CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER TEN
‘H OW WAS CLASS ?’ Juliet asked Susie when she came in on Monday.
‘Great,’ she said, but her voice was rather flat as she joined her flatmate in the lounge.
Juliet didn’t look so great either. She was sitting staring at the muted television and looked as if she’d been crying.
‘Don’t you have rehearsals?’ asked Susie.
‘No, I wasn’t selected to play for the ball.’
Susie knew how that felt. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘I’m worried about my scholarship,’ Juliet admitted. ‘I’m not keeping up. I’m working at the store and the bar to pay my rent, and there just aren’t enough hours to practise. I’m getting up at the crack of dawn...trying to cram things in...’
Susie moved over to Juliet’s couch and gave her a hug. She was pleased that in this instance she hadn’t said anything to Juliet about the noise.
‘Can your family help?’ she asked.
‘God, no.’ Juliet shook her head. ‘I’m not giving up my music, but I do have to face things.’ Then she paused and looked at the television screen. ‘There he is...’
Susie tried not to turn her head too quickly, and attempted to feign nonchalance as she saw Dante, looking utterly together, walking towards the court.
‘That’s from this morning,’ Juliet said. ‘Clearly he wasn’t in a fight—Louanna’s such a gossip.’
Dante wore a dark grey suit and a dark gunmetal tie, and his white shirt almost gleamed in the mid-morning light. He looked a whole lot better than Susie.
The footage ended and the scene flicked back to the court, where all the cameras were waiting for news outside.
Juliet spoke again. ‘It was a difficult wedding.’
Susie tore her eyes away from the screen. ‘I thought it was gorgeous.’
‘Of course—but it was so sad. All those pictures everywhere...and so many pieces we were told not to perform. And then Mimi...’
Susie closed her eyes and felt so selfish. She’d been thinking only of how hard it was for her. And that was what she regretted.
Dante had needed her, and instead of being there for him, or properly listening, she’d been angling for an invitation to the ball.
Then there was the sound of footsteps on the stairs and then the door opened and an excited Louanna rushed in. ‘Turn the sound on!’
‘What?’
‘There’s about to be a press conference.’ She was unmuting the television. ‘They’re back together,’ Louanna said. ‘Again!’
The happy couple were smiling and holding hands, with their lawyers standing beside them, a little grim-faced, as a short statement was read.
‘The past year has been difficult for both parties, who deeply regret getting third parties involved. They look forward to renewing their vows and moving forward.’
‘See?’ Louanna said. ‘Only the lawyers win.’
Dante gave a short response and said he was pleased for his client and wished the couple well. He offered a tight smile, then shook his client’s hand and walked back to his office, the rebuke from the judge still ringing in his ears.
‘This case should never have made it to court, Signor Casadio.’
Once again, he was the bastard...
For two days he dealt with the press, with his staff, with the paperwork that had piled up, and then he went to his safe and took out a small envelope.
‘I’m taking the rest of the week off,’ he informed his PA.
Dante returned to his stunning apartment, and thought Susie was right—he could rent it out tomorrow, as a luxurious furnished penthouse, and apart from clothes and toiletries there was little he would have to take out...
He opened up the envelope and stared at the two small rubies in his palm. Again he recalled his mother with the jeweller, insisting on the stones she liked.
‘Rubies...’
‘Not diamonds?’
‘I have so many diamonds...rubies are more beguiling...’
Then he remembered going back with his father.
‘Just rubies?’ he had checked.
‘Si,’ Signor Adino had said. ‘She wants rubies only for her eternity ring.’
Dante had turned to Sev. ‘What’s an eternity ring?’
Now he remembered his response.
‘Something infinite,’ Sev had said. ‘For ever.’
But Dante had frowned.
‘Even after you die?’
Dante had had a heart back then. He’d loved everyone so much. And at the thought of his mamma dying, Papa too, he’d started to cry.
‘What have you said to him?’ Papa had come over to them. ‘Dante,’ he’d scolded. ‘Stop.’
Now Dante found he couldn’t stop.
He hadn’t cried at their death, nor at their funeral. Certainly he hadn’t cried when Sev had hit him, nor at the needle going in and out as he’d been stitched up. Nor when he’d walked away from his life.
The day when Rosa had run up to him on the walls, pitched him against his brother, he’d muted all feelings.
Only since Susie had appeared had they started to return.
He thought of her in Lucca, happy in her new job. There was too much damage there, too much left undone, and the foundations were too shaky for him to even think of returning.
Instead, he looked again at the rubies and took out his phone.
‘Signor Adino...’
A gift, Dante decided. And then he’d let her go.
‘Are you still sulking, Susie?’
Her mum had called her midweek.
‘No,’ Susie said—and she was being honest. ‘I’ve got a lot on my mind. I’ve been offered an apprenticeship.’
‘Susie! That’s fabulous. You won’t have to do that expensive course in Florence.’
‘I know.’
She looked at her new white uniform, hanging on the door; Pearla’s had had her name embroidered on the jacket and Cucou had handed it to her yesterday.
No, Susie wasn’t sulking—but she did have a lot on her mind.
When the call ended, she put down the phone and went to her bedside table to look at the result of her first ever pregnancy test.
Like Juliet, she’d decided it was time to face up to things.
INCINTA
She couldn’t be pregnant.
But the pink word insisted she was.
‘No...’
Susie shook her head and then checked the instructions again, told herself the test was surely wrong.
Because she was not going to be pregnant by some family law attorney who was too cynical for words and couldn’t even commit to a week ahead, let alone a relationship.
She started to cry, and it was like a dam breaking.
She’d been on the edge of tears so many times, but now, as her entire world shifted, she broke down.
She lay on her bed and hugged her beautiful white jacket. She knew she’d have to say no to the apprenticeship.
And of course she’d have to tell Dante.
But how?
She would head back to England and deal with things there, she decided. Because, despite what she’d said to Dante that morning, she did not want to be the talk of this town.
Oh, and she would be. The two brothers couldn’t even have a small scuffle on the walls without word getting out. Imagine the gossip about an apprentice chef at Pearla’s being pregnant by Dante Casadio...
She didn’t want it for herself, nor for Dante, nor Gio...
No, she didn’t want her baby to be a piece of scandalous gossip.
Nor an accident.
She was certain that was what she’d been. And it told her what she didn’t want for her own child.
She wanted to be a confident, loving mother.
Not one who resented giving up her fledgling career...
The tears stopped then, and there was a very wobbly sense of calm...
She’d be okay, Susie told herself.
Not for a second would she think of this as an accident.
Susie limped through the week on autopilot.
She even made a cake for her own birthday...
Susie
Happy 25th
‘When’s the party?’ Louanna asked.
Juliet sat with a little frown between her green eyes, watching Susie piping hearts and flowers...
‘Tomorrow,’ Susie replied.
‘Good, because we’re both working tonight—it’s the ball...’
Susie looked over to Juliet. ‘Are you playing?’
‘Yes!’ She beamed, though her features were as white as marble. ‘But only because the understudy broke her wrist.’
‘You’ll be perfect,’ Susie assured her. ‘Oh, I wish I was going.’
‘Maybe next year,’ Louanna said.
And the shaky sense of calm Susie was perched upon cracked a little as she glimpsed this time next year, and the whole live person she’d be responsible for.
There would be no ball next year, or the year after that, Susie decided, and messed up one of her pretty flowers.
And anyway, the only person she wanted to take her to the ball was Dante.
‘Are you okay?’ Juliet checked. ‘Your icing...’
Yikes.
And then it dawned on her that there was no Prince Charming required when she had a fairy godmother.
She didn’t need Dante to make her wishes come true.
And while she still had the chance, she was going to embrace everything!
Everything.
‘Susie!’ Mimi embraced her.
‘Is it too late to say yes?’ she asked.
‘To what?’
‘The ball.’
‘The ball?’ Gio called out. ‘But it’s tonight.’
‘Don’t listen to him,’ Mimi said, and then she gave her a bright smile. ‘Of course it’s not too late.’
She invited her in while she collected her coat. Then, ‘Gio, my love, Susie and I are going to my sister’s for a few hours...’
Dante peered at his unshaven reflection in the mirror.
God, he looked like Gio in decline.
Or Gio in love.
It was late on Saturday afternoon and he picked up the phone to make the call he had to.
He knew he couldn’t look to the future without clearing the past.
‘Dante.’ Sev was curt when he answered.
‘Can we talk?’
‘No. I don’t have time. I’m trying to get to Lucca again , to attend the ball, because you couldn’t be bothered to—’
‘Sev,’ Dante cut in, and he thought of Susie and those words that had stung. He refused to throw in the towel. ‘I’ve met someone.’
‘I have to board.’ Sev was not giving an inch.
‘Her name’s Susie.’
‘I know,’ Sev said. ‘The waitress.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I’m your brother, Dante.’
‘For the first time since the accident there aren’t awful memories on every corner in Lucca,’ Dante said, thinking how when he thought of home now he could see Susie on the walls, or standing under an umbrella. And when he looked at the hills, instead of seeing twisted metal and a graveyard, he thought of her sitting on the couch at the winery. ‘Can you get that?’
‘I wish I could get that,’ Sev said.
‘Can we meet? Can we speak?’
‘Tomorrow,’ Sev said, ‘but I don’t want to drag up the past.’
‘I don’t see how we can move on if we don’t.’
‘I have to go; I really am boarding now...’ Sev told him—and then he swore.
‘What?’
‘It’s delayed. I’m going to try and sort out another flight.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Edinburgh.’
Dante looked at his new, or rather old, gold watch. ‘You’re not going to make it.’
‘You’ll have to go to the ball.’
He was going to hell, Dante knew as he packed his tux, because if Susie found out he was in Lucca and at the ball she would never forgive him.
He called her from the car on the way and got her voicemail.
‘Look, I know it’s too late to ask you to the ball, but I have to attend. So I’m going to be in Lucca tonight. I wondered if...’ He grimaced. It sounded as if he wanted to drop by for a hook-up. ‘Okay, scrap that. I’ll call you as soon as I can.’
Right now, he had a lot to arrange...
‘Oh, Susie...’
Mimi had performed utter magic.
The dress was still gorgeous, the softest grey with a blush of pink, and now she was squeezed into a pair of very beautiful shoes...
She could have looked by far too pale—especially as she was feeling a little peaky—but the make-up had transformed her.
Mimi had always done her own stage make-up, and now Susie stared in the mirror with eyes that were vivid and blue as she blinked her long lashes. Her lips were a very pale pink.
Her heavy curls had been smoothed, and loose curls fell down over one shoulder.
She wished things could be different, but accepted this was how they were.
She’d felt alone all her life.
Maybe it was time to embrace it. To accept it and simply enjoy it.
‘You are going to be very popular,’ Gio told her.
He’d arranged for a car to take her, and had taken a walk over to Mimi’s sister’s to wave Susie off and then take a nice early-evening stroll on the walls with his new wife.
‘You can tell me how Dante’s speech is received,’ he said.
‘Dante?’ She frowned, certain that Gio had got it wrong. ‘He’s not going.’
‘No, he’s there. Sev won’t be arriving until later. So there will be a Casadio there tonight after all.’
Her heart seemed to stop for a second, even two, and then it skipped into overdrive, her pulse racing in her temples.
Damn him...
She felt her newly painted nails digging into her palms, frustration and anger building at the fact that he’d do this again.
Surely he’d have called?
Then she checked her phone. And as it turned out he had...
He was in town and he was going to the ball. It would seem he was hoping to drop by.
God, he had a nerve!
‘Thank you, Mimi,’ she said as she climbed into the car, battling her feelings and trying not to let the happy couple see.
‘Now, remember,’ Mimi said, ‘it’s all about the entrance.’
‘Yes.’
‘You pause, and then you smile.’ She looked right at Susie. ‘You smile ,’ she said. ‘Even if it kills you. Even if it is a hostile audience.’
‘Got it.’ Susie nodded.
It was a pink sky evening, just coming into spring, and the narrow cobbled streets were lined with impressive cars, filled with beautiful people.
Dante was going to be there...
The anger and hurt she’d been holding in was suddenly met with a surge of relief—like headwinds colliding on a clifftop. She felt battered. Surges of frustration met with the sheer relief that Dante would be there tonight.
And this, Susie decided, was how she wanted to face him. This would be his memory of her when she called him from England or they met to deal with legal papers.
Not pale and washed out outside her apartment after a double shift at the restaurant. Cross and pleading with him to take her to the ball.
She could do this by herself.
All of it.
She wanted him to know that.
The car arrived at the magnificent building, beautifully lit, and she saw beautiful women and elegant men milling on the stairs in the portico.
And now it was her turn to arrive.
The door was opened and a gloved hand was offered, and she stepped out of the vehicle onto a rich navy carpet.
She stood alone.
And it was then that she saw him.
He was standing by a pillar—not leaning on it as such, just with the edge of his shoulder touching it. He was looking impossibly gorgeous in a tux, and he didn’t even glance in her direction at first—just cast a bored eye over the stunning surroundings and skimmed past her.
Then he frowned and turned around.
And she smiled. Not because Mimi had told her to, and not to kill him or show him how brilliant her life was without him...
Simply, she was pleased to see him.
It was as if her lips hadn’t caught up with her playing it cool, so it was an utterly natural smile, and it only wavered when he didn’t smile back.
He just stared, and so did she, because...actually...he didn’t look quite his usual self.
‘Signorina...’
She was being called to smile for the cameras, and then she was ushered through a sea of people and colour and so much noise.
Glasses clinking...the hum of chatter...all spilling forward as she followed the music into the ballroom, where huge chandeliers spun beams of light.
She looked over to the orchestra. There was Juliet, her red hair glowing, her concentration fully on the music. But then she glanced over and gave her a gorgeous smile and a nod.
‘You look stunning.’
She heard Dante’s voice and turned slightly.
‘Thank you.’ She looked at him a little more closely. ‘So do you.’
However, she looked at his unshaven jaw and was reminded of his comment about calling an ambulance if he ever went out unshaven.
But it was not her place to comment like that now.
She took a glass of champagne from a passing tray—then remembered she couldn’t drink it. This pregnancy thing was all so new.
She stood awkwardly, holding her glass, and found that the thought of her baby was the one thing that didn’t scare her tonight.
It was the thought of all the days when there would be no chance of seeing him.
Of lawyers and odd visits that Dante didn’t even know about yet.
And she wouldn’t be telling him here!
She kept her smile pasted on. ‘Gio said you’re making a speech?’
‘A short one—unless Sev gets here in time...’
‘He’s coming too?’
‘Yes.’ He looked at her. ‘I called him—tried to talk to him.’
‘Oh?’
‘He told me I lacked responsibility.’
‘Did he?’ Susie gave a little laugh. ‘You don’t.’ Then her laugh changed. ‘I got your message...’
‘I apologise for that. It sounded tacky.’
‘Just a bit.’ Susie nodded.
‘Would you like to dance?’
She wanted to say no—to be petty, to be bitter, and flounce off and dance with every other man in the room.
Only there wasn’t a single man in the world she wanted to dance with more.
‘That would be lovely.’
She had never danced to an orchestra, and she had never done any formal dancing—just watched it on the television. But either some of it had caught her attention or she had the perfect partner, because Dante made it smooth and easy, even when she faltered.
‘Left...’ he said, and then, ‘Just one little step back...’
It was enough for her to dance without thought.
‘I’m a fraud!’ She smiled. ‘I know only one dance step.’
‘I don’t think I’m thinking about your feet.’
‘Please don’t flirt.’ She looked up at him.
‘That’s an impossible ask,’ he told her.
But the compliments stopped, and they danced in silence, and she wished the music would never end.
For a while it didn’t—but Dante was not here just for fun.
‘I have to dance with a few guests,’ he told her.
‘Of course.’
‘I don’t want to.’
‘Go.’
And it was fine being there alone. There were plenty of offers to dance, and gorgeous people to talk to, and even had Dante not been there it was something she wouldn’t have missed for the world.
The tables were filled with scented blooms and gorgeous treats and she was not going home with Dante, Susie told herself.
Promised herself.
No matter how tempted, no matter how smooth his delivery, she would decline.
She would be leaving tonight in utter control.
‘Scusi...’ someone said, and she realised she was standing at one of the exits.
She moved a little closer to a table as the music was silenced and the speeches began.
There were a lot of thank-yous, and then an elderly, very distinguished-looking man took the microphone and spoke so fast that even with all her classes and language lessons she could barely understand what was being said.
‘Sevandro Casadio...’ the MC said, and then corrected himself. ‘ Scusi... Dante Casadio...’
‘Grazie...’
Dante thanked all the people who had already been thanked many times, and then he thanked Christos and his wife, saying that without their skill the wine would not be as rich. He thanked the orchestra, and then he spoke of how this night meant spring was here...all colour and beauty.
‘My grandfather and his beautiful wife Mimi are delighted to support this night, loved by so many...’ He slipped it in smoothly, and even if word had already spread like wildfire there were a couple of gasps of surprise and then applause. ‘I haven’t attended this ball for a very long time,’ Dante said. ‘And I know I have been absent too long.’
She’d been proud of how she’d mostly kept up with his speech, but then he said something she thought she didn’t understand...or perhaps she was fighting not to cry.
‘It is good to be here and to be home.’
He stepped down from the stage just as someone else knocked into her, and Susie realised she’d drifted towards the exit again.
She wasn’t okay, Susie knew.
And she felt a tear splash down her cheek.
She didn’t want to leave.
Ever.
She loved this man who was now talking to an elderly couple, who were congratulating him on his speech.
And then she saw him talking to Sev, and they didn’t seem quite so hostile.
She felt another tear splash out, and quickly wiped it away with her thumb.
It was time to go, Susie decided.
But Dante caught her hand.
‘Dance?’
One more...
His hand was close to the small of her back, the other was holding her hand, but they were too far apart. His cologne was light, heavenly...
‘I just spoke to Cucou,’ Dante said. ‘He tells me I am dancing with his new apprentice.’
She gulped. ‘I haven’t accepted yet,’ she said.
‘Why wouldn’t you accept? It’s everything you wanted?’
‘I’m not so sure,’ she attempted, but her voiced faded. It was all too new and too raw to attempt to sound dismissive as she farewelled long held dreams and so she hurriedly changed the topic. ‘I know this piece...’ she said, referring to the music. ‘Juliet stuffs it up every time.’
He smiled, and she looked up at his unshaven jaw. Dante was tense—perhaps because his brother had arrived.
He pulled her in a little closer and she rested her head on his chest, so she could peek at the orchestra. It would seem Juliet had nailed it.
‘Perfect...’ Susie smiled as the music soared.
‘Yes,’ Dante said. ‘Perfect.’
And they were flirting with their bodies now.
His hand was a little firmer on her back, the other rested on her waist, and her hand, left to its own devices, was now on his chest.
‘Susie,’ he said, as the clock inched forward and the crowd on the dance floor thinned. ‘When I called—’
‘Please don’t, Dante.’
‘I didn’t think to ask you to the ball tonight because—’
‘Dante!’ He’d said enough already. ‘Please don’t.’ She pulled back. ‘I’m going to go to the ladies’ room.’
She did so, and she topped up her lipstick and looked at her glittering eyes, and his words stung.
‘I didn’t think to ask you...’
Have some pride, Susie!
So instead of heading back to the gorgeous ballroom, because she knew where that would lead—straight to bed—she went down to the foyer and out through the arches to the grand steps.
‘Running away?’
His voice was like a deft arrow and it halted her, but she didn’t let it fell her. She just turned around and shrugged.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m just leaving the same way I arrived. Alone.’ She looked at him then. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t ask me.’ He said nothing. ‘You’ve ruined my night.’
‘How?’
‘I wanted one perfect night. A photo of us arriving together. One time. So I could look back and say, Oh, that’s the guy. And that was me .’
‘Susie, it is not ruined—’
‘But it is.’
She stared at him and then the floodgates opened, after a lifetime of being not quite enough, not fitting in, not getting to shine...
‘I wanted something just for me. For...’
Us .
She didn’t say it; she clamped her mouth closed before uttering the forbidden word.
It was silly. There was nothing of them . It was just that if she was having a baby, and if they were going to be bound only by lawyers or whatever, she’d wanted one memory...
And it wasn’t just about showing her family and sisters; it was so much more.
More than that...
To show their baby...
That’s your father and me.
One photo before it all turned to bitter dust.
One magical night and he had ruined it.
‘You didn’t even think to ask me?’
She threw his words back at him and stood trembling with hurt as he came down the steps, all lithe and nonchalant.
‘Susie, the ball was the last thing on my mind until you arrived. You turned my head,’ he told her. ‘When you got out of that car, I couldn’t take my eyes from you.’
‘Too late.’ Her eyes were brimming.
‘It’s never too late.’ He smiled at her anger. ‘Come back to mine.’
‘You’ve got a nerve...’
‘I do,’ he said.
And he kissed her right there under the lights, his jaw rougher than she’d ever known it and his mouth hungry and skilled and utterly perfect, persuasive...
It was by far safer to kiss him than to speak. She might tell him she loved him...that they were having a baby. So much easier to sink into reckless kisses that made her forget all her problems, her every care swept away by the dark, passionate tide he created.
‘Susie...’ His mouth left hers and now he lifted her hair and kissed her neck, then her bare shoulder. ‘Come home with me...’
Her stance was wavering. One more night...she reasoned.
And his kisses slowed a little, like turning down the gas, and he took her to a simmer.
She hated how they’d ended. It was her only regret in their turbulent time.
‘You left your scarf...’
She laughed at this most illogical reason for returning to his house, but it was good enough for now. ‘I did,’ she agreed, and her eyes closed as he kissed her to confirm, and the bells chimed in agreement, sweeping in a new day.
Her birthday.
It was not as if a louse like him would remember, but for now it didn’t matter—it was still the best birthday of her life.
‘ Fai strada tu , Dante!’
Susie told him to lead the way and, picking up her skirts with one hand, holding his with the other, they walked together through the cobbled streets.
‘Your Italian is getting better every day,’ he told her.
‘Yes,’ Susie said, tongue in cheek. ‘We did terms of endearment this week.’ She laughed to herself. ‘Not that you’d know anything about them,’ she added with a teasing twist. ‘Ciccina.’
‘Ciccino,’ he corrected. ‘ I am the sweetheart.’
Oh, he was so far from sweet as he stopped their walk home to kiss her against a very cold wall.
‘What else?’ he asked as he kissed her shoulder.
‘Cucciolo,’ she said.
She’d called him a puppy—a very affectionate term, but certainly not one that described Dante.
And then they made it to the gorgeous avenue and inside his door.
‘Come,’ he said, leading her towards the dining room. ‘We can dance here as we wanted to.’
‘I don’t want to dance any more,’ Susie said.
Her voice sounded unfamiliar, as if there was a new tone, one that had her shivering, and clearly it caused a reaction in him, for his hand halted as he pushed down the ornate handle. The dining door remaining closed as he stood utterly still.
‘Dance?’ he suggested again, and his voice was low too, husky.
He cleared his throat and turned around.
‘I really don’t want to,’ she said.
Then he met her eyes, and perhaps saw the fire that was blazing there. There was no time for dancing.
‘Oh, you know how to ruin plans,’ Dante told her as he scooped her up in his arms.
‘So do you,’ Susie said, putting her hands around his neck.
She only let go when he dropped her on the bed.
She lay in a cloud of pink and grey and closed her eyes as he lifted the hem of the gown to reveal the pale pink flesh of her thighs, and then impatiently he moved the material higher, up to her stomach.
‘Careful,’ she warned. ‘It’s not my gown.’
‘Shh,’ he told her.
And although it was clear he’d wanted them downstairs, in the firelit dining room, instead here they were—upstairs, the bed turned back, the mattress plump and waiting...
He pulled down her lacy knickers and she lost a shoe as he pushed them past her ankles...
‘Oh, Susie...’ he said, in that low, seductive voice, and he lowered his lips to the soft flesh of her stomach.
And when he spoke her name like that she had no choice but to close her eyes...to feel adored and wanted, even if it could not last.
‘What else did you learn to say?’ he asked with desire in his eyes, as if goading her to tell him how she really felt.
‘I can’t remember,’ Susie said, terrified that she might say something she’d later regret.
‘What else?’ he persisted, and his hot mouth moved down her stomach.
He stroked her, his eyes moving down, and as he found her tenderest spot she felt tight inside, tight with desire as his fingers slipped inside her. She bit down on her bottom lip as he explored her—and then he looked up and met her eyes.
‘Settemila baci per te,’ Dante said. ‘Did you learn that?’
‘No...’ Although she sort of understood what he’d said. But she didn’t really have the capacity to play the game right now, so she shook her head.
‘It means,’ Dante told her, ‘seven thousand kisses to you.’
He lowered his head and delivered several of them.
How did he make this so easy?
He simply did. Because she parted so easily, and as his soft mouth caressed her, as he explored her so exquisitely, her homework continued. But it was in breathless attempts at words rather than practice phrases.
‘ Mi piace ...it’s nice,’ she told him. ‘Mi piace...’ she said again. Only her voice was more urgent now, and it told him it was specifically there that he pleased her. Then she told him what he had once said to her, and it came from a very natural place. ‘Non ti fermare!’
Don’t stop!
He was so intense, so specific with his mouth, and he did not stop. Even as her hips lifted his mouth chased them. And then she gave up on their game, because she did not trust the words that might slip out as he took her to bliss.
How many kisses it took, she lost count. She felt as if she were floating, almost aching for him to take her, to make love to her, to fill her. And yet she never wanted it to end. Her hands were knotted in his thick black hair, and his delivery so honed she fought not to push him away, because she wanted it so.
It didn’t take seven thousand kisses.
She climaxed under his skilful mouth and sobbed out words in a language she didn’t know as she simply gave in...
She was trying to breathe, hoping she hadn’t told him she loved him, but Dante wasn’t listening anyway.
Unbelted and unzipped, he took her.
‘There,’ he told her, and she was on fire, clinging to the sheets.
He was holding her hips. And she was spent, yes, but still being ravished, watching him through her half-closed eyes and adoring him.
Because she did adore him.
He climaxed with a hollow shout, and it felt as if the air he breathed out stroked her inside, and she found there was a little left to give as she orgasmed again to the last thrusts of him.
‘I can’t breathe...’ she told him.
‘You are,’ he said.
And he turned her around on the bed and undid her gown. And she lay there, watching him undress. Then he dealt with the rest of her clothes, and with a few deft movements from Dante...
She was back in his bed.