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

Did he mean her? She pruned in her mouth, refusing to give him the last word.

‘That’s what it comes down to, isn’t it?’ she snapped, eyes blazing with indignation. ‘Houses, paintings, cars, women…they’re all trophies to you! I wonder how many people would have chosen an inanimate house over living flesh and blood?’

Dante’s eyes darkened with anger. ‘If the house is perfect and the flesh and blood has become rotten like your maggot-ridden apple, I imagine few would have difficulty in making a choice,’ he shot back.

She flinched, bridling at what he was implying. He thought she’d been drunk that night. It had given him the excuse to leave her. This could be her last chance to put him straight. Before she left him forever, he had to believe her. She’d never been able to bear injustices.

One day he would visit Carlo in England. Dante mustn’t ever feed lies to her son and blacken her name. Angrily she slanted her eyes in his direction and said sharply,

‘People see what they want to see. You jumped to the wrong conclusion. I was ill, not drunk.’ Her mutinous gaze met his and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from shrinking back at his look of disgust. But he was in the wrong, not her. So she tipped up her chin defiantly. ‘Have you never admitted to a mistake, Dante?’

‘I have never made one,’ he growled with force. ‘Other than that of marrying you.’

So emphatic. So sure. She shivered. Suddenly she wanted to get Carlo home. Needed her baby safe and sound and away from this megalomaniac.

‘You have made a mistake. I am determined that eventually you will know the truth.’ She drew in a rasping breath. ‘But I’ve had enough of this. I demand to see—’

‘You’re not in a position to demand anything!’ His eyes glittered like black stones and she shivered at his ruthlessness.

Weary of this, hungry for her beloved child’s embrace, she muttered tautly, ‘I think I am. You need me. You didn’t bring me here to discuss the skill of the Severinis in snaffling the most beautiful spot on Lake Como. What exactly do you want?’

‘Your cooperation,’ he replied. ‘Come inside.’

At last! She felt her pulses quicken. Slowly he would unravel his dignity and admit that on consideration he would be magnanimous and let her take Carlo. It was almost inconceivable that he’d confess that he couldn’t handle her son without her. He was a proud man. Losing face would be unthinkable. How would he explain away his failure to banish her from Carlo’s life?

Keyed up, she allowed herself to be seated in a gloriously comfortable soft kid chair, the arms of which she could not help but stroke. Guiltily she saw Dante watching her, his dark eyes two hot globes of black silk that threatened to make her as malleable as molten metal.

‘Tea?’ he murmured silkily.

She fumed at the delay. Yet all her senses stupidly sprang into life in response to his carnal expression. That was how he’d always seen her—as a convenient womb and a sex object.

‘Thank you,’ she clipped.

He would string this out, just to make her suffer. And there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Restless, impatient, she crossed one long leg over the other. Noticed those mercilessly sensual eyes contemplating their slim, golden length. Felt the stirring of desire again and wondered how on earth she could feel like this when she despised every bone in his body.

It was just a trick of her sexual memory, she told herself bleakly. In time her desperate need for his touch would go. And when that happened she would be cold and emotionless once more—except where Carlo was concerned.

‘Carlo,’ she said flatly, by way of encouragement.

‘Yes. Carlo.’

As if they had all the time in the world, he poured from the silver pot, adding a slice of lemon and placing the almost transparent bone-china cup on a Venetian table beside her, before retiring behind his vast desk. He was utterly in charge of the situation.

She glared at him sitting behind his imposed barrier without expression, her heart leaping so erratically it felt it might burst from her chest.

‘Yes?’ she felt urged to prompt before she shrieked her impatience like a banshee.

‘First, I need to say that Carlo—’ he began, and his eyes flicked down to her fingers, which had clenched into white-boned fists.

‘Get on with it!’ she jerked out, before she could stop herself.

‘My apologies. Your time is valuable. I forgot. Carlo,’ he said in a gravelly voice, ‘is not here.’

Life drained from her body. Suppressing a sob, she lifted her chin and met his simmering gaze full on, her entire body quivering with rage.

‘You rat! Is this your revenge on me?’ she choked, hating him, her eyes bleak and splintered with ice.

‘No. I am not that vindictive,’ he replied quietly.

When he sipped his tea, she saw to her surprise that his hand was shaking. Fear ripped through her, destroying the carefully erected mask of composure.

‘Dear heaven! What’s happened to him?’ she breathed, her lips parted in fear.

‘Afraid of losing your bargaining tool?’ he taunted.

‘Is—he—all—right?’ she ground out, her face bleached of colour.

‘Fine. I just wanted us to have time to discuss this.’

There was a strange light in his eyes which was almost sexual as he stared at her mouth when it parted in a relieved gasp, and she cringed back in her chair, not trusting him an inch. Her head began to pound with the crackling tension.

‘I didn’t know, you see,’ he explained, ‘how long our negotiations would take.’

Negotiations. She felt on firmer ground. Naturally he’d want to ask her for access time.

‘They’ll take a week,’ she said tartly, ‘if you continue stalling.’

‘So English,’ he murmured with a curled lip of distaste. ‘So direct.’

‘Come to the point,’ she insisted, refusing to play his game any longer.

He nodded. ‘Allora. This is the situation.’ He leaned back in his chair, watching her steadily with his melted-chocolate eyes, and she felt dizzy as the hysteria rose within her. He must have sensed her desperation because he firmed his lips and continued, ‘I need to explain why I have asked you here.’

Her entire body seemed to be turned to ice. This didn’t sound good.

‘Do,’ she managed to snap out.

He scowled and took his time while her heart rate reached alarming levels and the fear made her head spin.

‘At first,’ he said in unusually rasping tones, ‘Carlo was excited by the journey on the plane and the fun we had in my uncle’s Milan apartment where we stayed initially. I gave him my full attention and he loved that.’

‘Yes.’ Just in time, Miranda restrained herself from saying that it must have been a novelty to have his father’s undivided attention. She suspected that sarcasm wouldn’t get her anywhere.

‘Then when the palazzo was ready, we drove here.’ Dante gave a faint smile, evidently reliving happy memories. ‘He loved his playroom and new toys, the trips on the ferries across the lake…’

He paused, his voice tailing away. She realised that this was distressing him. The oh-so-perfect Dante had discovered that he wasn’t enough for his three-year-old son.