by Julia James
‘But I’m a nurse. If anyone is qualified to look after her it’s me—’
He cut in ruthlessly. ‘I thought you needed to work. How are you going to work and mind your sister? The nurse I’ve booked is eminently qualified, specialized in obstetrics and gyneacology.’
Alicia reeled. This was all organized already? She knew Paolo had made the initial appointment, but now this smacked of Dante’s involvement. He had upped the ante spectacularly. How could it be this easy? Her vision cleared and she realized just how easy it could be. Her voice was hard and flat, eyes burning.
‘And I suppose this dream situation is available to Melanie if I comply with your wish that I should accompany you back to Italy today and play happy families at the conference.’
He shrugged negligently.
‘So, in effect, you are blackmailing me, Signore D’Aquanni. You’re punishing me, and Melanie.’
He stood then, moving away from the fireplace, and his eyes became dark and hard. Wasn’t this exactly what she wanted? ‘You are the one who is responsible for that lurid tabloid splash. And tell me, please, how is providing your sister with the medical care she needs, a luxurious roof over her head, someone to wait on her hand and foot, a punishment? Could you deny her that?’
‘Of course not,’ Alicia almost wailed, everything in her rebelling against the pull to succumb, to give in. How could she even consider spending a minute more than necessary with this man?
‘Look, you don’t have to do this. We … I’ll look after us.’ She thought feverishly. ‘Now that Paolo is here, he will be supporting Melanie too. We can find somewhere to live and with his wages …’
‘Dio!’ Dante spat out, incensed that she was intent on keeping up this charade of injured innocence. Didn’t she know how futile it was? ‘Have you really counted the cost of what it would mean to live in the centre of London for up to four months, on top of the medical costs? Do you even know what this man charges?’
Alicia shook her head miserably. She was ashamed to admit that she’d been too scared to check it out properly yet. She’d known it would be astronomical.
He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Alicia. She blanched when she saw the amount; it exceeded even her worst fears. And then it got worse.
‘That’s just to cover the doctor’s basic hourly fee per week for a month. It doesn’t even go into any extra kind of care if she might need an operation, not to mention accommodation, food, travel expenses. The mounting costs of a normal pregnancy are considerable, not to mention one that needs constant surveillance.’
Alicia sat down again heavily and Dante sat down too at the end of the couch nearest her.
‘Paolo, the little fool, believes he is the father of Melanie’s baby, wants to play happy families—’
Alicia’s face felt like stone; she could feel her blood pressure rise. ‘You can believe what you want for now, but the day will come when you will be forced to face the fact that you are wrong.’
He didn’t say anything for a moment and then answered grimly, ‘Women are adept in the art of obfuscation, manipulation. They were having an affair … he left. She obviously met someone else when he left, then saw her chance.’
‘He was sent—’ Alicia started to speak furiously but he held up a hand.
‘All I’m saying is that I’m prepared to indulge them, for now.’
If it means I get you …
‘Paolo has agreed with me to wait until the baby is born and his paternity confirmed before getting married—that’s if they still want to. Until that time they can consider themselves engaged and will have the chance to get used to living together. I think even you can see the benefits in that.’
Alicia didn’t trust his reasonable tone for a second. She felt sick but also, conversely, had to acknowledge her own silent misgivings about how young Melanie was and also Paolo’s apparent youth and idealistic zeal. She had an uncanny feeling that both she and Dante were guilty of having sheltered their siblings from the harsher truths of the world. And in truth she was somewhat surprised at his own prescience in this regard.
She thought of something then. ‘Why, when you knew it was Melanie, did you never mention Paolo? You knew that they’d been seeing each other.’
He stood again and paced back and forth with taut energy. He stopped and looked at her, hands on his hips. ‘Because when you arrived, screaming all sorts of accusations about my involvement, I realised that Melanie was trying to set me up. You didn’t mention Paolo once. It’s obvious that she’d figured she’d get more out of me, and that you had gone along with her … but then Paolo arrived like an eager puppy, only too ready to accept responsibility.’
Alicia’s lips were bloodless. ‘That would be because she told him about the pregnancy and he came to be with her.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s frightening how cynical you are.’
‘Not cynical. Realistic, Alicia. That’s why I came. I had to see for myself, make sure neither of you were planning on some big kind of tabloid kiss and tell.’ His mouth twisted. ‘That photo and the speculation about us is just about salvageable. As you can appreciate, with the delicacy of the merger, it would have a very adverse effect for the media to be focused on me in any kind of negative way and they are going to be watching our every move. Now that Paolo is here I’m prepared to allow—for now—that it was a misunderstanding.’
‘That’s big of you.’
She looked up at him then with defiance and yet a curious look of resignation. The image that came into Dante’s head was of her asleep with her fists balled, ready to fight.
‘What if I don’t go back to Italy with you?’
‘Do you really want to risk that? Paolo is under the impression that he is the one driving this great plan. But it’s my house that they will be using, and ultimately my money that will be paying for Melanie’s treatment and recuperation—something Paolo seems to be quite happy to ignore. Needless to say, at any moment, that could all be gone.’
‘And you would really do that? Just to get back at me, at Melanie?’
A muscle twitched in his jaw. ‘It doesn’t have to descend to that, Alicia. I’m offering your sister everything on a plate, including the chance to be with Paolo and act her heart out. You just have to come with me today and be my hostess …’
And lover too.
Dante couldn’t stop the word reverberating in his head. He knew without a doubt that there was no way he’d be able to keep his hands off her if she came with him today and, even if she wasn’t acknowledging it yet to herself, she’d soon be made aware of it—this desire that even now pulsated through the air between them.
Alicia’s mouth was grim, her face starkly pale. ‘And with me close by your side, you’ll be able to monitor my sister, make sure she isn’t stealing the family silver.’
He smiled then and it wasn’t friendly as he thought,
Exactly—you and your scheming sister won’t make a move I’m not aware of.
‘Cara, my family didn’t have any silver to steal, anything that’s there has been hard won and paid for.’
His comment made Alicia’s churning thoughts stop. What did he mean? And then she shook her head. She didn’t care what he meant.
He was pulling his jacket from the couch and slipping it on with lithe grace. He walked to the door in a couple of long strides. ‘I have some business to attend to in my office in London. I’ll be back this evening, early. And I plan to leave tonight for Milan, returning to Lake Como tomorrow. If you decide you are going to come with me, have your bags packed and ready.’ He looked at her clothes again. ‘Actually, you don’t need to pack, just bring yourself. We’ll have to get you a decent wardrobe.’
Alicia opened her mouth in affront but, before she could say a word, he was continuing.
‘I’ll be outside here at seven p.m., I won’t bother knocking. I’ll wait for five minutes. That’s it. It’s up to you if you want to risk saying no.’
And, without
a backward glance, he opened the door, shut it behind him and he was gone.
CHAPTER SIX
THAT EVENING ALICIA stood with a small holdall in one hand, the other on the lock of her front door. She could hear the idling purring engine of the car outside. It had, exactly as Dante had said, pulled up at precisely seven p.m. He irritated her with his attention to detail, his punctuality, his coolness. His expectation. The clock was ticking; she could hear it on the mantel.
Desperation clawed at her insides. She wanted to turn back the clock, drop her bag, dive under the covers of her bed and shut the world out. Shut Dante D’Aquanni out. But earlier that day she’d gone into the hospital and seeing Melanie and Paolo so happy, so delighted, so together, full of plans for moving into town … her escape route had been cut off, her fate decided. For the first time in her life, Melanie didn’t need her and that isolated, rudderless feeling had swamped her again.
This was it. Her impulsive, over-protective actions had created this scenario. She really could not risk Melanie being subjected to Dante’s censure or cynical disbelief. So she took a deep breath, turned the catch and pulled open the door. The sleek, dark car’s engine revved for a second and Alicia panicked—was she too late? But then the revs fell again. A door was pushed open from the inside. The driver stepped out and Alicia could make out the outline of a dark shape in the back. She shivered and moved forward.
Dante had had to restrain himself from springing from the car. Five minutes had passed. He’d been sure she wasn’t coming. Incensed beyond belief that a woman could be making him feel as if he were dangling on a string, he’d tersely instructed the driver to go. But. Then the door had opened and a feeling had flooded his entire body. A feeling he didn’t want to acknowlege. When Alicia slipped into the seat beside him, she looked like a pale wraith. A waif. Still the shapeless clothes, still the pulled back hair. Irritation prickled across his skin.
‘You’ve made the right decision.’
‘As if I had a choice.’ The door closed behind her shutting them into the confined intimate space. Darkness. Dante forced himself to relax. Taking his eyes away from her with more of an effort than he liked to admit, he looked out of the window as the car moved out of the estate and into the traffic.
‘So how is this going to work, exactly?’
As his plane cruised above the English countryside, leaving it behind, Dante looked across at Alicia.
‘We will stay in Milan tonight. I’ve booked you an appointment at a boutique there in the morning; we don’t have much time to get you fitted and dressed. And made over. The guests arrive at the villa in three days.’
Alicia’s spine straightened, her pride back with a vengeance. ‘As you are aware I can’t afford to buy myself an entire wardrobe. I must insist that you at least buy off-the-peg clothes. It would take me years to repay you for the designer wardrobe you seem to be insisting on.’
She looked unbelievably proud, like a tiny regal princess. Dante felt something move in his chest. He thrust it back down—back into the seething mass of twisted feelings and desire this woman aroused.
‘Don’t worry about the cost.’
‘But I do, I will; it’s an unnecessary expense.’
‘It’s not.’ His eyes moved over her body with heated appraisal; she could feel her insides grow warm.
‘As my partner, you will be expected to maintain a certain standard.’
Alicia wrestled with the poisonous memory of that brunette on the steps of the hotel—she was a woman in every sense of the word. And, as she processed what he was saying, she couldn’t stop a look of disgust flashing across her face. She could just imagine the designer get-ups he’d expect to see her in. Dante saw her expression and it surprised him. He’d never had to justify wanting to buy a woman clothes before.
‘A friend of mine is going to look after you.’
Alicia snorted. A friend. No doubt a previous lover who was bohemian enough to dress his current women. And it galled her that he’d been certain enough of her compliance that he’d already made the appointment. Her tardiness on leaving her apartment seemed childishly pathetic now.
His voice cut through her thoughts. ‘She’s eighty years old and has the mind of a steel trap. You can take that disparaging look off your face. Your opinion of my reputation is quite obvious and I won’t have you making faces every time someone mentions a woman in connection with me.’
‘And yet it’s OK for everyone to think that I’m merely your new bit of fluff?’
‘After the stunt you pulled, I think it’s only fair. And necessary, as I’ve pointed out to you.’
Damn, did she have to be so argumentative? Already he was tempted to shut her up in a very satisfying way.
She turned more fully in her seat. She wasn’t going to make the mistake of standing up in the cabin again. ‘Might I remind you that you were the one who initiated that kiss, not me.’
Dante felt an instinctive need to protect himself. His face was stiff, his hands were clenched. ‘Should I have let you shout out to the world that I was the neglectful absentee father of your sister’s baby? Your sister, who lay in a hospital in England in a grave condition? When I wasn’t even aware of that fact?’
He shook his head, his eyes sparking. ‘Luckily, I remembered your little outburst from the week before, so I had a fair idea of what you were going to say. I had to shut you up, that was all.’
Alicia sat back, deflated. He hadn’t known of Melanie’s accident. She would have been taking an unfair advantage. It killed her to admit that he did, in a way, have the moral high ground in this. And it also killed her somewhere to know that he’d kissed her with pure premeditated efficiency. And even though he’d kissed her yesterday too. She could recall his cool regard straight afterwards, as if he’d been conducting an experiment, as if his whole world hadn’t gone up in flames, like hers had.
Waking up from a deep sleep, Alicia felt terror flood her bones. She was being held tight against a powerful body. It was dark; she didn’t know where she was. She started to struggle fiercely, her mind clouding over in panic.
‘Let me go, put me down.’ The words wouldn’t come out strong enough.
‘Dio! You’re like a cat; will you calm down? I’m only carrying you because even the plane landing didn’t wake you up.’
Alicia tensed and stopped struggling immediately. Clarity rushed in. She was in Dante’s arms. He was striding across the tarmac of the small private Milan airport. She wasn’t working in the aid group any more. And then something she hadn’t felt in such a long time—if ever—rushed through her.
She felt safe.
She looked up and saw a firm jaw clenched tightly. An implacable expression on his handsome face. She fought against relaxing against him and kept herself rigid until they reached a nearby car and he put her down. She couldn’t look at him and just mumbled, ‘I was having a dream … didn’t know where I was.’
‘Well, we’re in Milan. Welcome back to Italy.’
He smiled grimly and Alicia looked at him then. The bottom fell out of her stomach. How bizarre to think she was safe when she knew she’d probably never been in more danger in her life.
He ushered her into the car and within half an hour they were pulling up outside a beautiful crumbling building. Still slightly disorientated from her heavy sleep—the relief of knowing that Melanie was on the mend and being minded meant she could finally relax—she moved as if blindfolded. She let Dante show her into a small, ancient yet luxuriously furnished palazzo, up to a bedroom where she closed the door behind her after a brief sterile goodnight.
She undressed in the dark, crawled under the covers and gave in to the much needed restorative sleep that claimed her again. Tomorrow … was her last thought. Tomorrow I’ll think about what it meant to feel so safe, with him of all people.
When Alicia woke in the morning, it was to a gentle knocking and her door being opened by a shy pretty girl in jeans and a casual top.
‘Buon g
iorno …’
‘Boun giorno,’ Alicia repeated sleepily, a little bemused as the girl came in and pulled back heavy curtains.
She turned and smiled at Alicia. She spoke in halting English, clearly having rehearsed her speech. ‘Signore D’Aquanni said to wake you and tell you that he is in the dining room having breakfast.’
Alicia smiled weakly as orientation rushed back, ‘Thank you. Grazie.’
The girl left and closed the door quietly after her. Alicia flopped back on to the huge pillow. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d woken to feel so clear, restored, refreshed. And so confused and bewildered at the remarkable chain of events.
The memory of waking last night to find herself being carried in Dante’s arms flashed back into her head. She tensed. She knew that she was being a coward, but in an effort to avoid thinking about how that had made her feel, she perversely opted for going directly into the lion’s den.
A short time later she found her way downstairs and into a charming, bright dining room. A big polished table with a stunning vase of extravagant blooms at one end of the polished mahogany. And Dante D’Aquanni at the other end, sipping coffee and reading a paper. He looked up and his eyes seemed to bore right through her.
‘Sleep well?’
The tension that seemed ever present around them hummed like an electrical charge. She nodded. ‘Like a baby.’
She walked over and sat down and the same young girl came in with orange juice, fresh coffee, croissants, fruit. Alicia hadn’t seen such a feast in so long that her stomach rumbled loudly. With her face going pink, she looked over and saw Dante smiling at the young girl as she poured him more coffee. It made the room tilt dizzily. That smile should come with a health warning, she thought, even as she itched to wipe it from his face.
‘Alicia, this is Patrizia, the daughter of my housekeeper, Rosa. She’s working here for her summer holidays and giving her mamma a break.’
