Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Dante
A s far as I was concerned, my papa had insisted I attend the party at Serafina and Salvatore’s home. And I now needed a distraction from being in the company of the man I detested. So, I was going to revert to the one thing I enjoyed most in life, being around and with women.
The fact I knew it would wind my nemesis up was the icing on the cake.
As I crossed the distance between us, I could feel Salvatore’s eyes burning into me. Like me, he was attuned to knowing where the other one of us was, always. Thinking about it, as I put one foot in front of the other while making sure I had a welcoming smile plastered over my face, me sulking and staying in one place had made the party far too comfortable for him.
I intentionally found his penetrating gaze with my own and offered him a nod of my head, followed by a smirk. To onlookers I knew it would appear civil, maybe even friendly, but I knew he would understand exactly what it was—game on.
Now, it was my turn to swim the shark infested waters, and his baby sister was going to be my designated prey.
It was made so very much easier when her attention was caught by me making my way over to them, and by the fact she appeared to be watching me in her peripheral view.
I’d stopped from time to time to exchange civilities and have quick conversations as I made my way to where she was standing, talking to both of my sisters. Very deliberately, I was showing him exactly my destination point. Suddenly, I noticed that he’d stopped talking to those around him, concentrating all his senses on me. The taller he stood, the angrier he appeared to become. It didn’t have the desired effect; in fact, it only spurred me on.
Slowly, I took my time reaching her, watching as mum interrupted the threesome and escorted Sera away, no doubt for some hostess duties she needed to fulfil. Leaving just Mia and Giovanna, who was starting to blush harder with every step I took. I knew that both Salvatore and Giovanna were in their own way waiting for me to arrive, and their anticipation was enhancing my own pleasure.
When I wasn’t looking in his direction to goad him on, I’d made sure my eyes never left her tall, willowy figure. As she swept one hand through her long hair, revealing her delicate features, and her seemingly interested eyes fleetingly found my own, I understood that I’d been played at my own game.
Fuck, she’s beautiful.
I was transfixed from a distance as the blonde streaks in her waist length, perfectly curled hair caught the sunlight. Trying to break the spell, I grabbed a drink from a passing tray and exchanged small talk with a few people I knew, until feeling that I was once again in control of my own game, I managed to move close to her, just as she’d turned around properly for the first time. It was then that I witnessed full on, the grown-up version of the small girl I remembered.
As her unusual hazel eyes found me staring at her, I took all of her in. Her cheeks were burning hot and showing off the scattering of freckles across her cheekbones left from childhood, but all I could see was the sheer beauty of the woman. Confusingly, I felt she was destined to be more than my plaything for the afternoon. I cleared my throat a couple of times to erase my last thought. Then I closed the remaining distance between us, meaning to introduce myself and to snap myself out of whatever the hell it was that was going on.
Instead, as I took her hand in mine to gently brush my lips against her smooth skin, she spoke first.
‘Dante.’ She smiled as she whispered my name.
Being caught off guard was completely out of character and, without thinking, I allowed my gaze to travel slowly up the length of her bare arm and as our eyes met again, I spoke the question which had appeared without thought onto the tip of my tongue.
‘Where have you been?’ I shook my head, not knowing if it was at her beauty or in disbelief at my mistake.
‘Growing up,’ she replied.
‘You did it really, really well, Giovanna.’ My own honesty floored me.
‘Dante, stop playing with her.’ Mia smacked her hand into my shoulder to drive her words home and brought me back to reality.
Thank fuck for siblings.
Ignoring my sister, I tucked the hand I was still holding inside the crook of my arm. Although, my hand now felt bereft, the warmth of her skin seeped through the material of the fine cotton shirt I was wearing, and making sure it stayed just where I wanted it, I placed my other hand over hers, and interlinked my fingers where possible with hers.
‘Shall we get a drink?’ I questioned her, watching as her eyes left mine and looked down at our conjoined fingers.
‘Gabe is already getting you one,’ Mia interjected.
‘I’m sure you can drink it, Mia… after all, with all the talking you’re doing you must be thirsty,’ I quipped.
I’ll give my younger sister her due, even she laughed at my rudeness.
‘It’s okay, I’ll find you later, Mia.’ With a beautiful smile spreading across her face, Giovanna defused the situation with my sister, complied and started to walk alongside me.
‘Don’t listen to anything he has to say, Gi. I know he’s my brother, but his tongue is far too smooth for any sensible woman to listen to.’
‘Shhhh.’ Playfully, I looked back at my sister, shaking my head a little, and then directed my full attention to the woman on my arm. ‘Now, where were we?’
‘You were getting me a drink, and I was just taking in that you’re too smooth for me to believe anything that falls out of those full-looking, heart shaped lips of yours.’
‘Mmmm… well, Giovanna De Luca, the fact you’ve noticed I have full-looking lips,’ I deliberately pouted and leant a little closer for effect, ‘has just changed how I’m looking at this whole afternoon. I bet, before the afternoon’s over, I’ll be placing these lips against yours.’
‘What?’ Suddenly looking worried, she tried to pull her hand away from my arm. Instinctively, I firmed up my grip, making sure it wasn’t enough to hurt her, but would be enough to stop her pulling away.
‘And you’ll want me to,’ I added, before winking at her. Her eyes opened wider in fear, and I wanted to smack myself over the back of the head for being such a bloody idiot. Sometimes, I needed to remind myself that all decent women in Calabria were innocent until marriage. Most of the time I lived in Soho; a part of London that had shrugged off its innocence many, many decades before.
‘I won’t,’ she uttered indignantly.
Shit.
In answer to her flight response, I stopped leading us away to the bar area, released her hand from my arm and turned to face her. With our arms hanging loosely to the sides of our bodies, I lifted my hands and gently brushed the tips of my fingers against hers encouragingly. I needed to save what I had singlehandedly nearly ruined.
In my peripheral view, I could see Salvatore starting to smile at the obvious brush off I was getting. So, I doubled down, and carried on.
‘How old are you, Giovanna?’
‘Twenty… why?’ Panic still laced her tone.
‘I’m twenty-one, but we could be a decade apart in life experience. It’s okay to want to feel my mouth on yours.’
‘But I don’t.’ She shook her head at me, trying to convince me.
‘With that decade of extra life experience… I know you do.’ I looked at her more intently. ‘Your pupils dilate when you look at me, and you flick your eyes between mine and my mouth.’ Her eyes opened wider in shock.
‘That’s some judgement.’
‘It is, and it’s okay because it’s normal.’ I nodded at her soothingly.
‘Normal?’ She laughed sarcastically. ‘I, unlike you, don’t live in a normal world.’ Standing herself taller, I saw the shy little girl show me the determined woman she hid inside herself.
‘You must have kissed someone before?’ I asked the question and instantly saw the truth in her eyes.
Well fuck.
There was innocent and then there was completely untouched, and at twenty years old it was rare to find a woman who was the latter.
‘That’s none of your business.’ She shook her head vehemently, her defensive words clarifying my belief, and inside the alpha male in me started cheering.
‘A man and woman wanting to be together is as old as time.’ I pushed my lips together and waited for her retort.
‘Really—try telling my brothers that,’ she interjected quickly, and looked around her in case any of them were in earshot of our forbidden conversation.
‘Like it’s okay to want to go away to university to study.’ I suddenly remembered a phone call I’d overheard between my sisters about how much Giovanna wanted to study music in Bologna, and how Salvatore was standing in her way.
I saw the surprise in her eyes as my words hit home. Taking my chance, I moved my hands and threaded my fingers through hers and after a few seconds of just standing there with my fingers delicately caressing hers, I brought her hand up to its previous position on my arm, and once again began to lead her inside.
I would have loved to hold her hand to offer her the reassurance I felt she needed as we strode through the people between us and the bar, but knew the action would not meet with the high standards of those in the antiquated society around us.
‘Do you really believe what you’ve just said?’ she questioned, as she smiled her greetings to several of the soldiers and their families as we passed by.
‘Yes… I’ve spent most of my life in England. Women have more choice over there.’ I nodded in acknowledgement to Ricco’s nephew, Lorenzo, who happened to be watching us intently as we passed the group he was stood with.
‘In what?’ She stopped dead, leaving the question hanging in the air around us.
‘In everything,’ I replied and looking down I gave her a reassuring smile. When she relaxed again, and continued walking, I discerned I’d won the first round. ‘Now, let’s start at the beginning, shall we?’
‘With?’ She tentatively asked the question, but couldn’t help the small smile that ghosted over her mouth.
‘With everything.’ I nodded at her and flexed my fingers over hers. ‘Hello, Giovanna. I think we’ve met a few times over the years as children. In case you don’t remember me… my name is Dante Alessandro Giordano.’
‘Oh, I remember you, Dante. Although, you’ve grown taller and broader since we last met.’ She smiled as she answered.
‘Then we’re off to an amazing start.’
‘We are?’ She grinned, apparently relaxing by the second.
‘Yep… because I remember you too, Giovanna,’ I gently rubbed my fingertips over the hand she still had in the crook of my arm, ‘and you’re even more beautiful than I could ever have dreamt about.’ Her face lit up at the compliment I’d just given her.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered.
‘Smooth enough?’ I teased and laughed a little. Then, clearing my throat, I carried on. ‘Now, love… what can I get you to drink?’ I asked the question as we reached the temporary bar inside my sister’s substantial villa and lifted my hand up to call the waiter over.
‘Just a soda please.’
‘No wine?’ I questioned, as I looked down quizzically at her.
‘No, I’m allergic to alcohol.’
‘Interesting… an Italian who can’t drink wine.’ She laughed a little at my teasing.
‘Two sodas please.’
‘So…’ I deliberately left the word hanging between us as I moved my head from side to side in mock deliberation. ‘Let’s recap. You remember me. I remember you, and you’re beautiful. You’ve noticed I’ve grown taller and broader since we last met… Do you think I’m good looking?’ I attempted to look at her in earnest.
The glass of soda that she had just taken a sip from was moved quickly away from her mouth, the liquid slopping slightly over the sides of the tall glass.
‘I will not answer that.’ She giggled and blushed a little. It was the sweetest thing I’d ever seen.
‘Mmmm,’ I pondered. ‘I seem to also remember that you can’t bear to be tickled.’
‘You wouldn’t?’ Her mouth opened wide as she looked around the people close to us. It was then I saw that Salvatore had moved a little closer to the two of us. I leant in closer to speak softly in her ear.
‘Not today, no.’
I stood myself taller and watched as she took in my intonation, and once again a fierce blush consumed her cheeks.
‘What’s your favourite colour?’ I carried on.
‘That’s easy, it’s blue.’ Appearing relieved, Giovanna answered with an excited, childlike exuberance.
Slowly, I bent my knees to bring myself down to her height. When I was right where I wanted to be, I stared pointedly at her, making sure all she could see was my aqua blue eyes that women seemed to love so much.
‘Well, that’s fortunate, isn’t it?’ I added before offering her another wink.
I couldn’t remember talking to another woman that wasn’t a member of my family as much as we talked in those few hours.
And Salvatore De Luca rode each wave with us. I saw the joy in his face if she left my side to talk to someone else and his immediate anger the second she came back close enough for me to re-establish my hold over her.
It had to be said, I was enjoying myself far more than I thought was possible.
Giovanna was a beautiful soul, a willowy beauty with intelligence, grace and an amazing sense of humour and I liked her more than I wanted to. The more she refused my teasing advances, the more she walked away from me, the more the alpha male inside me wanted her.
I could only hope it was for the novelty factor.
But deep inside, I grasped that if she’d been anyone else, I would have been approaching the family and asking if I could be allowed to walk out with her, chaperoned of course, as our society denoted.
But she wasn’t.
She was merely my way of twisting the knife into her bastard of a brother and seeing how he enjoyed it, all under the pretence of a large family celebration.
After enjoying flirting and getting to know her for a few hours, and after being rejected a few times, my passion for the twenty-year-old Giovanna had reached boiling point. Finally, I’d pulled her with me under the sweeping staircase inside the villa and out of the view of the gathered guests. Then, with my hand on the back of her neck feeling her feverish skin and some gently coercion, I’d gently kissed the lips of the very beautiful Giovanna, who also happened to be the apple of her big brother’s eye. As we’d walked back out to the terrace seconds later, I’d very deliberately wiped her lipstick off my mouth just as he turned to find me once again, and I watched as his anger increased at my dalliance.
Ten minutes later, with her hand in mine concealed behind my back, the look in her eyes as our lips had parted branded into my soul, and with the taste of her sweetness lingering on my lips, her brother Salvatore’s succession had been announced.
Not wishing for witnesses to see my absolute revulsion to the Don in waiting, I shifted my stance and effectively stopped the involuntary shake of my head. I squeezed Giovanna’s hand a little to offer her comfort as her papa stormed out and her mama started to scream. For once, it seemed, I was more attuned to someone else’s pain than my own.
‘Gi, I’m sorry, but you will need to see your mama home,’ Salvatore interceded, looking over the heads of the people in between us until he found Giovanna standing next to me.
‘Yes, Salvatore.’ I heard the regret in her voice as she replied and watched appreciatively as she reluctantly moved away from me and slowly closed the distance to where Valentina had just feigned fainting and was currently screaming from a prone position on the floor of the terrace.
Catching my eye, Salvatore began to form a small smile at what I knew was the obvious disappointment written all over my face. For once, it didn’t matter. He didn’t matter. I didn’t matter. Those around us failed to be of any relevance. The only person of any significance was slowly walking over to her mama. And as she walked, the confident young woman, who had slowly revealed herself to me over the past few hours, once again became the anxiety ridden young girl I remembered from our teenage years.
And I hated it; watching her revert.
‘I can help with her, Don De Luca,’ I offered Salvatore Snr. And trying to balance on the ledge I fathomed I was precariously teetering on, I grinned at my nemesis Salvatore and moved quickly to walk the same path as Giovanna.
Her grandfather nodded his permission. Just as soon as I saw the nod, I bent down and in one movement swung Valentina up high into my arms. As the woman in my hold finally stopped wailing, and the crowd we were leaving parted and fell silent, I felt Giovanna wrap her arm around my waist and lean her body against mine as she attempted to glean the strength she so obviously needed.
In the space of the past few minutes, she had learnt that her nonno, the grandfather I knew she loved unconditionally just by the way she spoke about and looked at him, was dying, and in that declaration her older brother was to be his replacement; her family had fractured. I knew first-hand how that felt and comprehended that our families, who had been bound by blood years before, had just become even more interlinked.
When her long fingers dug into my side as she steadied herself from the waves of grief beginning to consume her, I felt the small shudders her body was releasing, and I empathised. From that moment on, I knew I was not only responsible for carrying my own pain and anger, but also hers.
She might not be able to see it yet, but I felt that the catalyst causing our conjoined agony was none other than her brother, our soon to be Don.
After placing Valentina across the back seat of my car and slamming the door in a bid to control the anger seeping out from every single one of my pores, I helped Giovanna into the passenger seat. Witnessing her obvious distress as tears began to flow silently, but freely down her face, I fastened her seatbelt while swearing under my breath.
I only understood one thing—the higher up you were, the further down you could fall, and I was going to take Salvatore’s fucking legs out from underneath him.