VITTORIO'S MISTRESS (The Vittorio Series) (22 page)

“
Ciao,
Nonna
e Papa
,” Daniella said in Italian.
 
“
Il mio
nome
e Daniella.
 
Sono
lieto
di
incontrarmi
con
voi
.”

Ravenna’s arms opened wide, her rapid Italian thick with emotion as she lifted Daniella onto her lap.
 
Paige glanced up at Dante and saw he was
 
as surprised as she was by what had just happened.
 
She was also extremely relieved that everyone had gathered around Ravenna and Daniella because it gave her a few minutes to get her own emotions in check.
 
It also gave her the opportunity to study them.

Dante’s brothers were all similar in stature, each one of them as handsome as the next.
 
His sister, Milana, had the same dark hair and eyes, and even in the later stages of pregnancy she was an extremely beautiful woman.
 
Her gaze moved to Simon and Logan’s spouses.
 
The Vittorio men apparently preferred their women with light complexions and hair coloring because Lilly was a stunning blonde while Shelby had a gorgeous mane of auburn curls.

Cesare Vittorio was as tall and broad shouldered as his sons.
 
Though his hair was streaked with silver, he was still a very handsome man.
 
Finally, Paige turned her attention to Ravenna.
 
Hair as dark as coal with eyes to match, she held herself as regally as any Queen.
 
She was a striking woman and though she showed nothing but loving kindness to Daniella, Paige sensed
a hardness
beneath her beauty that led her to believe Ravenna Vittorio was the glue that kept her family together.
 
She imagined Dante’s mother could scare the living hell out of someone with just one icy glance.

“Look at
her,
” Dante said in total awe of his daughter, “already she has them wrapped around her pretty little finger.”

“I wonder how she figured out which one was your mother.”

“That is easy enough to explain.
 
I have been showing her pictures of my family and made a game of having her tell me their names when I pointed to each one.
 
It is
Mireia
who performed a miracle by teaching Daniella how to greet my parents properly.
 
I shall have to give her a generous bonus.”

“What did Daniella say to them?”

“She
said,
hello grandmother and grandfather.
 
My name is Daniella.
 
I am happy to meet you.”

Paige’s eyes went to her daughter who was being fawned over and loving every minute of it.
 
“Do you think she knew what she was saying?”

“I am certain she did.
 
I have a feeling whenever our daughter is in the kitchen helping
Mireia
bake cookies she has also been learning her Daddy’s native language.”

“Her Daddy,” Paige repeated with a soft smile.
 
“You really do love being a father don’t you?”

Dante took her hand and lifted it to his lips.
 
“There is only one thing I will love more,
cara mia
; being your husband.”

“You’re going to make me cry if you keep talking like that.”

“We cannot have that,” he grinned.
 
“I will be blamed from here to eternity for making your mascara run just before you met my family.”

Paige grimace.
 
“It it time?”

“I believe so.
 
Mother has given me
the look
twice now and there will be hell to pay if I ignore her again.”
 
Dante slipped his arm around her waist and walked her to the sofa where his parents and Daniella were sitting.
 
“Mother and Father, this is Paige Spencer.”

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” Paige said with a timid smile.
 

“Yes,” Ravenna agreed, “but it would have been much nicer to meet before the birth of my granddaughter.”

“But we have our enchanting granddaughter now,
tesoro
,” Cesare lightly chastised.
 
He rose to his feet and kissed Paige on the cheek.
 
“We are delighted that you are here.
 
Let me introduce you to the rest of the family.”

Paige pasted a smile on her face as he made the rounds.
 
She shook hands with his oldest brother, Simon, who was married to a beautiful woman named Lilly.
 
The next oldest was Logan and his wife Shelby,
then
came Raffaele and Gianluca who were both still single.
 
His sister, who was several months pregnant, met Paige’s gaze with a cold stare.
 
 
Milana stood beside her husband, Luc, with her arms crossed and simply nodded when they were introduced.
 
Paige was just congratulating herself for making it this far fairly unscathed when Ravenna handed Daniella to her husband then stood up and gave Paige a speculative sweep with her eyes.

“Welcome to the family,” Ravenna said without a trace of warmth in her voice.
 
“It is my understanding that you and Dante will be married soon?”

“Y-yes, but we haven’t actually set the date yet.”

“Do you love him?”

Paige shifted uneasily.
 
“I wouldn’t be marrying him if I didn’t.”

Ravenna arched an elegant brow.
 
“But you have not set a date, which I can only assume means that you are not a hundred percent sure of your love.”

“She is sure, Mother,” Dante interceded sharply.

Ravenna’s expression was skeptical to say the least when she turned her eyes back to Paige.
 
“Are you?
 
You have not seen each other for four years and have only been together again for less than two months.
 
Are you sure you are not marrying my son because you want someone to share the responsibilities of raising a child?”

“This is not an inquisition,” Dante said heatedly.
 
“If that was all Paige was after she would have agreed to marry me the first time I asked her instead of refusing me time after time until she was sure of
my
love for
her
.”

Ravenna shrugged, obviously unmoved by his passionate defense of Paige.
 
“There could have been any number of reasons why she held out.
 
I am merely pointing out that you have only been together for a short time so you cannot honestly say…”

“Maybe so,” Paige finally spoke up, “but the feelings I have for Dante developed a long time ago.
 
I love him, Mrs. Vittorio, and I’m sorry if you don’t believe it but it’s true.
 
I started falling in love with Dante the first time we met and it’s only grown stronger over the years.”
 
She glanced up at Dante.
 
“I never stopped loving him and nothing would make me happier than to be his wife.”

“If you truly love my son…” Ravenna stopped abruptly when Daniella tugged at her dress.

“
Nonna
, why are you and Mama fighting?”

“We…we are not fighting, my darling.”

“Uh huh, you are,” Daniella bobbed her head up and down.
 
“You said Mama didn’t love Daddy but she
does
too love him and I love him and Daddy said we could be a
framly
.”

Ravenna smiled down at her.
 
“You are too little to understand…”

“I’m
not
little,
Nonna
, I’m the tallest girl at daycare,” Daniella stated proudly.
 
“And anyway if Mama doesn’t love Daddy, how come they do kissing all the time?”

Paige blushed profusely.
 
“Maybe we should have this conversation another time.”

“An excellent idea,” Cesare concurred with a warning look at his wife.

Daniella, however, was not quite finished.
 
“
Mireia
said that’s what Mama's and Daddy’s do when they love each other and
Mireia
said it made her happy ‘cause Daddy was crabby before but now he has Mama to kiss and he got his little princess to love so he’s not crabby anymore.”

Dante leaned down and scooped Daniella up into his arms and kissed her cheek.
 
“You are a very smart princess, do you know that?”

“Course I am.
 
Can we eat now, Daddy, my tummy feels hungry.”

“Course we can,” he grinned.

“You all run along and start dinner,” Ravenna said.
 
“I would like to have a few moments alone with Paige so we can finish our conversation.”

Dante rarely defied his mother, especially when she was in the mood she was in now, but he was not about to leave her alone with Paige so she could continue to badger her.
 
He knew Paige’s nerves were strung about as tight as they could get without snapping, and a talk with his mother wasn’t going to do anything but make matters worse.
 

He wasn’t happy with his mother right now.
 
As a matter of fact he wasn’t happy with anyone in his family at the moment because of their lukewarm reception towards Paige.
 
He curled his arm around Paige’s waist in a protective gesture his mother couldn’t miss.

“I think there has been enough talk for one day, Mother.”

Ravenna opened her mouth to issue a protest but Paige beat her to the punch.
 
“No, Dante…your mother is
right,
we need to finish our conversation.
 
It’s okay,” she said softly when he pulled her closer to his side.
 
“We need to clear the air so there are no bad feelings between us.”

“You are sure,
cara
?”

“No,” she said with a smile, “but I’m doing it anyway.”

Dante reluctantly left her there with his mother.
 
He planned on having a nice little chat of his own with the rest of the family and he seriously doubted they were going to like what he had to say.
 
Once he had Daniella settled at the table and the meal was served,
Dante eyed his father and each of his siblings in turn, a dark scowl marring his face.
 
He spoke in Italian so Daniella wouldn’t understand…at least he hoped she didn’t.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
***

Ravenna returned to her place on the sofa.
 
“Have a seat Paige.”

Paige tried to convince herself she wasn’t intimidated in the least as she seated herself in the chair directly across from Ravenna.
 
She felt like a school girl who’d been called to the Principal’s office and was now anxiously waiting for the lecture that was sure to come.
 
Paige squared her shoulders, drawing confidence and strength from the words Dante had told her before they came inside.
 
You and I were destined to be together from the moment we met and nothing will keep us from fulfilling that destiny.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

“I understand your reasons for disliking me, Mrs. Vittorio, but I want you to know something before you begin.
 
I love Dante with all my heart.
 
I realize I should have told him I was pregnant but there’s nothing I can do to change that now.
 
What I
can
change is the path of misery I chose for myself when I left him.
 
What I’m trying to say is that I’m going to marry Dante with or without your approval, but for his and
Daniella’s
sake I hope we can work out our differences.”