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New Arrivals: One Secret Child: Mistress, Mother...Wife? / Wealthy Australian, Secret Son / Her Prince's Secret Son

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2019
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He studied her gravely. ‘My word is my bond.’

‘I suppose I could do with a holiday. And, like you say…it will give you and Tia a chance to get to know each other a bit more.’

‘And as for not speaking the language…I will make it my personal mission to teach you,’ Dante promised. ‘I will have you speaking like a native Italian before you know it! Tia too.’

‘It’s getting dark.’ Nervously Anna glanced up at the swiftly fading evening light, evident through the room’s high windows. At the same time she heard the lilting song of a lone blackbird. For some reason it made her feel a little melancholy. ‘I ought to turn on the lamps.’

‘Don’t.’ The command in Dante’s tone gave her a jolt.

‘It’s gloomy…I’d like some light in here.’

‘You’re uncomfortable with the dark? There’s no need when I am right here beside you, Anna. I would never let anything or anyone hurt you.’

His heated glance was in earnest, she saw. Instantly a swarm of butterflies fluttered wildly inside her.

‘Yes, but I still want to… I still need some…some light.’

As she made to move, Dante slid his hand round to the back of her head, to bring her face slowly but inexorably towards his. The last thing she registered was his hot, languorous gaze before his mouth fell on hers to ravish it without restraint, his warm velvet tongue gliding and coiling sensually with hers, his breathing a grated rasp as the shadow of his beard scraped her chin.

A sea of honey lapped inside Anna. It was as though she’d been left languishing in a cold dark cave for five long years and now at last she was wildly, deliriously free again—free to breathe in pure heady oxygen and be deluged in light. The pleasure and joy that soared inside her was untrammelled as her hands pushed through the silky strands of Dante’s fair hair to anchor his head as he anchored hers, all the better for their lips to meld and sup as though their hunger would never be assuaged. Not in this lifetime…

‘No… Not—not here.’ She gulped down a shaky breath as his hands tugged at the zip fastener on her dress. ‘My bedroom.’

They didn’t let each other go as they entered the dim, cool enclave of Anna’s room. It seemed essential to keep touching, to keep holding on in case some nightmare schism should cut through their longing and keep them apart for ever.

With the heel of his Italian loafer Dante shut the door behind them. He shucked off his footwear just before falling onto the bed with her, somehow manoeuvring her on top of him as he kissed her senseless. The zipper on her linen dress was skilfully undone, the sleeves tugged urgently down over her shoulders. With dreamlike effort Anna helped Dante remove it completely, then she was astride his hard lean hips again, bending her head to give and receive drugging, passionate kisses that made her head spin and her heart gallop. Her long waving hair was a protective shield that kept the world from intruding as it drifted sensually over them both.

Cupping his face as she leant forward, Anna marvelled at the strong, chiselled contours, at the sublime slopes and plains that denoted his fascinating masculine features. But it was the vulnerable, naked look of utter longing in his eyes that undid her. Stilling in shock, she hardly registered breathing.

‘I thought perhaps I’d dreamt wanting you this much…but now I see that I didn’t. Or if I did the dream was just a tantalising glimpse of the incredible reality that is you, Anna.’

Finding no words that could adequately describe the force of what she was feeling, Anna began to slide the buttons through the buttonholes of his fine cotton shirt with trembling fingers. When the smooth, tanned musculature underneath, with its dusting of hair, was exposed to her, she pushed the material aside, sliding her hands over the flat male nipples and taut ribcage to explore him, to feel the throb of his heartbeat beneath her palm. She was thrilled to realise that it beat with desire for her. Lowering her head, she pressed her lips to Dante’s deliciously warm skin.

She was following the trail of silky dark blond hair towards his belly button when he made a low, husky sound, slid his hands beneath her hair and urged her eagerly upwards again. The next thing she knew he was helping remove the scrap of plain white silk that denoted her panties and sliding down his zipper.

When he placed himself at the soft moist centre of Anna’s core, easing his way inside her and then plunging upwards, she threw back her head with a whimper. The very notion of pleasure broke all its bounds. It hardly seemed an adequate description for the utterly consuming sensations that effervesced through her body. Not since she’d surrendered her innocence to Dante five years ago had such violent waves of ecstatic bliss been hers. This was the completeness she’d longed for—the deep connection her soul had ached to experience again. The one primal force that could drive away all melancholy and doubt.

The feeling brought it unerringly home to her why she had never wanted another man since that first time with him…why she had resigned herself to being alone for ever—because no man could possibly come close to making her feel what Dante made her feel.

Utterly losing himself in their wild, urgent coupling, Dante buried himself so deep inside her dizzying heat that he swore he would melt. Expertly opening the catch on her bra, he quickly discarded the garment to fill his palms with her perfect satin-tipped breasts, stroking his thumbs across the tender nipples. Gazing up into Anna’s lovely face he saw the stunning crown of burnished hair that rippled river-like down over her pale smooth skin and knew there wasn’t another woman in the world to match her for beauty and grace. Or who could crack the frozen ice round his heart.

He should have searched for her long before this… why hadn’t he? Unbelievable that he’d let his fear of rejection keep him from the one woman who’d selflessly given herself to him all that time ago when he was most in need.

With urgency and passion Dante’s fingers bit into the soft flesh of Anna’s svelte hips, holding her to him as if he could never let her go. A long soft moan followed by her ragged breathing feathered over him as she climaxed, and suddenly he couldn’t hold back the tide that lapped forcefully at the shores of his own longing, and had no choice but to let it completely sweep him away.

‘Come here.’ He helped her lie across his chest, then wrapped his arms around her. It was a new experience for him to hold a woman like this after making love. Not just to appease her, but simply for the sheer joy of being close—to sense the beat of her heart slowly but surely aligning with his. When they finally came to live together he would enjoy that pleasure every single day he realised. Weaving his fingers through her long flowing hair Dante kissed the top of Anna’s head.

She stirred, raising her face to his. ‘That was rather wonderful. But now I feel absolutely incapable of doing anything else.’ She smiled.

‘And exactly what did you have planned for the rest of the evening that our enjoyment of each other has interrupted, innamorata?’

Her smile didn’t fade. Instead it grew impish, just like their daughter’s. ‘Well…for starters I’ve got a pile of ironing to do.’

‘And this is essential?’

‘It might not be.’ Her voice lowered seductively, and renewed desire—swift and hot as a lava-flow—made Dante bite back a groan. ‘It depends what distractions are on offer as an alternative.’

‘You’ve become a shameless temptress in my absence, I see.’ In one swiftly deft move Dante took hold of Anna’s arms, moved her to the side of him, then captured her beneath him. The laughter in her pretty eyes instantly died. ‘As long as you haven’t been practising your seductive arts on some other poor defenceless male, I won’t complain.’

She looked stricken for a moment. ‘I swear to you I haven’t.’

The tension that had suddenly gripped him at the idea of Anna being with someone else eased.

‘Then is this the kind of distraction you were looking for, hmm? ‘ he enquired huskily as he firmly parted her thighs and once again hungrily joined his body to hers.

‘Is that an aria by Puccini you’re whistling, Anna?’ Pausing in his food preparation for lunch, Luigi narrowed his gaze in surprise as he studied the hotel’s slim assistant manager, who had come into the kitchen to collect the menu.

‘Yes, from Madame Butterfly. I hope you don’t think I was murdering it, or being sacrilegious or something?’

‘Not at all. I am only curious as to what has made you seem happy lately?’

She could have answered a week of nights making passionate love with the Mirabelle’s handsome new major shareholder, but of course she didn’t. Only Anita and her husband Grant knew the truth about her relationship with Dante. And they had agreed that the information would stay private until they returned from the month’s break they were all taking while the hotel was being modernised.

The idea of her and Tia travelling to Lake Como the following day with Dante was exciting, but Anna would be lying if she didn’t admit it terrified her too. Having late-night trysts with her lover was one thing, but living together? That was a whole other scenario entirely. And she would be totally on his turf, so to speak—dependent on his kindness and goodwill to see her through, when she was feeling unsure about the prospect of trusting a man long-term and fearing he might want to control her.

But then he had given her his promise that he wouldn’t try and push her into anything she wasn’t ready for, she remembered.

‘I suppose I’m just happy at being able to take a whole month off to spend with Tia,’ she answered Luigi, poignantly realising it was an event that had not occurred since her daughter was a newborn baby. And if it wasn’t for Dante, it wouldn’t be happening at all.

Taking a couple of steps towards the chef, she clutched the paper with the menu written on it to her chest. ‘A little bird told me that you’re going to Provence for a French cookery course…is that true, Luigi?’

With a dismissive flourish of his hand, he sheepishly lowered his gaze. ‘Signor Romano suggested it, and is paying for me to go. If we want to get a Michelin star for the Mirabelle then of course I will do it…even if French cooking is not my subject of choice. But I am surprised that a fellow Italian can be so enthusiastic about the cooking of another nation!’

‘Mr Romano is well travelled and wise, Luigi. And being able to diversify the menu will help our lunchtime trade and maximise sales, so it’s great that you’re going to Provence.’ Anna patted his arm encouragingly. ‘You’ll love it, I’m sure.’

‘We will see.’

After a car journey to Heathrow, then a four-hour plane journey, followed by another car ride on which they took a detour for an hour to eat at a charming restaurant Dante knew, they finally arrived at his five-storey villa in Lake Como.

It was situated in prime viewing position at the lake, on a high-banked sward where the last rays of the sun played upon the surface of the water, giving it the appearance of glinting diamonds. The scent of bougainvillaea, azalea and other heady blossoms floated on the balmy Mediterranean air, rustling through Anna’s unbound hair and lightly teasing Tia’s wild corkscrew curls. Both females studied the house in its fairy-tale surroundings in silent awe. Having retrieved their luggage from the boot of the Mercedes that had been waiting for them at the airport, Dante stepped up beside Anna and slid his arm around her waist. As was becoming a habit, his touch electrified her.

‘It’s a stunningly beautiful house, Dante,’ she remarked, shyly meeting his searching blue-grey glance.

‘And it will be made even more beautiful by the presence of my two beautiful girls,’ he asserted warmly.

It totally made her melt when he said things like that. Her heart was already his, but when he let his guard down and spoke what seemed to be his true feelings out loud Anna honestly felt as if she would follow him to the ends of the earth and back, and not care what discomfort or challenges confronted her so long as she could confront them with him.

‘Is this our new house, Daddy?’ Tia piped up beside them.
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