VITTORIO'S MISTRESS (The Vittorio Series) (11 page)

Dante’s eyes followed her as she got up to put her plate in the sink and settled on her deliciously rounded bottom.
 
He swallowed down the last of his wine then rose from the table and went to her.
 
Maybe it really would kill him, he thought as he took her hand and led her back upstairs, but it was a risk he was willing to take.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
***

The rest of the day and far into the night was a never ending cycle of making love and sleeping with an occasional break for food.
 
For a while they curled up together on a lounge chair by the pool and watched the stars twinkle in the sky then went for a brief skinny dip in the pool but that, too, ended in a very heated session of love making.
 
They talked some about the things they’d done together in the past but both of them were careful to avoid the subject of their break up.
 
And when morning broke on Sunday, Paige felt an overwhelming sense of despair at having to leave him.

She’d managed to sneak off to the bathroom the evening before while Dante was sleeping and made a quick call to her mother.
 
She’d talked briefly to Daniella who informed her that Nana said Coco
Crunchies
were good for you because they made your tummy happy.
 
Paige didn’t have the heart to chastise her for talking Nana into buying them, nor did she mention it to her mother before she hung up.
 

In spite of the fact Daniella was having the time of her life, Paige felt guilty for grabbing what happiness she could from her weekend with Dante.
 
They should have all been
together as a
 
family, and maybe they would have if she’d taken her mother’s advice and told Dante she was pregnant.
 

But then she had only to look around at the house he lived in and the type of sporty car he drove to know that Dante still had no inclination to become a husband and father.
 
If he’d even entertained the idea, he would have had at least one or two serious relationships since they’d separated but he hadn’t.
 
So what did that tell her except what she already knew?

“Why so sad,
cara
mia
?” Dante asked when he woke to find her staring blankly at the ceiling.

Paige turned on her side to face him.
 
“I’m not sad,” she lied.
 
“I was just thinking of the work I left undone and was trying to figure out how long it will take me to finish it up in between the piles of laundry that have been stacking up all week.”

Dante’s eyes danced with amusement.
 
“How much laundry can one person possibly have in only one week?
 
But if that is what takes your beautiful smile away, perhaps I shall hire a maid to do it for you.”

“Don’t be silly,” she laughed nervously.
 
“I’m perfectly capable of doing my own laundry.”
 
And
Daniella’s
.

“I had planned on keeping you with me all day, but the truth is I have work that has been left undone also.
 
We could have breakfast out on the patio then go for a swim and just relax for awhile before I take you home.”

Relieved that she wouldn’t have to make up an excuse as to why she needed to be home by four o’clock when her parents brought Daniella home, Paige agreed that it sounded like a wonderful idea.
 
They ate a light breakfast of toast and fruit then splashed around in the water for a bit before stretching out on beach towels.
 
Dante insisted that she allow him to put
sunblock
lotion on her so she wouldn’t burn, and since he also insisted she not wear a stitch of clothing, Paige let him.

“I will miss feeling your soft skin next to mine tonight,” he told her as he applied the lotion to her back.

“Will you…need me tomorrow night, or is that something I should be asking?”

Dante’s hands glided down her ribs, smoothing the lotion over her skin.
 
“I realize you are not used to the kind of activity I have subjected you to this weekend so it would be horribly calloused of me to demand you return tomorrow.”

Paige blinked back the sting of unexpected tears.
 
“You’ll let me know then…when you want me
again?
”

He ran his hands over her bottom several times before he realized he’d forgotten all about the lotion.
 
“I will want you in my bed every night,
mio bello
,” he said with a husk in his voice.
 
Dio
, he would never tire of touching her.

“But you said…”

“That it would be calloused of me,” Dante finished for her.
 
“We have an agreement, Paige, and I want you in my bed every single night until you have fulfilled your end of it.
 
Getting you out of my system will not work if you are not here for me to indulge in.
 
Besides,” he applied the last of the lotion to her legs, “we will be meeting with my lawyer at nine o’clock so you will have to be here anyway.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be here,” she said sharply.
 
“I haven’t forgotten our agreement or what it entails.”

Dante frowned.
 
“You are angry when there is no reason to be.”

“Except for the fact I’m selling myself for the deed to the center you mean?”

“You are not selling yourself, Paige.
 
You said yourself that you wanted this for the same reasons I did so why not consider the deed as my parting gift to you instead of a payoff?”

“A rose by any other name is still just a rose,” she replied with a resigned sigh.
 
“It doesn’t matter, not really.
 
In the end, we’ll both have gotten what we wanted.”

Would they
?
 
Dante wasn’t so sure any more what he wanted.
 
“Turn over so I can put lotion on your front side.”

“I think I’ve had enough sun for today.”
 
Paige sat up and drew the towel around her to cover up her nakedness.
 
“I’d like to take a shower now if that’s okay with you.”

A cruel smile twisted his lips when she tucked the towel more securely around her breasts.
 
He didn’t like her dismissive tone or the defiant look in her eyes.
 
Paige was
his
,
she belonged to him with or without that damned agreement and he was going to make sure she knew it.

“You forget yourself,
mio tesoro
.
 
I
am the one who decides when I am finished with you for the day.”
 
Reaching out, he snatched the towel away from her then pressed her onto her back and lowered himself over her.

“Dante don’t,” she begged, but it was already too late.

He entered her slowly, reveling in the way her eyelids closed and her beautiful lips parted on a sigh.
 
He watched her face as he moved in and out of her, each languishing stroke bringing more color to her cheeks.
 
She surrendered to him just as he knew she
would, and it was pure heaven the way their bodies became one, moving in perfect rhythm as if each of them had been created solely for the other.

Dante gathered her in his arms afterwards and carried her upstairs to the shower so he could bathe the sweat from her skin.
 
He couldn’t help smiling when she closed her eyes and tilted her head back so he could wash her hair and it was all he could do to keep from pulling her into his arms and kissing her.
 
When they were done, he dried Paige’s hair then led her back to the bed and crawled under the covers with her.

“I just want to hold you for a while longer,” he whispered as he hitched her up close to his side.
 

“I have to go soon,” Paige mumbled sleepily.

“I will wake you when it is time.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
***

“Of course I’ll help,”
Chantel
said after Paige told her everything that had happened.
 
“Staying here for a month will give me the breather I need from my roommate and her new boyfriend.”

“I was afraid you’d turn me down and then I’d really be in a bind.
 
Daniella shouldn’t be any trouble at all.
 
She’s sound asleep by eight and I’ll be home in the morning before she wakes up.
 
Oh God,” Paige groaned, “
am
I doing the right thing,
Chantel
?”

“You want to be with him, don’t you?”

“More than anything,” she admitted.

“Then what’s the problem?
 
As far as Daniella is concerned, she won’t even know you’re gone.
 
Who knows, maybe Dante will discover he
can’t
get you out of his system and confess he’s madly in love with you.”

“Not likely,” Paige said miserably.
 
“He made it perfectly clear that he’s calling the shots and that I’m only there to satisfy his needs.”

Chantel
gave her a wicked smile.
 
“So you’re not really enjoying your role as Dante’s mistress?”

“I wouldn’t say that exactly.”

“Well, I think he’s drop dead gorgeous and can only imagine what it would be like to have a man like that in my bed.”

Paige let out a wistful sigh.
 
“Making love with Dante is beyond anything you could possibly imagine.
 
I just wish…” she shook her head.

“You don’t know for sure that he
doesn’t
have feelings for you,”
Chantel
insisted.

“Oh, he has plenty of feelings for
me,
it’s just that none of them have anything to do with his heart.
 
And stop trying to get my hopes up.
 
I’m going to soak up everything I can for the next thirty days and then I’m going to get on with my life.”

Chantel
eyed her skeptically.
 
“You and I both know you’re going to fall to pieces, only it’ll be a lot worse this time.
 
But for now, I’m going to allow you to live in your little fantasy world because I think you deserve it.
 
Now, back to business.
 
We’ve got the weekdays covered but what are we going to do on the weekends?”

“Sundays will be the easiest to work around because he thinks I have dinner with my parents.
 
And since he’s already agreed this is just between the two of us, he’ll have to let me come home early so I don’t have to make up any excuses.”

Chantel
nodded thoughtfully.
 
“So that just leaves Saturdays.”
 

“Which is a huge problem because I can’t think of anything drastic enough that could possibly keep me from staying with him all day.
 
And if I can’t get out of being with him for at least part of the day, that means I’ll be eaten up with guilt for leaving Daniella in someone else’s care while I’m off playing mistress.”

“Honestly, Paige, you think Daniella will feel neglected if you’re gone for one day out of the entire week?
 
She gets to be with you all day, every day, which is a lot more time than most children get with the mothers these days.
 
Trust
me,
between Marc and I, we’ll keep her so busy she won’t have time to wonder where you are.”

Paige cringed.
 
“You’re not going to tell Marc why I suddenly need you to stay here, are you?”