Маргарет Уэй – New Arrivals: One Secret Child: Mistress, Mother...Wife? / Wealthy Australian, Secret Son / Her Prince's Secret Son (страница 19)
‘How are you doing? ‘
Anna’s eyes had been drifting closed, and suddenly Dante was there in front of her, staring down at her with his soulful light eyes in a way that would have made her knees knock together if she’d been standing.
‘I’m fine, thanks. Just a bit tired, to tell you the truth.’ She started to sit up, but he gestured that she stay just as she was and then dropped down to sit on the edge of the couch beside her.
The strong, long-fingered hands that she’d noticed when they first met and had privately thought poetic and artistic were linked loosely in front of him, and a lock of dark blond hair flopped sexily down in front of his forehead. His sculpted lean profile and long luxuriant lashes made him look like a movie star, and for a distressing moment Anna wondered what an outstanding male specimen like him could possibly see in someone as ordinary as her.
‘It’s been quite an incredible day, huh?
‘And as Dante smiled at her with surprising warmth her suddenly wobbly self-esteem was completely banished beneath the breathtaking gaze that was directed straight at her.
‘TIA loved the Ritz. She’ll probably look round the Mirabelle now and think it quite shabby after being there.’
‘That will be the last thing this hotel will be when we get through with all the improvements I have in mind. Did I tell you I’ve hired a team of designers from Milan to oversee the refurbishment?’
‘Milan? Gosh.’
‘This place is already in a league of its own as a Georgian building with a fascinating history. With modernisation and refurbishment it’s going to be one of the most stylish and sophisticated establishments in London.’
‘Anita and Grant deserve it to be. They’ve unstintingly lavished their love on it ever since Grant inherited it from his parents. Can I ask you something?’
He nodded.
‘Talking about Milan…I was wondering…’
‘Yes?’
‘Does that mean you’ve made your peace with Italy? It’s just that you seemed reluctant to discuss it. You told me you left a long time ago, and I sensed that you had deliberately distanced yourself from it.’
‘I had. But when I went back for my mother’s funeral I remembered things about the place that I loved and missed. Gradually over the years I’ve grown to love it again. That’s why I bought a house there…the house we will stay in when you and Tia return with me. Does that reply satisfy your question?’
Touching the tips of his fingers to her cheek, Dante studied her intently. Anna fell silent, hardly knowing what to say. He’d admitted that he’d distanced himself from his homeland but he hadn’t said why. Would he ever trust her enough to disclose some of the secrets from his past? she wondered. But Lake Como was the other subject she needed to address.
‘It’s a big step for me to go with you to Italy. To tell you the truth, I feel a little vulnerable going there with you, Dante. I don’t know the language, and I know you won’t like this but I’m also wary of being pushed into something I’m not really ready for. Do you understand that?’
‘It is not my intention to push you into anything or to make you feel vulnerable,’ he replied thoughtfully. ‘I simply want us to have a holiday together, for us to get to know one another and for Tia to get to know me. When you are ready, and
‘Do you mean it?’
He studied her gravely. ‘My word is my bond.’
‘I suppose I could do with a holiday. And, like you say…it will give you and Tia a chance to get to know each other a bit more.’
‘And as for not speaking the language…I will make it my personal mission to teach you,’ Dante promised. ‘I will have you speaking like a native Italian before you know it! Tia too.’
‘It’s getting dark.’ Nervously Anna glanced up at the swiftly fading evening light, evident through the room’s high windows. At the same time she heard the lilting song of a lone blackbird. For some reason it made her feel a little melancholy. ‘I ought to turn on the lamps.’
‘Don’t.’ The command in Dante’s tone gave her a jolt.
‘It’s gloomy…I’d like some light in here.’
‘You’re uncomfortable with the dark? There’s no need when I am right here beside you, Anna. I would never let anything or anyone hurt you.’
His heated glance was in earnest, she saw. Instantly a swarm of butterflies fluttered wildly inside her.
‘Yes, but I still want to… I still need some…some light.’
As she made to move, Dante slid his hand round to the back of her head, to bring her face slowly but inexorably towards his. The last thing she registered was his hot, languorous gaze before his mouth fell on hers to ravish it without restraint, his warm velvet tongue gliding and coiling sensually with hers, his breathing a grated rasp as the shadow of his beard scraped her chin.
A sea of honey lapped inside Anna. It was as though she’d been left languishing in a cold dark cave for five long years and now at last she was wildly, deliriously free again—free to breathe in pure heady oxygen and be deluged in light. The pleasure and joy that soared inside her was untrammelled as her hands pushed through the silky strands of Dante’s fair hair to anchor his head as he anchored hers, all the better for their lips to meld and sup as though their hunger would never be assuaged.
‘No… Not—not here.’ She gulped down a shaky breath as his hands tugged at the zip fastener on her dress. ‘My bedroom.’
They didn’t let each other go as they entered the dim, cool enclave of Anna’s room. It seemed essential to keep touching, to keep holding on in case some nightmare schism should cut through their longing and keep them apart for ever.
With the heel of his Italian loafer Dante shut the door behind them. He shucked off his footwear just before falling onto the bed with her, somehow manoeuvring her on top of him as he kissed her senseless. The zipper on her linen dress was skilfully undone, the sleeves tugged urgently down over her shoulders. With dreamlike effort Anna helped Dante remove it completely, then she was astride his hard lean hips again, bending her head to give and receive drugging, passionate kisses that made her head spin and her heart gallop. Her long waving hair was a protective shield that kept the world from intruding as it drifted sensually over them both.
Cupping his face as she leant forward, Anna marvelled at the strong, chiselled contours, at the sublime slopes and plains that denoted his fascinating masculine features. But it was the vulnerable, naked look of utter longing in his eyes that undid her. Stilling in shock, she hardly registered breathing.
‘I thought perhaps I’d dreamt wanting you this much…but now I see that I didn’t. Or if I did the dream was just a tantalising glimpse of the incredible reality that is you, Anna.’
Finding no words that could adequately describe the force of what she was feeling, Anna began to slide the buttons through the buttonholes of his fine cotton shirt with trembling fingers. When the smooth, tanned musculature underneath, with its dusting of hair, was exposed to her, she pushed the material aside, sliding her hands over the flat male nipples and taut ribcage to explore him, to feel the throb of his heartbeat beneath her palm. She was thrilled to realise that it beat with desire for
She was following the trail of silky dark blond hair towards his belly button when he made a low, husky sound, slid his hands beneath her hair and urged her eagerly upwards again. The next thing she knew he was helping remove the scrap of plain white silk that denoted her panties and sliding down his zipper.
When he placed himself at the soft moist centre of Anna’s core, easing his way inside her and then plunging upwards, she threw back her head with a whimper. The very notion of pleasure broke all its bounds. It hardly seemed an adequate description for the utterly consuming sensations that effervesced through her body. Not since she’d surrendered her innocence to Dante five years ago had such violent waves of ecstatic bliss been hers.
The feeling brought it unerringly home to her why she had never wanted another man since that first time with him…why she had resigned herself to being alone for ever—because no man could possibly come close to making her feel what Dante made her feel.
Utterly losing himself in their wild, urgent coupling, Dante buried himself so deep inside her dizzying heat that he swore he would melt. Expertly opening the catch on her bra, he quickly discarded the garment to fill his palms with her perfect satin-tipped breasts, stroking his thumbs across the tender nipples. Gazing up into Anna’s lovely face he saw the stunning crown of burnished hair that rippled river-like down over her pale smooth skin and knew there wasn’t another woman in the world to match her for beauty and grace.