VITTORIO'S MISTRESS (The Vittorio Series) (17 page)

“Paige will require a room of her own,” he told
Mireia
.
 
“Please make sure she has the room adjoining mine and that all her clothes are transferred.
 
And have the two rooms across from ours completely cleared out so my mother can decorate as she pleases.”

“Will you require a nanny?”
 

Dante laughed.
 
“No, that will not be necessary but hire additional cleaning staff if you wish.”

He was still chuckling when he hung up.
 
Paige would go ballistic if he even suggested anyone else care for Daniella, not that he cared much for the idea either.
 
After another quick call to his oldest brother, Simon, to let him know what was going on and arrange for a month’s leave, Dante returned to the recovery room.
 
Daniella was awake but still a little groggy, though she was alert enough to comprehend that he wasn’t part of the hospital staff.

“Who are you?”
 
Daniella asked when he crossed the room to stand behind Paige’s chair.

Paige jumped in before he had a chance to answer.
 
“Remember our talk in daycare about mommies and daddies?”

Daniella nodded, her big brown eyes lingering on Dante’s strained face.
 
“Some kids have mommies, some kids have daddies, and some kids have a mommy and a daddy.”

Paige smiled proudly.
 
“That’s right, angel.
 
What a smart girl you are to remember.”

“I know who you are,” Daniella said to Dante.
 

Dante’s heart leapt.
 
“You do?”

“Yes,” she nodded.
 
“Mama has your
picure
.”

“My picture, you mean?”
 

“Yes, and she looks at it all the time.”

“Does she?”
 
Dante didn’t miss the pretty blush on Paige’s face, though she tried to keep her head turned away from him.

“Yes, and she…”

“That’s enough, darling,” Paige hastily interrupted her daughter.
 
“What Mama wants to tell you is that…he’s your daddy.”

Daniella pursed her lips as she worked it out in her mind.
 
Dante and Paige were both a little anxious while they waited to see if she’d comprehend it and how she’d react if she did.
 
Daniella studied Dante’s face intently for several minutes before she finally cracked a brilliant smile.

“Now I can have a kitty,” she beamed at him.

Dante rubbed his chin, not quite making the connection.
 
“Do you understand what your Mama said about me being your daddy?”

“Course I do,” Daniella replied.
 
“Jenny Reed’s daddy
gived
her a
kitty and now I have a daddy too so I get a kitty.”

Paige looked up at Dante who was clearly going to fold like a house of cards to
Daniella’s
seemingly sound logic.
 
“Don’t do it,” she murmured from the corner of her mouth, but it was already too late.

Dante’s heart melted.
 
He’d have given her the moon if she’d asked for it.
 
“As soon as you get better,
quello piccolo,
we will go together and pick one out.”

The ache in Dante’s chest grew heavier and heavier with each page he turned.
 
Chantel
had brought two scrapbooks from Paige’s
house that were
filled with pictures of Daniella with
Chantel
, Marc, Paige, and Paige’s parents.
 
He should have been in the pictures too.
 
It should have been
him
proudly holding Daniella as she left the hospital instead of Marc, and it should have been
him
standing over her as she blew out the candles on her birthday cakes each year instead of Paige’s mother.
 
She’d been a beauty right from the start and it killed him to know he’d missed her first tooth, her first step, her first everything.

It was dark in the room except for the one light directly over the small table he and Paige were sitting at.
 
Remnants of the sandwiches they’d eaten for dinner had been pushed to one side as well as a cup of coffee that had long since grown cold, though Paige was still sipping at hers.
 

Daniella had fallen asleep almost as soon as they’d settled her into the new room and hadn’t stirred since.
 
Shortly after she’d been brought back, Paige’s parents had arrived looking frazzled and near panic until she’d assured them the surgery had gone without a hitch and Daniella was going to make a full recovery.

Carolyn Spencer had rushed to
Daniella’s
bedside but her husband, Leon, had paused long enough to shake Dante’s hand and introduce
himself
.
 
After several minutes of talking to a sleeping Daniella about how Nana was going to bake her cookies and take her to the park when she got better, a misty eyed Carolyn had turned around and finally realized Dante was there.

He was stunned to discover she knew who he was though they’d never met before, and was a little baffled that neither she nor Leon seemed to harbor any resentment towards him.
 
They’d stayed for about an hour and spent most of the time just watching Daniella sleep before heading out with the promise to be back first thing in the morning.

“They have known who I was right from the beginning,” Dante said as he continued to flip through the photo album.
 

Paige didn’t need to ask who he was talking about.
 
“Yes.
 
They wanted me to tell you and weren’t very happy with me when I refused.”

“Have you told them you and Daniella are moving in with me?”

“Yes,” she answered, but didn’t elaborate.
 
She should have known Dante wouldn’t let it go at that.

“They are not pleased by our arrangement?”

“What do you want me to say?
 
They’re old fashioned, Dante.
 
They don’t approve of having babies unless you’re married and they don’t approve of me living with you.”

“Because we are not married.”

Paige nodded.
 
“They think it will send Daniella the wrong message.”

“They are right,
cara
.
 
I do not want my daughter to grow up thinking she can live with a man without first becoming his wife.”

“That’s a very antiquated way of thinking, not to mention hypocritical.”

Dante leaned back in his chair.
 
“Would you marry me?
 
If I was to ask you right now, would you consent to be my wife?”

It wasn’t exactly the proposal she’d dreamed of, but for one fleeting moment she almost said yes.
 
“No.”
 
She rose from the table and started cleaning off the remains from their dinner.
 
“It’s getting late, you should go home.”

Dante stood up, watching her hands flutter nervously as she tossed the
styrofoam
containers and cups in the trash.
 
She was desperately trying to maintain a stone façade but he knew her too well.
 
The carefully averted eyes, the rosy tint to her cheeks, the lips that she kept pressed so tightly together; all of those things told Dante he’d hurt her, though he wasn’t exactly sure just why.
 
She loved him.
 
Hadn’t she confessed to it when she’d come running to him as he was leaving?
 
So why
would his proposal of marriage
upset her?

“You did not even take time to think about it,” he said when she finally stopped fussing with the trash on the table.

“What’s there to think about?
 
Moving in with you doesn’t require a wedding ring.”

“No, but it makes sense for us to get married.”

Paige crossed her arms.
 
“And why is that, Dante?
 
Because you want Daniella with you and the only way to make that happen is by marrying me?”

“Yes, I want Daniella with me but that is not the only reason I think we should get married.”

“Really,” she said dryly.
 
“Except for appearances sake, what other possible reason can there be?”
 
Paige scowled when Dante’s eyes moved slowly down her body and back up again.
 
“So help me God if you say it’s for the hot sex, I’ll never speak to you again!”

Dante chuckled as he pulled her into his arms.
 
“Do not be angry with me,
carissima
.
 
Can I help it if I want to kiss you senseless every time I look at you?”

“You had more than kissing on your mind, Dante Vittorio.”

“So what if I did?
 
You want it too,” he murmured against her lips.
 
“We could have it all, Paige.”

She pulled her head back in an attempt to elude the intoxicating affect he was having on her.
 
“What is it that we’d have,
 
a marriage based on great sex?”

“Great sex, mutual respect, compatibility, a child.
 
We have a great deal in common,
cara mia
.”

“You’ve left something out.
 
What about love, Dante?
 
Or isn’t that important to you?”

“Of course it is important.”
 
He drew her closer.
 
“You love me, Paige, you said so yourself.
 
Is that not reason enough to marry me?”

She didn’t try to deny it, but loving Dante
wasn’t
enough, not when she knew he didn’t feel the same.
 
“When or
if
I ever get married, it will be to a man who loves me just as much as I love him.”

Dante was too shocked by what she’d said to respond right away.
 
How could she not know how much he loved her?
 
Surely Paige didn’t think he threw marriage proposals around just for the hell of it.
 
Okay, so he’d been an insensitive ass when she’d told him she loved him, but it was only because he’d been afraid of having his heart torn to shreds again.
 
Even now he was terrified of losing her but he couldn’t go on pretending that a life without her was any life at all.

“Then you have no excuse not to marry me,” he finally said.
 
“I love you, Paige, and
I
…”

Paige twisted away from him, furious with herself for wanting so desperately to believe him, and furious with Dante for playing on her emotions.
 
Something inside her snapped.
 
Mindful of Daniella, she kept her voice low though her eyes were blazing when she whirled on him.

“You’d do anything to get your own way, wouldn’t you?
 
To think I was afraid you wouldn’t want anything to do with Daniella, but you want to be a part of her life so bad you’d actually marry me even though we both know you don’t love me.”

“Apparently you were not listening.
 
I just told you I loved you and I meant it.”

“Right,” she scoffed.
 
“That’s why you blackmailed me into becoming your mistress, because you loved me so much.
 
You see, I
was
listening then, Dante.
 
I was listening when you told me good-bye and when you admitted you’d done it for revenge.
 
All those times when I thought we were making love, you were working out your vengeance, extracting the retribution you thought I owed you.”

Dante’s jaw flexed.
 
“I did not realize I was still in love with you until it came time for us to part.
 
Why do you think I followed you and Marc?
 
The thought of another man touching you drove me insane with jealousy.
 
I was going to tell him about us and
 
where you had been every night for the last month.”

Paige gaped at him in disbelief.
 
“Why would you do something like that?”

“Because I wanted you back,” he said fiercely.
 
“I would have told him
anything
to get what I wanted, I…” Dante stopped abruptly when he realized what he’d just said.

“You would have said anything to get what you wanted,” she repeated dully.
 
“You didn’t want me, Dante, but you didn’t want anyone else to have me either because then you couldn’t go back to your mansion and celebrate your victory knowing how much you’d made me suffer for my past sins.”

“Paige…”

“I loved you,” she choked out, “that
was
my biggest sin.
 
I loved you so much I was willing to give up my own happiness so you’d be able to realize your dream of being a successful business man.
 
And it worked,” Paige half sobbed, “because you’re worth millions now and I’m miserable as hell.”

“Do not cry,
mio bello
,” Dante tried to gather her in his arms but Paige jerked away from him as if she couldn’t bear to have him touch her.
 
“You are tired,” he spoke gently.
 
“Lie down and get some rest.
 
I will watch over Daniella and let you know if she wakes up.”

Paige brushed away her tears but they were only replaced by a steady stream of fresh ones.
 
She took a few minutes to stand over
Daniella’s
bed before curling up on the extra bed Dante had arranged to have brought in and would have fallen asleep immediately if she hadn’t been so aware of Dante’s presence.

He’d gone to sit by
Daniella’s
bed and was murmuring in Italian, his deep voice calm and reassuring, and despite how emotionally distraught she’d been only moments ago, Paige was comforted by it.
 
She closed her eyes and drew in a slow, even breathe and let the scent of his spicy cologne fill her senses.
 
It shouldn’t hurt like this, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.
 
Loving Dante shouldn’t hurt like this.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
***

Dante’s thumb moved absently back and forth across
Daniella’s
tiny hand while he watched her sleep.
 
She was going to be as beautiful as her mother when she grew up, but he had the sinking feeling she’d inherited his single minded determination in getting what she wanted.
 
A smile tipped the corners of his mouth when he realized the little scoundrel had already wheedled a promise out of him for a kitten.
 

He supposed he should have been concerned about
Mireia’s
reaction to bringing an animal home because his housekeeper was damn near militant when it came to keeping his house spotlessly clean.
 
But he knew she’d take one look at Daniella and fall in love with the child just as he’d done.