‘And what do you intend to do with it?’
‘No idea. I wanted to be a teacher, but...’ Her nose wrinkled. ‘I don’t think I could cope with back-chatting teenagers and all the politics. I have lost any tolerance I ever had for twaddle.’
‘What was the reason for that?’
‘All the rubbish I had to go through with Finn. You know he was born prematurely? Well, they had to deliver him by emergency Caesarean section. Orla was in a coma for three weeks and under sedation for around another month after that—she had massive brain trauma. She also had broken ribs, a broken arm and damage to her spinal cord, so she was stuck in hospital for half a year, then had to go to a rehabilitation place for another year on top of that. Obviously she was in no position to care for Finn, so I had to step up and be his guardian, which was not an easy thing.’
Was this where she revealed herself to be not quite as saintlike towards her family as he’d assumed? ‘Because you had to give up your life?’
‘No, no, because there was resistance from the authorities. I tried to get power of attorney to act for both of them but it was a nightmare. They saw this young twenty-one-year-old and thought there was no way I should be given temporary custody of a premature baby or control over my sister’s finances and I had to fight them tooth and nail for it. They wanted to make Finn a ward of court.’
She waved her slice of pizza in the air as she spoke, her indignation ripe. ‘A ward of court! When I was there with him in that unit all the time. Three months I slept in that hospital and they wouldn’t even let me name him! When Orla finally came round she was compos mentis enough to give her authority for me to be in charge of everything, but they still didn’t make things easy. Honestly, the pointless bureaucracy was enough to make you weep. Whatever career I end up doing, I want it to be nothing that involves any kind of government body and nothing that involves any kind of officious stuff.’
Dante swallowed his bite of pizza down a throat that didn’t want to cooperate.
He needed to learn all he could about Aislin before the wedding but this was all the stuff he didn’t want to know and he didn’t have the faintest notion why guilt weighed heavily in his chest.
When all this had been going on, he hadn’t known the O’Reillys existed.
‘Where was Finn’s father in all this?’
‘Now, there’s the question.’ She leaned forward as if exchanging a confidence. ‘I don’t know who the father is. Orla refused to say. She had some memory problems after the accident and now says she can’t remember.’
He looked at her astutely. ‘You don’t believe her?’
‘Not in the slightest. I think her memory has holes in it, but on this I’m sure she’s lying, and if you ever tell her I said that I will ram a whole pizza in your mouth as punishment.’
‘Are you making a threat of violence against me?’ he asked, amusement bubbling so hard inside him it dampened the bile and guilt that had built up.
He wanted to ask where her mother had been during all this but held back. He didn’t want to know anything about his father’s old mistress and it disturbed him to think his father must have felt many of the same physical feelings towards her that Dante was feeling towards Aislin.
Dio, he couldn’t rid himself of these damn feelings. Unfiltered and amusing, her voice flew down his ears and danced into his already aroused senses.
Lips twitching as she looked him right in the eye, she helped herself to another slice, lifted it to her mouth and took an enormous bite.
He suppressed a groan.
Aislin wasn’t trying to be provocative, he recognised that much, but...
How was he supposed to concentrate away from images of making love to her in every way imaginable when he found her every movement erotic, and when every passing minute spent with her increased the ache in his loins and the heat in his veins?
And how was he supposed to take her back to his home and spend two nights alone with her under the same roof? He couldn’t even rely on his staff to act as chaperones, banished as they all were to their own apartments on the ground floor, leaving him with his valued privacy...
But he could enforce some changes to their working conditions for the next few days and keep them visible.
His lungs expanded and his next e
xhale released easily.
That was the way to play things. They could continue getting to know each other well enough to fool Riccardo D’Amore that they were a couple in love but always with the safety of people around them.
If he played things well enough, he would not have to be alone with her again until the time came for them to part ways.
CHAPTER SIX
WHEN AISLIN RETURNED with Dante to his home much later that afternoon, she was surprised to find an abundance of informally dressed staff out in force cleaning the already spotless house.
‘Let us have a drink on the roof terrace while dinner is prepared for us,’ he said as they strolled through one of the living rooms.