Summer Sins

Relief flooded her, even as something very contradictory and ugly raised its head in the pit of her belly. ‘You mean, you agree? That is, you’re not going to deny that you’re the father any more?’

He shook his head abruptly, irritation flashing across his face. He could practically see the pound signs in her devious eyes. ‘No. That’s where you’re still wrong. There is no doubt in my mind that I am not the father of your sister’s baby. That is if she is even pregnant.’

Alicia bristled, incensed that he could still be denying it. ‘Of course she’s pregnant; she has a bump for crying out loud. She is not a liar. You are the father. She specifically told me—’

He swiped his hand again. ‘If she did then she’s lying. This conversation is boring me. Let’s go.’

He turned and walked from the room. Alicia grabbed her bag before rushing after him. ‘I told you, she is not a liar, Mr D’Aquanni—’

He stopped at the top of the stairs and Alicia cannoned into his back. He turned and gripped her arms, holding her steady when she reeled slightly from coming into contact with his hard, muscle-packed form.

‘Enough! I don’t want to hear another word about this ridiculous claim. A helicopter will take us to the landing strip in Milan.’ He let her go abruptly, as if fearful of catching something from her, and perversely Alicia was stung and at the same time bemused. She’d come for this, had wanted to force him to return and face the music, but now she couldn’t quite believe it was happening.

‘You … you’re going to take me?’

An arctic glance slid up and down her body. ‘With a one-way ticket here and barely enough money for a meal, not to mention a credit card I can only imagine is already maxed out, I don’t imagine you’d get very far in a hurry.’ And this has to be cleared up.

He walked away from her down the wide stairs, a harsh inflection in his voice as it floated back up. ‘You and your sister picked the wrong man to play games with, Miss Parker. I am not going to entertain any further discussion about this baby. I will not be held to ransom by some half-baked accusation of parenthood.’ He turned and looked up darkly from the bottom of the stairs. ‘And you are not going to leave my sight until this is concluded to my satisfaction. You will pay for having so sorely tested my patience.’

Alicia stood still for a moment when he turned and walked away and then thought a little hysterically that at least she wouldn’t have to worry about how she was going to get home. He was right. With only a questionable amount of credit left on her card, she really hadn’t even thought that far ahead, to her return. Her driving concern had been to see Dante D’Aquanni.

And now she had. As she followed him down the stairs she felt very queasily as if she were on a train and they had just changed track for some unknown and very scary destination. And she knew, with that sick feeling, that there was no way she could call a halt and get off.

Dante glanced across the aisle of his plane. The woman’s face was averted, her body tense and huddled into the seat, which seemed to dwarf her petite form. She was staring out of the window at the white expanse of cloud as if it contained some fascinating image that he couldn’t see. He wanted to go over, haul her out of the seat and demand payment for disrupting his life, making him trek all the way back to England, which had laid claim to him for almost a year previously. Make her pay—how? asked a snide voice as an unwelcome image of her crushed into his arms, her head falling back, throat and mouth bared for his kisses, inserted itself like a lurid B movie image into his imagination.

His face hardened. She’d been silent since leaving the house. She’d shown no awe or surprise at the experience of being taken by helicopter to the private landing strip of a tiny airport reserved only for VIPs and dignitaries. When they had been in the helicopter she had not even needed to be told what to do, what safety procedures to follow. She’d done them automatically.

So she was accustomed to the luxury that private helicopter travel afforded. While it didn’t gel immediately with the downbeat image she portrayed—he could vaguely remember jeans and another shapeless dark top in London, her hair tied back—he had to concede that she’d quickly smashed his first impressions. She’d proven that, with just soap and water; a lily had lain underneath all the grime and dust, under the voluminous garments. His chest tightened at the thought of how much a little more gilding might make her even more alluring. How the silk of a custom-made dress would skim and cling enticingly to those slight curves.

Alicia turned her head as though compelled and found Dante looking at her with an intense expression on his face. It made more than a quiver of awareness run through her. It made her heart flip and thump unevenly.

He settled back into his seat and regarded her coolly. She couldn’t look away and she felt a flush come up under her skin.

Contradicting his own avowal not to mention it, he asked, ‘Tell me why you are so certain that I am the father of your sister’s baby.’

Alicia fought to stay calm. She couldn’t believe he was being so obtuse, and then she felt slightly sick. Perhaps the man did have so many lovers that he literally didn’t know one from the other. And yet … he seemed far too discriminating for that kind of behaviour which led her again to wonder what he had seen in Melanie.

‘Because,’ she bit out, ‘she told me and I trust her. She’s my sister.’ Something made her defiant then. ‘You’re not making this trip for the good of your health so you obviously believe me, even if you say you don’t.’

His jaw clenched and he leant forward slightly, even though a few feet separated them. Alicia leant back into her seat. ‘What did she say exactly?’

Alicia took a calming breath. ‘I asked her who had done this to her. She said you, how she’d been on her way to try and see you when the accident happened … how you’d sent her away. I knew she was seeing someone from work, I just had no idea it was you.’

He frowned slightly. ‘To the best of my knowledge, she was still working for me.’

‘Yes … but she obviously meant you sent her away from her association with you. She was still feverish, in shock. She’d just suffered a major accident.’ Alicia could feel the shock setting in again.

Dante shook his head incredulously as something became very clear to him. He cursed himself for not having seen it before. ‘Your sister would know that the merger is coming up. She knows how vulnerable I am to public scandal at this moment …’ He shook his head. ‘I know exactly what you and she are up to now.’

Alicia leant forward again, her hands clenched, her eyes bright. ‘Signore D’Aquanni, right now she is fighting for her life, she’s not up to anything beyond that. And as for me, do you really think I’ve nothing better to do than chase around Europe trying to get some holier-than-thou autocratic billionaire playboy to speak to me?’

He looked at her coolly and then said, ‘You can drop the act now, it’s unnecessary.’ He turned away from her, making her insides boil over with fury.

She undid her belt and stood up from the seat, her face pink with rage. His calculating dismissive look had driven her blood pressure even higher. As if he knew something she didn’t. He looked back up at her as she planted herself in front of him, hands on hips.

‘You really are unbelievable. Do you th

ink you’re so untouchable that you can treat people like things? Like …’ she flung her hand out ‘… toys to be played with and then discarded when you’re bored? You might have grown up getting your own way, but that’s not how—’