At Her Latin Lover's Command: The Italian Count's Command / The French Count's Mistress / At the Spanish Duke's Command

‘It’s…nothing!’ she insisted huskily. ‘I’m fine!’ Shaken by her lingering desires, she stared up at him in dismay.

And, looking a little startled by her halting protest, he jerked his hands from hers, which were tingling, darn them, and that was nothing to do with the very minor marks on her palms. Because she also tingled down the entire length of her body and way, way within. Delicious. Devastating. She shifted unhappily.

‘Not hurt at all, then,’ he drawled.

‘It would take more than that to wound me,’ she retorted, hating his sarcastic tone.

‘Yes. You have a monumentally thick skin.’

‘I’d call it a determination to tough things out,’ she countered.

And, taking a deep breath, she concentrated on the reason she’d come out to the balcony: to drink in the magical view and to take a minute or two to recover her energies before she could collect Carlo and start the journey home.

As she thought of that wonderful moment, almost immediately her shoulders relaxed. And because there was nothing else to do till her son woke from his sleep, she surrendered to the enjoyment of the scene before her. Even the most uptight person would have been entranced and she was momentarily spellbound, gazing at the view in rapt silence.

‘What do you think of Lake Como?’ Dante asked, close by and strangely tense.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s stunning,’ she replied softly.

‘Quite breathtaking,’ he growled.

‘It must be a glorious view to see when you wake. How long have you been here?’ she enquired curiously.

Only inches away from her, he replied, ‘A week.’ When she nodded and continued to gaze dreamily ahead, he muttered under his breath something that sounded like, ‘Irresistibile.’

Her head jerked around, her eyes wide and startled. ‘What?’

He frowned. ‘The view.’ His eyes became cruelly mocking. ‘Surely you didn’t think I meant you?’

‘Hardly!’ Hastily she dragged her brain into gear. She would keep calm. She must maintain her dignity.

‘To me,’ he said, ‘this place is more beautiful, more precious, than all the paintings on the walls, all the priceless antiques in the house. It is simply the perfection of nature.’

She wondered why he was giving the house the hard sell. To make her envious? Or… She swallowed nervously. To force her to agree that Carlo would be better off here?

Dante certainly seemed besotted with his inheritance. Though it wasn’t surprising. Like him, she gazed with appreciation across the lake at the huddle of ochre and sienna houses of the little villages nestling at the foot of wooded hills. High mountains—she presumed the Alps—rose behind them, their peaks slicing jaggedly into the sky.

Wildness and serenity combined. An extraordinary combination and one that reached deep into her and touched her heart.

Beside her, Dante shifted imperceptibly. She could feel his very warmth and detected the faint hint of vanilla, which perfumed his favoured aftershave and shower lotion. That—or tiredness—made her quiver.

‘You must be thrilled with what’s landed in your lap,’ she remarked with deliberate tartness, fighting her attraction for him.

He studied her, his gaze lingering a little too long for her comfort. ‘I am,’ he admitted. ‘Smell that air.’

‘Yes.’ She leaned cautiously over the balcony. ‘What is that wonderful scent?’

‘It comes from the fragrant ozmanthus by the pergola.’

‘It’s very intense,’ she said jerkily, bemused by the electric atmosphere. And all she could do was to utter banalities in the hope that her pulse rate would consequently fall.

Dante muttered something under his breath. ‘Yes. It’s the heat. And because there’s not a breath of wind. Como has many moods, which can change by the hour. At the moment the water could almost be a sheet of glass,’ he mused idly into the hushed, heady air, saturated with the divine scent.

Miranda despaired. Despite her suspicions about his motives for enthusing about the house, she was holding her breath again, unable to take her eyes from his rapturous face, which the late-afternoon sun had lit so that his profile looked as if it had been carved from beaten gold.

With a jolt she realised an unpalatable fact. He loved this house more than he’d ever loved her.

Tartly she hoped he’d be very happy with it. And that it would keep him satisfied at night. His love affair with the house was all-embracing. Well, she’d rather have the love of her child. She fidgeted, anxious now to turn the conversation to Carlo, but he spoke before she could do so.

‘There was a violent storm that night we first came,’ he reminisced in a low murmur, seemingly in no hurry to see if her son was awake. Impatiently she listened, watching his expressive face, loving, hating, and hurting. ‘I discovered that the lake can be dangerous. Like a tempestuous woman.’ His dark eyes seemed to simmer like hot coals as they settled on hers. ‘The water was not the deceptively calm surface we see now. It was wild and turbulent. And exciting at the same time.’

Something jerked inside her. What was he doing? The curl of his sensual mouth left her in no doubt as to his meaning. He’d often commented on the passion that simmered beneath her own cool exterior. Miranda struggled for mastery over the sudden rush of sexual hunger he’d deliberately aroused.

It was hardly surprising she still felt stirrings of desire. They’d been so good together. Shockingly uninhibited. They’d made love everywhere, any time, seemingly unable to get enough of one another.

Guido had put her straight about that. ‘Every man will grab the chance of having sex,’ he’d explained. ‘Doesn’t matter what the woman’s like. And Dante’s the most over-sexed man I know.’

She bit her lip. Had it just been sex and nothing else? Had he needed the strong stimulation of those erotic situations so that he could make love to her? She shrank from that explanation. It would be too humiliating.

Maybe everyone behaved as they did in private. She wouldn’t know. She was still naive, an innocent, with no other lover for comparison. At twenty-one, when they’d become lovers, she’d been untutored in the more intimate side of a relationship. He had awoken her to unbelievable delights and had cracked her ice-maiden image where sex was concerned.

Their first carnal encounter had been incredible and he’d reached a hitherto unknown, passionate side of her that had amazed them both. Over time their lovemaking had become even better, blissful and fulfilling. For her. She winced.

Every inch still burned for him, ached for the wonderful release that sex gave to her body. She groaned inwardly. It had been a mistake to let her mind run on like this!

Appalled, she averted her face to hide the flush of heat that tormented her from deep inside, through her protesting flesh and pulsing veins and out to her scorched skin.

‘Few things are what they seem on the surface,’ she muttered, thinking of his urbane manner and inner cruelty. ‘Maggots seem to head for the best-looking apple. It’s only when you bite into it that you discover the rotten core. Nothing’s perfect, is it?’

He scowled. ‘True. Though this view comes close to perfection. Perhaps that’s why I cannot resist it,’ he said cynically. ‘It will never be sullied.’

He drew in a huge breath, as if regretting that the same couldn’t be said for his wife. Miranda opened her mouth to demand to see Carlo but infuriatingly he forestalled her again.

‘My ancestors chose well to build the palazzo here three hundred years ago. My friends are envious.’ He hesitated and said carefully, ‘They all agree that anyone would leap at the chance to live here.’

Miranda’s eyes narrowed. He was excusing himself for succumbing to devious means to get his hands on the house.

‘It is very beautiful,’ she agreed coolly and drew breath to ask about Carlo.

‘The Severinis have always had an eye for beauty.’

Despite her anxiety, his velvety murmur fed her libido unnervingly. She sensed he was gazing at her and not the view, but this time she didn’t turn to confirm this. Didn’t dare. Being so close to him was already causing havoc inside her.

She must wind this up. Get Carlo. Go home. But she couldn’t resist one more dig because she was hurting so badly.

‘So have we all. The difference is that they think they can buy any beautiful thing they want,’ she replied in a withering tone.

He looked annoyed by her response. ‘Even beauty can be for sale,’ he drawled.