VITTORIO'S MISTRESS

by Kimberley Reeves

  “It would not have been a financial strain,” he said quietly.

  “You say that now because money’s not a concern, but you have no idea how much it costs to raise a child. I was lucky and there weren’t any complications with childbirth. Even so, the hospital bill set me back pretty good and I only had to pay twenty percent because the insurance paid the rest. Then there was baby furniture, clothes, diapers, formula, and those are just the essentials. I was fortunate enough to have my inheritance to fall back on but there’s always unexpected expenses like doctor’s visits and the operation Daniella just had.”

  “I will take care of the hospital charges, cara.”

  “I wasn’t trying to make you feel sorry for me so you’d pick up the bill.”

  “I did not think that you were.” Dante turned around. “You have carried the financial responsibility for Daniella long enough, it is time you knew the truth.”

  Paige lifted her eyes to his. “The truth about what?”

  Dante dreaded telling her, but it had to be done. She’d find out sooner or later anyway and he’d rather have her hear it from him. He’d have given anything to go back in time and undo the damage that one little lie had done because God knew they’d all paid the price for it, but of course he couldn’t. All he could do now was hope she’d forgive him.

  “I was never a struggling businessman, Paige. From the moment of my birth I had more money than most people even dream of having in a lifetime. On my twenty first birthday I was made a full partner at Vittorio Enterprises and instantly became a multi-millionaire.”

  “No,” she shook her head. “No, you told me…”

  “It was a lie, cara, and I am sorrier than you will ever know for making you believe otherwise.” Dante raked his fingers through his hair. “I was tired of being with women who were more interested in my monetary worth than they were in me and just once I wanted to know what it felt like to share the company of someone who genuinely liked me for who I was.”

  Paige’s eyes flashed with anger. “And you thought I didn’t? You thought if you told me the truth about how rich you were that I’d turn into a conniving gold-digger?”

  “I did not know if telling you would change things between us and I did not want to find out. I was so happy with you, I did not want anything to ruin it.”

  A painful lump formed in her throat. “But you did ruin it, Dante. I thought what we had was real. I was even stupid enough to think you were in love with me…”

  “It was real and I did fall in love with you,” Dante insisted passionately.

  “I don’t believe you,” she ground out. “If you loved me, you would have trusted me enough to tell me the truth. Do you have any idea how agonizing it was for me to leave? It felt like I was ripping my own heart out because I knew I’d never get over you, but I left anyway. For you, Dante. I was an emotional wreck for months, crying myself to sleep because I was so lonely for you I wanted to die, and the only comfort I found was in knowing you were following your dream.”

  “I will make it up to you, cara mia, I swear to God I will. Please,” he said unevenly, “give me the chance to prove my love for you is real.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “I can’t, I won’t. Loving you nearly broke me once. I don’t think I have it in me to survive that kind of pain again.”

  Dante took her hands in his, desperation making his voice shake. “There will be no pain, not ever again. We could be so happy together, mio amore, if you could only find it in your heart to forgive me.”

  Paige pulled her hands free. “I’m sorry, Dante, but I don’t think I can.”

  Dante let her go, though he wanted nothing more than to drag her back and keep her there until she agreed to give him another chance. At least she hadn’t recanted her promise to move in with him, and that gave Dante hope. One month. That’s all the time he had to win her back. Was it enough? There were so many obstacles to overcome, so many hurt feelings to salve, so much trust to regain.

  You can do this, Dante thought with a determined lift of his chin. He’d never backed down to a challenge in his life and he wasn’t about to start now, not when there was so much at stake. All he had to do was convince Paige he loved her and make her see they belonged together. How hard could that be?

  Chapter 11

  “He’s good with her,” Carolyn commented as they lounged beside the pool sipping iced tea.

  Paige couldn’t help smiling as she watched Dante and her father splash around in the water with Daniella. “He adores her.”

  “He adores you too, Paige.”

  Her smile slowly faded. “No he doesn’t. He’s just putting on a good show for Daniella because he thinks it will upset her to know we aren’t getting along.”

  From the lounge chair on Paige’s left, Chantel let out a snort. “And whose fault is that? You’re crazy about Dante and yet you turn into an iceberg whenever he gets anywhere near you. For God’s sake he’s asked you to marry him, and I promise you men like Dante Vittorio do not ask a woman to marry him unless he’s in love.”

  Carolyn shook her head in disappointment. “He asked you to marry him and you said no?”

  “He doesn’t love me,” Paige stubbornly insisted.

  Marc, who had been relatively quiet until then, rose to his feet after making the same disgruntled noise Chantel had. “I’m going to take a swim before lunch is served, but I’m tossing in my two cents worth first. You’re blind as a bat if you can’t see he how much he cares about you, Paige. His eyes follow you everywhere you go like a love-sick teenager and he doesn’t do a very good job of covering up how hurt he is when you give him the cold shoulder. Do yourself and everyone else a favor, Pager; put the poor man out of his misery and marry him.”

  If they only knew how hard it had been to live in the same house with Dante for the past two weeks and continue to refuse his proposals. He’d been perfectly horrible, catching her when she least expected it and then looking so dejected when she turned him down. It was just another one of his devious plans to get what he wanted, like when he’d bought up her bank loan so he could blackmail her into becoming his mistress. Except this time Dante was using emotional blackmail.

  He’d give her one of those bone-melting smiles and she’d feel her insides start to quiver. Or his hand would brush against hers in a seemingly casual way, but it never failed to make her jump because it felt as if a jolt of electricity had shot clean through her. Paige knew full well what Dante was up to; he was trying to break down her resolve a little at a time until she was so vulnerable she’d give in and agree to marry him.

  He’d made no attempt to seduce her though, and that puzzled her because they both knew it would only take one passionate kiss and she’d be completely defenseless. She didn’t even entertain the idea that he’d lost his desire for her; there’d been too many times when she’d caught him looking at her as if he wanted to pounce on her, too many times when she’d witnessed his eyes grow dark just as they always did when they were about to make love. But he never acted on it, which only made her more wary.

  “Mama, look at me!”

  Paige’s heart leapt to her throat when she saw Daniella walking out towards the end of the low diving board. She told herself not to panic. After all, Marc was up there with her and she had on a life vest. Besides the fact it was only a four foot drop, Dante was right below her with his arms outstretched, ready to catch her. Still, her stomach knotted when Daniella fearlessly stepped to the edge of the board.

  “Do not be afraid to jump, quello piccolo,” Dante said. “I promise I will catch you.”

  Something about Dante’s voice drew her eyes to him. He still had his arms held wide for Daniella but he wasn’t looking at her, he was looking at Paige. Had he meant those words for her or was she reading something into them that wasn’t there? The answer came a moment later when a slow smile spread across his face.

  “I am waiting for you, bella. All you have to do is…trust me.”

  Paige drew i
n a shallow breath which was all she seemed capable of, and let her gaze sweep over Dante’s handsome face to his broad shoulders and the bulging muscles of his arms. Water glistened off his bronzed skin and for a few brief seconds she allowed herself the fantasy of running her hands over the hard planes of his chest. She longed for his touch, longed for the feel of his powerful body driving into her and making her feel whole again. I am waiting for you, bella. All you have to do is…trust me. Could she? Could she trust him?

  Daniella obviously had no problems on that score. With an excited squeal, she jumped off the diving board and right into Dante’s arms. He let her plunge just far enough into the water to let her legs get wet before hugging her close and telling her what a brave girl she was. Unlike her mother, Paige thought dismally. She’d been acting like a coward from the moment she and Daniella moved in here; shying away from Dante’s touch, refusing to look him in the eyes, denying what they both so obviously wanted.

  “Did you see me, Mama? Did you see me?” Daniella scrambled onto Paige’s lap, her eyes wide with excitement.

  “You were mighty brave, angel.”

  Daniella beamed up at Dante as he draped a towel around her tiny shoulders. “That’s ‘cause I truss Daddy. He would never, ever, ever let anything bad happen to me, right Daddy?”

  “Never ever, ever,” he tweaked her chin. “Now be a good little princess and go tell Mireia we are ready for lunch.”

  Paige laughed when Daniella started hollering for Mireia before she’d even cleared the opened doorway. “You do know she’s going to con Mireia out of a cookie first, don’t you?”

  “It is hard to tell her no,” he said with a grin.

  “How would you know? You haven’t denied her a single thing she’s asked for since we got here.” She took the hand he offered and let him help her out of the chair. “You’re spoiling her rotten, Dante. She’s going to be difficult to deal with once we move back to my house and she realizes she can’t get her way all the time anymore.”

  The color leeched from Dante’s face. “You cannot take her from me,” he said hoarsely. He gripped her arm and ushered her inside the patio doors so they wouldn’t be overhead by the others. “You cannot take her from me,” he repeated more firmly. “She belongs here. You belong here, carissima, and you would know that if you stopped being so stubborn and admitted we are a family now.”

  “I’m not taking her away from you, Dante. You can see her anytime you want…”

  “It will not be the same,” he said sharply. “I will not be able to wake her in the morning and watch her skip into the kitchen to help Mireia make breakfast. I will not be there every day to teach her how to swim or hear how her day was or read a bedtime story and tuck her in at night.”

  “Maybe you can’t have everything, but…”

  “I can and I will,” Dante’s tone was unyielding. “For two weeks I have given you the space you seemed to want. I have not pressured you in any way because I wanted you to realize on your own just how much I love you and need you with me. But I am not a patient man, cara mia, and I am tired of forcing my arms to remain at my sides instead of reaching for you as they long to do.”

  “Dante…”

  Paige tried to back away, to flee from the fierce look on his face and the sexual tension that crackled all around them like an electrical storm. But Dante kept advancing until she was pressed up against the wall with no way out. Her heart hammered in her chest when one hand curled around the back of her neck while he used the other arm to pull her up hard against his body. She didn’t fight him when he slowly lowered his head, she couldn’t, not when she wanted it so bad she was practically in tears by the time Dante finally took possession of her mouth.

  ****

  There was very little between his bare skin and hers except the few scraps of material that made up her swimsuit and the pair of swimming trunks Dante wore, and the lack of clothing only served to generate even more body heat, if that was possible. As it was, Paige wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d burst into flames. Dante must have realized how dangerously close she was to forgetting everything but satisfying the burning need inside of her because he started to draw back. From somewhere far away, she heard Daniella giggle.

  “It is what Mamma’s and Papà’s do,” Mireia explained in her matter-of-fact tone as she whisked past them with a tray filled with food.

  “Mama and Daddy are kissing!” Daniella exclaimed the moment she stepped through the patio doors.

  Paige jerked her head back and tried to wriggle out of Dante’s grasp. “Oh God, Daniella saw us,” she squeaked.

  “Eccellente,” Dante feathered kisses down the side of her neck, “then she will not be so surprised the next time.”

  “The…” a warm tingle raced up her spine, “next time?”

  “Si, mio tesoro.” Dante lifted his head and looked deep into her eyes. “It will not take Daniella long to get used to the sight of me kissing you, although I will reserve the more ardent ones for when we are alone.”

  Paige’s eyes widened in alarm. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “After depriving myself of holding you like this for two torturous weeks, it is quite possible that I have. I wanted to play fair this time but it has gotten me nowhere.” Dante held her squirming body tighter and let her feel how aroused he was. “Consider yourself lucky, mio amore. At least this time you have some forewarning of what is to come.”

  Paige stopped struggling. “Fore…warning?”

  “It will do you no good of course,” he shrugged nonchalantly, “but I will tell you anyway. From this moment on I intend to kiss you…a lot. I will kiss you wherever and whenever the mood strikes, and believe me it will not take much to put me in the mood. I am not finished,” he said when Paige opened her mouth to speak. “I will be relentless, and I will take every opportunity to tell you how much I love you until it finally sinks into that stubborn head of yours that I am sincere.”

  “You can’t force me to do anything I don’t want to do,” Paige told him with a defiant lift of her chin.

  Dante arched a brow, thoroughly amused. “My darling, Paige, do you honestly think I would you force…or that I would have to?”

  He lowered his head, laughing softly when she leaned into him, as anxious to be kissed as he was to deliver it. He was gentle at first, drinking deeply and taking pleasure from every tremor that raced through her slender body. But when Paige curled her arms around his sides and let the velvety smoothness of her hands glide up and down against his bare back, Dante could no longer contain the passion churning inside of him. How long they remained locked in each other’s arms, Dante couldn’t say for sure, but it wasn’t nearly long enough as far as he was concerned.

  “We should…join the others,” Paige said in a breathless whisper when he finally came up for air.

  “If you insist, bella,” he dropped one last kiss on her sweet lips, “but we will continue this after they have gone.”

  Paige didn’t bother trying to argue with him, it would have been a waste of breath anyway. She didn’t offer any resistance when he put his arm around her and ushered her outside either because she didn’t want to create a scene, but if Dante thought for one minute she was just going to capitulate every time he decided he wanted to kiss her…

  “Are you done kissing now, Mama?”

  Paige’s face turned ten shades of red. “Finish eating, angel,” she said with a thin smile.

  Daniella popped the last piece of fruit from her plate into her mouth. “I wanted to come and get you but…” she swallowed the fruit, her expression one of complete innocence, “Chantel said not to innerupt you.”

  “Is that so,” Paige shot a wilting look at Chantel.

  “Yep,” Daniella continued. “Chantel said you needed to be kissed and then Nana shooshed her and said it was time to eat.”

  Paige didn’t think it was possible to be any more embarrassed than she already was, but that was before Dante decided his daughter’s co
mment deserved a reply.

  “Chantel is right. And since it appears that I have been neglecting my duties in the department,” he smiled down at Paige, “I plan on kissing your Mama every chance I get from now on.”

  ****

  “Don’t even think about it,” Paige said testily when Dante came down to breakfast the next morning.

  Ignoring her warning, Dante leaned down to kiss her good morning. “Kiss me properly,” he ordered when she kept her lips pressed tightly together.

  Paige glared up at him. “This is ridiculous. If I don’t want to kiss you then I…” Damn. She should have known he’d swoop in for the kill if she opened her mouth to speak.