‘What if I get it wrong?’ She turned and looked at him to see his brows rise in question. Then he smiled and her attention was drawn to that smile, to those lips which had just kissed her into a heady state of euphoria. She couldn’t allow that again and would have to be on her guard.
‘Do not worry, mia cara, I will be at your side all the way.’
That was precisely what she was worried about. But as she got out of the car and the cameras flashed Dante was true to his word and stayed at her side, the act of loving fiancé in full swing.
She smiled shyly as they stood briefly for photos and Dante put his arm around her, his fingers pressing possessively into her waist as he pulled her closer, giving her no option but to lean against the length of his body. The spark of desire which had just been reawakened hummed relentlessly through her until it was almost impossible to smile at the cameras.
If she’d thought the kiss had been potent then she’d definitely got it wrong. It was as if she was going up in flames of desire right there on the streets of Rome. His masculine and powerful musky aftershave weaved its way through her senses and the firmness of his thigh against hers brought images to her mind of them naked together.
Then Dante spoke to the press, turning her towards the hotel as he did so, and she focused all her attention on walking the short distance in heels she was far from used to. Anything was better than focusing on the feel of his body against hers and the heady pulse of desire which beat within her.
‘Is it always like this?’ she asked as they entered the peace and safety of the hotel.
‘You will get used to it.’
He guided her through to the function room, where tables were laid with precise attention to detail. At least that was something she was familiar with after spending so many hours setting such tables and waiting on them as the rich and famous of first Sydney and then London dined while she remained invisible. She wholeheartedly wished she could do that right now—but dressed as she was, with a man like Dante at her side and desire coursing within her, that wasn’t an option.
‘I’m not sure I want to.’ She was painfully aware of the curious glances and bold stares and didn’t like it at all. It played too much into her insecurities, reminding her of childhood taunts.
‘That sounds distinctly like you want to back out of our deal, Piper.’ He took two flutes of champagne and handed her one, but she shook her head in refusal and instantly he sent for a more suitable drink.
‘I’m not backing out of anything,’ she said with a smile on her lips and a sweetness in her voice that she hoped would convey her annoyance. ‘I’m going through with this deal for the right reason.’
‘Which is...?’
How could he even ask that?
She paused as a waiter approached with a single glass of juice on a silver tray. Dante took it with thanks and handed it to her.
She looked straight into those sinfully dark eyes. ‘Our child.’
‘And I am not?’ How could he boldly stand there and say that when he’d been the one to make such a deal?
‘No, you are doing this for a business deal—although you’d like everyone to think it’s for a charitable reason. But if there is one thing I know about you now, it is that you couldn’t possibly want to marry—even for your child. Everything I read about you in Celebrity Spy! is true. So far I have found nothing to make me think otherwise.’
‘At least you are well informed about me, whereas I know very little of you.’
She bristled as the conversation turned in a way she hadn’t expected. ‘There isn’t much to tell.’
‘I’d like to know why you were the hostess at that dinner party in London—“stepping in”, I think you called it. What exactly is your profession?’
She tried to suppress the urge to shock him, but it was too great. ‘I’m just a waitress.’ It wasn’t her choice of job—wasn’t what she’d hoped for as she’d started university in Australia—but circumstances had conspired against her.
She watched as he clenched his jaw and a surge of triumph rushed through her. He had certainly never envisaged marriage and fatherhood, and she was completely sure that if he had he wouldn’t have wanted his wife to be a mere waitress.
‘And that is enough for you?’
‘It’s had to be,’ she said, without realising she was opening the door to a discussion about herself she’d rather not have. She didn’t want to talk about her beloved father, about the emptiness in her life where he had been. She was an ordinary girl—but to her father she’d been a princess, and he’d been the most important person in her life.
Thankfully at that very moment other guests joined them, and after that there wasn’t much chance to talk—at least not about anything private, and especially not her past, nor the events which had changed her life. That was something she had no wish to share with a man incapable of any kind of emotion. He would never understand.
* * *
Dante unlocked the door to his apartment and for the first time since he’d been relegated to the small room which usually served as his home office he was glad of it. At least there he would be away from the temptation to kiss Piper, because after spending the evening being tormented by her body in the bronze creation Elizabeth had selected he was in danger of giving in to the lustful desire which pumped through him.
Never before had he had to restrain himself. He always got what he wanted, be it women or fast cars. Holding back was not a comfortable sensation, and he didn’t know how long he could go on being tempted so enticingly by her without acting on it.
‘Piper...’ He spoke softly as she placed her purse on the antique table in the living area. He wanted to tell her again how lovely she looked, and how much he wanted her, but instead decided that keeping to the terms of their agreement was better—for both of them. He couldn’t allow himself to care, knowing she would one day walk away. Just as she had done the night after his baby had been conceived.
She looked at him, her big green eyes full of uncertainty, and when she bit her lower lip he clenched his hands into fists at his sides. Now was not the time to remember how those lips had felt beneath his just hours earlier, how they’d responded so willingly. Nor was it the time to remember that if they had been here instead of in the car when he’d kissed her they would never have left for the dinner party.
‘Is something wrong?’ she asked tentatively.
Everything was wrong. He was falling under a spell he was beginning to think she had no idea she was casting. She seemed oblivious to what she did to him. Tonight he’d seen her smile and laugh with people she didn’t know, seen them warm to her in a way which had made pride fill him as she visibly blossomed.
‘I just wanted to say you made a good impression this evening. Thank you.’
‘I did it for my baby.’
She flung the words at him instantly and he bit back his retort. It was late, and now was not the time to be getting embroiled in a discussion he didn’t want, no matter what the time of day. The way she’d said my baby cut deep into his hardened emotions, more painfully than he’d thought possible.
‘Tomorrow we will be leaving for Tuscany, where you will do it all again—this time for me and my deal.’
PIPER SAT IN the sports car as it sped along the road towards Tuscany, glad that the threat of morning sickness she’d experienced earlier in the week seemed to have dwindled. Beside her