Her mother walked off and Dante put his untouched drink onto a table, walking through the growing dusk until he was standing in front of her. He watched as her expression underwent a series of changes. He saw shyness as well as that now-familiar wariness in her eyes, but he saw desire too—and that desire lit something inside him and made him want to touch her again.
‘Dance with me,’ he said.
With a quick bite of her lip, she shook her head. ‘I’d better not. I have masses of things I need to do.’
‘It wasn’t a question, Willow,’ he said, pulling her into his arms. ‘It was a command and I won’t tolerate anyone who disobeys my commands.’
‘That’s an outrageous thing to say.’
‘So outrageous it’s made you shiver with desire?’
‘I’m not.’
‘Yes, you are.’ Pulling her against his body, he breathed in the scent of flowers which made him long to remove that fussy dress and have her naked in his arms. He’d had enough of behaving like a teenager—only getting so far before another of her damned sisters interrupted them. He slid his hand over her ribcage, his heart thundering as his fingertips stroked the slippery satin. ‘So how long does this damned wedding go on for?’
‘Oh, ages,’ she said, but the sudden breathlessness in her voice coincided with his thumb casually beginning to circle the area beneath her breast. ‘We haven’t even had the speeches yet.’
‘That’s what’s worrying me,’ he said, swinging her round and thinking how slight she was. He remembered how feather-light she’d felt when he’d carried her over to that ridiculously tiny bed and he wished he was on that bed right now with his mouth on her breast and his fingers between her legs. ‘I don’t know how much longer I can wait,’ he said huskily.
‘Wait?’ She drew her head back and it was as if she had suddenly recognised her power over him, because her grey eyes were dancing with mischief. ‘Yes, I suppose you must be hungry. Well, don’t worry—supper won’t be long. Just as soon as my father and the best man have spoken.’
In answer, he pressed his hardness against her with a sudden calculated stamp of sexual mastery and watched as her pupils dilated in response. ‘I want you,’ he said, very deliberately. ‘And I’m tempted to take you by the hand and get us lost in these enormous grounds. I’d like to find somewhere sheltered, like the shade of a big tree, so that I could explore what you’re wearing underneath that monstrosity of a dress. I’d like to make you come very quickly. In fact, I think I could make myself come right now, just by thinking about it.’
‘Dante!’
‘Yes, Willow?’
She drew away from him, trembling slightly, and once again he was confused, because wasn’t she just a mass of contradictions? One minute she was so hot that he almost scorched his fingers when he touched her—and the next she was looking up at him with reproachful grey eyes, like some delicate flower he was in danger of crushing beneath the full force of his desire. And that was how her family treated her, wasn’t it? Like she couldn’t be trusted to make her own judgements and look after herself.
‘You’re very...’
‘Very what?’ He stalled her sentence with the brush of his lips against her cheek and felt her shiver again.
‘D-demanding,’ she managed.
‘Don’t you like me being demanding?’
Willow closed her eyes as he tightened his arms around her, distracted by the heat of his body and acutely aware that they were being watched. Of course they were being watched. Dante Di Sione was easily the most watchable man here—and hadn’t that been one of the reasons she’d demanded his company? To show people that she was capable of attracting such a man? But suddenly it felt like much more than just pretending to be his lover; she wanted to be his lover. She wanted it to be real. She wanted to be like everyone else, but she couldn’t. So she was just going to have to make the best of what she was capable of, wasn’t she?
‘Yes,’ she whispered. ‘I like it very much. It’s just not very appropriate right now. We’re in the middle of a crowd of people and there are things I’m supposed to be doing.’
‘Like what?’
‘Checking that everyone’s got a drink so they can make a toast once the speeches start. And introducing people who don’t know each other—that sort of thing.’
‘All this hanging around and waiting is very dull,’ he observed.
‘Then circulate,’ she said lightly. ‘That’s what people do.’
‘I’ve done nothing but circulate,’ he growled. ‘I think I’ll go crazy if I have to endure yet another society matron trying to calculate what my net worth is.’
She tilted her head back and studied him. ‘So how do you usually cope with weddings?’
‘By avoiding them whenever possible.’
‘But you were unable to avoid this one?’
‘It seems I was.’