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

She blanched. It was true she’d had bruises the next morning. Had that been Dante? she wondered in sudden shock. Taking his revenge?

‘Oh, God!’ she whispered.

And suddenly her shoulders were being shaken, and she came back to the present time to find the black-eyed Dante standing in front of her and glaring at her in contempt.

She stared at the flare of his jacket where it sat snugly over his slender hips. She must convince him of her innocence. Find out what he’d done. Then close the matter forever if she was ever to move on and reclaim her life.

‘I don’t know what happened,’ she ripped out hoarsely. ‘But I swear—’

‘Swear all you like. One thing is clear. To this day you have no idea what you were doing,’ he said in disgust. ‘Do you think that makes it all right?’ He sucked in a huge breath. ‘There could have been a football team enjoying your favours in your bedroom for all you know! You were too drunk and too drugged to have any idea what was happening!’ he exploded.

‘I wasn’t! None of that is true—!’

‘Yes! I was there! I saw you, remember?’

He glared down at her with a look that told her he was about to say something significant.

‘What…what is it?’ she asked shakily.

There was pure loathing in his eyes. ‘Surely you realise that under the circumstances,’ he snarled, ‘I can’t ever trust you to look after Carlo?’

Horror-struck, she searched his implacable face. The room spun and she gripped the arms of the chair with clawing hands. Chalk-white, she desperately swallowed down the huge lump of emotion that was sitting like a leaden weight in her throat.

‘You—you mean…!’ Hardly able to breathe, she grabbed the cup and gulped down the still scalding liquid so that she could speak. ‘Is that it? Why you’ve brought me here? To tell me that…I—I can’t take Carlo home with me?’ she wavered.

The black eyes scorched her into terror-struck silence.

‘Precisely,’ he clipped.

CHAPTER FOUR

LOSING control completely in her misery and anger, Miranda leapt up and slapped his arrogant, smug face, her hand cracking with a sound like a pistol shot.

‘You brute!’ she yelled. Blindly she launched herself at him, beating her fists against his chest. ‘You dragged me here, raising my hopes, deliberately taunting me… And all the time you never meant to let me have Carlo! I hate you! Loathe you! You’re utterly contemptible! He needs me, Dante! You know he does!’ she raged. ‘My baby needs me and I need him! You promised me I’d see him! You promised!’

He grabbed her hands and wrestled them behind her back. He was breathing hard, his nostrils flared and white in contrast to the scarlet marks on his high cheekbones, his perfect white teeth bared in a grimace.

‘I know that!’ he seethed. ‘So this is what whips you into a frenzy! The thought of losing the chance to use Carlo to screw me for half my fortune—!’

‘I don’t want your money! I don’t care about your ill-gotten gains!’ she wailed. ‘It’s Carlo I care about! Punish me all you like, but don’t punish a three-year-old child!’

Her body slammed into his with a controlled force. Her upturned face was inches from Dante’s grim mouth and she felt a sharp stab of fear at the blazing fury in his coal-black eyes.

‘Listen to me!’ he snarled. ‘I do not intend to give Carlo one more day’s distress! How dare you think I could hurt him? Why do you think I’ve swallowed my pride and compromised my honour to bring you over here? I never wanted to see you again. Whenever I think of you and the filth you’ve been consorting with, my guts scream with pain and disgust! I am ashamed that you have shamed the name of Severini. I wish I didn’t have to see you, a shallow, heartless woman who chose to marry purely for material gain—!’

‘I what? That’s absolute rubbish!’ she cried in astonishment.

‘—and even now you’re plotting to make as much as you can from this miserable situation! “Play your cards right”!’ he mimicked, aping Lizzie’s greedy tone.

She gulped, her heart sinking. ‘You’ve got it wrong!’

‘I don’t think so. I was warned from the start about you and your motives!’

‘Who by?’ She quivered with indignation.

‘Never you mind. But you aren’t what you seem, that I know. You might even be thinking of wheedling your way back into my bed. And, if that fails, you mean to snatch Carlo away and to get yourself a nice, fat divorce settlement—’

‘You’re mad! Where did you get that idea?’

‘From Lizzie’s own mouth!’

She froze, her face appalled. The chauffeur! He’d reported Lizzie’s remarks…

‘Dante!’ she choked. ‘I—’

‘Listen to me!’ he growled, giving her a little shake. ‘This is a desperate measure for me to take, don’t you understand? I am risking everything by doing this! You’re a loose cannon—God knows what damage you might do to my son! But I’ve got to take the risk because he’s pining for you.’

She blinked, faltering, trying to understand. Crushed against him, she suddenly became aware of the power he had over her. Power to bend her to his will. Power, also, to arouse her with his hard, male body that burned like a furnace of intense heat against hers. She was consumed by him. Drowning in wanting.

Desperately she tried to keep her mind clear. ‘What risk? If I’m not to collect Carlo and take him home, then why on earth have you brought me here?’ she stumbled. ‘This is a nightmare!’ she moaned. Helplessly she gazed up at him. ‘I’ve long since stopped trying to understand you!’

He released her, his eyes glittering with anger behind his lowered lashes. Yet his lips had curved and parted as if he contemplated kissing her till she couldn’t breathe. Awash with his compelling sexuality, she blinked in confusion, trying to make sense of this contradiction. And put it down to his high libido.

‘And I, you,’ he muttered, his mouth now cruel. ‘Pay attention. This is my proposition.’

‘You expect me to sleep with you?’ she blurted out in panic, knowing she’d shamefully betray her need for him if he ever tried to caress her.

Dante immediately flinched, as though the idea was repulsive. ‘You were a little quick to come up with that suggestion,’ he taunted. ‘Is that what you’ve been banking on? That sheer lust would drive us together again?’

‘N-no!’ she husked.

But to her eternal shame her eyes gave the lie to that, and his contemptuous expression told her that he’d recognised the needs of her throbbing body.

‘You can forget the idea. I do not touch soiled goods,’ he clipped in contempt. ‘My standards are above that. I have never understood the need for men to resort to whores.’

‘This is the mother of your son you are talking about,’ she whispered, appalled that he should regard her in such low esteem.

‘And don’t I regret that you are!’ he snapped, smoothing down his shirt and adjusting his jacket, which had been disarrayed by her frenzied attack. ‘Whatever your ice-queen appearance may suggest to the contrary, I know how eager you are for sex. I have personal experience of your wantonness. And your wild outburst just now shows that you are ruled by passions you cannot control—’

‘You’re denying me my child!’ she cried, white-faced and terrified. ‘Any woman would go crazy with grief—!’

‘Spare me the hearts and flowers,’ he snapped. ‘I don’t buy that one. The trouble is, Miranda, you didn’t hear me out. You were too ready to condemn me, to jump to conclusions. You cannot deny that I have Carlo’s interests at heart.’

‘Only in your own, twisted way,’ she retorted sulkily.

He glared. ‘I’ll ignore that. Unfortunately, where my son’s interests are concerned, it seems I have to take you into account.’

The breath left her lungs. She stared at him warily. Yes. He would come up with a solution—and if it included her… Oh, God! What was his Machiavellian mind focused on now?