Challenging Dante (A Bride for a Billionaire 4)

‘I know. He’s still hoping his ex’s marriage breaks down, so that he can get her back,’ Dante confided with a sardonic twist of his mouth.

They walked back into the castle. There was nobody about. ‘I’m going to get changed,’ Topsy murmured.

Dante scooped her up into his arms on the first landing and carried her up the next flight. ‘We’ll sleep in my room tonight.’

‘But I didn’t say.’

‘I’m so hungry for you, bella mia. I didn’t know two days could seem so long,’ Dante groaned into her hair, the ache in his voice stirring something tender within her.

He settled her down on his huge four-poster bed and she kicked off her shoes, reflecting that it was only a week since he had brought her there and she had walked out again, determined not to succumb. What had happened to that resolve, the strength of her original resistance? Already that night seemed like a lifetime ago. Dante lifted the house phone to order champagne.

‘I don’t need another drink,’ she told him wryly. ‘I only meant that I was enjoying getting out and having some company.’

‘I’m company,’ Dante told her very seriously as he took off his jacket, jerked loose his tie and embarked on his shirt buttons.

‘No, you’re my lover...that’s different,’ Topsy contended. ‘Gaetano and I are friends.’

‘And what are we?’

‘Chance acquaintances having sex,’ Topsy said a little painfully. ‘We fell into this.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with that,’ Dante reasoned, flipping her round to run down the zip on her dress. ‘Pre-planning can make life boring.’

‘Funnily enough, I would have said that you plan everything right down to the last detail.’

For a split second, Dante hesitated as he lifted her dress off over her head, his attention dwelling on the glorious swell of her breasts seguing down into her impossibly tiny waist and the voluptuous curve of her bottom. She was right: he usually did plan every move he made. But he hadn’t planned on her. He was willing to admit that she was an anomaly in his life and didn’t fit the usual mould but he wasn’t yet ready to finish the affair. It would end when boredom set in as it always did and when his desire for her no longer drove him.

He caught her to him with impatient hands and his mouth burned on hers. Tasting him, savouring him, she shuddered as he unfastened her bra and stroked her achingly tender nipples. She hadn’t expected the evening to end like this but she wanted him, needed him in a way she had never imagined she would ever need anyone and, even though that was scary, she could not deny herself the incredible exhilaration of being with him again. She pulled off his shirt, her hands relearning the hard masculine contours of his hair-roughened chest, trailing down to cup and tease his urgent erection, already imagining what it would feel like to have him inside her again.

‘I never want to wait with you, bella mia,’ Dante grated hungrily against her mouth, nipping at her full lower lip, making her whimper as he skated a fingertip across the damp silk of her knickers. ‘And I don’t believe you want to wait either.’

Topsy was trembling with desire, desperate for the passion he unleashed so naturally in her. Suddenly he was kissing her with the driving demand that always fired up her body, sending tiny snaking thrills of wicked anticipation through her. His caresses became a little rougher, just exactly what she craved at that instant because she was every bit as impatient as he was. His teeth grazed a pouting pink nipple as he wrenched her out of her last garment and a long finger speared into her unbearably sensitive depths. She cried out, helpless in the grip of the passionate need he had awakened.

He grabbed a condom, made use of it and flipped her over onto her stomach, startling her. He pulled up her hips and thrust into her lush damp heat with exquisite force. He swore then in his own language. ‘Did I hurt you?’

‘Don’t you dare stop!’ she gasped, breathless with delight. Don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop—it was like an unquenchable chant inside her head. Every nerve in her body responded to every plunge of his. Her inner muscles clenched around him, wild heat gathering at her core as he used his hand to stroke the most sensitive spot of all.

‘Not going to stop,’ he groaned, nipping at her shoulder with his teeth. ‘I dreamt of doing this all night, having you over and over again until neither of us can move.’

His pagan rhythm filled her with excitement. Breathing was a challenge when the waves of pleasure were gathering intensity in her pelvis and her heart was hammering at an insane rate. As her body was overpowered by the wild convulsions of orgasm he gave a shout of completion and drove deep one last time. She writhed under him, her body flailing out of control as she reached her peak and lost herself in the exquisite ripples of pleasure.

‘You were so worth waiting for,’ Dante breathed with hoarse emphasis against her cheek as he held her close afterwards.

She tensed as a knock sounded on the door. ‘That’ll be the champagne.’

He vaulted off the bed, pulled up his trousers and zipped them. Shaken, she watched him, wanting him back in her arms again, struggling not to be embarrassed or ashamed that he hadn’t even got completely undressed. The sweet spasms of her fully pleasured body were still quivering through her when he passed her a glass of champagne.

‘What are we drinking to?’ she whispered.

Shimmering green eyes rested on her. Her hair was wildly tumbled round her heart-shaped face, her luscious pink mouth slightly parted, one pouting breast on display, her creamy thighs exposed. His body hardened again and he gave her a shimmering brilliant smile. ‘You look amazing. We’re drinking to all the pleasure we can handle, bella mia.’

She reached out a hand and closed it over his. ‘No, we won’t be that selfish. We’ll drink to staging a very, very successful fund-raiser tomorrow night,’ she contradicted gently.

CHAPTER NINE

LATE AFTERNOON THE next day, Topsy was dealing with the reporters and photographers who had arrived to cover the ball and the many celebrities expected to attend.

‘You’re part of the household,’ one of the women remarked thoughtfully, a redhead with a choppy haircut and bright dark eyes. ‘Any titbits to offer on La Principessa and the Conte?’

‘Yes, their romance is hot news right now,’ another woman chimed in, looking hopeful.

‘La Principessa? Sorry, I don’t know who you’re talking about,’ Topsy admitted, knowing that there had been no princess listed among the guests that she could recall.

‘Cosima Ruffini,’ the redhead extended.

‘I didn’t know she was a princess.’

‘A princess and a count.

Those two go together like salt and pepper. We were hoping there’d be an engagement tonight. It would be a great time to make the announcement.’

‘Er...Mr Leonetti and the princess are dating?’ Topsy prompted tightly, an odd whirring sound in her ears as though she had suddenly become light-headed, a surge of perspiration dampening her skin.

The redhead raised her brows. ‘Dio mio, you are out of touch and I can see you aren’t going to be much help in the gossip department.’

‘Dante and Cosima have been seeing each other for weeks,’ the other woman informed her with visible impatience. ‘In fact right now they’re society’s hottest new couple and we can’t wait to see their outfits.’

Slowly and very painfully, Topsy could feel her facial muscles freezing while her stomach performed a sickening flip. At first she couldn’t credit the enormity of the betrayal, could not bring herself to believe that Dante could possibly have done that to her but her companions were already exchanging chatter that made it clear that Dante and Cosima were in an acknowledged relationship, not one suggested by rumour alone. Shock hit Topsy as hard as an unexpected blow to the back of her skull and she felt horribly ill and exposed. Clearly, Dante had been seeing another woman before Topsy even met him and he had had a fling with Topsy behind his girlfriend’s back. Her sense of betrayal, guilt and hurt was so intense it felt like a knife blade sinking into her heart.

‘Excuse me for a moment,’ she muttered, even her voice fading as she sped off for the cloakroom and a much-needed moment of breathing space in which to collect her chaotic thoughts. In truth she wanted to run out of the castle front door and keep on running but that option was not open. Not only was it her responsibility to ensure that the ball ran smoothly, but she also had her pride. It might be battered but no way was she running away with her tail between her legs because a man had treated her badly! She would see out this nightmare evening to the finish and depart with dignity.

When she emerged again, the photographers were already busily at work in the huge hall. A tall and very beautiful blonde clad in a very full turquoise satin and lace ensemble was regally posing, and even as Topsy hovered behind the crush surrounding the other woman Dante came downstairs and Topsy did not have to look hard to see the proof that her worst imaginings were true because the blonde and Dante were a matching pair, outfits co-ordinated in colour, fabric and design, something which must have been organised weeks earlier when the outfits were chosen. Dante was dressed up like Louis XIV, the French Sun King, and Cosima as one of his mistresses. Topsy searched his devastatingly handsome face, noting the tension etched there as Cosima rested a hand on his arm and leant closer to speak to him. You bastard, she thought in indescribable pain as the couple posed for pictures and Cosima made the most of the attention.