‘Forgive me, bella, in my panic my English deserted me. What is wrong?’
‘I passed out.’
‘Certo! But why?’
‘I panicked when you rang the bell.’
‘Ah, Rose. I am so sorry. Though it is not so very late.’
‘I know. But my immediate thought was Bea. Mothers tend to be wired that way.’
Dante slid an arm beneath her and slowly and very carefully raised her to a sitting position. ‘Your head still spins?’
Rose thought about it. ‘A bit. Could you hang on to me a little longer?’
He muttered something under his breath.
‘What did you say?’
‘I will hold you all night if you permit.’ He smiled. ‘But I will not expect that.’
Her lips twitched. ‘I won’t, either. I meant until the room stands still.’
Dante sat beside her, holding her close. ‘Allora, you are comfortable like this?’
‘Yes.’ Much too comfortable.
He looked down into her swollen eyes. ‘You have been weeping, cara. Because we parted in anger?’
She nodded again and, to her dismay, her eyes filled again. ‘And now my head is aching, and I look awful.’
‘You do not,’ he assured her, and gathered her closer. ‘You need some of your tea, perhaps?’
Rose managed a smile. ‘Do you know how to make tea, Dante?’
He shrugged. ‘I put the tea-bag in the cup and pour the hot water, yes?’
‘Absolutely. But I won’t have any just now.’ The scent and warmth and muscular security of his embrace were far more effective than tea. And, unlike tea, were not normal features of her life. ‘Sorry I was such a shrew earlier. I enjoyed our evening, Dante. At least until the moment you stormed off and left me sobbing my heart out.’
Dante turned her face up to his. ‘You cried because I left?’
‘Yes.’ She drew in a deep, shuddering breath. ‘I was utterly horrible, and you didn’t give me the chance to say I was sorry.’
His eyes held hers with a look which turned her heart over. ‘We have both made enough apologies now, bella, yes?’
She nodded, her bottom lip quivering as she tried to smile. ‘Are we friends again?’
Before the words were out of her mouth, Dante’s lips were on hers, and she gave herself up to his kiss with a relishing little sound that tightened his arms round her as he kissed her swollen eyelids and her red nose and then returned to her quivering parted mouth with a sigh of such pleasure she melted against him, shivering in response to his urgent, caressing hands. Emotions heightened by the quarrel, their kisses grew wild with such hunger that history repeated itself with inexorable rapture. Hands and lips came together as clothes flew in all directions, restraint gone up in smoke as they came together in a pulsating, overpowering rush of desire that hurled them both to orgasm, and left them panting and breathless, staring at each other in shock.