Dante's Unexpected Legacy(69)

                ‘You could work here also if you wish. Harriet helps Leo a great deal. She is very good at taking visitors around Fortino.’

                ‘She speaks Italian?’

                ‘Yes. She taught it at one time. French also.’

                Her face fell. ‘I don’t do any of that. My sole talent is with figures.’

                ‘You could help Harriet by taking over the English-speaking tourists.’ Dante turned to look at her, his eyes bleak. ‘Also, I will travel less after we marry.’

                Will, Rose noted, not would. She had known all along that saying yes to the trip was saying yes to marrying Dante. Which was all she’d ever wanted from the first moment she’d met him; even more so now he’d matured into a man who’d suffered enough, courtesy of Elsa. And so had she. For Bea’s sake, if nothing else, it was time to move on. Grow up at last. And surely, once they were married, she could make Dante love her for herself, not just as his child’s mother. But what, said an inner voice, if he never does?

                ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said at last.

                Dante eyed her suspiciously. ‘What are you saying?’

                ‘I can’t just walk away from my life at a moment’s notice, Dante. I’d have to sell my business first, for one thing. So you’ll have to give me more time.’

                He shook his head in wonder. ‘Dio, that is not the answer I wanted, Rose.’

                ‘Take it or leave it,’ she said, shrugging, then quailed inwardly at the sudden fire in his eyes.

                ‘I will take it! I will also take this,’ he added huskily and kissed her with sudden fierce demand that shook her to her toes. He pulled her onto his lap, his lips and hands caressing her into a response which swept through her with such heat he pulled her to her feet and led her up the stairs to the gallery. At the open door of Bea’s room, they gazed at their sleeping child for a moment then Dante took away what breath Rose had left by picking her up to carry her along the gallery to his room. He laid her on his bed and began taking off his clothes. She shot upright in protest.

                ‘Wait a minute!’

                He shot her an imperious look. ‘No. I have waited long enough.’ He knelt on the bed beside her and began undressing her. ‘You may not love me, but you want me. Do you deny it?’

                ‘No, I don’t.’ She took in a deep breath. ‘But don’t do this in anger, Dante.’

                His eyes smouldered as he slid the dress from her shoulders. ‘No, bella, not in anger.’ He took down the hair she’d spent so much time over earlier and buried his face in it. ‘I want you, Rose.’ He removed the last of her clothes and held her shivering body against his hard male nakedness with a growl of pure male satisfaction. ‘Tonight,’ he said huskily, ‘we finish what we began so many years ago, yes?’

                ‘You’ve made love to me since then,’ she said unsteadily as his lips moved down her throat.

                He kissed the pulse he found throbbing there. ‘But once again only in haste. Tonight I will show you what loving can be for us, tesoro.’

                Rose felt his heart thudding against hers and looked up into the brilliant eyes moving over her in open possession. Yes, she thought fiercely. Show me. I want this. ‘You’ll have to make allowances, Dante,’ she said unevenly, her breath catching as he slid his lips down her throat.