“Not nearly enough.”
“Then I shall have to remedy that.”
Paige was well and thoroughly kissed by the time they finished showering. They took turns lathering each other up, which took considerably longer than it should have because Dante had taken his promise to remedy the kiss deprivation situation very seriously. Clothed only in their towels, he’d ordered her to sit on one of the chairs beneath the heated lamps while he used the blow dryer on her hair then brushed it until it gleamed. She’d missed the pampering he’d lavished on her and it felt good to allow him to take care of her again.
Once they’d gotten dressed, Paige sat on a kitchen stool while Dante prepared their meal. Given that it was almost two in the afternoon, they’d opted for lunch instead of breakfast and she was having a wonderful time just watching him move around the kitchen like a pro. Obviously he hadn’t been stretching the truth about knowing how to cook because he’d chosen to prepare linguine in lobster sauce along with fresh asparagus tips and garlic bread. The enticing aroma had her stomach grumbling and her mouth watering long before it was done cooking.
“How do you normally spend your Saturdays?” She asked after he’d set her plate in front of her and took the seat to her right at the informal dining counter.
“I am usually up by seven, take a two mile run then shower and head to the office for most of the day.”
Paige hesitated for a moment. “Do you…date much?”
“I have not led the life of a monk if that is what you are asking.”
She swallowed the painful lump in her throat, silently chastising herself. Of course a man like Dante wouldn’t go without female companionship for long. Hadn’t last night proved that his sex drive was practically insatiable? She wondered how many there’d been or if he was seeing anyone in particular now. As if he’d read her mind, Dante’s hand closed over hers.
“Brief, meaningless encounters, cara. That is all they were. There has been no one special in my life since you and there is no one I am seeing on a regular basis right now.”
“I had no right to ask,” Paige said, then offered him a tremulous smile. “I probably have no right to say this either, but I’m glad.”
Dante refused to analyze the significance behind the surge of happiness that whipped through him. “Does that mean you want me all to yourself?”
“I don’t want to share you,” she side stepped the question.
“What about you, Paige? Has there been anyone special in your life?”
“No, there’s been no one since you.”
“And that man I saw leaving your house?”
“Marc Bernese. He’s Chantel’s twin brother. You remember Chantel, don’t you?”
“Yes, I remember her but it is not Chantel I am concerned with at the moment.”
Was it wrong to find such joy in the knowledge Dante was jealous of Marc? Probably, but she didn’t care. She was glad he was jealous because it meant he felt more for her than just lust. Of course it would be wrong to let him continue to think there was something going on between her and Marc so Paige told him the truth.
“He’s just as much a brother to me as he is to Chantel. We’ve known each other for ages and there’s never been even the slightest romantic interest for either of us.”
“That is not what it sounded like last night,” Dante said with a scowl.
Paige laughed. “The date he was referring to wasn’t with him but with the whole crowd he and Chantel hang out with. I don’t go out much but when I do it’s usually with them.”
“He kissed you.”
“On the cheek.”
“It was dark, I was not sure where he kissed you.”
“Well now you are.”
Dante sat back in his chair and sipped at his wine. “Not that I wish to upset the apple cart, but why did you give in so easily to becoming my mistress? You were furious with me when you found out about the loan and yet you held nothing back last night or this morning.”
“I was furious about it, and I’m still not happy that you’d stoop to something that low just to get me into your bed. Under the circumstances, I made the only choice I could.” Paige pushed her plate away, surprised that she’d devoured every last bite. “I assume you did it because you felt we had unfinished business and this was your way of getting me out of your system.”
“In a way, I suppose you are right,” Dante admitted.
His honesty sliced right through her, though she’d suspected it all along otherwise why set a time limit on how long she’d remain his mistress? But suspecting it and knowing it as a certain fact were two very different things; the dull ache that had settled in her chest was proof of that. She’d have to be very careful not to give away how she really felt about him.
Paige’s smile was quite convincing. “Then we understand each other because I feel the same way. Granted, I didn’t appreciate your methods but I think being your mistress for a month will allow me to get you out of my system as well. Assuming it takes that long,” she added because he deserved to have his ego taken down a peg or two.
The muscles in Dante’s jaw flexed. Assuming it took that long? Paige was just as addicted to him as he was to her, and if last night was any indication as to how the rest of the month would go, he sure as hell wasn’t going to have her out of his system by then. She was delusional if she thought for one minute she’d ever get her fill of him, he’d make sure of that if it killed him.
Dante’s eyes followed her as she got up to put her plate in the sink and settled on her deliciously rounded bottom. He swallowed down the last of his wine then rose from the table and went to her. Maybe it really would kill him, he thought as he took her hand and led her back upstairs, but it was a risk he was willing to take.
****
The rest of the day and far into the night was a never ending cycle of making love and sleeping with an occasional break for food. For a while they curled up together on a lounge chair by the pool and watched the stars twinkle in the sky then went for a brief skinny dip in the pool but that, too, ended in a very heated session of love making. They talked some about the things they’d done together in the past but both of them were careful to avoid the subject of their break up. And when morning broke on Sunday, Paige felt an overwhelming sense of despair at having to leave him.
She’d managed to sneak off to the bathroom the evening before while Dante was sleeping and made a quick call to her mother. She’d talked briefly to Daniella who informed her that Nana said Coco Crunchies were good for you because they made your tummy happy. Paige didn’t have the heart to chastise her for talking Nana into buying them, nor did she mention it to her mother before she hung up.
In spite of the fact Daniella was having the time of her life, Paige felt guilty for grabbing what happiness she could from her weekend with Dante. They should have all been together as a family, and maybe they would have if she’d taken her mother’s advice and told Dante she was pregnant.
But then she had only to look around at the house he lived in and the type of sporty car he drove to know that Dante still had no inclination to become a husband and father. If he’d even entertained the idea, he would have had at least one or two serious relationships since they’d separated but he hadn’t. So what did that tell her except what she already knew?
“Why so sad, cara mia?” Dante asked when he woke to find her staring blankly at the ceiling.
Paige turned on her side to face him. “I’m not sad,” she lied. “I was just thinking of the work I left undone and was trying to figure out how long it will take me to finish it up in between the piles of laundry that have been stacking up all week.”
Dante’s eyes danced with amusement. “How much laundry can one person possibly have in only one week? But if that is what takes your beautiful smile away, perhaps I shall hire a maid to do it for you.”
“Don’t be silly,” she laughed nervously. “I’m perfectly capable of doing my own laundry.” And Daniella’s.
> “I had planned on keeping you with me all day, but the truth is I have work that has been left undone also. We could have breakfast out on the patio then go for a swim and just relax for awhile before I take you home.”
Relieved that she wouldn’t have to make up an excuse as to why she needed to be home by four o’clock when her parents brought Daniella home, Paige agreed that it sounded like a wonderful idea. They ate a light breakfast of toast and fruit then splashed around in the water for a bit before stretching out on beach towels. Dante insisted that she allow him to put sunblock lotion on her so she wouldn’t burn, and since he also insisted she not wear a stitch of clothing, Paige let him.
“I will miss feeling your soft skin next to mine tonight,” he told her as he applied the lotion to her back.
“Will you…need me tomorrow night, or is that something I should be asking?”
Dante’s hands glided down her ribs, smoothing the lotion over her skin. “I realize you are not used to the kind of activity I have subjected you to this weekend so it would be horribly calloused of me to demand you return tomorrow.”
Paige blinked back the sting of unexpected tears. “You’ll let me know then…when you want me again?”
He ran his hands over her bottom several times before he realized he’d forgotten all about the lotion. “I will want you in my bed every night, mio bello,” he said with a husk in his voice. Dio, he would never tire of touching her.
“But you said…”
“That it would be calloused of me,” Dante finished for her. “We have an agreement, Paige, and I want you in my bed every single night until you have fulfilled your end of it. Getting you out of my system will not work if you are not here for me to indulge in. Besides,” he applied the last of the lotion to her legs, “we will be meeting with my lawyer at nine o’clock so you will have to be here anyway.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be here,” she said sharply. “I haven’t forgotten our agreement or what it entails.”
Dante frowned. “You are angry when there is no reason to be.”
“Except for the fact I’m selling myself for the deed to the center you mean?”
“You are not selling yourself, Paige. You said yourself that you wanted this for the same reasons I did so why not consider the deed as my parting gift to you instead of a payoff?”
“A rose by any other name is still just a rose,” she replied with a resigned sigh. “It doesn’t matter, not really. In the end, we’ll both have gotten what we wanted.”
Would they? Dante wasn’t so sure any more what he wanted. “Turn over so I can put lotion on your front side.”
“I think I’ve had enough sun for today.” Paige sat up and drew the towel around her to cover up her nakedness. “I’d like to take a shower now if that’s okay with you.”
A cruel smile twisted his lips when she tucked the towel more securely around her breasts. He didn’t like her dismissive tone or the defiant look in her eyes. Paige was his, she belonged to him with or without that damned agreement and he was going to make sure she knew it.
“You forget yourself, mio tesoro. I am the one who decides when I am finished with you for the day.” Reaching out, he snatched the towel away from her then pressed her onto her back and lowered himself over her.
“Dante don’t,” she begged, but it was already too late.
He entered her slowly, reveling in the way her eyelids closed and her beautiful lips parted on a sigh. He watched her face as he moved in and out of her, each languishing stroke bringing more color to her cheeks. She surrendered to him just as he knew she would, and it was pure heaven the way their bodies became one, moving in perfect rhythm as if each of them had been created solely for the other.
Dante gathered her in his arms afterwards and carried her upstairs to the shower so he could bathe the sweat from her skin. He couldn’t help smiling when she closed her eyes and tilted her head back so he could wash her hair and it was all he could do to keep from pulling her into his arms and kissing her. When they were done, he dried Paige’s hair then led her back to the bed and crawled under the covers with her.
“I just want to hold you for a while longer,” he whispered as he hitched her up close to his side.
“I have to go soon,” Paige mumbled sleepily.
“I will wake you when it is time.”
****
“Of course I’ll help,” Chantel said after Paige told her everything that had happened. “Staying here for a month will give me the breather I need from my roommate and her new boyfriend.”
“I was afraid you’d turn me down and then I’d really be in a bind. Daniella shouldn’t be any trouble at all. She’s sound asleep by eight and I’ll be home in the morning before she wakes up. Oh God,” Paige groaned, “am I doing the right thing, Chantel?”
“You want to be with him, don’t you?”
“More than anything,” she admitted.
“Then what’s the problem? As far as Daniella is concerned, she won’t even know you’re gone. Who knows, maybe Dante will discover he can’t get you out of his system and confess he’s madly in love with you.”
“Not likely,” Paige said miserably. “He made it perfectly clear that he’s calling the shots and that I’m only there to satisfy his needs.”
Chantel gave her a wicked smile. “So you’re not really enjoying your role as Dante’s mistress?”
“I wouldn’t say that exactly.”
“Well, I think he’s drop dead gorgeous and can only imagine what it would be like to have a man like that in my bed.”
Paige let out a wistful sigh. “Making love with Dante is beyond anything you could possibly imagine. I just wish…” she shook her head.
“You don’t know for sure that he doesn’t have feelings for you,” Chantel insisted.
“Oh, he has plenty of feelings for me, it’s just that none of them have anything to do with his heart. And stop trying to get my hopes up. I’m going to soak up everything I can for the next thirty days and then I’m going to get on with my life.”
Chantel eyed her skeptically. “You and I both know you’re going to fall to pieces, only it’ll be a lot worse this time. But for now, I’m going to allow you to live in your little fantasy world because I think you deserve it. Now, back to business. We’ve got the weekdays covered but what are we going to do on the weekends?”
“Sundays will be the easiest to work around because he thinks I have dinner with my parents. And since he’s already agreed this is just between the two of us, he’ll have to let me come home early so I don’t have to make up any excuses.”
Chantel nodded thoughtfully. “So that just leaves Saturdays.”
“Which is a huge problem because I can’t think of anything drastic enough that could possibly keep me from staying with him all day. And if I can’t get out of being with him for at least part of the day, that means I’ll be eaten up with guilt for leaving Daniella in someone else’s care while I’m off playing mistress.”
“Honestly, Paige, you think Daniella will feel neglected if you’re gone for one day out of the entire week? She gets to be with you all day, every day, which is a lot more time than most children get with the mothers these days. Trust me, between Marc and I, we’ll keep her so busy she won’t have time to wonder where you are.”
Paige cringed. “You’re not going to tell Marc why I suddenly need you to stay here, are you?”
“I won’t have to. He knows how fed up I am with my roommate right now so all I have to do is tell him I begged you to let me camp out here for awhile. Getting him to take Daniella to the zoo will be a snap because he was complaining that he didn’t get to see her when he stopped by the other night. So you see,” Chantel gave her an encouraging smile, “we’ve got it covered.”
“God, I hope so,” Paige sighed.
“I would like to ask you to do one little favor.”
“After this over I’m going to owe you for life so whatever it is, I’ll do it.”
&n
bsp; “I’m so glad you said that because I don’t think you’re going to like it much.”
“It doesn’t have anything to do with my red high heels, does it?”
Chantel laughed. “No, I’ll save that one for another time.”
“Okay, lay it on me.”
“I want you to promise me something. When the thirty days is up, I want your word that if there’s any chance Dante could be in love with you, even if it’s just a small chance, you’ll tell him how you feel.”
Paige shook her head. “I’d just be setting myself up for a fall. The only thing Dante is in love with is the mind-blowing sex we have.”
“If that’s truly what you believe then promise me something else. If you can’t bring yourself to tell him you’re in love with him, at least tell him about Daniella. Whether he loves you or not, Dante is still Daniella’s father and he deserves to know about her.”
VITTORIO'S MISTRESS Page 8