Dante’s glance track her progress.
Before raising his glass to his lips, he asked, ‘Is the baby asleep?’
Charmed and taken aback that he should refer to Tia as ‘the baby’ with such affection in his voice, she knew her smile was unreserved. ‘Yes, she is.’
‘I’d like to look in on her before I go tonight.’
‘Of course.’
‘There’s so much about her I want to know. What food she likes, her favourite colour, the book she likes the most.’
His gaze seemed to take him away to distant shores for a moment, and Anna caught her breath as a merciless stab of guilt assailed her.
But before she could comment he continued, ‘We should have a toast. To Tia and her happy future.’
‘Tia and her happy future,’ she concurred a little huskily, her mouth drying, because she knew that the future was one of the most pertinent things they had to discuss tonight. What would it entail? Not just for her precious child, but for Anna herself now that Dante had reappeared?
Sipping at her wine, she allowed the alcohol to swim warmly into her blood for a moment, hoping it might relax her. ‘This is nice…it reminds me of violets somehow.’
‘You have a good nose. Barolo does have a bouquet of violets. You could have a new career in wine-tasting.’
‘Will I need a new career? ‘
‘Your interview wasn’t that bad.’
‘How comforting,’ she quipped, unable to hide the surge of annoyance that surfaced. ‘I’ve had no complaints about how I carry out my job so far.’
‘There’s no need to be defensive. You’ve nothing to fear from me, Anna. I certainly don’t have any plans to fire you from your job.’
To her alarm, Dante set his wine glass down on the coffee table and got to his feet. Then he was standing in front of her, his nearness making her feel quite lightheaded.
‘Put your wine down for a minute,’ he commanded quietly, voice low.
Captured by his hypnotic glance, Anna obeyed. He held out his hand and helped her to her feet.
‘That dress you’re wearing hurts my eyes.’
Embarrassment made her want the floor to open up and swallow her.
‘I know it’s a bit dazzling, but I grabbed the first thing out of my wardrobe, to tell you the truth.’ She was fumbling for a foothold but couldn’t find one. Had his shoulders always been this wide…his chest this broad and strong? The male heat he emanated so—so drugging?
‘It’s dazzling not because of the riot of colour but because it’s on you. Dazzling like this glorious hair of yours.’ Capturing a handful of burnished copper silk between his fingers, Dante raised the fiery strands to his lips and kissed them.
Anna couldn’t move. It took every ounce of iron will she possessed not to give in to the overwhelming impulse to lay her head against his chest and wrap her arms round his waist. The intoxication of his presence almost made her forget why he was there…almost.
‘I am so glad you haven’t had it cut short since I saw you last.’
‘I—I wouldn’t do that. But, Dante—we—we need to talk,’ she murmured, her own voice sounding like a dazed stranger’s.
‘We can talk like we talked when we first met. Like this. Do you remember, Anna? ‘
The heat of his lips touched the side of her neck, searing the delicate skin there with an indelible brand. ‘I remember,’ she husked, her limbs turning to liquid silver. ‘But we should—We need to.’ A helpless little moan escaped her as Dante moved his lips up to her ear, his mouth planting a hot, devastatingly erotic kiss on her highly sensitive lobe. The molten heat that pooled in Anna’s centre threatened to make her lose her capacity to think at all.
‘What do we need to do?’
With a smile in his voice that was a seductive cocktail of fine malt whisky and luxurious honey, Dante settled his hands on her hips and firmly pulled her against him. The hard male contours encased in his fluidly elegant tailored suit and the suggestion of barely contained impressive masculine strength made Anna shiver. Mesmerised by the haze of longing in his burning gaze, she nervously swallowed. She yearned to succumb to the desire that was flowing with equal ardour through her veins, but an anguished moment of clarity returned, making her stiffen in his arms.
‘What did you mean when you said you weren’t going to fire me from my job? I don’t like the sound of that. It makes me feel like you potentially could fire me if you wanted to. I can’t say that fills me with confidence. not when I have a child to support, and depend on my job for a roof over our heads.’
There was a flash of impatience in his eyes.
‘The point is that you don’t need to depend on your job to sustain you, or for a roof over your heads! I meant it when I said we should marry. And when we’re married I’ll take care of you both.’
‘You make it sound so straightforward and easy. I’m not an investment you’re interested in, Dante. I’m a fully functioning independent human being with my own ideas and thoughts on lots of subjects—including marriage. It’s completely wrong of you to assume that I’d instantly give up everything I’ve worked so hard for to throw in my lot with a man I barely know. A man who only wants marriage because he’s discovered that the one-night stand that we had resulted in a child!’
He set Anna free with a muttered oath and stalked across the room, scraping his fingers through the dark blond strands of his previously groomed hair. His glare was blistering in its intensity. ‘What better reason to marry someone than because you made a child together? Tia deserves to have her father in her life. I want that for her and I want that for me—and as a “fully functioning independent human being” you have no right to deny us!’
‘I’m not saying I’d deny you. But marriage isn’t for me. I…’ She lowered her gaze to stare down at the floor, ‘I like my independence. I like the fact that my hard work has finally got me somewhere and now I have opportunities… I’m captain of my own ship and it’s a good feeling.’
‘So you like being captain of your own ship—but do you honestly like being alone? Raising a child on your own is far from easy, no matter how many opportunities for advancing your career come your way. When the baby is ill do you welcome being her sole carer, with no one but yourself to rely upon to make the best decisions for her welfare? And when she’s ill what do you do if you can’t take time off work for fear of losing your job and your income? ‘
Moving back across the room towards her, Dante had that faraway look Anna had seen before in his eyes.
‘Once when I was five I had the measles…had it quite severely. My mother had no choice but to go out to her job in the evening—it was literally a matter of whether we ate or starved. She asked a close neighbour if I could stay with her for the evening, but the woman refused because she had five children of her own and didn’t want to risk them getting infected. My mother left me in bed. The neighbour promised to regularly
