‘Second thoughts?’
She jumped as Dante’s low voice reverberated through her. She hadn’t heard him walk up behind her.
‘No... I...’ But of course she was having second thoughts. Maddie so desperately wanted to be someone else, someone new, but making the jump was so much harder than she had anticipated.
And yet...the one time she had been really impulsive, the one time she had listened to the screaming of her heart, not the sensible drum in her head, she had called off her wedding. She hadn’t cared about the scandal, or the ‘spectacle’ she had made of herself—according to her mother. She had just gone with everything her body and her soul were telling her. And it had been absolutely the right thing to do.
‘Maddie. It’s fine. We can...’
Reaching up, Maddie laid one finger on Dante’s lips and watched with satisfaction as he swallowed, his pupils dilating at her touch. ‘We can what? You’re not backing out on me, are you, Conte Falcone?’
‘No.’ The low word was almost a growl, igniting a fire in Maddie’s belly as Dante stepped close, one hand slipping around to caress the nape of her neck. Maddie shivered as his skilled fingers brushed her skin, the memory of his kisses in that very spot still reverberating through her body. He brushed his other hand down her cheek and she closed her eyes to better lose herself in the gentle caress, swaying closer, her whole body aching in anticipation until finally—finally—his mouth descended on hers and she fell willingly and wholly into his embrace.
His kiss was soft—at first—tantalising Maddie with the promise of heat. Emboldened, she finally allowed her hands to explore the muscles and planes of his back and torso, skimming over his shirt, searching for a way through the cloth frustrating her need for skin on skin. His own touch remained provokingly light, one hand caressing her neck, the other at her waist, his fingers stroking from the curve of her hip to the bottom of her ribcage but no further. Maddie’s breasts ached with the need for that touch to reach them and with a low moan she pressed herself closer, grabbing Dante’s shirt to pull it out of his waistband, purring with satisfaction as she finally felt hot skin under her fingertips. With a primal satisfaction she felt him quiver at her touch, heard his breathing speed up as his kiss intensified. Maddie held on as tight as she could, losing herself in heat, in sensation, in want and need. She had never felt like this before. This wild, this uninhibited. She wanted to touch, to taste him everywhere; she didn’t want him to stop touching her.
She was barely conscious of their movement as Dante, still kissing her as if she was the most desirable woman in the world, slowly walked her through the door into the bedroom. The large bed was no longer intimidating; it was exactly what she wanted, what she needed. Dante was who she wanted, who she needed. They had one night. She intended to make the most of every single moment.
* * *
‘Morning, sleepyhead.’
Maddie stirred, opening one eye to see sunlight streaming in through the window. With a shock she realised she hadn’t been aware when they had docked, when the crew had left. All she had known was sensation and moans and desire.
She automatically reached up and smoothed her hair, desperately trying to think of the right expression to say ‘Well, thank you for a lovely evening and a rather sensational night; now let’s never speak about it again because if I have to work with you and remember the things you did to me—and the way I responded—I may never be able to look you in the eye again’.
‘Morning,’ she said instead.
‘I’ve been out and got you a coffee and some pastries. Your phone has been buzzing away as well.’ Dante put a cup of coffee and a bag filled with tiny, flaky pastries onto the bedside table and dropped Maddie’s phone onto the bed.
‘Thank you.’ She sat up slowly, one hand gripping the sheet, making sure it covered as much of her as possible. The problem with being adventurous was that she hadn’t bought any night things, any spare underwear—all she had was a strappy silver dress. If Dante drove her back to the castle, make-up smeared under her eyes, hair tangled and in that dress, she might as well hang a banner from her window that said ‘Yes. I slept with my boss’.
The coffee smelt amazing but Maddie reached for her phone first, her stomach churning as she saw the furiously flashing light which denoted messages. Her fingers were clumsy as she tried several times to unlock her screen with her fingerprint, giving up and punching her code in instead, smothering a curse as she mistyped the numbers, eventually managing to bring up her messages. Ten missed calls, as many emails, all flagged important. Wiggling the sheet a little further up her body, she pressed ‘voicemail’, all too aware of Dante leaning against the wall, watching her.
The tension ratcheted up as she heard Guido’s excited tone, only to dissipate as his words sank in. Easing back on her pillows, she listened to the rest of her messages then quickly checked her emails.
‘Everything okay?’
‘Kind of. Tomorrow’s guests aren’t coming. They’ve called the wedding off.’ Her voice wavered a little on the last word, memories of the manically unreal days after her own curtailed wedding resurfacing. ‘Better now than later, I suppose. Don’t worry. They’ve paid in full and there are no refunds at this stage.’
‘So what does this mean for you?’
‘I need to make sure everything they ordered has been cancelled. We don’t need the ornate flower sculptures or the band or any of the excursions now. That’s just a couple of hours’ work though. It doesn’t have much effect on me or the castle staff, apart from making this week a little easier, I suppose. I’ll be answering queries from booked-in and prospective brides as usual, but we’re all ready for the rest of the summer. All the food and decorations for the next couple of months have been agreed on and ordered, excursions booked in...’ Her voice trailed off. Maddie was so used to juggling the dual demands of catering to the wedding party currently in situ with the organising for future brides that she wasn’t sure how she would fill her time without half her workload.
‘So you’ll have some spare time?’
‘Possibly,’ Maddie agreed cautiously. ‘Why?’
Dante’s grin was pure wolf. ‘Looks like you’ll be earning that bonus and plane ticket after all. You can use those hostessing skills of yours to help me persuade my sister that I am more than capable of looking after myself so that, even when you’ve left and I have to admit to her that I am single once again, she won’t worry about me or try and set me up with her friends.’
‘I...’
But of course she had agreed to this proposition already and without work as a buffer there was no reason for her not to spend more time with Luciana—and by extension with Dante. ‘Of course,’ she agreed with as much dignity as was possible when she was wearing nothing but a sheet.
It was one thing to wear a sheet when they were both in similar stages of undress, but quite another when Dante was fully dressed—not in the formal shirt and trousers he had worn last night but the most casual clothes she had seen him in to date. Black jeans skimmed his hips before hugging powerful thighs in a way that made her muscles clench in physical memory of just how strong his legs were. He’d teamed the jeans with a soft grey T-shirt, the stubble on his chin combining with the relaxed clothes to give him a sexy morning vibe almost as intoxicating as the smartly dressed intensity of the evening before.
‘Excellent. I’m picking Luciana up from Verona later today. Why don’t we head there this morning and spend the day sightseeing before we meet her train?’
Why don’t we what?
‘I don’t really have the right clothes for sightseeing. I wasn’t expecting this.’
This was the best euphemism she could think of for the night they had shared, and her current state of undress. Dante’s suggestion of a day together went well beyond their agreed parameters. But it was a suggestion Maddie was surprisingly keen to agree to, despite a
t least a hundred reasons why it was a bad idea. She fumbled for those reasons, not sure if she was trying to get out of the day or if she wanted Dante to talk her around. ‘And I really need to get those cancellations done this morning. Besides, doesn’t Arianna want to meet her aunt?’
Never over-egg with three excuses when you only need one. Dante’s grin just grew a little more wolfish as Maddie talked on and he folded his arms as she finished, the picture of relaxed ease.
‘The laptop on the desk is configured to the Falcone network, so after you have eaten your breakfast you can send all your emails easily. Meanwhile, I can go and purchase anything you need for the day. As for Arianna, she has made friends with a girl her age in San Tomo and has been invited to spend the day swimming with her and begged me to excuse her. Anything else?’
Yes! My agreement is to pretend to your sister that we are in a relationship, not to spend the day in Verona—Verona, for goodness’ sake, city of romance and doomed love—sightseeing after the best night of my life!
Maddie hitched the sheet a little higher. Any higher and it would be a veil. She felt a little like the grandma peering out at the big bad wolf, unsure whether he was going to eat her up or not. And half wanting him to... ‘We could go back to Riva and then head to Verona later to pick up your sister if that’s easier.’
‘We could, but you have never been to Verona. It’s just a forty-minute drive from here, so why not take advantage of the opportunity to see it?’
‘I agree it makes sense, but won’t it complicate things?’
The look Dante shot her was bland. ‘Complicate?’
‘After last night.’
‘It wasn’t just last night,’ he said softly and Maddie’s body heated so quickly she was sure a neon glow could be seen shining through the sheet. ‘I seem to remember this morning too...’
* * *
Dante watched Maddie with amusement. Last night’s confident siren had faded away, the cool, poised, professional woman gone, replaced with an adorably confused and even more adorably tousled girl hiding behind a sheet, cheeks aflame.
‘Maddie,’ he said, low and coaxingly. All he wanted to do was stride over to the bed, take the phone from her hand and kiss her until all the doubts melted from her eyes. But that kind of persuasion wasn’t in their agreement. Nor was he going to give in to that kind of instinct, that kind of lust and need and want.
But it still took everything he had to stay leaning against the wall, to keep his body relaxed, his face neutral. ‘We can, of course, return to the castello if that’s what you prefer. But the fates have gifted you with a week off. Why not take advantage of their kindness?’
‘I’m just not sure spending any more time alone together is a good idea.’
‘I see. You think we’ve had enough practice? Last night was enough?’
‘Yes; no, I... Last night was amazing, but today I... Oh! See?’ She sat up and glared indignantly at him. ‘This is what I mean about complicating things.’
‘Madeleine. It’s only complicated if we let it be.’ Liar, his body whispered.
‘I know. The problem is...’ She paused. ‘Look. I wanted to—you know—last night. I’ve wanted to since that first day—and you have as well,’ she added defiantly.
Dante didn’t deny it—couldn’t deny it. ‘Si.’
‘So what now? What do we do all week? Pretend it didn’t happen? Admit it did and chalk it up to a learning experience and be more careful next time? Or...?’
Dante was voting for or, whatever ‘or’ might turn out to be. ‘I think you might be overthinking things, cara.’
The endearment slipped out before he could curb it. But luckily Maddie didn’t seem to have noticed it. ‘Maybe. I just want to know where we stand.’
‘Maddie. You are a beautiful woman. We spent a very nice evening together, enjoying each other’s company. We will be spending a great deal of time together this week, pretending that we are falling in love. Why not just enjoy the ride?’
She bit her lip and Dante couldn’t tear his eyes away from the plump flesh, the neat indentation of her lip. ‘You make it sound so easy.’
‘That’s because it is. By the end of the summer I will be back in Roma, you will be cuddling small bears covered in mould and these days will be just a memory. Why not make them a nice memory? And so here we are. With a beautiful day ahead of us. Where shall we spend it? Back in the castello, or shall we set our scene in fair Verona?’
‘Don’t misquote Shakespeare; it’s not as if Romeo and Juliet ended that well.’ But Maddie smiled as she spoke, her grip on the sheet loosening, allowing it to slip down, unveiling her graceful neck, her slim shoulders.
‘Ah, but we’re just playing at lovers. That makes us completely safe. And just to make sure, I promise that, no matter how annoying your cousin, I won’t murder him in the street.’
‘That’s a load off my mind. I don’t actually like my cousins all that much, but I’d rather they weren’t slaughtered in a duel. So we just see where things take us? I can do that.’ Maddie reached for her coffee and the bag of pastries, her eyes brightening as she peeked inside at the selection he had chosen. She selected a simple cornetto before holding the bag out to him. ‘Okay, signor. You’re right. It would be lovely to see Verona. Thank you.’
Dante managed not to react as the tension left his body. He didn’t want to think too much about just why it had mattered that Maddie had agreed that this brief affair could continue. Better to settle on the reason that the week ahead would be much easier if they were physically comfortable with each other. Or remember that it had been nearly a year since his last discreet affair and surely he was due another.
‘Why don’t you shower and sort out your emails and I will go and purchase whatever you need for the day ahead?’ he suggested.
‘Really? You don’t mind buying me underwear?’ Maddie asked through a mouthful of crumbs.
‘Why would I? I have a daughter, after all. I am an expert in how to braid her hair in at least five different ways, I have talked to her about growing up and adolescence, am ready to sit and rub her back and feed her ice cream when she gets her first period—buying you some mascara and tights really doesn’t come close to the panic I felt when Arianna first asked me about how babies are made.’
‘I bet you’re a wonderful father.’
‘I do the best I can.’ He could never make up for the fact his daughter was motherless. Never forgive himself for his blindness, for dismissing Violetta’s unhappiness, for allowing himself to live in a daydream rather than reality. But he had sworn on the day he’d buried his wife that his daughter wouldn’t suffer for his folly. That he would be father and mother both, that she would always come first. And she did. Even though she had an au pair, Dante still did as many school drop-offs as possible, picked her up whenever he could. He sat in ballet school waiting rooms and cheered on the side of football fields, he watched films about princesses and films about spaceships and films about talking dogs, read to her every night he was home and, yes, his braiding skills were now legendary amongst Arianna’s friends. ‘Write me a list of what you need and I’ll be as quick as I can.’
‘Thank you, Dante.’ Maddie had barely called him by his given name and an unexpected thrill ran through him at the precise syllables. ‘For everything, for making this so easy. For last night. I never... It was never like that before.’
Dante froze. The truth was it had never been like that for him either, not even in those first heady days of infatuation with Violetta. Never been so sweet, so all-consuming. But he didn’t want to dwell on why that might be—or make himself vulnerable in any way. ‘No need to thank me.’ His smile was purposefully intimate. ‘I enjoyed myself too.’
Her answering smile matched his, elegant brows arching in a question. ‘Oh? That’s good to hear. I was thinking...’ Maddie’s voice trailed off suggestively.
‘Yes?’
‘Well, if you don’t have to rush off then maybe we could practise a little more. Just to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything.’
‘You are a very conscientious woman, Signorina Fitzroy,’ Dante told her as he walked purposefully towards her, unbuttoning his shirt, aware of Maddie’s gaze fixed on his every move. ‘Amazing attention to detail.’
‘I try,’ she whispered, her chest rising and falling with her shallow breaths.
‘I agree it’s wise to make sure we didn’t forget anything. After all, didn’t we agree that practice makes perfect?’ And as he sank onto the bed, enveloped by her scent, her arms, her need, Dante couldn’t help but think he was willing to practise for as long as it took.
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘I CAN’T BELIEVE it’s taken me nearly a year to come here,’ Maddie said wistfully as she slowly turned a full three hundred and sixty degrees. They were standing in the Teatro Romano looking out over the ancient city of Verona. ‘It’s so beautiful—and so different from San Tomo. It seems incredible that it’s so close.’ Instead of lakes and mountains, here were rivers and hills, Roman ruins interspersed with medieval houses and newer builds, the ages merging into one beautiful whole.
‘I never thought that I would need to scold one of my employees for working too hard,’ Dante teased her. ‘But in your case, signorina, I make an exception.’
‘I send my wedding parties here all the time, suggest places for them to go, book tickets for the opera, but have never thought that maybe I should come along as well.’
‘You like the opera?’
‘I’m not sure,’ she admitted. ‘I’ve been to Glyndebourne of course, but it was always more of a social occasion than a musical one.’ She held her hands up, laughing at the look of horror on Dante’s face. ‘I know, I’m a philistine.’
Summer Romance with the Italian Tycoon Page 8