‘Is your apartment here?’ Beth asked, turning to Dante, sure he was the type to have a super deluxe apartment in the city centre.
‘No, I have an apartment on the top floor of the Cannavaro building. But it is more like an extension of my office than a home. I thought you would prefer a hotel so I booked a suite here for two nights.’
Beth was even more amazed, and slightly intimidated as she looked around the elegant sitting room. She glanced at Dante as he handed the porter some money and then turned to walk towards her, and she had the oddest notion that the distinctive, self-assured Dante was not as calm as he appeared.
‘You should be comfortable here, Beth. There is an excellent spa and beauty salon, a boutique—everything you could want. And as it is unlucky for the bride to see the groom the night before the wedding, and we need all the luck we can get,’ he said dryly. ‘I’ll leave you to rest and relax. Enjoy the facilities—buy whatever you like. I’ll call you tonight to make sure you have everything you need and be back at three tomorrow afternoon to pick you up. The ceremony is at four. Now, order some lunch. I’ll see you later.’
Beth watched him walk out through the door, leaving her alone at last. Why did she feel deserted? She dismissed the disturbing thought and prowled around the suite, discovering a bathroom and another room that contained a huge widescreen TV. But there was only one bedroom. Big and beautifully proportioned, with two arched windows and the biggest bed she had ever seen set between them. There was a walk-in closet, and the en-suite bathroom had a double shower, his and hers vanity basins, and a bath wide and deep enough to accommodate two people even as big as Dante.
Ordering a light lunch, she sat down to enjoy the meal. After she had finished eating she thought she would make the most of what was on offer and ordered a spa treatment for eleven the next morning. Then she unpacked and lay down on the bed to rest, the photo of her baby in her hand. This miraculous baby was why she was here, and she would marry the devil himself to keep her child. Her only problem was that she no longer thought of Dante as a devil.... The nightmares of a man in black no longer haunted her. Instead, erotic and sometimes stupidly romantic dreams of a happy-ever-after with Dante had taken their place, and that was what worried her most.
After a stroll around the hotel and gardens she returned to the suite to have a delicious dinner and a surprisingly good night’s sleep.
The following afternoon, having been waxed and polished, with her hair styled and her make-up applied to perfection, Beth finally put on the winter-white suit and matching camisole Dante had bought for her in Milan. She slipped her feet into high-heeled shoes, courtesy of the hotel boutique, and walked into the sitting room just as Dante appeared.
‘You are ready—good. Let’s go and get this over with.’
Beth simply nodded, because the sight of him had taken her breath away. He looked tall and effortlessly elegant in a silver-grey designer suit with a tie shaded in grey, a white silk shirt and the glint of platinum cufflinks. His black hair was brushed back from his brow, his handsome face stern. Lethally attractive, Dante exuded sophistication and innate masculine power—and very soon he would be her husband. The reality terrified her, but if she was brutally honest it also thrilled her, and she had trouble tearing her gaze away.
Half an hour later, intensely conscious of Dante at her side, Beth glanced around the wood-panelled room in the town hall. In her childhood dreams, before real life had caught up with her, she had pictured her wedding as a fairy-tale affair—nothing like this. The suit she wore with its silver trim was as close to bridal as she was ever going to get.
Beth glanced at the celebrant. The man conducted the service in Italian and English, but the ceremony had to be one of the briefest on record.
‘You may kiss the bride.’
The words jolted her out of her musings.
She looked up into Dante’s eyes as his arms wrapped around her and his lips touched hers, firm and warm and tender. Her hands went to his chest and she felt the beat of his heart bene
ath her palm as his tongue slipped between her parted lips and found hers. Involuntarily she responded, her body softening against him.
The celebrant cleared his throat and said something to Dante, and his arms tightened around her before reluctantly easing her away.
A camera flashed and Beth blinked.
‘Smile, please,’ Dante instructed, tucking her arm through his. ‘This one is for the baby,’ he said, placing a gentle hand on her stomach. ‘Every child wants to see a picture of their happy parents on their wedding day—even when the marriage no longer exists.’
‘So that is the reason you insisted on buying this suit?’ she said, surprised by his forward-thinking.
‘Even an autocratic lawyer can have flashes of inspiration sometimes,’ he said drolly, and then tugged her arm through his and led her out of the building and into the waiting car.
Back at the hotel, she could not look at him as they ascended the stairs to the first-floor suite. Her panic was mounting with every step as the enormity of what she had done filled her mind. She was married and pregnant and in a few minutes she would be alone with Dante. Her stomach knotted with nerves.
When they reached the suite, Beth’s mouth fell open in shock. The elegant suite had been transformed into something incredibly romantic, with dozens of red roses in vases, others in exquisite arrangements, and candles scattered all around. Champagne stood on ice on a silver stand, and next to it was a table exquisitely set for two, with a single red rose in a silver flute as a centrepiece.
‘I can’t believe this,’ Beth said, and Dante reached for her, his hands clasping her waist, drawing her nearer. She felt her body flush with warmth and her pulse quicken.
‘Would you believe I’m a romantic at heart? I believe every bride deserves a bridal suite on her wedding night.’ He grinned.
Seeing Beth in the hospital had caused a seismic shift in Dante’s thinking. For years he had considered her beneath contempt as a drug dealer and the type of immoral woman who would play on her beauty to entrap men for her personal benefit. But when he had seen the scan of their child inside her an emotion he had never experienced before had overwhelmed him. From that moment on he had looked at her in a new way—a different way.
He had sat in the car pretending to work, his mind spinning, and realised she would feel trapped in his apartment, twelve floors up in an elevator. Hurriedly he had booked the hotel. Later he hadn’t been able to get out of the suite quickly enough. He’d wanted her so fiercely, but as the mother of his child and his soon-to-be-bride she’d deserved much better than a quick coupling the night before her wedding. He had stopped at Reception as he left and given strict instructions that she was to be given anything she wanted, and he’d ordered the transformation of the suite for the following afternoon.
Beth looked at Dante, stunned he had bothered. His hand lifted to curl a strand of hair behind her ear, the other slipping behind her to press in the small of her back and hold her close. The brush of his hard male body against her stomach sent heat from low in her pelvis pounding through her veins. Her eyes lifted to the chiselled lips, the sensual mouth. It was impossible to ignore the way her body reacted to his.
But Beth tried. ‘No, I wouldn’t believe it,’ she said, in a last-ditch attempt to deny the fatal attraction Dante held for her.
Her gaze lifted to his dark long-lashed eyes and she felt herself drowning in the glittering depths. She had thought she hated Dante for so many years, but now she wanted him with a hunger and a need for physical contact that she could not control. She raised her hands to his chest....