…’
She paused. ‘Or a restaurant chain. How about yours? Do you offer ice cream as a dessert?’
‘I do.’
‘Tonielli’s?’
‘Not at the moment.’
‘But that’s what you were planning.’
‘What I planned is irrelevant, because you’re running the business now.’
‘So would you stock my ice cream in your restaurants?’
‘That depends what you offer me.’ He held his hand up to stop her talking. ‘Don’t rush into it, Princess—or into any other deal. You need to cost everything first and work out your strategy. I’ll get you a marketing primer so you can work it out for yourself, then I’ll go over the figures with you to see if I can add anything you haven’t thought of. It’s a bit of a conflict of interest, but between us we’ll come up with something that’s fair to both of us.’
‘Thank you.’ She smiled at him. ‘Can we have a dinner break, now?’
‘That’d be good.’
She walked over to the fridge. ‘I did think about giving you nothing but ice cream.’
‘Did you now?’
‘I had a whole menu planned out. Tomato and basil sorbet, to start with. Like an iced soup.’
He sighed. ‘If that’s your idea of growing the business, I have to say it’s an epic fail.’
‘No, it was just a thought. But I couldn’t come up with a reasonable flavour for the main course,’ she admitted, ‘except maybe parmesan, served on a waffle with salad, so I gave up on it.’
‘Good. Because nothing but ice cream for dinner is just …’ He grimaced. ‘Well, it’s too gimmicky. It wouldn’t suit your customer base.’
‘So you’re telling me you’ve never eaten just ice cream for a meal?’
‘No.’ Dante pushed back the memories of the times when he’d had nothing at all for a meal. Because his father had drunk away the housekeeping budget yet again, and the local shopkeepers refused to give them credit because they knew his family was a bad risk.
‘You’re missing a trick. Having a duvet day and a tub of really good ice cream for lunch …’
‘Is that an offer?’ he drawled.
She backtracked fast. ‘Time for dinner.’ She took the plates she’d carefully arranged earlier from the fridge, a simple tricolore salad. ‘And yes, I know this isn’t proper cooking. It’s just arranging things on a plate.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re defensive tonight, Princess.’
‘That’s because you make me defensive.’
He shrugged. ‘Do you have something to be defensive about?’
How did he manage to wrongfoot her all the time? Just when she thought she knew what she was doing, everything shifted, and she found herself in the wrong. ‘I guess not,’ she muttered.
‘It’s good,’ he said after the first mouthful. ‘Fresh and simple, good quality ingredients, and nicely presented. It works for me.’
‘Was that a compliment?’
He smiled. ‘Don’t push it, Princess.’
When they’d eaten the antipasti, she cooked some fresh pasta, drained it, and stirred in a simple pesto sauce. ‘Go on, then. Ask me if I bought it from a shop,’ she challenged when she put the plate in front of him.
He tasted it. ‘No, this is definitely home-made.’ The lines round his eyes crinkled. ‘Though I could ask you if your grandmother made it. Or her cook.’
She held out her left hand so he could see the plaster on her thumb. ‘All my own work. See? I cut myself chopping the basil for the pesto.’
He took her hand and kissed her thumb. His mouth was warm and soothing, and at the same time it made her ache for him.
She sucked in a breath. ‘What was that for?’
‘Didn’t you show me so I could kiss it better?’
Well, yes. Except whenever his mouth touched her skin, even if it wasn’t overtly sexual, her body went into overdrive.
She managed to concentrate for long enough to serve up the simple chicken dish with vegetables for the main course, which he ate without comment—just an appreciative smile.
And then she took the pudding from the freezer.
‘Oh, now this is a definite cheat,’ he said. ‘Brought from downstairs, was it?’
‘No. I’ll have you know, I made this myself, this afternoon.’ She paused. ‘You know what you were saying about selling more products to the same customers? I’d already started to think about that and I was trying out a different idea.’
‘Different?’ His eyes narrowed. ‘It looks like ordinary strawberry, to me.’
‘Try it.’
He did. ‘Strawberry. Though it’s very light for ice cream.’
‘I admit, it’s a slight cheat—it’s yoghurt-based. I didn’t have time to make custard-based ice cream tonight,’ she said.
‘It’s good. Very clean.’
‘I wanted to appeal to customers who want all of the taste but less saturated fat in their diet.’
‘That’d be good for the tourist market.’
Strange how his praise made her feel so good. ‘I have plans for another, but that’ll be at the opposite end of the spectrum. A custard-based one. Really rich. My favourite.’ She licked her lower lip. ‘Gianduja.’
‘Chocolate.’
Cocoa butter and ground hazelnuts. ‘Better-than-sex chocolate,’ she corrected. ‘And it drove me crazy that it was so hard to find in London. It’s one of the nice things about coming home—you can buy gianduja everywhere.’
‘Better-than-sex chocolate.’ He looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Is that a challenge, Princess?’
‘What do you think?’ She threw the question back at him.
He smiled. ‘I think I’m going to buy some gianduja before I see you next. And then …’ His eyes held the wickedest gleam. ‘I’m going to make you beg.’
‘In your dreams.’
He leaned across the table and kissed her. And even though only his mouth touched hers and he didn’t so much as lay a finger on her, by the time he’d finished her knees were completely
