is virtually my first break from work in two days.’

  ‘I own a wine cellar. If you want to drink, you can do it with me.’

  ‘And what cave did you emerge from?’ Topsy asked sweetly. ‘Obviously it was a very recent move.’

  Beside her, Gaetano was trying not to laugh but Topsy wasn’t amused. She didn’t want Dante ordering her around. He didn’t own her, he didn’t have the right to dictate where she went and what she did and even if she had loved him she would have fought him to the death on that issue.

  ‘Madre di Dio...OK, I should’ve phoned!’ Dante ground out the grudging admission between even white teeth.

  ‘Perhaps...’ Topsy tossed back, refusing to give ground, her dark eyes veiled as she wondered if he had consciously decided not to phone while he was away, if indeed he was as set as she was on respecting the limits of their relationshi
p. And if she was right in her suspicion, why was he behaving that way? And why change course to chase her down when she wasn’t immediately available?

  ‘Venga qui...come here,’ Dante breathed in a driven undertone as he suddenly sprang to his feet, six feet plus inches of rippling impatience, extending a lean, elegant hand to pull her upright.

  ‘See you tomorrow night,’ Gaetano told her with an appreciative grin, saluting them both with his glass as Dante closed an arm round Topsy’s slight shoulders.

  ‘I hate it when you try and tell me what to do,’ Topsy stretched up to mutter in Dante’s ear as he walked her across the street to his car.

  ‘It would have caused a scene if I’d just lifted you and carried you out,’ Dante parried in a mild tone that suggested his determination to retrieve her at any cost was perfectly normal.

  Inside the car she couldn’t resist any more: she closed her fingers into his luxuriant black hair and dragged his beautiful mouth down to hers. Fireworks went off inside her, instant blazing, wildly colourful fireworks, and the connection left her weak. He pressed her back into the passenger seat. ‘Next time, I’ll phone,’ he promised.

  ‘Gaetano’s only a friend.’

  ‘I know. He’s still hoping his ex’s marriage breaks down, so that he can get her back,’ Dante confided with a sardonic twist of his mouth.

  They walked back into the castle. There was nobody about. ‘I’m going to get changed,’ Topsy murmured.

  Dante scooped her up into his arms on the first landing and carried her up the next flight. ‘We’ll sleep in my room tonight.’

  ‘But I didn’t say.’

  ‘I’m so hungry for you, bella mia. I didn’t know two days could seem so long,’ Dante groaned into her hair, the ache in his voice stirring something tender within her.

  He settled her down on his huge four-poster bed and she kicked off her shoes, reflecting that it was only a week since he had brought her there and she had walked out again, determined not to succumb. What had happened to that resolve, the strength of her original resistance? Already that night seemed like a lifetime ago. Dante lifted the house phone to order champagne.

  ‘I don’t need another drink,’ she told him wryly. ‘I only meant that I was enjoying getting out and having some company.’

  ‘I’m company,’ Dante told her very seriously as he took off his jacket, jerked loose his tie and embarked on his shirt buttons.

  ‘No, you’re my lover...that’s different,’ Topsy contended. ‘Gaetano and I are friends.’

  ‘And what are we?’

  ‘Chance acquaintances having sex,’ Topsy said a little painfully. ‘We fell into this.’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with that,’ Dante reasoned, flipping her round to run down the zip on her dress. ‘Pre-planning can make life boring.’

  ‘Funnily enough, I would have said that you plan everything right down to the last detail.’

  For a split second, Dante hesitated as he lifted her dress off over her head, his attention dwelling on the glorious swell of her breasts seguing down into her impossibly tiny waist and the voluptuous curve of her bottom. She was right: he usually did plan every move he made. But he hadn’t planned on her. He was willing to admit that she was an anomaly in his life and didn’t fit the usual mould but he wasn’t yet ready to finish the affair. It would end when boredom set in as it always did and when his desire for her no longer drove him.

  He caught her to him with impatient hands and his mouth burned on hers. Tasting him, savouring him, she shuddered as he unfastened her bra and stroked her achingly tender nipples. She hadn’t expected the evening to end like this but she wanted him, needed him in a way she had never imagined she would ever need anyone and, even though that was scary, she could not deny herself the incredible exhilaration of being with him again. She pulled off his shirt, her hands relearning the hard masculine contours of his hair-roughened chest, trailing down to cup and tease his urgent erection, already imagining what it would feel like to have him inside her again.

  ‘I never want to wait with you, bella mia,’ Dante grated hungrily against her mouth, nipping at her full lower lip, making her whimper as he skated a fingertip across the damp silk of her knickers. ‘And I don’t believe you want to wait either.’

  Topsy was trembling with desire, desperate for the passion he unleashed so naturally in her. Suddenly he was kissing her with the driving demand that always fired up her body, sending tiny snaking thrills of wicked anticipation through her. His caresses became a little rougher, just exactly what she craved at that instant because she was every bit as impatient as he was. His teeth grazed a pouting pink nipple as he wrenched her out of her last garment and a long finger speared into her unbearably sensitive depths. She cried out, helpless in the grip of the passionate need he had awakened.

  He grabbed a condom, made use of it and flipped her over onto her stomach, startling her. He pulled up her hips and thrust into her lush damp heat with exquisite force. He swore then in his own language. ‘Did I hurt you?’

  ‘Don’t you dare stop!’ she gasped, breathless with delight. Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop—it was like an unquenchable chant inside her head. Every nerve in her body responded to every plunge of his. Her inner muscles clenched around him, wild heat gathering at her core as he used his hand to stroke the most sensitive spot of all.

  ‘Not going to stop,’ he groaned, nipping at her shoulder with his teeth. ‘I dreamt of doing this all night, having you over and over again until neither of us can move.’

  His pagan rhythm filled her with excitement. Breathing was a challenge when the waves of pleasure were gathering intensity in her pelvis and her heart was hammering at an insane rate. As her body was overpowered by the wild convulsions of orgasm he gave a shout of completion and drove deep one last time. She writhed under him, her body flailing out of control as she reached her peak and lost herself in the exquisite ripples of pleasure.

  ‘You were so worth waiting for,’ Dante breathed with hoarse emphasis against her cheek as he held her close afterwards.

  She tensed as a knock sounded on the door. ‘That’ll be the champagne.’

  He vaulted off the bed, pulled up his trousers and zipped them. Shaken, she watched him, wanting him back in her arms again, struggling not to be embarrassed or ashamed that he hadn’t even got completely undressed. The sweet spasms of her fully pleasured body were still quivering through her when he passed her a glass of champagne.

  ‘What are we drinking to?’ she whispered.

  Shimmering green eyes rested on her. Her hair was wildly tumbled round her heart-shaped face, her luscious pink mouth slightly parted, one pouting breast on display, her creamy thighs exposed. His body hardened again and he gave her a shimmering brilliant smile. ‘You look amazing. We’re drinking to all the pleasure we can handle, bella mia.’

  She reached out a hand and closed it over his. ‘No, we won’t be that selfish. We’ll drink to staging a very, very successful fund-raiser tomorrow night,’ she contradicted gently.

  CHAPTER NINE

  LATE AFTERNOON THE next day, Topsy was dealing with the reporters and photographers who had arrived to cover the ball and the many celebrities expected to attend.

  ‘You’re part of the household,’ one of the women remarked thoughtfully, a redhead with a choppy haircut and bright dark eyes. ‘Any titbits to offer on La Principessa and the Conte?’

  ‘Yes, their romance is hot news right now,’ another woman chimed in, looking hopeful.

  ‘La Principessa? Sorry, I don’t know who you’re talking about,’ Topsy admitted, knowing that there had been no princess listed among the guests that she could recall.

  ‘Cosima Ruffini,’ the redhead extended.

  ‘I didn’t know she was a princess.’

  ‘A princess and a count.
Those two go together like salt and pepper. We were hoping there’d be an engagement tonight. It would be a great time to make the announcement.’

  ‘Er...Mr Leonetti and the princess are dating?’ Topsy prompted tightly, an odd whirring sound in her ears as though she had suddenly become light-headed, a surge of perspiration dampening her skin.

  The redhead raised her brows. ‘Dio mio, you are out of touch and I can see you aren’t going to be much help in the gossip department.’

  ‘Dante and Cosima have been seeing each other for weeks,’ the other woman informed her with visible impatience. ‘In fact right now they’re society’s hottest new couple and we can’t wait to see their outfits.’

  Slowly and very painfully, Topsy could feel her facial muscles freezing while her stomach performed a sickening flip. At first she couldn’t credit the enormity of the betrayal, could not bring herself to believe that Dante could possibly have done that to her but her companions were already exchanging chatter that made it clear that Dante and Cosima were in an acknowledged relationship, not one suggested by rumour alone. Shock hit Topsy as hard as an unexpected blow to the back of her skull and she felt horribly ill and exposed. Clearly, Dante had been seeing another woman before Topsy even met him and he had had a fling with Topsy behind his girlfriend’s back. Her sense of betrayal, guilt and hurt was so intense it felt like a knife blade sinking into her heart.

  ‘Excuse me for a moment,’ she muttered, even her voice fading as she sped off for the cloakroom and a much-needed moment of breathing space in which to collect her chaotic thoughts. In truth she wanted to run out of the castle front door and keep on running but that option was not open. Not only was it her responsibility to ensure that the ball ran smoothly, but she also had her pride. It might be battered but no way was she running away with her tail between her legs because a man had treated her badly! She would see out this nightmare evening to the finish and depart with dignity.

  When she emerged again, the photographers were already busily at work in the huge hall. A tall and very beautiful blonde clad in a very full turquoise satin and lace ensemble was regally posing, and even as Topsy hovered behind the crush surrounding the other woman Dante came downstairs and Topsy did not have to look hard to see the proof that her worst imaginings were true because the blonde and Dante were a matching pair, outfits co-ordinated in colour, fabric and design, something which must have been organised weeks earlier when the outfits were chosen. Dante was dressed up like Louis XIV, the French Sun King, and Cosima as one of his mistresses. Topsy searched his devastatingly handsome face, noting the tension etched there as Cosima rested a hand on his arm and leant closer to speak to him. You bastard, she thought in indescribable pain as the couple posed for pictures and Cosima made the most of the attention.